Heide Park

Heide Park opened in 1978 on heathland near Soltau and covers about eighty-five hectares, the second largest theme park in Germany by area. Colossos, opened in 2001, is a wooden coaster whose first drop is at about sixty-one degrees; it was among the steepest wooden drops in the world when built and was rebuilt with new track in 2019. Krake is a dive coaster with a vertical first drop, and Flug der Dämonen is a wing coaster. A large water ride, a monorail and themed areas fill the rest. It is one of Europe's larger parks by ride count and has an on-site hotel.

History

The site was once the Heidenhof wildlife park, named after a chapel built there in 1350, which closed in 1972 after a devastating storm. The showman Hans-Jürgen Tiemann bought the land and opened Heide Park on 19 August 1978 with six rides, on condition that he keep the chapel and native animals, and it drew just under 200,000 visitors in its first season; a Heath Village followed in 1988 and a Dutch section in 1996/97, attendance reached 2.1 million in 2001, and in 2002 the Tussauds Group bought the park, merged with Merlin Entertainments in 2007. Its landmark, a one-third-scale Statue of Liberty 35 meters tall, was unveiled on 4 July 1986 and moved in 2011 to stand inside the Colossos coaster (Wikipedia, Heide Park).

The main sights

• Colossos - a wooden coaster with a first drop near sixty-one degrees.
• Krake - a dive coaster with a vertical drop.
• The scale - about eighty-five hectares of park on former heathland.
• The themed areas - pirate, transylvania and fantasy sections.

When to go

April to October; the park closes for winter with a short Halloween season in October. Weekdays outside German school holidays have the shortest queues.

Good to know

It closes for the winter months. Queues on holiday weekends are long. Online tickets are much cheaper than gate prices.

Nearby

Lüneburg Heath surrounds it; Hamburg lies north.

Key facts