Who doesn’t enjoy a day out at a theme park? Especially one that has won theme park of the year at the UK Theme Park Awards 2021. Alton Towers is a staple UK attraction and should be on everyone’s list to do at least once.

Like most attractions nowadays, Alton Towers can become an expensive day out. Although they attempt to squeeze as much money as they can out of you, there are a number of ways to make sure you get the most value for your money.

In this post, we are going to share our tips and tricks that we used during our recent visit to make the most of our time there.

Booking your tickets

You may be thinking no s*** sherlock, but this is vital to the success of your whole experience at Alton Towers. Spend a little extra time getting this step right and you will reap the rewards, we promise.

2 for 1 vouchers

This may be a no-brainer for some of you, but those of you new to the process may not know that you can always get 2 for 1 vouchers to use when you purchase your tickets. These vouchers are typically found on snacks, drinks or cereal. Just give it a quick google and you are guaranteed to find one.

Unfortunately, these vouchers allow you to get two tickets for the price of an “on the day” ticket  (£65) rather than for the price of an advance ticket (~£40). However, you are still saving money as £65 is cheaper than ~£80 for two advance tickets. Happy days.

Check for events

Events run nearly all year round at the park, during which you will get some free extras that will add to the overall experience. For example, during Scarefest the park stays open later so you can ride in the dark at no extra cost. 

The drawback is that these periods are naturally busier. Therefore, it will come down to personal preference. For some people, having the festivities going on around them will make the trip, for others, they may prefer a quieter experience.

Have a browse (https://www.altontowers.com/explore/events/) of the events on their website and it will give you an idea of what dates to aim for or avoid.

Pick a date

Everybody makes the assumption that mid-week is the quietest time to visit the park and weekends are hell on earth. However, this isn’t always the case. For example, during school holidays you may find that weekends are quieter as everyone else has made the same assumption.

Our most recent trip was on a Saturday and we were amazed at how reasonable the wait times for the rides were. We managed to get on all the main rides which is something we haven’t managed to do before.

We highly recommend using a website called Queue Times, where you can see the Alton Towers crowd calendar (https://queue-times.com/parks/1/calendar). This provides forecasts of how long the queues will be on any given day of the year which is extremely useful when deciding on a date.

Book online

By now you should have picked out the perfect date to visit the park. Head over to the Alton Towers website to book in advance online. This will save you time on the day by not having to queue at the ticket office. 

Ticket prices are also cheaper online, so if you are buying an odd number of tickets and can’t use the two for one you will usually pick these up for around £35-£40 instead of £65 on the day.

While you are there, remember to pay for parking as they have introduced charging £6 for it. Again, by adding it to your booking online, you will save having to queue for the parking machines on your way out of the park.

Food and drink at Alton Towers

Save money on drinks

Hydration Stations are a recent addition to the park and allow you to fill up your water bottles for free. You can also ask for water refills from any of the eateries there. This is healthy, convenient and costs nothing so big thumbs up from us.

If however, you would like to treat yourself to soft drinks. You can buy a refillable cup called a “Freestyle Vessel” for £15 and try the hundreds of drink options provided by the hydration stations throughout the day.

Save money on food

One of the reasons Alton Towers is our favourite theme park in the UK, is that it is located in such pleasant grounds. The area is very green, with a lake and gardens that present the perfect opportunity to enjoy a quick picnic for lunch. Bringing your own food into the park is the only way to avoid being overcharged. Plus, there are next to no healthy options available which seems a bit of shame.

However, bringing your own food might be too much hassle, having to either carry it around all day or return all the way back to the car to pick it up which eats into precious ride time. A sneaky option is to make use of the lockers dotted around the park to store your grub until lunchtime.

Alton Towers Restaurants

There are plenty of places to eat around the park. The most popular seems to be the Rollercoaster Restaurant for the gimmick that food slides down a track to your table. However, unless you have kids that would enjoy it or plenty of time, we wouldn’t recommend having a proper sit-down meal and instead grabbing a quick service meal. We ate at Just Chicken, which is relatively on par with KFC, just slightly more expensive. 

Plan your route around the park

To really feel like you have gotten your money’s worth during your time at the park. You will want to get on as many of the rides as possible before you leave. Unless the park is really quiet, you will not achieve this by accident. To better your chances, we recommend going against the grain such that you want to be doing the opposite to the majority of the people at the park. 

Don’t fall for the Alton Towers App live queue times

The Alton Towers mobile app provides a map of the park and live queue times for all the rides making it an essential tool for your day there. Make sure you download it before you arrive to get a lay of the land. 

When a ride has a surprising low queue time. Let’s say The Smiler has a 30-minute queue, we naturally want to drop everything and go there. However, you need to remember that everyone else in the park is looking at the same thing and having the same idea. So, by the time you run across the park and get to the ride. The queue time has probably doubled. Don’t fall for it.

Luckily, this tends to work in the reverse. For example, if one of the rides has a longer than average queue time. Most people will avoid it and head somewhere else first. Therefore, by the time you get there, the queue time has likely reduced.

Start far and end far

Most people will enter the park and stroll onto the first ride they come across from the entrance. Likewise, most guests will head back towards the entrance towards the end of the day. This means that at the start and end of the day, rides that are further away from the entrance will be quieter. Think Thirteen or Rita as they are on the opposite side of the park.

Take an early or late lunch

Typically, park go-ers will take lunch around 12pm-2pm. This presents the perfect opportunity to head for the bigger rides such as Wicker Man or The Smiler when the queues should be quieter. Therefore, we recommend taking lunch slightly earlier or later when the queues will be busier anyways. The hardcore will just eat in the queue.

Make the most of opening times

The “closing time” of the park refers to when the queues for the rides close, not the park itself. Therefore, don’t feel like you need to rush back to the entrance. You are welcome to join a queue one minute before they close if you would like to really make the most of your day.

Also, bear in mind a lot of guests will leave the park early in order to get a head start on the traffic. Making most queue times next to nothing within the last hour of the day.

Bonus tips

Sun cream

This was a nice surprise to come across a free-to-use sunscreen dispenser at the park.