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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/ September 18, 2026
Dreamworld opened on 15 December 1981 in Coomera on Queensland’s Gold Coast, built on land founder John Longhurst began assembling in 1974. Now owned and operated by Coast Entertainment, the park spans about 55 hectares (137 acres) and bills itself as Australia’s largest theme park…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Silverwood Theme Park sits on roughly 400 acres of pine forest near Athol, Idaho, about 47 miles north of Spokane, Washington, making it the largest theme park in the Pacific Northwest. Founded by Gary Norton and opened in June 1988 on the site of a…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Hansa-Park is a family-owned amusement park in Sierksdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, perched directly on the Baltic Sea coast in northern Germany. Opened on May 15, 1977, as Hansaland before being renamed Hansa-Park in 1987, the park has grown into one of Germany’s most-visited attractions, drawing over a…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Heide Park Resort opened on August 19, 1978, near the town of Soltau in Lower Saxony, Germany, on land once occupied by the Heidenhof wildlife park. Over the decades it grew into the largest amusement park in Northern Germany and one of the largest in…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
PortAventura Park opened on May 1, 1995, on the Costa Daurada near Salou and Vila-seca in Catalonia, Spain, about 53 miles southwest of Barcelona. Spread across roughly 128 acres, the park organizes its rides and shows into six themed areas — Mediterrània, Polynesia, China, México…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Efteling is a fairytale-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands, that grew out of a small nature park into one of Europe’s most-visited theme parks. It opened its storybook heart, the Fairytale Forest, in 1952, built on illustrations by Dutch artist Anton Pieck and brought to…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Thorpe Park is a theme park in Thorpe village, between Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, about 20 miles southwest of central London. It opened to the public on 24 May 1979, built on a site of former flooded gravel pits whose lakes still weave…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Alton Towers is a theme park and resort built around a ruined stately home in Alton, Staffordshire, England. Once the seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury, the estate’s gardens opened to day-trippers in the early 1900s, but it wasn’t until 1980 that the grounds were…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Indiana Beach is a lakeside amusement park in Monticello, Indiana, sitting on the shores of Lake Shafer about two hours south of Chicago. It traces its roots to 1926, when Earl W. Spackman opened a small lakeside bathing beach called Ideal Beach, which grew over…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Geauga Lake was an amusement park in Aurora, Ohio, that traced its roots to 1887, when a lakeside picnic ground beside the town’s namesake lake evolved into one of the Midwest’s oldest amusement destinations. Over more than a century it grew from a modest trolley-stop…
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tz
/ September 18, 2026
Adventuredome is a five-acre indoor amusement park enclosed beneath a distinctive pink-tinted glass dome at Circus Circus Las Vegas on the Strip. It opened on August 23, 1993 as Grand Slam Canyon, a fully air-conditioned park built around a canyon-themed landscape, before being renamed Adventuredome…
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tz
/ September 17, 2026
Universal Studios Singapore opened on Sentosa Island as part of the Resorts World Sentosa integrated resort, with a soft opening on March 18, 2010 and an official grand opening on May 28, 2011. Owned and operated by Genting Singapore under license from NBCUniversal and Universal…
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/ September 17, 2026
Universal Epic Universe opened on May 22, 2025, as the fourth theme park at Universal Orlando Resort and the first major new theme park built in central Florida in over two decades. Owned by NBCUniversal and operated by Universal Destinations & Experiences, the park sits…
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tz
/ September 17, 2026
Disney Adventure World is the second gate of the Disneyland Paris resort in Marne-la-Vallée, France, operated by Disney Experiences. It opened on March 16, 2002 as Walt Disney Studios Park, built around a working-studio theme complete with a soundstage backlot and a water tower styled…
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tz
/ September 17, 2026
Hong Kong Disneyland opened on September 12, 2005, in Penny’s Bay on Lantau Island, becoming the second Disneyland-style park built in Asia after Tokyo Disneyland. The park is owned and operated by Hong Kong International Theme Parks, a joint venture in which the Hong Kong…
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tz
/ September 14, 2026
HalloWeekends 2026 at Cedar Point runs September 17 through November 1. Seven original photos of the decorations going in: the entrance pumpkins, barrel jack-o-lanterns, Frontier Trail, and the Millennium Force gargoyle.
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tz
/ September 3, 2026
Tivoli Gardens opened in the heart of Copenhagen in 1843 and has barely stopped to breathe since — a pleasure garden of lakes, lanterns, flower beds, concert halls, and rides that grew into one of the most beloved parks on Earth. Walt Disney visited in…
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tz
/ September 3, 2026
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is California’s oldest surviving amusement park, stretching along the sand of Monterey Bay since 1907 — a genuine seaside boardwalk that never stopped being one. Its heart is the Giant Dipper, the red-and-white wooden coaster that has been diving toward…
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tz
/ September 3, 2026
Bakken — formally Dyrehavsbakken, ‘the hill by the deer park’ — is the oldest operating amusement park on Earth. Crowds began gathering here in 1583, drawn by a natural spring, and the entertainers, food stalls, and rides never left. It sits in a royal deer…
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tz
/ September 3, 2026
The oldest amusement park on Earth opened while Shakespeare was alive. This list ranks the 25 oldest amusement parks still operating in 2026 by the year they opened, from ThrillZing’s venue database — every one of them still sells tickets today. Bakken (Dyrehavsbakken), in the…
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