Parks you've done that were difficult to get to

[Rob Coasters]

This'll be interesting - let us know the faffiest park trips you've done.

Obviously I won't rank ALL of the parks I've been to (and you don't have to either) but I'll put down the most notable ones:

As I do not yet drive this ranking will be majority public transport, but sometimes as a passenger you get that "this was hell" feeling.

Here's the worst of the lot so far:

3) Wicksteed Park. Like Thorpe this doesn't require the Underground for once. Instead I could catch a train at my local station with one change up to Kettering for a 40 minute walk to Wicksteed. Unlike South Parade Pier there's nothing interesting to look at on the way there and back sadly. I did have the option for bus services to make things significantly quicker (not easier) but if I ever post a trip report from this park, I'll delve into why that didn't happen. Not complaining though and I would 100% do this trip again because of how beautiful and pleasant Wicksteed is.

2) Botton's Pleasure Beach & Fantasy Island. Underground to Kings Cross, a change at Grantham with an hour-long wait, up to Skegness with a ten minute walk to Botton's. Escape Botton's and wait for a bus that goes directly to Fantasy Island. Do Fantasy Island. Barely manage to catch the bus back because you got distracted taking photos of rides. Station, change at Grantham, down to Kings Cross, Underground, tell 'em all about it. It's very very task-heavy but manageable. Faffy but I would do it again with some convincing and big new rides.

1) Alton Towers [Driving]. What a nightmare. This place doesn't need an introduction but the roads are stupidly small especially when you're approacing the park. Two and a half hours of driving - that means leaving at 7:30 in the morning to start this nightmare trip. I haven't returned to this park for three years now because of how damn faffy the drive is. I return when I can drive and deal with it myself.

 

[Skyye]

For me its either Cedar Point or SFGAm as the worst. Cedar Point only has the one entrance road attached to the peninsula, plus google maps had us driving around neighborhoods trying to get there. For SFGAm, there's two ways to enter the parking lot. One is at a main road in gurnee, and was a pain to get to in July (Monday after the fourth). The other isn't as painful, but we took that route in September, on labor day. Probably has to do with timing.

 

[nadroJ]

Ooh OK, seeing as I've been to a fair few parks by now I won't rank everything, but rather compile a list of places that were horrific to get to (in no particular order):

Chuanlord Manor
I'm convinced this place is a hallucination or mirage or something - if you've seen Spirited Away it very much has the vibes of the 'theme park' they stumble across at the beginning. Hardly any signage, walled in like a fortress and pretty much zero chance of a cab away from the bloody place once you're done.

Himeji Park
Not...difficult to get to as such but a rip off? Very expensive shuttle bus and when you get there the park is dire so it's not even really worth the trip (unless you want the B&M creds like I did)

Drievliet
This thing will have you going 'surely we're in the wrong place?' as you drive through what is essentially an industrial estate to find the parked tucked right at the back behind someone's dad's construction firm and a suspicious looking manufacturing warehouse.

Brean Theme Park
It's so bloody FAR AWAY. You just keep going, weaving in and out of caravan park after caravan park like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. And again, once you get there it's bleak.

 

[Hyde]

To be honest, we have two categories:

1. Parks in Ohio
2. Parks Outside of Ohio

 

[Hixee]

Lol, this is a good idea. As with @nadroJ - I'm not going to rank the whole lot, but here's a list of the most painful.

Drievleit
Said above better than I would - this place is a dump.

Joyland
Took a little while for the hotel to understand where I was asking for a taxi to be booked to - despite have English and Chinese names, website links and maps. Took a long time to get there. Getting a taxi back to the city from the park was a stressful experience. Park staff were very helpful, but still had to wait around an hour for a taxi to show up. In the end ended up getting a lift with a taxi driver who was coincidentally at the park picking up his daughter or niece. Stressful.

Kathmandu Fun Park
This wasn't hard, per se, but wasn't a particularly nice park to get to. Involved crossing some pretty awful highways and dusty side roads, being hassled left-right-and-centre by taxi drivers and tourist guides. Unpleasant.

Knotts Berry Farm
Knotts by public transport from Hollywood isn't the nicest trip to take.

Oakwood Theme Park
It's roughly the right neck of the woods for me, but that drive along the M4 between Newport and Swansea is a solid 1/10 drive.

Walygator Parc
Similar to Drievleit - the park is in a dump of an area, with some very poor temporary signage. Ended up parking in some random gravel trench until someone came and moved the barrier to the car park.

Brean is pretty spiteful, but it's less than hour from home for me, so isn't so much of a trek and doesn't feel so bad.

They're the only ones that jump to mind as I sweep down the list of parks I've done. Some of these aren't necessarily always difficult, but just based on my specific trip(s). No doubt will have missed some too - hope to be reminded of some other gross ones as this thread progresses.

 

[Rob Coasters]

Some very good ones in here already - a lot of these sound like absolute nightmares! Reminded me of how "strange" Brean is to get to, you see the skyline from miles away but the roads take you everywhere they can go but the park.

Lol, this is a good idea. As with @nadroJ - I'm not going to rank the whole lot, but here's a list of the most painful.

There we go - I've slightly reworded the original post to help make the idea easier to understand

 

[Gazza]

^I didn't mind Drievliet, was a short walk from a Tram so not too bad.

The following is non exhaustive.

For me, any park that necessitates a hire car to reach in any sort of practical time gets the default highest score for difficulty.

Notable mentions would be
CP
KI
Waldameer
Darien Lake
Holiday World
SFNE
Bayern Park
Tripsdrill
Raging Water Sydney
Gumbuya World
Dollywood
KD
Valleyfair
Freizeitpark Ruhpolding

Etc

Parks I have done via public transport, but felt like a schlep included
KBF
Adlabs Imagicaa (Mumbai trains plus a tuk tuk)
Parque Espana (long train ride then a bus)
SFMM (I literally walked from the bus station to the park)
Alton (Actually a joke considering the size of the park)
Holiday Park

Parks that were OK via public transport
SFOG
Thorpe
Dreamworld
Movie World
Walibi Holland
Efteling
Adventure World Perth
Europa Park
Heide Park (Bit of a walk!)

Parks that were very easy
Blackpool
Tokyo Disney
Universal Japan
Yomiuriland
Luna Park Sydney
Adventure Island
Universal Singapore
Tivoli
Bakken
Hansa Park
Nickelodeon Universe

 

[cookie]

Basing this off of public transport from nearby cities:

Easy:

• Tivoli Gardens — Literally on the other side of the street from Copenhagen's main train station. One of the most conveniently located parks in the world
• Liseberg — Easy as dirt to get a tram ride from Gothenburg Central
• Bakken — Be prepared to walk if you're stepping off at Klambenborg station, but easy to get to from central Copenhagen
• Hansa-Park — Coming from Lübeck you step off at Sierksdorf station and it's a short walk from there
• Movie Park Germany — Step off at Bottrop Feldhausen and it's a short walk through the main parking lot. Turn left for an extra cred at Schloß Beck
• Plopsaland De Panne — The trains don't always go directly from Brussels to De Panne, but the De Panne train station is right across from Plopsaland's parking lot, so you won't have to walk far

Moderate:

• Disneyland Paris — I'm only putting it here because the prices for a 12-minute TGV from CDG are outrageous
• Phantasialand — Might be easier if you're able to use their dedicated buses, but getting to the park from central Brühl requires either patience with local buses or taking a hike
• Europa Park — For such a large resort, it relying so much on Ringsheim (which itself isn't always convenient to get to) is a bit of a pain
• Walibi Belgium — Stupid Ottignies
• Heide-Park — Closest train stop is the tiny Wolterdingen, a good half-hour walk from the park
• Kolmården — Be prepared to head out to the middle of nowhere with some bizarrely placed train and bus stops

Difficult:

• Parc Asterix — So you have to go to an obscure corner of CDG airport to find their dedicated buses, which you HAVE to book at least a day in advance. Absolutely absurd that there's no public bus stop near a park that gets 2 million+ visitors a year and is located near one of the most populated cities in the world
• Bobbejaanland — Nearest bus stop is Lichtaart Olensteensweg, which to there goes only one bus line (305 from Herentals, or from Turnhout if you're coming from the other direction), and it's a good 15 minutes walk from the park. The annoying part is that the buses themselves don't tell you what stops you're arriving at, so you either need to know what the stop looks like or have your phone's GPS out so you don't miss it

 

[Howie]

The only one that springs to my mind is Glenwood Caverns. It's just so far away from.... well, anywhere really. When travelling, people like us only go to theme parks that can be easily tagged on to other theme parks, and Glenwood Caverns, located in some remote corner of Colorado, doesn't have any other theme parks, good or bad, for hundreds of miles in any direction. The nearest ones are Elitch Gardens and Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, which are both rubbish so nobody wants to go to them anyway. Seriously, the only reason any of us would find ourselves in that part of the world is if we happen to be really into rocks, canyons and the whole geology thing. Or possibly marijuana, but even that is less of a reason these days as other US states follow suit.
Oh, and once you do finally get there, the park is perched on top of a 7000ft mountain which needs to be accessed by cable car, so if the weather's bad you could be in trouble.

Despite all that though.... Glenwood Caverns is brilliant and soooo worth the effort.
#fanboy

 

[JoshC.]

Following list is based on driving. Not necessarily difficult per se either, but...interesting at least.

Plopsa Coo
This one jumped out straight away. Imagine the narrow roads and hills of getting to Alton Towers surrounded by woodlands, except for a good 20 times longer. It's a stunning location and really nice, but when driving along, you are there thinking "Surely a theme park can't be here?"

Parc du Bocasse
Similar, in that you're simply driving along farm fields for ages before you get there. Everywhere around felt really flat, and yet there's no sign of anything even vaguely resembling a theme park till you're right on top of it. Another "Are you actually in the right place?" thought


Interesting that a couple of people have mentioned Drievleit...I agree about the random industrial estate vibe and it being a bit of a dump, but I never got the "We're not in the right place" type vibe? I seem to remember it being well signposted up to the area (something the two above did not have until the entrance).

What does stick in my mind with Drievleit though is how you see the back of the park from the main road, and have to drive alongside the park (down a not-great road) to get to the car park - that was weird, and definitely was more complicated than it needed to be.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Alton towers is definitely one - unnecessarily awkward on public transport - since 2000, we've lost the "Alton towers transport" which used to run from both stoke and uttoxeter, and the first buses service (which was only every other hour), and now only have 1 a day to and from stoke, and 1 to and from derby and nottingham, both arriving about an hour into the day, and leaving at 5 even when the park is open until 7! compare that with efteling, which has at least 3 or 4 buses an hour to and from both tilburg and den bosch stations..

If we're using public transport, you can probably rule out about 70+% of American parks.

Lightwater and drayton can be a bit irksome to get to as well.

For other european parks - there's Nigloland, practically next to a train line, but about 10 miles from the nearest station, with no bus service. Le pal is about 4 miles from the nearest train station (which has pretty irregular service), as well as Potts park and Heide park in Germany.

 

[Will]

Sticking with the original theme of the thread - I've had the misfortune to do Flamingo, Lightwater and Drayton by public transport. Back in 2006, I ended up walking from DMP to Tamworth on a very hot afternoon - England had just been dumped out of the World Cup which everyone I was with was happy about. I was not. In 2005, I got the train all the way to Narberth, but admit I then relied on lifts from the station to Oakwood/Crystal Maze place/campsite.

In 2011, I finally passed my driving test and life's been a lot simpler! The only place to come into my head that's a bizarre drive is Longleat Safari Park - though a lot of the coastal parks are a burden as I LOATHE driving in coastal towns.

I really enjoyed the bizarre location of Plopsa Coo (especially as I'm an F1 fan) but my passenger didn't!

 

[DelPiero]

Drievliet was a massive pain, Jordan nailed the description.
Oakwood takes forever and is a pretty horrific drive in the rain.

Knoebels. Just takes a long time to get there from either Hershey or Dorney. The drive itself wasn't awful but just took much longer than I expected. Love the park though.

Parks aren't really difficult to get to, just take forever, or in the case of Drievliet, you just wish you were somewhere else.

 

[Indy]

Alton Towers
It's already been said multiple times, but this park is in the middle of nowhere and requires you to travel on several narrow, country roads. Massive thanks to @Tomatron for serving as our chauffeur for the day.

Cotaland
This deserves an asterisk because I went to the circuit for a Formula 1 race, but the roads going to the circuit leave a lot to be desired and traffic is among the worst that I have experienced going to and from a race track. I'm sure it's largely fine during non-event weekends though.

Magic Kingdom
There is something to be said about having to take a ferry or monorail to the park. It provides that separation as if you're being transported to another land . It's still a time consuming ordeal to drive to the north side of WDW, navigate that massive parking lot, and then take another form of transportation to the park.

Indiana Beach
Not terribly difficult to get there. It's just in the middle of northern Indiana farmland well away from the interstate.

Kolmarden
Again, not terribly difficult to find. It's just out there.

La Feria Chapultepec
Easily the most difficult park that I've tried to get to. I took the subway as close as I could and then tried to travel the rest of the distance on foot only to discover that the pathway was inexplicably closed and secured by armed guards. Tried to find an alternative path before finally opting to get an Uber, which then took us through several roads within Bosque de Chapultepec before finally arriving at the park. Then had to wait an incredibly slow line in order to buy tickets into the park.

 

[Will]

Plohn is in a stupid place - and I turned up unaware that it was 'if your child had a birthday in the last x months they get in free today' day. That was NOT a fun queue and neither were the others in the park.

 

[Gavin]

It kind of goes without saying, but in a lot of cases it really depends on where you're travelling from. Making points like "it's far away" doesn't really indicate general difficulty. Far way from what? Your house? So what? A train station? Fair point.

Some of the examples above I found very simple, while I'm sure some of my "difficult" ones will have been done more easily by others. I'll list a few that I found generally to be a faff. This is by public transport. I've found that most parks are accessible this way, even in the US, but some are very time-consuming with few options.

China's a tough one since I tend to take a Taxi/Didi everywhere unless it's right near a metro station. Public transport in China is excellent, and even the difficult parks are generally accessible by bus, but buses are really not very foreigner friendly (no English signage, timetables etc.), The "faff" element of those, for me, would be more to do with taxi availability and taxi drivers' knowledge. Some of them seem unfamiliar even with the bigger parks, so the smaller cred-run places can be very tough. Now though, using Didi (Chinese Uber) totally takes that barrier away, and I wouldn't really consider anywhere in China to be an issue now that that exists..

Anyway, parks I have had faff with before, beyond just "it was far in a taxi" or drivers not knowing where something was:

Chuanlord Holiday Manor
I've been twice. The first time was a big faff, the 2nd time less so and I imagine any future visit will be fine. Getting to the place by taxi was fine though I seem to remember probably having to try a couple of different drivers, but getting out was awful. The first time, I either didn't notice (or it wasn't there at that time) the group of bus stops. There were no taxis around, so I walked to the main road. There were no taxis there either since it's right next to a toll booth and no drivers are going to be hitting that without a passenger. I found a bus stop and just got on the first bus which came, having no idea where it was going, but getting off when we hit a more built up area and finding a taxi there. On the 2nd visit, I seem to remember getting on a bus outside the park, but jumping off and into a taxi when one pulled in. These days: Didi = easy. It's also not that far away from a train station, but I didn't know that at the time.

Locajoy Holiday Park
This place was really far from the city (Chongqing) and I couldn't find any viable public transport options at the time. It was also a 90-minute drive, so a taxi wasn't really an option as I doubted they would accept the fare (even if they knew where it was). I ended up booking a limo and driver for the day through the hotel.

Long Gu Wan Dinosaur Park
Actually very close to the main highway between the airport and Nanning city centre, but apparently no easy way to access it. I used Didi to get there, but the app took a weird route down a muddy track through some fields, making it feel more "in the middle of nowhere" than it actually was. The faff for me was getting out since I had (for the first and last time) a problem with Didi. The payment for the outgoing ride hadn't gone through, so I couldn't book another Didi car. I had to go to guest services for them to call a taxi, which took an hour to arrive. The Didi thing, obviously, sorted itself out right as I was getting in the taxi.

Fantawild Asian Legends
Part of the same weekend as the above park, which was my back-up park when Fantawild didn't happen. The park itself is not a faff at all. It's well located and easy to get to by taxi. However, on the day I wanted to go, there was a marathon. From my hotel, I needed to cross the river to get to the park, but all the bridges were closed off. I spent about an hour in the taxi, driving along the river to a bunch of different bridges, which were all closed. I went back the next day with no issues, though.

There are a bunch of other small, pain-in-the-arse parks, but they were down to distance and/or taxi driver stupidity, so I won't go into them (can't remember details either to be honest; I'm sure there are rants in the relevant trip reports). Plus, like I said, using Didi takes away 99% of those previous issues. Some others that spring to mind then:

Valleyfair
This place is possible by public transport from Minneapolis, but you only really have one option to get there and one to get back. First, it's a bus (only runs once in the morning) to some little "transport centre" (shed) outside the city. Then, there's a small local minibus to a bus stop next to nothing, from where it's a 15-20 minute walk to the park. It's then the same in reverse to get back, only it's then that you realise the bus stop isn't even marked; it's just a bench next the road, so you spend the 15 minutes while the bus is running late panicking that you're at the wrong place and you won't get back to the city. It was the right place, and they held up the connecting bus so people could make it, but still. Total faff.

Michigan's Adventure
There is a bus that runs between Muskegon and the park, but only on weekdays, which seems stupid for an amusement park, but there it is. Taxi it is then. This was also a huge faff in general since in order to do the park at all - as in getting into and out of Muskegon itself - it meant a very long bus ride (from Chicago) and a two-night stay. Stupidity on my part really, but creds.

Otherwise, I don't think I've had any big issues with American parks. Sure, driving would be much, much, much better in the vast majority of cases, and there's planning involved since the frequency can be low, but the public transport options do exist in some form for the most part. There are very few I would label as "good" though. It usually means some early mornings and either getting back late or leaving parks well before closing time. Having said that, I did just opt for Uber for Six Flags Over Texas and the two San Antonio parks, the latter of which seemed to have buses, but I couldn't be bothered. It has also meant longer stays in some areas since there's no way out until the next day etc. Also, forget any ideas of hitting multiple parks in one day; not going to happen. Long story short: it's all very possible, but a pain in the arse.

Adlabs Imagica
There is park/shuttle bus option, but it's impossible to book it with a foreign credit card. Plus, the location of the bus stop isn't explained clearly and seems to be a pain in itself depending on where you're staying. I think they may have moved this bus stop to the main train station now though. The other option, a slow train from the main station in Mumbai followed by tuk-tuk is certainly an experience, though not really difficult.

Legoland Malaysia
Despite being in Malaysia, a lot of people do this from Singapore, so it requires a border crossing. There's an official bus that goes to and from Singapore, so it's easy, but you're stuck for the whole day. Legoland Florida has the same issue.

Alton Towers
No need to comment further, but it's just stupid for a park of that size and popularity.

Bayern Park
Only one bus in and one back out when I was there, meaning a whole day at a place without a huge amount to do.

Plohn
A train from Leipzig to Zwickau to connect to an irregular bus to somewhere nearby the park. This is followed by a longish walk from the bus stop, and an even longer walk when leaving later to a nearby town for a tram , again back to Zwickau, thanks to the aforementioned bus not running very often. Also, NONE of this information (bus times/numbers etc.) comes up through Google Maps, making it seem like public transport isn't an option. It is; it's just a PITA.

Skyline Park
A walk through a field after getting off a very irregular train at one of those stations that is little more than a glorified bus stop.

Other than those, I don't think I've had any real issues with European parks. Europa needs something better, but it's not bad. Drievliet was confusing (tram stop and then a walk through an industrial estate), but the trams are really frequent at least. I think Duinrell needed a couple of buses with a random transfer on some residential street, but the drivers were all really helpful.

Japan
A few parks fit into a similar category: relatively good transport, but can take a long time and require train-bus connections. Off the top of my head: Mitsui Greenland (not difficult, but takes a while), Hamanako Pal Pal (long bus ride to/from the nearest train station), Lagunasia (quite a long walk to/from the bus), Kijima Kogen (infrequent buses), Parque Espana (ended up taking a very expensive taxi from the nearest train station).

Taiwan
All the parks require buses from the nearby cities. I'm sure it's easier now, but when I went (2007?), it was quite difficult to get information, even from tourist information offices. These buses also only seemed to run once or twice a day in each direction. As I said, it was a long time ago now, and pre-smart phone, so I imagine it's a lot less stressful these days.

Christ, that post's long enough now.

 

[Pokemaniac]

I think this one belongs better in General Discussions. It's not a topic where you choose between defined options, after all.

As for myself, I categorize parks in two categories just like @Hyde :

1) Easy to get to: Parks that can be reached on a day trip from Oslo, using public transport.
2) Hard to get to: Everything else.

No wonder my coaster count remains at 30 despite having been an enthusiast for 15 years or so now. I like going to parks, but I don't particularly care for travelling.

 

[TilenB]

First off, a bit of my experience with what the others have already mentioned:

Bobbejaanland — Nearest bus stop is Lichtaart Olensteensweg, which to there goes only one bus line (305 from Herentals, or from Turnhout if you're coming from the other direction), and it's a good 15 minutes walk from the park. The annoying part is that the buses themselves don't tell you what stops you're arriving at, so you either need to know what the stop looks like or have your phone's GPS out so you don't miss it

I'm not sure if that was something that has changed due to covid, but when I went in 2016 there was a direct bus from Herentals to the park. It was on a Friday in September, so I would imagine it was a pretty regular line back then.

Plopsa Coo
This one jumped out straight away. Imagine the narrow roads and hills of getting to Alton Towers surrounded by woodlands, except for a good 20 times longer. It's a stunning location and really nice, but when driving along, you are there thinking "Surely a theme park can't be here?"

Hah, I did this one with public transport. There's a direct train from Liege with a station just outside the park. It takes ages to get there and when I visited there was only one train running every two hours, so I ended up spending a lot more time there than I planned initially. The idea was to get there at 10am, leave at 1pm and grab the cred in Plopsa Indoor Hasselt. But one of the coasters didn't open right up until 1pm and that point I was just about too late to catch the train at 1pm, so I had to waste time in the park until about 3pm. Burdenous.

Bayern Park
Only one bus in and one back out when I was there, meaning a whole day at a place without a huge amount to do.

I tried doing this place with public transport in 2018 and all I managed to get was a polite response from the park that they ditched their shuttle bus the year before and there wasn't a way to reach them without a car.

Skyline Park
A walk through a field after getting off a very irregular train at one of those stations that is little more than a glorified bus stop.

Again, same trip in 2018, but this one was very easy as there was a direct Flixbus from the Munich train station to the park.

Taiwan
All the parks require buses from the nearby cities. I'm sure it's easier now, but when I went (2007?), it was quite difficult to get information, even from tourist information offices. These buses also only seemed to run once or twice a day in each direction. As I said, it was a long time ago now, and pre-smart phone, so I imagine it's a lot less stressful these days.

Yeah, doing the Taiwanese parks was fairly easy with public transport 2 years ago.
E-DA Theme Park was served by a bunch of regular bus lines from the HSR station,
Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village was connected with both the HSR and main train station in Taichung with a direct bus (though this one might prove to be a bit more problematic on the way back, since the buses were already full before they would reach the park - I'm not sure if the park was served with a different bus later in the day as I ended up leaving from the station next to the Sun Moon Lake).
Discovery World had a bus running from Houyi train station and it was fairly easy to reach.
Janfusun Fancyworld had a direct bus from Douliu train station, though the timetable I found on their website was outdated, so I ended up waiting for the bus for some 20 minutes next to the main road (bus stop was nothing more than a signpost that should have the timetable on it, but obviously didn't) in pouring rain until a bus finally materialized and took me back to Douliu.
Farglory Ocean Park - direct bus from Hualien train station
Taipei Children's Amusement Park - can be reached by metro, followed by a 10 minute walk, but there's also a bus station right in front of the park.
Leofoo Village Theme Park and Window on China are located about a 15 minute walk from one another, so they're served by the same bus from Taipei. I remember taking the metro to Taipei Arena station and then catching the bus next to the main road. I did Leofoo first, then walked to Window on China (not the most pleasant walk, but not difficult, since most of that is downhill) and tried catching the bus back from there. Well, the bus to Taipei that came from Leofoo was already full, so I ended up taking a different bus to Taoyuan and then going back to Taipei with a train. Burdenous.

And paying for any of the buses wasn't an issue either, since all of the public transport in Taiwan accepts this Easy Card thing they have.

As for the places that I've visited and felt they were a burden to get to;

Most of the small Dutch parks were quite a journey to reach. Speelpark Oud Valkeveen and DippieDoe Attractiepark ended up being about a 20-30 minutes walk from the nearest bus station, De Waarbeek could be reached by a bus, but the nearest station was still a good 15 minutes walk from the park, so I ended up walking the 30 minutes or so it took to get to Hengelo train station on the way back.

Plopsa Indoor Coevorden could only ever been reached with a weird call bus that connected the park with the Coevorden station. The problem was that I couldn't get through to the transport company calling from my Slovenian phone number. In the end I did actually go on the bus as I noticed it was parked near the station, but since I didn't arrange it beforehand it ended up taking me to a random station in the middle of nowhere way outside of Coevorden where I crossed the road and waited for the same bus to come back and take me back to Coevorden. Spite.

Toverland was never that difficult to reach with public transport, but the 'bus' that the local transport company operated between the Horst-Sevenum station and the park was pretty much a glorified van that seated about 8 passengers with a driver that couldn't give less of a damn about any of the speed limits, but still somehow managed to run behind the schedule that was posted online. The bus that ran between the park and the station this year was much more normal, though.

I can't really think of any instances where a park would be hard to reach by car. Well, the only time I actually drove to a park by myself, I ended up returning to a flat tire on my car, since the broken valve in my tire finally gave up after experiencing the immense Italian Summer heat. Also the park in question, Gulliverlandia, closed down for good about 2 months after my visit. So I guess those aren't exactly good omens when it comes to me driving myself to parks.

 

[Tulum]

Etnaland

Tried to go there by public transport from Catania. Ended up in the middle of nowhere at the Circumetnea Station of Valcorrente. Had to walk for 2 km along a busy road in the heat. We were the only ones at the park basically.

Better rent a car or take a private shuttle service.

 

[cookie]

I'm not sure if that was something that has changed due to covid, but when I went in 2016 there was a direct bus from Herentals to the park. It was on a Friday in September, so I would imagine it was a pretty regular line back then.

I looked it up and apparently this does still exist, but only from Herentals and only prior to noon.

Op Weg naar Bobbejaanland | Bobbejaanland

Alle wegen leiden naar Bobbejaanland! Of toch bijna. Hier vind je het adres en een routebeschrijving om de auto, bus of trein te nemen naar 't plezantste land.

www.bobbejaanland.be

Wouldn't have helped me much since I came from the Turnhout direction, but good to know.