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Best Coaster Countries

Edward M

Edward M

Strata Poster
This is a topic I was thinking about recently. Where would you rank the best countries for roller coasters? You can do a list of 1 or 5 or 10 or 100. It's just a topic for discussion. I am more about quality over quantity, so it'll show in my ranking. I will also ignore Disney parks since this is just coasters. Maybe a separate parks topic would be good as well.

  1. USA
  2. China
  3. Germany
  4. Sweden
  5. Japan
  6. Canada
  7. United Arab Emirates
  8. Spain
  9. South Korea
  10. France
 
1. USA (Ohio or California best state)
2. Germany
3. China
4. Japan
5. Sweden
6. U.A.E.
7. Canada
8. Australia (Technically a country)
9. South Korea
10. South Africa (?)

Can't think of any other good countries
 
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USA is obviously first but it's kinda unfair to compare it to separate European countries as it's almost the size of entire Europe.
I'll just stick to European countries for now;

1. Germany
2. Sweden
3. The Netherlands
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. France
7. Denmark
8. UK
9. Finland
10. Poland

3-6 are very close to each other.
 
Off the top of my head,
1) Germany
2) Italy
3) UK
4) The Netherlands
5) Sweden

Poland seem keen to break into the Top 5 of late though.
 
Can't help feeling that the UK is getting a bum rap here.
I know the industry here has stagnated somewhat over the years, and I know there's been no truly world-class new coasters for a while, and I know that the whole Merlin monopoly thing sucks, but as a country... on the whole, I don't think we're doing that bad. When it comes to sheer numbers at least, Britain has more than its fair share of operating creds, and a nicely rounded selection of different parks and fairs. When you also take into account the relatively small size of our little island, I bet you that the coaster-to-area ratio, the creds per square mile if you like, is among the densest in the world.
Don't get me wrong, I like whinging about the state of UK theme parks as much as the next man, but come on guys, credit where credit's due.
My own list looks something like this:
1. 'Murica
2. China
3. Japan
4. Germany/UK tie
5. Spain
6. Sweden

Dunno any more than that really.
 
UK certainly has the quantity, but the problem is that there is only one great coaster and every other major coaster has at least one thing about it that really lets it down. On paper the UK is fantastic coaster-wise, but in reality it's very poor. I struggle to find a second best coaster because none deserve that honour.
 
^I kinda agree, but I was appealing to the filthy cred whores out there, and lord knows there's plenty of them on here!
 
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Tough to judge because it's a game of quality vs quantity in a way.

Like, if one country has only 5 creds but they are all "world class", and another country has say 50 creds but they are all "pretty good" then what comes out on top? In some aspect, quantity is as important as quality because those 5 world class creds might all be in one park, yet the 50 pretty good creds are scattered amongst several parks, giving the country more dynamic range.
 
Not going to try ranking them but I'd say the best countries in terms of accessible yet varied creds (i.e. you could go for a week and drive around mopping up the main creds but still get a lot of variation) include:

Sweden - a long weekend and you can get most of the country done cred-wise with great quality everywhere. Plus the parks are gorgeous and you get to see some culture too. The great thing about Scandi is that lots of the parks are in big cities.

Germany - a bit more spread out but you could easily get the main parks done in a week and it has Phantasialand and Europa so there's both quality and quantity

Denmark - Tivoli for beauty and history, Djurs is a great park (and the best park food ever). BonBon is ****ing surreal. Farup is a bit out of the way though.

Italy - if you stick to the Garda area there's lots to choose from. Corporate Merlin plus sketchy homespun Movieland. And you can add on that ridiculous yet amazing homemade park.

Spain - weekend in Madrid with two great parks or weekend in Barcelona - Shambhala plus the fab city to look round, beach and Tibidabo for odd things, history and stonking views.

Not entirely based on creds but it isn't all about creds anyway is it.
 
Until Icon and SW8 open, England is the last place enthusiasts should be thinking about visiting, except maybe the Netherlands, there's some truly awful coasters there.
The 2 2018 coasters will increase the quality in England a little tho, but wait... whats that in Poland? A new Intamin hyper, yeah, lets go there instead.
 
DelPiero said:
Until Icon and SW8 open, England is the last place enthusiasts should be thinking about visiting, except maybe the Netherlands, there's some truly awful coasters there.
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England bad? Thorpe still has a quite good lineup of "big for Europe" rides, Blackpool has all the classic woodies and a large hypercoaster, and Alton Towers has a reputation for being one of the nicest-looking parks in the world (while also having a fair few interesting coasters). Just because most people here - being British - have already visited these parks, doesn't mean nobody else would find value in them. I'd say you are better off than Germany or France, certainly so if quantity is one's metric of choice. And I'd certainly much rather take a cred trip to England than to, say, Ukraine or Portugal.
 
Germany has Europa Park, Phantasialand, Heide and Hansa to start with not even mentioning the rest of the list - there is no enthusiast in their right mind who is better off in the UK than they are there.

I don't think the three major UK parks (Alton, Thorpe and Blackpool) are horrific and are all worth a visit but to say we're better than Germany is a laugh.

America is obviously the best, but it's just huge. China is the most interesting and up and coming, and probably second overall now. Japan was **** bar Universal and Disney, the parks were all just gross and run down. Germany is amazing. Sweden is pure quality over quantity. Denmark is a proper family park country, but they're all really nice (apart from revolting BonBon).
 
DelPiero said:
Until Icon and SW8 open, England is the last place enthusiasts should be thinking about visiting, except maybe the Netherlands, there's some truly awful coasters there.
Click to expand...
And the 50% of other European countries that hardly have any worthwhile coasters? I really don't get your post that enthusiasts shouldn't visit these 2 countries? Which countries are worth visiting then? Sweden and Germany and that's it?
 
TilenB said:
And the 50% of other European countries that hardly have any worthwhile coasters? I really don't get your post that enthusiasts shouldn't visit these 2 countries? Which countries are worth visiting then? Sweden and Germany and that's it?
Click to expand...
Re-read the post, until SW8 and Icon are built. As of right now, any enthusiast who hasn't been to the UK would be making a poor decision. Come back when the new creds are open.

The rest of my post in in jest, as a Intamin Hyper obviously is a massive draw.

To answer your question, I'd argue that Italy, Spain and France (as well as the 2 you mentioned) probably have better quality than England right now. Nemesis is the only really good coaster here, France has Oz Iris and Alpina, Spain has Shambhala and Superman, Italy has Katun and O:TBH, Raptor and Storm?(at rainbow magic).

Edit - Taste in coasters is subjective, the majority of UK coasters to me, are rubbish, there's a reason only Nemesis is in my personal top 30, and I wouldn't recommend the UK as a place to visit for non UK enthusiasts at this moment in time.
 
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