Liseberg

Liseberg, 9.2 out of 10 based on 33 ratings

Rating: +28 (from 28 votes)

Rating: 9.2/10 (33 votes cast)

Liseberg is a lovely amusement park set in the heart of Gothenburg. The park opened in 1923 and it is suitable for the whole family, offering rides for little ones right up to some of the best trilling rides in the world with the Helix and Balder rollercoasters and 2017’s Europe’s highest gyro swing Loke topping the pile.

For that reason alone the park was the 7th most visited theme park in Europe with 3,100,000 visitors in 2015 according to TEA organization. The park itself has been chosen as one of the top ten amusement parks in the world (2005) by Forbes Magazine.

The park was built on a hill so there are different levels of fun, and attractions located at the top are noteworthy the more trilling. Helix ride was an out of this world experience when you are actually twisted and turned like Helix with extreme speed, upside down and downhill. The ride built by Mack Rides is the most impressive new rollercoaster in Europe in 2014. Helix has it all: a Corkscrew, a LSM Launch, again a Corkscrew, a Norwegian Loop, a Zero-G Roll, another LSM Launch, a Top Hat, an Inside a In-Line Twist and more. Moreover, the steel roller coaster reaches a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) and features a 41 meter (135 foot)-tall dual-launch helix. The roller coaster’s station was built by the foot of the tower Atmosfear – the Gothenburg view it’s impressive!. The 1,381-meter-long track follows the hillside in a custom made track design with several near misses to other rollercoasters in the park. Believe me when i say: It was the ride of a life time!. It’s an hour waiting but we did it twice (the last one during the night in the dark!).

Among the noteworthy attractions is also the wooden roller coaster Balder, twice voted as the Best Wooden Tracked Roller Coaster in the world in a major international poll. I also liked Lisebergbanan a steel mine train coaster that reaches a speed of 80 km/h (50 mph) downhill on a 1548 m long track (5079 ft) and a height of 45 m (148 ft) and Kanonen, an hydraulic-launch sit down coaster from Intanmim that reaches a speed of 75 km/h (46 mph) in just 3 seconds on a 440 m long track (1443 ft) and a height of 24 m (79 ft) with 2 inversions (a vertical loop and heart-line roll).

Also worth mention the new 2017 Loke swinging pendulum that reaches a breathless top speed of 100km/h and swings scarily close to Balder rollercoaster, giving the impression that the two will collide.

The park is not big enough for a two-day visit but big enough for a whole day of fun. Nevertheless we reserved 2 consecutive days for a visit back in June 2014.

Helix was recently opened and we visited on a weekend so we expected big crowds. In the first day it rained a lot and the park was half full but one the second day all of Gothenburg was there. Liseberg is a city park where people flock on weekends not only for the great rides but also for the lovely environment, shows and lots of restaurants range from burgers and hot dogs to a smart restaurant for Swedish cuisine such as mulled wine and specialties such as döner kebab made from reindeer meat. But even with such crowds the park is always very well kept and organized. It is impressive how the park has used every inch of its area and made it compact but not over crowded.

The park it is pretty expensive, I’m afraid. Just to enter it takes you 90 SEK and this doesn’t contain any coupons for a ride. You need 415 SEK (45€/ 61 USD) for daily entrance and a one-day pass for all attractions (if you buy it online you get an express pass for free). But Liseberg worth’s every penny. This is what an amusement park should look like, feel like, sound like and smell like!. As soon as you walk thru the front gates you feel like a little kid again and you want to speed up your step just to be able to ride in every attraction. The location is also a plus. Gothenburg is a beautiful city and looking at its splendor in the giant wheel in the twilight is another mesmerizing experience. It’s not difficult to fall love with Gothenburg and surely we will visit Liseberg again.