On Christmas Eve day we headed up one of the small mountains that flanks Barcelona to Tibidabo Amusement park. It’s a little hard to get to, but after two subways, a bus, a short hike and the funicular, we made it up! I believe you can also take a tour bus up directly to the funicular station, but where’s the fun in that (ha!)? Plus our way was cheaper.
Anyway, when you step off the funicular, you are immediately greeted by two contradicting sites- a beautiful church (Sagrat Chor), and a bright, primary color decorated theme park. You are overlooking the city and the amusement park seems to be almost built into the side of the mountain! Some of the rides even go over the edge, like the airplane ride and the ferris wheel gives a really spectacular view of the area.
Carter was tall enough to go on most of the rides and he really enjoyed it. A lot of the rides there are for smaller kids, so it really was a good time for him. He especially loved the animal bumper cars, which were for smaller kids, although he had a bit of a challenge trying to turn! They also had “big kid” bumper cars, which were regular sized bumper cars for adults and big kids alike.
We also met one of the mascots, this green animal kind of thing, which was named “Bi.” Each mascot made up one of the syllables of the park’s name. Kind of random, but Carter enjoyed meeting him (her?) all the same.
Carter was the only kid on the “slime” ride, which was kind of like a teacups ride. The park wasn’t very crowded, even though it was only open for four hours that day, so we were able to do everything with very minimal wait, and often no wait at all!
He really loved the trampolines! This was pretty popular and one of the few things we had to wait our turn for. He had so much fun that we had to go several times!
But the best ride was the “Alaska” water flume. Each kid had their own seal boat to sit in and ride around in the water flume, going up and down a small hill. I loved the decorations on the ride, which included plenty of animals that lived in “cold” areas, but not all of which actually live in Alaska!
It wasn’t all kiddie rides either, there were also several rides for the older crowd, including a roller coaster, which we took turns enjoying!
Of course we had to enjoy some classic amusement park food! The churros were freshly made and oh-so-delicious! They were only open 4 hours that day, but it seemed like enough time to hit up all the rides we wanted to go on, several more than once.
Overall I thought Tibidabo Amusement Park was fun and cute, especially for my son. It’s a little run down, and some of the rides have been there since the 1920s, but there are some really awesome views from the theme park as well! If you are visiting Barcelona with kids and have an extra day to spare, I would recommend it. You could also visit the church at the top, as well as hike around the mountain, which we did not do because after the park closed at 4, the Fernicular was leaving and not coming back up to pick more people up!
Sagrat Chor Church |
Have you been to Tibidabo Amusement Park? What did you think of it?
Stay turned for more posts on Barcelona to come!
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