tz
/ July 13, 2026
Phantasialand is a theme park in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, that opened on April 30, 1967, founded by dollmaker Richard Schmidt and businessman Gottlieb Löffelhardt. What began as a puppet theater with a handful of boat rides has grown into one of Europe’s most densely
Read more
tz
/ July 13, 2026
Kraken is the ride that put SeaWorld Orlando on the coaster map. It’s a steel floorless roller coaster built by Swiss manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard and designed by Werner Stengel, opening to the public on June 1, 2000, after a soft opening in late May
Read more
tz
/ July 13, 2026
Six Flags Over Texas opened Tormenta Rampaging Run this week, a Bolliger & Mabillard dive coaster that claims six world records and the distinction of being the first-ever “giga dive coaster” — a dive coaster standing between 300 and 399 feet tall. The ride officially
Read more
tz
/ July 13, 2026
Daytona International Speedway opened on February 22, 1959, in Daytona Beach, Florida, built by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. after beach racing on the sand became too crowded and unpredictable to sustain. Nicknamed the ‘World Center of Racing,’ the 2.5-mile tri-oval quickly became the sport’s
Read more
tz
/ July 13, 2026
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, known worldwide as “The Brickyard,” opened on August 14, 1909, in Speedway, Indiana, just west of downtown Indianapolis. Built by founders Carl G. Fisher, James A. Allison, Arthur C. Newby, and Frank H. Wheeler, the 2.5-mile rectangular oval quickly became the proving
Read more
tz
/ July 13, 2026
Empire Polo Club is the 1,000-acre former polo grounds in Indio, California, that became the permanent home of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach country festival. What began in 1987 as a working polo facility with a dozen grass fields is
Read more
tz
/ July 13, 2026
Every summer that isn’t a fallow year, a working dairy farm tucked into the Somerset countryside becomes one of the largest temporary gatherings of people in the United Kingdom. That farm is Worthy Farm, and the event it hosts is Glastonbury Festival — officially the
Read more
tz
/ July 13, 2026
Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute has anchored Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. since it was established by an act of Congress in 1889, opening to the public that May. As part of the Smithsonian Institution, the zoo has always been free to
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
NRH2O Family Water Park has been North Texas’s summer staple since 1995, when it opened as the first municipally owned water park in Texas and one of the first city-run water parks in the country. Nearly three decades later, the 17-acre park in North Richland
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Enchanted Forest Water Safari is a water and amusement park in Old Forge, New York, tucked into the Adirondack Mountains. It opened on July 7, 1956 as The Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks, a storybook-themed attraction built on 35 acres of reclaimed swampland, and was
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Manta is SeaWorld Orlando’s signature flying roller coaster: riders are locked in face-down, arms and legs extended, and sent soaring belly-first over a lagoon stocked with real rays. It’s one of only a handful of Bolliger & Mabillard “flying coasters” on Earth, and the only
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Cheetah Hunt is a steel launched roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida, that opened on May 27, 2011, alongside the park’s Cheetah Run habitat in the Edge of Africa section. Built by Intamin with design input from the park’s Mark Rose,
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Tigris fires forward out of the station, falls back through it, launches backward, then rockets forward one last time — all before most coasters would finish their first hill. It’s Florida’s tallest launch coaster, and it packs that triple-launch sequence into a footprint barely the
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Bizarro was the DC Comics-themed identity given to the towering Intamin hypercoaster at Six Flags New England, one of the most decorated roller coasters in the United States. The ride first opened on May 5, 2000 as Superman – Ride of Steel, instantly becoming the
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
For nearly two decades, Kingda Ka was the undisputed king of roller coasters — the tallest machine of its kind anywhere on Earth, and for years the fastest too. Riders who braved the 456-foot Six Flags Great Adventure icon never forgot the jolt of a
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Water Country opened on June 20, 1984, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and has grown into New England’s largest water park. Spread across roughly 26 acres just off Interstate 95, the park draws families from across the Seacoast region and beyond each summer with a lineup
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Aquapark Istralandia opened on 21 June 2014 in the Brtonigla municipality of Istria County, Croatia, becoming the country’s first dedicated water park. Built roughly 5 km inland from the Adriatic coast between Novigrad and Nova Vas, the park quickly became a fixture of Istrian summer
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Aqua Mundo is the subtropical, glass-domed water park included with every stay at Center Parcs Les Trois Forêts, a 435-hectare holiday domain tucked into the pine forests of Hattigny in France’s Moselle department. Walk in from the changing rooms and the outside world disappears: roughly
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Aqualibi is an indoor water park in Wavre, Belgium, built alongside the Walibi Belgium amusement park and operated under the same Compagnie des Alpes ownership. Opened in 1987, it has grown into one of the country’s most visited water attractions, drawing families from Brussels and
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
A 25-meter glass pyramid still stands on the beachfront at Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, its slides and pools empty behind cracked glazing. That’s what’s left of Aqualud, the water park that drew families to France’s Channel coast for over three decades before shutting for good in 2019.
Read more