Your guide to the best theme parks and amusement parks. ThrillZing covers the standout rides, must-do attractions, tips, and history for the parks worth planning a trip around — whether you’re chasing thrills or a full day out with the family.
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/ July 16, 2026
Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park sits on about 65 acres along the Platte River in downtown Denver, Colorado, combining roughly 40 rides — including six roller coasters — with the adjacent 20-acre Island Kingdom Family Water Park. It’s one of the few U.S. amusement
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tz
/ July 14, 2026
Europa-Park is a 95-hectare theme park in Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, founded by Franz Mack and his son Roland and opened to its first visitors on July 12, 1975. Built as a showcase for the family’s ride-manufacturing business, Mack Rides, it grew from a modest site
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/ 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
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Plopsaland De Panne is a family theme park in Adinkerke, part of the coastal municipality of De Panne in West Flanders, Belgium. Owned and operated by Plopsa, a division of Belgian media company Studio 100, the park is built around beloved Flemish children’s characters like
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Energylandia is a large amusement park in Zator, Poland, about 50 km west of Kraków. Opened on July 14, 2014, it expanded rapidly through the following decade, absorbing a neighboring water park and adding a string of headline-grabbing steel coasters that turned a modest regional
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/ July 12, 2026
Movie Park Germany is a film and television-themed amusement park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen, North Rhine-Westphalia, about 50 kilometers north of Düsseldorf. The site began life in 1967 as the fairytale-themed Kirchhellener Märchenwald before being redeveloped and reopened on June 30, 1996 as Warner Bros. Movie World
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Mirabilandia is a large amusement park located in Savio, a district of Ravenna in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region. Opened on 4 July 1992, it grew from a struggling regional attraction into the biggest theme park in Italy, covering roughly 850,000 square meters (about 210 acres) of
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/ July 12, 2026
Gardaland is Italy’s largest and most-visited theme park, sitting on the shores of Lake Garda in Castelnuovo del Garda. Since opening in 1975 it has grown from a single park into a full resort with two B&M roller coasters, a Legoland-branded water park, three themed
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/ July 12, 2026
Parc Astérix opened on April 30, 1989, in Plailly, roughly 35 kilometers northeast of Paris, built around the beloved Asterix comic book universe created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. Spanning about 34 hectares (83 acres) and operated by Compagnie des Alpes, the park blends
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Disneyland Paris opened on April 12, 1992, in Marne-la-Vallee, about 20 miles east of central Paris, becoming the first Disney resort built in Europe. Originally launched as Euro Disney Resort, the property struggled financially in its early years before growing into the continent’s leading theme
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/ July 12, 2026
PortAventura World is a sprawling theme park resort on Spain’s Costa Daurada, straddling the towns of Salou and Vila-seca in Catalonia. It opened as PortAventura Park on May 1, 1995, and has since grown into a three-park destination — PortAventura Park, Ferrari Land, and the
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/ July 12, 2026
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a seaside amusement park on the South Shore of Blackpool, Lancashire, England, founded in 1896 by American showman W. G. Bean and John Outhwaite. More than a century later it remains one of Britain’s most visited attractions, drawing millions of guests
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Chessington World of Adventures Resort sits about 12 miles southwest of central London on land that has hosted a zoo since 1931. The Tussauds Group built a theme park around the existing animal collection, opening it to the public on 7 July 1987 and creating
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
For nearly four decades, Astroworld was the beating heart of summer in Houston — a 110-acre amusement park south of the Astrodome where generations of Texans rode the Texas Cyclone, splashed through Thunder River, and spent long, sweaty afternoons under the shadow of NRG Park.
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
Lost Island Theme Park opened in Waterloo, Iowa on June 18, 2022, capping off an estimated $100 million construction project that began in August 2019. Owned by the Bertch family, who have run the adjacent Lost Island Waterpark since 2001, the 90-acre park sits beside
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
Nickelodeon Universe is the indoor theme park built into the center of Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Spread across roughly 7 acres of climate-controlled space, it packs in more than two dozen rides and attractions, meaning it runs at full capacity regardless of the
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
Castles N’ Coasters is a family amusement park on North Metro Parkway East in Phoenix, Arizona, built around a Middle-Eastern-themed castle motif with several other design eras woven into its four miniature golf courses. The park traces back to 1976, when it opened as a
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
Playland Park, often called Rye Playland, opened on May 26, 1928 along the Long Island Sound in Rye, New York. Built by Westchester County government, it was the first amusement park in the United States to be planned and built as a unified, permanent public
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
Morey’s Piers has been a fixture on the Wildwood boardwalk since 1969, when brothers Bill and Will Morey Sr. purchased two boardwalk lots in North Wildwood and opened a single attraction: a 40-foot fiberglass slide called the Wipe Out, where riders paid a quarter to
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
Story Land is a fairy tale-themed amusement park in Glen, New Hampshire, built around storybook characters and aimed squarely at young children and their families. It opened in 1954 as “Story Town” after founders Bob and Ruth Morrell bought a collection of German storybook dolls
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