Theme Park Explorer - Tivoli Gardens

Date of last visit: August 2004

Age of kids at the time: 9 and 6. Free entry for children under 3.

Travel: Cheap flight with EasyJet from Bristol to Copenhagen. Frequent trains run from the airport to the Central Station, which is opposite the Gardens themselves. We stayed at the Cab Inn Scandinavia (www.cab-inn.dk), like a Danish Travel Inn, which is about 15 minutes walk from the station and the Gardens. Warning: Copenhagen hotels are pretty expensive!

The Scores… (details below):

Family Factor: 6/10

Rides for Kids: 7/10

Tivoli Gardens is an unusual kind of theme park. Visitors can choose to just stroll around the impressive gardens and watch the shows (or watch their friends go on the rides, eat too much ice cream and throw up) and, unlike the gardens at Alton Towers in the UK, just pay a relatively low admission price. If you want to go on the rides there is a separate system of tokens and armbands - more on that later...

There's a huge number of restaurants in the Gardens, all of them quite pricey, plus an opera house, stages and theatres, but that's the thing about Tivoli - it's there to attract all sorts of people, not just thrill seekers, and it does that very well. It was bizarre to get off a roller coaster and walk past people in full-on evening dress on their way to the Gardens' theatre.

You really need to see the place after dark - the lights are stunning, plus there's the small matter of riding an excellent roller coaster after sunset, which is not to be missed. I won't come over all dreamy and call the place "magical", but even to an old cynic like me it was a terrific and best of all different experience. Having said that, the Gardens are about the most expensive theme park in the entire universe so 7 out of 10 was as generous as I was willing to be.

There was enough for us to do in the Gardens to keep us going from 2pm to 10pm (and we were utterly knackered a

t the end of it, although the park itself is very compact). The total number of rides isn't that high, but the kids soon identified their favourites and wanted to ride them again and again. This is all very well, the only slight problemette being the price. After the entrance fee (DKK 65 for adults, about GBP 6) Each ride uses 1 to 4 tokens, and each token costs DKK 10 (about one pound sterling), so you can soon rack up a huge bill (big families beware). If you are just popping in for a quick go on one of the attractions then it might be worth getting individual tokens (available from machines dotted around the Gardens). If you are staying for a while at a peak time and want to go on as much as possible, go for the multi-ride armbands (which you can buy from two or three ticket booths and aren't transferable). There are two flavours of these: one good for young kids (it doesn't allow you to ride some of the higher octane stuff) and one for the rest of us (unlimited rides on everything). These cost DKK 75-195 (GBP 7-18) per person, depending upon what day or time of year you go, so pick your time carefully (see the official web site for dates and prices). I worked out that I used the equivalent of over 30 tokens on my own armband without even trying very hard. There are no family tickets or reductions.

Having whinged on about the price, this is a theme park and not Poundland so grab those armbands and hit as many rides as your stomach can handle. Unless you're fortunate enough to live in Denmark it's likely to be your only chance to do it.

There are no queue information signs, but even when the park got busy (towards the evening on the weekday in August we were there) the queues were minimal, even for Demon.

Kids are reasonably well catered for ride-wise at the Gardens. Our two latched onto a couple of rides that they liked and forced us to take them on them time after time... luckily the queues were short so your armbands could buy you a lot of repeat rides.

A few mini-reviews of some of the rides from a point of view of how the kids got on with them:

Blue Sapphire Odd name for a small ferris wheel, goes at a fair old lick, went on with the kids and they reckoned it was OK. Kids can ride on their own if they want

Karavanen Desert camel trail-themed kids coaster. According to the mighty Roller Coaster Database (www.rcdb.com) it's a Zierer Tivoli, the first of its kind and named after the gardens (others were later built around the world). Hold on tight - this thing has some speed about it and gets close to its scenery... It also comes to a halt like someone chucked a battleship anchor out the back. The kids wanted to ride it repeatedly, and in the end I was too dizzy to care any more min 1.2m

Temple Tower Strange little tower where children sit in a seat and haul themselves up and down with ropes. Good way for them to work off all the ice cream (whilst the adults stand and watch eating theirs) 0.9-1.2m

Balloon Ferris Wheel Another little wheel, slightly more sedate than the Blue Sapphire. The wheel itself is sited up on a platform so you're a good way up once you're at the top and you can see across the whole park. Take your camera

Fun House This kept the kids happy for a surprisingly long time - it's an indoor play area built inside one of the roller coasters. Keep a close eye on your kids if they're under about six years old (they can climb up quite high), but it has lots of moving platforms, rotating drums (like being inside a giant tumble drier) and various other obstacles that mean all adults can do is sit in the middle and watch. Handy if its raining, and still costs tickets to get in

Galley Ships Round and round we go. And round and round and round and round and round and round until the children are all whooping with joy and you think you are going to THROW UP. Admittedly I had just got off the Spinning Top, which was a real frying pan/fire combination for me. The children couldn't get anough of it (you sit in little wooden galleons that go round and round and up and down - to be honest it's reasonably gentle, my stomach was just having a bad day, honest)

Little Pilot Planes that go up and down on arms, you know the kind of thing. Our youngest enjoyed pretending to send enemy pilots spiralling to their doom

Lantern Boats Pootle across the lake on little boats with lanterns on poles (looks great as the sun goes down). Then point and stare at the people screaming their way round the superb roller coaster they've built at the top of the lake

The Mine Kiddie dark ride in boats, with cutesy dioramas involving moles, dragons and a diamond mine. I think we went on this six times (the queue was 5 minutes at the worst) - a winner with the little ones. Using individual tickets this would have cost a total fortune

Panda Mini drop tower. Kids can practice on this one for the Golden Tower when they get a bit older. Can't quite undertand why its called the Panda, it doesn't look like one min 0.9m

Rush Hour Kids only car/truck roundabout. They have smaller versions of these in Cardiff city centre sometimes so I couldn't get too worked up about this one. As usual our six year old thought it was spiffing max 1.3m

Trolley Bus A shrunken trolley bus that takes you on a short tour of part of the park. May as well go on it if you've bought an armband, just for the sake of it. Might save your legs if you are feeling the strain

Vintage Cars The ones that go around a track all by themselves, steer as the kids might. Over 40 years old, apparently

It has to be said that adults are pretty well catered for. There's no other conclusion you can come to when one of the finest steel roller coasters I've been on is sat there at the top end of the park, waiting for you, with almost no queues.

Quick mini-reviews of some of the attractions aimed at grownups:

Demon See The Big Ride below.

Dragon Thank goodness this thing was broken while we were there, or I might have felt the need to go on it (for the sake of completeness) and been sick. A Huss Flic Flac I think (from a quick search on the web); it looked like it would centrifuge your brain given the chance Not Ridden 1.4-1.95m

Odin Express A Mack powered mine train with the usual turn of speed you get from these. It has a great section where it spirals round nice tight turns in the trees at an alarming angle, and depending on the queues they let it go around the circuit two or three times. When it's on its last lap and slowing down the train is canted over at such an angle that it feels like you're going to fall out of it (nobody did, though). I really liked the sensation of speed as you hurtled through the station between laps (felt quicker than 37 mph, I can tell you - probably due to how low you are sitting). Our nine year old was just about big enough to ride it (it has a stricter height requirement than this type of ride usualy does). It isn't included on the slightly cheaper kid-oriented armband min 1.32m

Roller Coaster Red alert for fans of ancient roller coasters, this Scenic Railway dates from 1914 and sports a brake man sitting in the middle of each train (which made me want to be back on the techno-fest that is Demon). Nice airtime hills (which our daughter didn't enjoy very much) and will no doubt be a nostalgia overload for some. Sorry for not cropping some bloke's elbow out of the picture

Spinning Top Our nine year old loved this, but I thought I was going to die. Very effective, involving spinning cars that go in several directions (seemingly at once), just not my thing (but Beth insisted we go on it). It's a Huss Breakdance, for those in the know. Painted up nicely to match the style of the park min 1.32m

Valhalla Castle A Vekoma Madhouse, pretty good as these things go (they are extremely clever and work really well if the atmosphere and build-up are right). Better than the cartoony one at Gardaland, not as dramatic as Hex at Alton Towers. Always great fun watching the looks on the faces of people riding it for the fisrt time. Kids over about eight would be OK, although it could be a bit creepy for them if they're easily scared... Won't say too much about it and spoil the surprise - you need to try it out min 8 years

Golden Tower A simply huge (63m) drop tower. The ride operator took my glasses off me before take off, and for once I'm glad he did. The launch and drop seem to go on forever. The problem with not having my glasses was that I got a pretty fuzzy view from the top - most people would be able to see for miles (I could see about two feet). Certainly the highest drop tower I've ever been on. Even looks stunning from the ground - a slender golden tower (sorry) with a curvy sculpted point on the top, looks very Middle Eastern. Excellent 1.4-1.95m

The Big Ride 9/10 (Demon)

Back in 2003 the Tivoli Gardens would have been a very attractive setting for a collection of not overly-exciting kids and family rides. At the end of 2003 the Gardens ripped out an old coaster called Slangen and in the really very small space left behind built the utterly superb Daemonen (Demon). This is a truly world-class coaster from Bolliger and Mabillard. If you're a fan of these things, get an EasyJet flight to CPH, get on the train, run out of the station across the road to Tivoli and RIDE IT. You can worry about trifling issues such as where you're going to stay later...

Considering the limitations of its site, everything about this roller coaster is pretty much spot-on. The queue line isn't that exciting, but I didn't have to queue for more than a few minutes even once the crowds started to arrive in the evening. The coaster is a "floorless" design, which means that the train is above the track but the cars are very open and give you a fantastic sense of speed, although its maximum is only 48 mph. The trains look superb with their red and gold Chinese dragon livery; the rest of the theming has a bit of "growing-in" to do (it all understandably looks very new), and is slightly spoilt by a Mazda RX-8 from the ride's sponsors perched by the entrance. There are lots of places for the rest of the family to watch daddy/mummy experience some serious g forces from.

The operators were very efficient, and warned me that I might lose my glasses (I chose to take the risk as I had a front row seat and like to see where I'm going). Getting ready to leave the station was all part of the excitement of this ride; the word is given, the button is pressed and the floor folds back out of the way like something in Thunderbird 2's launch bay whilst the gates in front of you swing dramatically aside. The train powers up the lift hill at a fair old gallop, then lets you loose into a helical turn which is both unusual (in my experience) and fun. There is then an excellent little kink that kicks you up slightly and into the drop that leads to a rapid succession of inversions - vertical loop, immelman, zero-g roll. The shortness of the ride (not much space, remember) is made up for by the relentless nature of these three elements, which hardly let you catch your breath. Once back at the station I was down the steps and running for the ride entrance to go again. Given the time I would have ridden it all evening - it's that good, and that smooth. A ride later on once the sun had gone down and the Garden's lights were on was probably the single best and most atmospheric outdoor coaster ride I've had.

I prefer this coaster to any other B&M that I've been on (OK, there's only three others). I'm a huge fan of Nemesis, but I can't ride it repeatedly because I smack my head on the restraints (I should probably work on strengthening my neck muscles). Although some will say the ride is too short to be a real winner Demon is, for me, a more enjoyable experience. Demon and Nemesis are interestingly alike in one way - they both make the best possible use of a restricted site. With Demon, Tivoli Gardens got a compact coaster which serves up a powerful ride that you can experience again and again, whilst giving the park a centrepiece that looks incredible across the gardens and lake. All credit to Tivoli Gardens for investing in the ride, and to B&M for giving the park and punters exactly what they want within what must have been a pretty exacting specification 1.32-1.95m

Cleanliness 7/10

The gardens and restaurants were very tidy but I wasn't that impressed by the state of the two public coveniences I visited. Not bad overall, though, considering the number of people being crammed into a pretty small space (the Gardens, that is, not the lavs).

There are nearly 40 restaurants in the Gardens, none of them cheap as far as we could tell. Eating out in Copenhagen can be an overdraft-bursting experience unless you can shop around, so with a captive audience in the Gardens you can expect prices to be high. Our suggestion would be to eat at one of the many excellent restaurants in Copenhagen, seeing as you are right in the centre of town and everything is within walking distance. Our favourite is Riz Raz (Kompagnistraede 20), a Mediterranean-style buffet where you can eat until you detonate and which is fine for kids and vegetarians. Another favourite are the polse (sausage) vans which serve up take away Danish-style hot dogs for a very reasonable price.

In the Gardens themselves, we had some pricey snacks in the open air cafe under Demon (Great location) and excellent ice cream from the cafe close to Odin Express.