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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.