Europa-Park

Europa-Park is the Mack family's grand act of showmanship - ride-builders since 1780, they opened the park at Rust in 1975 as a showcase for their machines and grew it into Germany's largest theme park and one of Europe's most visited. The conceit is the continent in miniature: some twenty themed quarters - Alsatian lanes, Greek harbours, Scandinavian waterfronts - wrap around a hundred attractions, among them world-class coasters like the towering Silver Star, the wooden Wodan and the launched Blue Fire, most of them Mack machines road-tested at home. The Rulantica water world steams alongside for a second day, the winter season runs the park under lights and artificial snow, and the whole operation collects world's-best-park awards with monotonous regularity. Strasbourg is over the Rhine, Freiburg down the road; the Black Forest supplies the backdrop.

History

The Mack family opened Europa-Park in Rust on 12 July 1975 on 16 hectares, with Franz Mack running it at first and his sons Roland and Jürgen joining the management later. It has grown to about 95 hectares and around twenty themed areas, most of them named for European countries or regions. Silver Star, a 73-metre hypercoaster built with Mercedes-Benz, opened in 2002, and the separate Rulantica water park opened on 28 November 2019. The park drew 5.4 million visitors in 2022 (Wikipedia, Europa-Park).

What's there

• The national quarters - eighteen corners of Europe rebuilt in walkable miniature.
• Silver Star - the giant steel coaster looming over the French quarter.
• Wodan - the roaring wooden coaster in the Icelandic zone.
• Rulantica - the Nordic-themed water world next door.

When to go

April to October for the full ride roster; the winter season is genuinely charming with lights and shows. Avoid German school holidays and fine-weather Saturdays if queues wear on you.

Before you go

A family day here is a serious outlay once food and extras land, and headline coasters queue long on peak days - arrive at opening and hit them first. The park is huge; comfortable shoes and a plan beat wandering. Dated online tickets are near-essential in summer.

Nearby

Freiburg's old town, the Black Forest slopes, the Kaiserstuhl wine hills and Strasbourg across the Rhine.

Key facts