Best place to live for coasters?

[MestnyiGeroi]

If you had to pick — or triangulate — one place to live on Planet Earth and your ONLY CRITERION was proximity to the most and/or best roller coasters, where would you pick?

 

[Scottingtonville]

I’ve always pondered this. My nerdy answer would be Nashville. Great city, period, despite it’s lack of a home park. However, within 8 hours you can reach Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Kings Island, Beech Bend, Six Flags over Georgia, Dollywood, Six Flags St. Louis, Silver Dollar City, and Worlds of Fun. Being centrally located, it’s perfect for short road trips as well including Florida, the east coast, IL/WI/MO, and Texas. California is only a short flight away as well.


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[James F]

Ohio, probably somewhere between Kings Island and Cedar Point.

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[TLARides]

Ohio, probably somewhere between Kings Island and Cedar Point.

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So like, Colombus.

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[James F]

Yeah basically. I'm not American so sometimes I forget the geography.

So like, Colombus.

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[TLARides]

To be honest, this question is by far one of the most challenging decisions I've ever had to make.

I'd say Staffordshire for Alton Towers, but then I'm far from any good parks in the US and UK as a whole.

Colombus wouldn't be bad because it's dead center in Ohio, between KI and CP, but again those are the two closest parks I can think of.

So I'd have to say Nashville because it's "close" to other parks...

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[Edward M]

I'm actually gonna with Amsterdam. You have Efteling and Walibi Holland (and the new RMC) right by you. A lot of German parks are pretty close, including Phantasialand. More than anything, public transit is way better in Europe, and I'm not a big driver.

 

[CanobieFan]

Orlando? I literally live across the street from Universal Studios........And Fun Spot is just 3 blocks away. Disney is just 20 minutes down the road and I pass SeaWorld to get there. I find it hard to believe most enthusiastic wouldn't be complacent living here. (Year round operations don't hurt either!) And let's not forget that Legoland and Busch Gardens are still pretty 'local'.

 

[Hixee]

Doing it 'visually' on a map, leads to a few that jump out to me:
Venlo, Netherlands - You've got Toverland, Movie Park Germany, Phantasialand, Walibi Belgium, Bobbejaanland and Efteling all "close", with loads of the other bigger parks (Walibi Holland, Plopsaland, Parc Asterix, Europa, etc) all within reach.
Osaka, Japan - Never done any of the parks in Japan, but Osaka looks pretty central to quite a few 4+ parks.
Beijing, China - Also got a pretty sizeable cluster, and has amazing transportation links to loads of neighbouring cities/parks.
Los Angeles, USA - SFMM, Knotts, Disney in the city itself, and only a short hop to San Francisco and San Diego for those parks.
Washington DC, USA - Picked a major city, but could have a few in this area. Not far from loads - SFA, KD, BGW, Hershshey, SFGAdv...
Indianapolis, USA - Another eye-ball one, but SFGAm, CP, KI, SFStL, KK, HW, WoF, SDC, all vaguely in 'the area' - probably doable weekend trips to all of those.

If I had access to the data from RCDB/Coast2Coaster, it wouldn't be terribly hard to calculate this. You could calculate a pretty simple distance-cred variable, and then just find the optimum. Does anyone know if it's possible to get the data (specifically just coordinates and number of coasters) for every operating park from RCDB?

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Based only on stuff I've done, let's go for Zhengzhou, China.
Home to 1 particular fave and known as the 'crossroads' of the high speed rail network which puts it under 4 hours from most of the other faves in the country.

Here's an equal sized chunk of America for reference on how useful those trains would be.

 

[Hixee]

Good point, @HeartlineCoaster, that's a good way to show the relative scales. The distances are easier in China too, as the trains are so good. Not that I don't love driving in the US mind.

Thay said, I would say that the quality (overall) is better within the US circle than the China one. But that's personal preference.

 

[TilenB]

I'm actually gonna with Amsterdam. You have Efteling and Walibi Holland (and the new RMC) right by you. A lot of German parks are pretty close, including Phantasialand. More than anything, public transit is way better in Europe, and I'm not a big driver.

I can second this. I think there are places in NL that are better than Amsterdam, though, since the capital is already a small distance away from the biggest clusters. I was staying at @ThomVD's place (just outside Utrecht) for a week a few years ago and there are so many parks you can do as a day trip from there (Phantasialand, Efteling, Toverland, Movie Park Germany, Walibi Holland, Bobbejaanland, Walibi Belgium plus a plethora of smaller Dutch parks, like Slagharen, Hellendoorn, Duinrell, etc.), it's crazy. All that with public transport, with a car, you can likely get even further...

 

[Pokemaniac]

Amsterdam or London wouldn't be too bad, actually. Both of them are major airline hubs, putting most of the world within reach without too many stopovers.

 

[b&mfanboy123]

Amsterdam or London wouldn't be too bad, actually. Both of them are major airline hubs, putting most of the world within reach without too many stopovers.

London is one of the select few with over 200 different destinations along with Atlanta, Chicago, Dubai, Tokyo, Amsterdam, LA

 

[Snoo]

Nashville in the USA for sure. The below image shows everything you need to know. You can hit some 13 parks with 5+ rollercoasters. Essentially the entirety of the midwest including the big parks. While public transport isn't great, you can do much with the highways (as you can see) and short domestic flights like to Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, and Tampa (just outside of the circle). It really is a good center spoke of travel if need be.

FYI.. yall.. it's COLUMBUS. Get that spelling right!

 

[b&mfanboy123]

Here's mine
Hong Kong BIG PARKS
Ocean Park
Disney Hong Kong
Many More!

• Tampa

Busch Gardens Tampa

2 Hrs away

Legoland Florida
The Fun Spots
Seaworld Orlando
Disney World
Universal Studios Resort Florida
Discovery Cove

Philadelphia

This is everything within a 5 hour drive.
Big Parks
- Six Flags Great Adventure
- Six Flags New England
- Hersheypark
- Kings Dominion
- BGW - 6 hours
- Cedar Point and KI - 7-7.5 hrs
Medium Parks
- Kennywood
- Dorney Park
- Six Flags America
- Knoebels
- Morey Piers
- Lake Compounce
Smaller Parks
- Quassy
- Great Escape
- And more

 

[Snoo]

See.. people say Orlando or Tampa like they have a plethora of good coasters down there. They don't. Yeah they truly only have a few gems, but nothing that says "IF YOU LOVE COASTERS, GO TO ORLANDO"

 

[b&mfanboy123]

I got More

Doing it 'visually' on a map, leads to a few that jump out to me:
Venlo, Netherlands - You've got Toverland, Movie Park Germany, Phantasialand, Walibi Belgium, Bobbejaanland and Efteling all "close", with loads of the other bigger parks (Walibi Holland, Plopsaland, Parc Asterix, Europa, etc) all within reach.
Osaka, Japan - Never done any of the parks in Japan, but Osaka looks pretty central to quite a few 4+ parks.
Beijing, China - Also got a pretty sizeable cluster, and has amazing transportation links to loads of neighbouring cities/parks.
Los Angeles, USA - SFMM, Knotts, Disney in the city itself, and only a short hop to San Francisco and San Diego for those parks.
Washington DC, USA - Picked a major city, but could have a few in this area. Not far from loads - SFA, KD, BGW, Hershshey, SFGAdv...
Indianapolis, USA - Another eye-ball one, but SFGAm, CP, KI, SFStL, KK, HW, WoF, SDC, all vaguely in 'the area' - probably doable weekend trips to all of those.

If I had access to the data from RCDB/Coast2Coaster, it wouldn't be terribly hard to calculate this. You could calculate a pretty simple distance-cred variable, and then just find the optimum. Does anyone know if it's possible to get the data (specifically just coordinates and number of coasters) for every operating park from RCDB?

Here
Venlo Netherlands
Creds within a 300 miles
-242
Notable Rides/ Parks
Toverland
- Troy
- Fenix
Efteling
- Baron
- Joris En Draak
- Symbolica
Phantasialand
- Taron
- F.L.Y
- Black Mamba
- Europa
And More considering the E.U it should be easy to get around

Osaka
boundaries
Hiroshima to Tokyo
Creds within 200 miles
-90-100
Notable Parks
- Nagashima Spa Land - 13 creds
- Universal Studios Japan - 5 creds
-Himeji Central Park
- Parque Espana Village or Whatever it is

Beijing
400 mile boundary
creds - 70
Notable Parks
-Happy Valley Beijing
- Pollution
Creds...

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

^Having a B&M is not the only requirement to be a notable park.

Also don't seem to be gaining much by being so far west in Nashville. Surely you'd be better off moving my circle north east a bit to encompass the Washington area.

 

[Howie]

You know Cedar Point? You know the main car park? Over on the far right hand side there's a row of about a dozen houses. Right nice pads they are too, with sweeping driveways, manicured lawns and stuff. Imagine that - Cedar Point outside the front door and a little strip of private beach out the back.
Yeah man, one of them would do me just fine.
Screw the travelling distances to other parks, I'd just go ride SteVe every night.