And it is still unknown who will get more pleasure from such amusements - parents or their children. The main thing is to choose the right park so that the entertainment and organizational components do not contradict each other. Novye Izvestia decided to find out how the most popular amusement parks work.
Europa Park, Freiburg, Germany
The largest and most popular amusement and family recreation park in the country, considered the main competitor to the French Disneyland. Many tourists prefer the German park already because the entrance to it is cheaper.
All attractions in the park are grouped by geographical principle. There are "representations" of Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, England, Australia, France, Scandinavia, Russia and Greece, as well as... Chocoland and the Land of the Vikings. Each "country" is recognizable by famous architectural structures - castles and fortresses, towers and palazzos, or even a village with a real water mill. Here you can see everything Europe is famous for, from the Venetian carnival to knightly tournaments. The food is also appropriate: in the Italian zone they serve pizza and cappuccino, in the English zone - puddings, and in the Russian zone - cabbage soup and porridge. Besides material references to historical values, the park is full of free, slightly delusional, but very cheerful atmosphere in the spirit of children's nightmares. For example, Dinosaur Glades, Corners of Scary Tales, dungeons with pirates and ghosts... Screams reach the skies.
The park's highlight is the Eurosat attraction, offering a heartbreaking flight in a giant sphere. The "Russian Village" with ethnographic wonders is amazing, where, of course, you are taken by the "Russian Mountains" of great height. Thousands of spectators gather for a multimedia show in "Switzerland", where among the incredible special effects there are Thunder and Snow.
Opening hours: daily from 10:00 to 18:00. Price: €30 euros, for children - €15. The easiest way to get there is by rail to Herbolzheim or Freiburg, and then by special bus to the park itself.
In the Palace Park, you need to look carefully at old stumps - sometimes they turn into gnomes, scaring children.
Fiabilandia, Rivazzura di Rimini, Italy
This is the national treasure of the country and the most "fairytale" park in Europe. Externally, the park fully matches its name ("Fairytale Country"). All kinds of fairy tales are taken into account, and not only Italian ones. Here proudly rises Merlin's Castle, the Valley of Snow White appetizingly greens, the Wild West Quarries threaten with jagged rocks, the mysterious Lair of Dinosaurs lures modern children who are not afraid of anything. The most daring bravehearts are invited into the mouth of a Chinese dragon. You can move around the park either by a little train (if you prefer a land route) or by a wheeled two-deck steamboat.
In the middle of the park there is a small lake with musical fountains - to appreciate their unusualness, you need to wait for twilight. In general, it is worth seeing all this fairy tale in the moonlight, when Fiabilandia is immersed in colorful lights and buzzes with active nightlife.
Opening hours: from 10:00 to 22:00; in summer - daily, outside the season - on holidays and weekends. An adult ticket costs €25, a child ticket - €15.
You can get there from Rimini - by trolleybus route No. 11, you need to get off at the 28th stop.
Keep in mind that Fiabilandia is not only a children's park, but also an open-air museum of exotic plants.
Legoland, Billund, Denmark
This is the main children's park of the country, as well as an "official" working museum of the world-famous holding Lego. Here "live" Indians, cowboys, pirates and other traditional inhabitants of children's parks, who fuss around impregnable rocks and in mysterious caves, surround fairytale castles and ride around in electric cars and monorails. Any visitor can get involved in another adventure with the participation of local costumed cutthroats. You can literally stand on your head or fly upward - in total there are more than fifty attractions here on land, water and in the air. Recently, a Knight's Castle with 18-meter towers and a fire-breathing dragon appeared in Legoland.
The park is actually a giant Lego construction set: all objects - trains, construction cranes, airplanes, ships - are built from "bricks" in full size. In fact, this is not even a park, but a small town in which all models move, blink with headlights, and honk. It is populated by little men who live happily ever after surrounded by very real trees and flowers. Watching human life from the outside, forgetting that all this is toys - what could be more interesting? Another important detail that attracts tourists is the presence in the park of a restaurant with medieval cuisine.
Opening hours: daily from 9:00 to 22:00 (from the end of March to the end of October). An entrance ticket costs €23 for a child under 12 years old, €26 - for an adult. It is convenient to get there from Copenhagen airport by local airline plane to Billund, then by taxi or bus to the park itself.
Legoland is one of the few parks in the world that offers entertainment even for the tiniest guests: two- or three-year-old tourists (together with their parents, of course) can have plenty of fun in the specially equipped "suburb" for kids, Duplo Land. And, of course, there is a place to change the babies, feed them, and put them to bed.
Asterix, Paris, France
The park is dedicated to the heroes of French comics Asterix and Obelix and their adventures during the times of the great Julius Caesar. The approach to fun here is serious and powerful - if there are roller coasters, then a breathtaking height and speed, if a boat ride, then necessarily with a medium-scale catastrophe... For those who are stunned by active entertainment, quieter ones are offered - theater, stereo-effect cinema, dolphinarium, a "butterfly park" under a glass dome. As an option, you can simply settle down in one of the pastry shops, whose menus are worthy of a separate song.
At water attractions you can swim and dive to your heart's content, get soaked from head to toe, get caught under a geyser, fall into an abyss with a waterfall - and remain completely happy!
In autumn, winter and spring the park is open from 10:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, and from 9:00 to 20:00 on weekends and holidays. In July and August - from 9:00 to 21:00 daily. A ticket costs €23 for a child under 12, €31 for an adult. The easiest way to get there from Paris is by taxi or by the RER commuter train, which arrives right at the park (half an hour journey).
At the height of the season, the number of children exceeds all imaginable limits, and sizeable queues form near cafes and toilets.
Tatilya, Istanbul, Turkey
It is the largest indoor amusement park in Europe and the fifth largest in the world. It is the only amusement park in Turkey. Tatilya consists of dozens of all kinds of slides, carousels, fountains and fireworks surrounded by fairy-tale characters and movie heroes. All this makes noise, moves, dazzles and deafens, constantly offering you to spin, shoot, fly up, fall, slide and gallop. Around are flowers, mountains and trees, and there is an artificial lake and a waterfall. By the way, Tatilya is a small country that has a president, its own constitution, flag, national anthem and... a constant air temperature of +21. The park has its own amphitheater, which regularly hosts concerts and performances - quite large-scale, by the way.
The park is open from 10 a.m. to midnight daily except Monday. The entrance ticket costs ?20. Tatilya is located quite far from the city center, but a special minibus runs to the park.
Keep in mind that the duration of stay is limited - the ticket is issued for four hours. You can extend the pleasure for an additional fee.
Universal Port Aventura, Costa Dorada, Spain
For many years the park was known as Port Aventura, after which it was bought by the American company Universal Group. Now it is part of the Universal Mediterranea entertainment complex, which also has a water park and a couple of themed hotels.
The park is divided into five parts, each corresponding to a certain region - the Far West, Mexico, China, Polynesia and the Mediterranean. The idea may not be new, but in terms of execution Port Aventura leaves everyone behind. Just imagine: huge cacti, bamboo, thatched roofs, stylized wooden statues... And attractions everywhere - some of them can bring faint-hearted people to a critical state. Everyone is terrified and delighted by the 'Dragon Khan' roller coaster with eight loopings and a maximum speed of 100 km/h. You come out of it as if from the other world! The 'Stampida' attraction is styled as a coal mine, where you can rush along underground roads in a mine cart. In the 'Fire Castle' you may not be burned alive, but you can easily be drowned.
You can have an 'old-time' photo taken in the Far West territory. They will spend a long time dressing you in historical costumes, and then take a black-and-white (or rather brown-and-white, 'antique-style') photo. You look at it and doubt your own roots: weren't your great-grandmother and great-grandfather the first settlers of the New World?
Opening hours: from 10:00 to midnight in summer, in spring and autumn - from 10:00 to 19:00. A one-day ticket costs €33 (adult) and €26.50 (child), a two-day ticket - €51 and €40.50 respectively. After seven in the evening, one-day tickets cost €23 and €18.50. The easiest way is to buy a ticket for the tourist bus (bus uristik) in Barcelona. Another option is the RENFE suburban trains to Port Aventura station.
There are always queues in this park, but they are not scary. Near almost every attraction there is a signboard on which the queue time for a particular ride is written in chalk. The employees responsible for the signboards at the most popular attractions call each other by radio every 5-10 minutes and clarify the time.
Walt Disney World, Orlando, USA
The most famous, the largest, the most interesting 'Disneyland' in the world. There are so many attractions here that visiting or even just looking at them all will take at least three days. The park is divided into themed zones, each of which is a separate amusement park. The most popular is the 'Wild West' with castles, ghosts, a paddle steamer, and Tom Sawyer's Island. In 'Future' there are real spaceships and everything dedicated to technological progress. There is a 'Presidents Hall' where robots - copies of all US presidents - are in charge, from time to time addressing visitors with short speeches. And in the park you can often come across a cartoon character who suddenly pops out of an inconspicuous underground passage into the crowd.
There are also water parks with 'Typhoon Lagoon', 'Hurricane Shore' and 'River Country', as well as mini-zoos with prehistoric jungles, so that there is a place to get lost and have a real adventure. And high technology allows you to see indescribable wonders 'in reality' - from the underwater world to ghosts.
The park is open all year round from 9:00 to 23:00. For adults a ticket costs $60, and $50 for children under nine years old. The park is located 10 km from Orlando. There are no direct flights, so you will have to fly domestic US routes.
Since the park is huge and it is impossible to walk around it, a small train takes visitors to stations right from the main entrance. Trains depart every two minutes. If you hurry, you can put the children in the driver's cab.