For a lot of theme park-goers, visiting theme parks in the UK can likely get tedious and repetitive over a while. Especially if Alton Towers charge £18 for a hot dog and Blackpool Pleasure Beach has constant downtime for their rides most of the time this can likely lead to frustration. It can at times make you wish that there’s a better alternative to when the UK parks fall subpar to what they used to be and for a better overall experience with a better ride lineup and world-class rides (before Universal United Kingdom Resort enters the chat).

Luckily you’re in the right place as at first it can seem daunting to plan a trip to a much better European destination park such as PortAventura or Efteling. At first thought it might sound costly and time-consuming to plan but in actual fact, they can be done very cheap once you know what you are doing. This guide will explain how you can do that and the main basic principles of planning/booking a European trip which in mostly all cases can be made very affordable so that you never look back on visiting Alton Towers for the 8th time that year again.

Core Four

When considering doing a European theme park, it comes down to considering four basic principles (after choosing which park you want to go to of course) which I call the Core Four. These are:

• Flights
• Hotel
• Tickets
• Transport (to park)

Of course flights can be replaced by the ferry or Channel Tunnel if you’re choosing to drive and transport can be a variable of whether you choose to use public transport to get there or via car. And then also a lot of parks may do a package bundle where you get your hotel and park tickets for a total price such as Europa Park or Phantasialand.

But, in that order should be what you consider first and then after that it should just be food/drink you purchase and merchandise that you factor in once on your trip.

Flights✈️

The reason I’ve prioritised flights first at the top is because these are normally the most expensive part of a trip. They however should be done in conjunction with the hotel though as with a little bit of looking around these can be made a whole lot more cheaper. If you’re flexible with dates then I would highly recommend looking around on Google Flights first for the cheapest dates you can find. I personally don’t use SkyScanner which many people would as I believe Google simplifies what you want much better and you get the results you want quicker.

When using Google Flights it will show on a calendar the cheapest dates you can fly on but you must make sure you toggle at the bottom for how many days you want to go as certain airports may only fly once or twice a week to the destination you want. Consider the number at the bottom for how many nights you want so a 2 day trip means booking a hotel/staying for 2 nights and a 0 day trip means an extreme day trip. With a little bit of looking around you can potentially do the trip you want for a whole lot cheaper but the best advice I would give is to book early at least a month in advance to get the cheapest flights possible as a lot of airlines tend to use dynamic pricing where the costs go up with the more demand/sales they make for your flight.

You should also counter in the costs of luggage but it is far cheaper to just take 1 carry-on bag with you which most airlines let you do for free and is suitable enough to do a 1-2 day trip to wherever you desire. A Theme Park Saver tip that may come in handy is that you can take more than 1 bag with you if you keep it in a carrier bag that the airport you’re flying from has a shop for such as JD Sports or Duty Free. This can save you a fair bit of money but be cautious with this incase any of the flight crew query this with you and you can justify that you bought whatever’s in the bag from the airport before boarding.

From doing a bit of research, it looks like London Stansted and Manchester airports are the best airports in the country that offer the most destinations through budget airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet for the cheapest prices. If one of these are your local airport then consider yourself lucky as a lot of flight routes only go from these airports to places like Gothenburg (for Liseberg) or Cologne (for Phantasialand).

Sometimes the most straightforward option of flying to the nearest airport of the park you want isn’t always the cheapest or easiest option and it can be a whole lot cheaper or faster to fly to another one nearby. Compiled below are a list of parks and the best/easiest airports to fly to for them:

Disneyland Paris

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport- Most UK airports fly here daily through budget airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet and there’s many good public transport links through bus or train from there. A high-speed train can get you from the airport to park in 9-12 minutes, however it is known to be very costly

Europa-Park (Rust, Germany)

Basel Airport- UK airports like London Stansted, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh fly here from as little as £21 each way with budget airlines like EasyJet. It’s then just over 2 hours to get to the park by public transport or 1 hour by car.

Baden-Baden Airport- It appears you can only fly here from London Stansted with Ryanair from as little as £13 one way and then it’s just over 2 hours to get to the park by public transport or a 1 hour drive. Similar distance from Basel Airport.

Strasbourg Airport- Some UK airports fly here like London Gatwick, Stansted, Bristol and Manchester via EasyJet or Jet2 however it is slightly more costly starting at £34 each way. 2 hours by public transport or around 45 minutes by car

Parc Astérix (Paris)

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport- Most UK airports fly here daily through budget airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet. There is then a direct shuttle bus from the bus station at Terminal 3 to the park which is €14 return

Efteling (Kaatsheuvel, The Netherlands)

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport- Many UK airports fly here daily through budget airlines like EasyJet for as little as £30 each way. However, it is then around 2 hours by public transport or just over an hour by car to the park

Eindhoven Airport- This airport is the closest to Efteling being only a half hour drive, however it tends to only be London Stansted or Manchester that fly here through budget airlines like Ryanair or Easyjet for as little as £14 each way so do double-check beforehand

PortAventura (Salou, Spain)

Barcelona Airport- Many UK airports fly here daily through budget airlines like EasyJet or Ryanair for as little as £13 each way but it’s still a 1 hour drive or 2 hours by train to the park

Reus Airport- A far simpler and quicker airport if it’s an option as it’s only a 12 minute drive from the park which a handful of UK airports fly to but only through budget airlines like Ryanair at London Stansted, Manchester or Birmingham and then with Jet2 through other airports like Bristol and Newcastle however this is bit more costly

Phantasialand (near Cologne, Germany)

Cologne Airport- Simplest and easiest option to fly into being around a 20 min drive to the park but only London Stansted or Manchester fly here with budget airlines like Ryanair from £13 each way.

Düsseldorf Airport– Another alternative to fly to as it’s around 90 minutes by public transport to the park where it seems only Edinburgh and London Gatwick fly to from as little as £13 each way

Frankfurt Airport- Another alternative to fly into being around 2 hours by public transport where it seems London Stansted is the cheapest direct airport to fly from in the UK for as little as £14 for one way.

Energylandia (near Krakow, Poland)

Krakow Airport- Many UK airports fly here daily through budget airlines like EasyJet for as little as £14 each way. It is then around a 45 minute car journey or 2 hours by public transport.

Katowice Airport- Would only recommend this airport if you want to also visit the smaller park Legendia but again it appears you can only fly here from London Stansted or Manchester with budget airlines like Ryanair from as little as £14 each way. It’s then a 1 hour drive or 3 hours+ by public transport.

Parque Warner Madrid

Madrid Airport- Many UK airports fly here daily through budget airlines like EasyJet or Ryanair for as little as £13 each way and then a half hour drive to the park

Liseberg (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Gothenburg Airport- It appears you can only fly here from London Stansted, Manchester or Edinburgh with Ryanair however you can fly one way from as little as £12. It’s then a 20 minute bus from the airport to the park which makes this a very cost-effective trip (or extreme day-trip) to do

Copenhagen Airport- It sounds far away but a handful of UK airports fly here daily through budget airlines like Ryanair for as little as £13 each way. It’s then a 25 minute train to Malmo where you can catch a direct train from Malmo to Gothenburg (in just over 2 hours) where you can then get a 5 minute tram from Gothenburg station to the front gates. It’s a longer journey time but very cost-effective if you don’t live near London, Manchester or Edinburgh and you can also twin it with a trip to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen

Of course you can also make a connection/stopover at another airport to be able to fly to even more destinations or make it even cheaper. Dublin airport seems to mostly always be a cheap stopover from the UK with plenty more destinations to fly to as well as Amsterdam having 200+ connections worldwide.

Hotels🧳

My main go-to when it comes to booking a hotel in Europe is looking at both Booking.com and Expedia. Both are practically the same website but with duplicate hotel offerings, however their prices can alternate so I’d advise checking both using the map feature to find a cheap hotel/accomodation close to the park. One can offer you money-off and discounts such as free breakfasts the more you book with them to entice you to not use the other so bear this in mind when comparing results from both sites.

Another option is to use Airbnb which can be a cheap option if there’s a few of you going for more than a couple days and you’d like your own space. After all, you’ll likely be spending most of your time in the park and not the accommodation so bear this in mind when choosing if you want just a cheap hotel room or your own flat/house on Airbnb. If you’re trying to make this as low-cost and stress-free as possible then your safest bet is probably just booking a hotel. They may to try to charge you breakfast as an add-on which can be pricey but if you want to save even more money you can find a local supermarket or cafe which would do this for much cheaper as well.

Be sure to also look out for package deals from the park including both park tickets and a hotel as sometimes these can be even cheaper and they run special discounts just for hotel guests like with PortAventura’s Hotel Roulette or Energylandia’s Western Camp 20p Fastrack promotion they run. You can even get a package deal such as the Phantasialand Charles Lindbergh bundle which includes 2 day park entry, 1 night in an aeronaut cabins, 3 course-dinner, breakfast and fastracks for as little as £130 per person which makes for a fantastic getaway if you can get cheap flights to Cologne from £13 each way!

Tickets 🎟️

This is probably the easiest of the four to sort out as majority of the time it’s cheapest to buy directly from the park’s website. However, I wouldn’t go about immediately assuming that the park will offer the cheapest price as with a bit of research you can get them far cheaper elsewhere (similar to the ticket promotions that Merlin mostly always run with supermarket brands).

For example, owning a Blackpool Pleasure Beach Platinum Pass (which costs £125) gets you a 1-day ticket per year into a selection of European parks being Europa-Park, Liseberg, Efteling, PortAventura, Emerald Park, Tripsdrill and Isla Magica. A 1-day ticket normally into Europa-Park can cost upward of £60pp so if you plan to visit multiple of these parks or Pleasure Beach frequently in a year then this can work out as very cost-effective (especially with the passes other perks on food/drink and hotels at Pleasure Beach). Owning a Walibi Pass also gets you discount and free entry to multiple other European parks if this park is on your list to visit.

Another example is with Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. If you have the Lidl Plus app downloaded on your phone and switch the region to Denmark, you can buy cheaper tickets through that. The same can be done for Liseberg if you switch it to Sweden.

With a little bit of research, you can save a significant amount on park tickets lowering the overall cost of your holiday or even getting them for free!

Transport🚆

I’ve included this one as it’s the one that people tend to forget. Once you get to the airport, you need a plan of how you get to the park, how long the journey will take, and the cheapest way to do it. In most cases, the easiest choice is to just book an Uber from the airport to the park if it’s not too far of a drive or costly. The first thing I’d recommend to do is check on the Uber app before leaving how much the journey will cost and factor in the other people in your group as this will also reduce the costs. If it’s a lot then it may be a lot cheaper to take public transport instead.

In a case like this one, it’s a 12 minute taxi from Salou airport to PortAventura (due to Uber’s being banned in the area to help local Taxi companies) or a bus which takes much longer from the airport to the park. The taxi will cost around €30 each way or the coach is around €3 per person but takes far longer factoring in waiting for the bus and it stopping at the other locations along the way. The main thing to take away being if you want to spend as much time as possible in the park and prioritise that over paying less for the transport to get there then getting the taxi may be your best bet generally for any park.

Another option is to hire a car but for under 25’s this can be a lot more expensive due to EU safety laws. It can work out cheaper to hire a car for 1-2 days then paying for an Uber, taxi or train if there’s a group of you and also an added bonus if the hotel/accommodation you’re staying at has free parking so do check this as well! Do bear in mind though that with most rental cars in Europe you have to return it with a full tank of fuel paid by you as well as the cost of parking at the theme park if this is where you’ll be driving. If you’re confident to drive on the right-hand side and overtake on the left, then this can be a very cost-effective (and quicker) way to get to your park.

A lot of European airports do also have direct transport links to the parks from the terminal such as Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport with Parc Astérix and Disneyland Paris and then with parks based in or near a city centre like Tivoli Gardens (in Copenhagen) or Liseberg (in Gothenburg), you can get a quick train that gets you to the park gates in less than 20 minutes from leaving the terminal for very cheap. It’s good to remember that trains in Europe tend to be a whole lot cheaper than UK ones (and most of the time more reliable).

It generally varies from parks with some being super easy to get to from the airport (like Tivoli Gardens being directly outside Copenhagen Central train station) or more to plan (like Kolmården being in the middle of nowhere) so this needs to be taken into account before leaving as it can save you a lot of time and money knowing the best and most efficient way to get to the park for you or your group.

Summary ✅

In summary, planning a trip to a European park comes down to four main principles (or what I like to call the Core Four)

• Flights
• Hotel
• Tickets
• Transport (to park)

Once you have whittled all of these down to the lowest you can find, you’re basically guaranteed the cheapest possible way to go to the park you’re visiting. Of course, you plan these in any order but I think flights and hotel are the two main key ones as these fluctuate in price the most whilst park tickets and transport once landing don’t tend to change much and can be left to much later once booking your trip.

And then there’s also airport parking in the UK which the cheapest way in most cases is to use public transport to get there but I’ll likely do a guide on that another day.

As always, if you need any help booking a trip or advice with anything feel free to contact me and I will try my best to help

Dan 🙂

All information in this guide is correct as of September 2026 and is subject to change