Easter in Alton (Updated 2026)

Had a great day. It was relatively quiet so got on 16 rides, including a dinner break. Rides where staggered openings and thirteen shut early (4pm) but we got on it first thing so wanted to re ride but understandable maintenance happens so can't complain. Que times where 10/15 mins on average except for Rita 40mins and toxicator and sub terror (pretty much walk on) food was good from just chicken but on the primum price side. I'd advice biting the bullet and getting the refill cup for £18. We had 10 drinks on our day and each paid drink would be 3.50+ so if u don't mind sharing a drink it's a good investment. All in all a good solid day out as long as you don't compare weekends with this as it was a Monday we went. Weekends over 2hours some times for ques so may be lucky for 4 or 5 rides so take note.

Fantastic time at Alton Towers. Friendly staff and a great day out! Highly recommend for any adrenaline seekers!! Much nicer going out of peak season, as the ride times were lower than in the school holidays.

Amazing theme park, it is my favourite place to go and I always have an amazing time. The offers and deals are really good and my average price per ride was only £1.28 per ride. (considering that these rides are all major coasters.) I highly recommend this holiday to all with plenty to do for all ages but it would be nice if park food was a little bit cheaper as £40 for 2 chicken burger meals is quite expensive. My favourite ride is The Smiler soon followed by Nemesis Reborn.

Had a great 2 night stay in arctic explorer room of the hotel. Breakfast was cooked really well and was topped up regularly. Staff were friendly and helpful. Only negative was there wasn’t much gluten free options in the hotel or park. The park was not that busy as the schools had gone back after summer break, so easily got on all the rides we wanted. Longest wait was around 30 minutes. Disappointed that the Congo river rapids was closed and no notice to explain why. We also paid entry to the water park on our last morning. A nice way to relax after a busy couple of days. The outside area was closed which was a bit of a shame, but we still had a fun time on the slides and lazy river. The hot tub/jacuzzi was closed off too because it had too much chlorine in it. They said it might open up later, but didn’t whilst we were there. We were impressed by the cleanliness of the whole water park, including changing area.

Very nice water park, we enjoyed so much

We stayed with the 'kids swim free' offer from 18th - 19th August which included an overnight stay, park access and breakfast. We paid about £478 which included bronze fast track for 2 people. This is the 6th time we have done an overnight trip with our children and they are now 5 years old and 9 years old. Over the years we have stayed in the Cbeebies Hotel and now that they are older the last couple of times the Splash Landings Hotel and we absolutely love it. It's not cheap but it does make wonderful memories! We got to the theme park on the first day for when it opened. The boys went to The Smiler first as this isn't included in the bronze package and they got on it within 20 minutes. Then used their fast track for Oblivion, Thirteen, Rita, Nemesis and Galactica. Meanwhile my little girl and I took at trip to Cbeebies and we bought the fastrack option for £10 each which gave you 3 rides. We queued up for Bluey straight away which meant we could then go on it again and use our Fast track to skip the queue the second time. We got on the Go Jetters in 5 minutes, then Peter Rabbit within 20 minutes then used the fast track for In the Night Garden and the Tree Top Ride. We then met up for lunch and went to the restaurant Oak in Chains by Hex, the food was lovely.... but it was very expensive especially the drinks. As a family of 4 we then went on Hex, The Runaway Mine Train and River Rapids and we queued for these rides which was fine as they boys had already done most of the bigger rides before lunch! Fast Track is a game changer... If you can save up to treat yourself I would 100% recommend it. We did the Spinball Whizzer and the Smiler again later on in the afternoon and queued for about 40 minutes each for these rides. We left the park at 7pm but we took a trip in the car to go and pick up some snacks from a local Spar for the children. I don't rate the evening meal at the Splash Landings hotel and after a big lunch they didn't need much to eat. Then we made out way back to the hotel and chilled out ready for the next day at the waterpark. The children and Mum and Dad love the waterpark, there are plenty of slides to choose from 'Master Blaster' is our fave, lazy river and we love being able to enjoy the outdoor section too! After a morning in the Waterpark we made use of the free mini golf which we have done a couple of times over the years. It can get busy but this time we went at about 12:30pm and it was quite quiet which was a nice surprise. The course does look a little tired so it could use a little attention and care as it's a great benefit with it being included in the price! Hopefully Alton Towers will spruce it up a little and keep it as an added extra for hotel bookings. Overall we had a lovely time and we will be back to do it all over again next year :)

Annual pass 100% worth it if you want to return (you will want to return) so mich to do so little time, shame the park isnt open longer each day

Great just needs a bit of theming

My daughter and I just spent two days and an overnight in the Alton Towers Hotel. We had a great time. The hotel was excellent, the room was good and the breakfast fabulous. The park is big and there is a lot of walking but we took it slowly and got every ride in, twice in most cases. We were there when the children were back at school so it was pretty quiet which was great as the queue lengths were short. unfortunately for us the Skyride was shut for most of the day and the Congo River was shut. Next year we will do the same trip but in May to use ride the river. I did have one huge piece of luck. First ride on the second day and my keys fell out of my pocket on Galactica. I was told to return at the end of the day and they would walk the track to try and find them. Imagine my surprise when they were found. I was able to cancel the £270 locksmith and drive home.

Had an absolutely amazing experience will definitely be visiting again soon would highly recommend people visit alton towers the theme park is fantastic and the woodland lodges are beautiful

We will visit again. There are lots of fun experiences. My toddlers really had lots of fun and didn't want to leave😩😂

Very nice. However, the ques were massive; which was the only downside of it.

I have stayed at Alton Towers many times in the past. I always travel out of season and arrive on a Sunday evening, giving us two full days in the park. I find that this gives you the best opportunity to make the most of the park when queue times are reduced. Fast track passes are expensive, and not always required if you are joining a queue at 1030 on a Tuesday morning. But a pass can really benefit when queue times exceed 30 minutes. Less queuing, more riding.The standard of the evening meal at the Secret Garden Restaurant was good during our last trip. Sunday evening being much busier than Monday evening. The staff were pleasant and welcoming. Breakfast feels like a cost cutting exercise, with the products on offer feeling basic and limited.There was evening entertainment with a singer who hosted a pub quiz. This was light, engaging and enjoyable.The hotel hard product however, is tired, dated and in serious need of an entire, extensive refit. Consideration should be given to the range of clientele that use the hotel. The same could be said of the range of packages available.We had a great time in the park itself, with multiple rides on all of the ‘thrill’ rides over two days. Loads of walking, tired feet but well worth it.

I purchased the twice the fun ticket where we got 2 days out at the price of 1. I paid £70 for 2 tickets for 2 days which I thought was good value.Our first day: Was at the start of July on a Monday so didn't expect big queues, however the amount of school trips was crazy. We arrived and the amount of coaches and school trips that were allowed in the park was insane. We only managed to do the curse at alton manor and sub terra as all the queues were 90 minutes + due to amount of school trips, therefore we ended up buying fast passes for the smiler, wicker man and thirteen. It was a disappointing trip to only do a few rides. But I knew I had a 2nd day to visit the park.Our second day: Was Sunday 20th September which was much more enjoyable. We arrived at 9.30am before ride opening and managed to do most rides, queuing 30 minutes or less for each. The smiler was advertised at 50 minutes but we waited around 90 minutes. We managed to do all the rides except wicker man ,as had issues throughout the day, without fast track. The park was busy but this didn't stop us from enjoying our day as we managed to move through the ride queues quickly and didn't wait longer than 30 minutes for the big rides. We managed to take time out of our day to walk through the gardens which was lovely as during our first visit it was chaos with the amount of school trips. We even managed to re-ride some of the coasters and queue for front row.We ate at the wrap place in dark forest and got a doner wrap and cheesy chips and the wraps were huge, me and my partner shared and we were full after, these cost £17 but we were both full as the portions were a good size. We also purchased a refillable cup which was well worth doing as me and my partner shared the cup and we refilled it around 8 times throughout the day. Drinks were around £4 each so it was well worth purchasing a cup and it could be filled at each area of the park.The toilet facilities were clean, no issues here and had cleaners regularly cleaning the toilets throughout the day.I would definitely recommend the sky ride to get around the park as at some points of the day there was several rides closed or broken down so caused us to walk from one end of the park to the other several times to ensure we completed all the rides.Overall: Our 2nd visit was amazing! But I was very glad I had the 2 for 1 tickets as I would of been extremely disappointed if we had only booked the 1st day. So I can see why people are upset in previous reviews about the crowd levels. I would recommend visiting midweek during term time if possible or Sundays. Avoid Saturdays and school trip season unless you want to wait in 90 minute queues. I would have rated the 1st day a 2/5 stars and the 2nd day 5/5.

We had bronze fast track which worked well even though the park was busy. We have an 8 year old and a 12 year old and had composed a To Do list. Sad that the water rides like Congo Rapids and Battle Galleons were closed as they were on the list. There was also nothing to advise us in advance or on the day that they would be closed which was a disappointment.The park was visually beautiful, very clean, tidy and well looked after. The car park is a good old walk away but there is a monorail - albeit with a long wait to help with this.The rides were good fun- Galactica was fantastic. My 12 year old was nervous but loved it and wanted to go on it again.We all went on Wicker man but wow it was a bit much for my 8 year old.The food area near HEX was busy and had lots to offer but the wait was insane. There was no consistency with following order numbers and number 67 would appear way before 52 leaving a massive swarm of people waiting over 40 mins for food service. This was not the staff fault though- they were working hard and fast but looks like they just couldn’t cope with the lack of staff and seemed so stressed. I thoroughly enjoyed the park having never been in my 38 years but would love to come back. Huge ground to cover but we did well- you NEED a plan though!

The park is clean, the staff are friendly and we really enjoyed our visit.