Pleasurewood Hills vs Thorpe Park

Pleasurewood Hills is a family theme park in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. It's a small but well-regarded regional park with a mix of family and thrill rides: Wipeout boomerang coaster, Marble Madness indoor spinning coaster, Rage double-launch coaster, and a large Pirate Ship swing ride. The park sits on 50 acres of mixed woodland and open field.

Pleasurewood Hills' season runs roughly Easter to late October, with school holidays and UK summer weekends driving peak crowds. Weekdays in May, June and September are usually very relaxed. Check live queue times for Rage and Wipeout on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a quieter day - the park pairs well with a Suffolk or Norfolk coastal holiday.

Thorpe Park is the UK's premier thrill-ride destination, sitting on a lake-filled 500-acre site in Chertsey, Surrey. Owned by Merlin Entertainments, the park is built around adrenaline: Stealth rockets from 0 to 80 mph in under two seconds, Hyperia stands as Britain's tallest and fastest rollercoaster at 236 feet, and Nemesis Inferno, Saw and Colossus round out one of the most coaster-heavy line-ups in Europe.

Queue times at Thorpe Park swing dramatically with the seasons - quiet in spring and on weekdays, extremely busy during Fright Nights in October and summer weekends. Check live queue times before your ride priorities, and use the crowd calendar to pick a midweek visit if you want to hit every major coaster in a single day.