Alton Towers With Teenagers

Alton Towers is one of the few days out that gets better as your children get older, which is the opposite of almost everywhere else. Teenagers are exactly who the park is built for, and the two things that make the day work are letting them off the lead for part of it and doing the big coasters in a sensible order. Get those right and you have a day where nobody is bored, including you.

It is roughly three hours each way from Newcastle, so it is not a spontaneous trip. But it is the one park within reach where a fifteen year old is the target audience rather than someone being dragged along.

Why Teenagers Get More Out of It Here

The local family parks are built around younger children, and there comes a summer when your teenager has aged out of all of it. Alton Towers is where that reverses. Nemesis, Oblivion, The Smiler, Wicker Man, Galactica, Rita and Th13teen are the point of the place, and a teenager can spend a whole day riding them without running out.

The size helps too. The park is big enough that a group of teenagers can go off and do their own thing for a couple of hours, which is what turns a family day out into a day they actually chose.

What It Costs

Budget for a three figure day for a family of four once tickets, parking and food are in, and check which age band your teenager falls into before you work it out, because older children usually price as adults rather than as children. That one detail catches people out more than anything else.

Booking well ahead costs noticeably less than paying on the gate, and a term time date is cheaper again. Beyond that, the spending that gets away from you with teenagers is on site: food, drinks and the photo at the bottom of the drop. Agree a number in the car before you arrive and let them manage it themselves.

Letting Them Go Off on Their Own

This is the change that makes the day. Set a meeting point and a time, make sure everyone's phone is charged before you leave, and then let them get on with it.

A few things worth settling first. Pick a meeting spot that is easy to describe and hard to miss rather than the nearest bench. Take a battery pack, because a day of photos and queue apps will flatten a phone by mid afternoon. Agree what happens if the signal drops, because it will at some point, and "we will be at the same place at three" beats any amount of messaging.

The Order to Do the Big Rides In

Be through the gate for opening if you can. The first hour is the quietest riding of the day, and it is the hour most people spend queueing to park.

Head for the ride your teenager most wants first, because that is the one that decides whether the day feels like a win. Then work round the park in a loop rather than crossing it repeatedly. The headline coasters are spread right across the site, and doubling back will eat more of your day than any single queue.

Leave the gardens and the slower rides until late on. It is a decent way to wind down before the drive, and by then everyone has walked further than they meant to.

If One of Them Is Not a Coaster Person

Plan for it rather than hoping. There is plenty here that is not a big drop, and a teenager who is happy to sit a ride out is much happier if that was the plan all along rather than something they had to admit to at the front of a queue.

Split up for an hour. One adult goes round the coasters with the ones who want them, the other takes the gardens, the gentler rides and a sit down, and you swap. It is a better day for everyone than four people queueing for a ride two of them are dreading.

Making the Drive Work

Six hours in a car with teenagers is fine if you treat it as part of the day rather than an interruption to it. Let them have the music on the way down and take the driving in shifts if there are two of you.

If you can stretch to an overnight, it changes the trip completely. Two shorter drives instead of one long day, a second run at the park, and no one watching the clock from four o'clock onwards because of the journey home.

FAQs

Can Teenagers Go Round Alton Towers on Their Own?

Older teenagers can go off in a group perfectly happily. Set a meeting point and a time, check phones are charged, and agree what to do if the signal goes.

Is Alton Towers Good for a Mixed Age Family?

It works if you plan to split up for part of the day. Check the height requirements for the big four before you promise a younger child anything, so nobody finds out at the gate.