An eight-year-old child can have an amazing day out at Alton Towers. But there are some tactics that can make the queues, rollercoasters and general theme park experience better.
15 top tips for tackling Alton Towers with an eight-year-old: Short version
- Make sure your child is at least 120cm tall.
- Book in advance.
- Go on a teacher training day.
- Pick a gloomy day.
- Wear a coat with big, zippable pockets.
- Get there early.
- Download the Alton Towers app.
- Choose which ride you want to do first.
- Know which areas to avoid…
- … And which to focus your time on.
- Eat early or late.
- Eat snacks in the queue
- Let the kids watch the ride first.
- Bring a book.
- Save souvenirs until the end.
And the detailed version…
Yesterday, I made good on a birthday present. I had promised my eight-year-old daughter I would take her to Alton Towers as soon as she was safely over the 120cm height mark. She has, finally, made it to the line, and thus was due some rollercoaster action.
But attacking Alton Towers with an eight-year-old is significantly different from doing so with an older child or in an adult group. Many rides are off limits due to height restrictions and queueing time needs deft management.
Having come out the other end, here are my top tips for doing Alton Towers with an eight-year-old.
Make sure your child is at least 120cm tall
There are attractions at Alton Towers aimed at younger, shorter children. But parents aren’t going to get much out of CBeebies Land or the, ahem, questionably-themed World of David Walliams.
Other parks, such as the Gulliver’s parks in Warrington, Milton Keynes, Matlock Bath and Rother Valley, are more focused on younger kids. They do the job just as well, and are significantly cheaper.
Eight years old is arguably the age where Alton Towers becomes worth it, though, especially from a parent’s perspective. But only if the child is above 120cm tall, as this is the height that unlocks many of the genuinely good rollercoasters.
At 120cm, children can go on Wicker Man, Spinball Whizzer and Th13teen. Other favourites, including Hex, the Congo River Rapids and the Runaway Mine Train are open to slightly shorter kids as long as they ride with an adult. But it’s at the 120cm mark where there’s a big enough selection of genuinely exciting rides available.
It’s likely that they’ll be measured on the first of these rides they go on. Staff usually give them a wristband confirming the child is over 120cm tall, meaning this measuring rigmarole doesn’t have to happen on every ride. If they don’t, ask for the wristband to save on later hassle.
Book in advance
This is ridiculously obvious, but it’s worth stressing. The walk-up price for a day pass is £68, while advance Alton Towers tickets can be bought online for from £29. Those £29 tickets are generally only available midweek in September and October, however. The cheapest Alton Towers ticket price at other times is usually £34.
Before booking on the Alton Towers site, it’s worth cross-referencing with a third party ticket provider such as Viator. Sometimes – just sometimes, mind – the tickets can be cheaper when booking indirectly.
You can also buy a range of fast track passes for the rides, but these are frankly extortionate.
Go on a teacher training day
At Alton Towers, weekends and school holidays tend to have bigger crowds. If at all possible, you should try to go midweek outside of the school holidays.
This is obviously a bit of a problem with a school-aged child, but there is a magic solution: Teacher training days.
On these inset days, most children are at school, but yours won’t be. That means much shorter ride queues.
Pick a gloomy day
If you can’t pick a teacher training day, the best day to visit Alton Towers is a rainy day. Scout the weather forecast and look for a day where there will be some rain, but not all day. This should put most potential visitors off, and you’ll have a much quieter theme park.
Wear a coat with big, zippable pockets
Even if going on a lovely sunny day, a thin raincoat with big pockets is your friend. Ideally, you don’t want to be carrying a bag. Storing it and picking it up again on each ride is an annoying, often time-consuming nuisance.
Wear the right raincoat and it effectively functions as a bag without having to do the tiresome unloading procedure. Stick wallet, keys and phone in the pockets, zip them away safely, and your valuables aren’t going to fall out on the ride.
Get there early
Don’t trust the opening time stated on the Alton Towers website. If it says 10am, that means the rides open at 10am. The park itself is open around an hour earlier. That means early birds have time to park up, get on the monorail, get their tickets scanned and walk to the ride they want to go on first.
Queues are smaller first thing and getting to the ride before it opens means you’ll be near the front of the queue.
Download the Alton Towers app
I absolutely loathe having to download apps for every place I visit. It’s one of the biggest curses on modern society. Begrudgingly, however, I will say it is worth downloading the Alton Towers app. There’s a whole lot of guff on there you’ll not need, but the information on queue times is invaluable.
The estimated queue times are updated in real time, and there are often surprise fluctuations throughout the day. This allows you to make a smart change of plan if, say, the queue for Wicker Man goes down from 45 minutes to 15 minutes.
The app also tells you which rides are temporarily closed. This saves you slogging across the park to go on Th1teen, only to find it’s not currently running.
Choose which ride you want to do first
There is no correct route for tackling Alton Towers, but the longest queues tend to be for Smiler, Wicker Man and Th13teen.
If travelling with an eight-year-old, Smiler isn’t going to be relevant. Therefore, the best ride to head to first is probably Wicker Man or Th13teen. Unfortunately, they’re at opposite ends of the park, so you’re almost certainly going to get whacked with a big queue for one of them.
There’s also an argument for doing Spinball Whizzer first, as queues can get pretty big there, but it’s a jolty, stomach-lurchy ride to begin the day with.
Know which areas to avoid…
Eight-year-olds will get tired legs by the end of the day, so it pays to know which areas you don’t need to bother exploring.
CBeebies Land is likely to be too kiddy for your eight-year-old now, so don’t bother with it. At the opposite end of the scale, the X Sector and Forbidden Valley are where the big rides cluster. Your child isn’t going to be tall enough to get on any of these, so ditch them too.
Last of all, the gardens are undoubtedly lovely, but it’s unlikely that your children will appreciate an hour idly ambling through them when there are rides to go on.
… And which to focus your time on
The area around Mutiny Bay and Katanga Canyon is where you’re likely to spend most time with an eight-year-old in tow. This is where you’ll find Wicker Man, the Congo River Rapids, the Runaway Mine Train and a few good time-fillers.
The Marauder’s Mayhem spinning barrel ride, the Heave Ho pirate ship, the Battle Galleons boats and the surprisingly good Sharkbait Reef Aquarium are great for filling the gaps between the major rides.
There are also several food outlets, fairground sideshow-style attractions and arcades around here. In fact, you only really need to branch out to other areas for Spinball Whizzer, Hex, Th13teen and the possibly soon-to-be-rebranded World of David Walliams. They can all be strung together in one route towards the back of the park.
Eat early or late
If you want to be able to sit down to eat your expensive, mediocre quality burger, avoid the lunchtime rush between 12 noon and 2pm. It pays to eat either early or late, and not just because of food outlet queues. While most people are eating, queues for the rides tend to dwindle. Keep an eye on the app, and head for whichever ride you baulked at earlier because the queues were too big. This is likely to be Wicker Man or Th13teen.
Eat snacks in the queue
If your eight-year-old is anything like mine, you will be getting requests for snacks roughly every 90 seconds. You’ll have to give in eventually, but you may as well do so the smart way.
A child devouring an ice cream or slurping a slushie is a child not paying as much attention to how long they’re spending in the queue. So, get the snacks just before joining a queue you know will be in for an uncomfortably long time.
A snack consumed sitting down at a picnic bench is a frivolously wasted distraction opportunity.
Let the kids watch the ride first
Even the most intrepid eight-year-olds are likely to be nervous about going on some of the rides. The likes of Wicker Man, Th13teen and Spinball Whizzer are not the scariest in the park, but they’re by no means tame either.
What you want to avoid is getting to the front of a half-hour queue, then your child deciding they don’t want to go on.
It’s better to let them watch the ride in action first, talk to them about what they find scary about it, and do whatever pep talking is necessary. If they enter the queue in determined mode, rather than riddled with uncertainty, they’re far less likely to pull out at the last minute.
Bring a book
Before you leave home, get your child to pick a book they’re interested in reading. Preferably a decent-sized, easy-to-read chapter book that would usually take them a few days.
I’m not totally naïve. If they actually read any of the book while at Alton Towers, it is very much a bonus. However, it does give you a weapon to use in the queues. Every time they say they’re bored or ask how much longer they’ll have to wait, unzip that big coat pocket and hand them their designated in-line boredom buster.
Save souvenirs until the end
Many rides at Alton Towers have a gift shop at the end. It is advisable to steer your children through these as quickly as possible, and not just for the sake of your wallet. You absolutely do not want to be lugging around a collection of teddies all day long.
Promise your eight-year-old a stop at the really big gift shop on the way out rather than succumbing to pressure earlier on.
Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this guide. If you buy via them, I earn a small commission.
