Our Favourite Roller Coasters: Updated

What’s your favourite roller coaster? That's got to be our most asked question. Everyone wants to know where we stand and which coasters we’ve got sitting at number one. We get it. That’s why we’ve put together this blog post about our updated favourite roller coasters!

Harry

Der Schwur des Kärnan, Hansa Park

Most people struggle to have a single favourite roller coaster. I’ve definitely found it difficult to rank rides in the past, such as placing Helix above Taron in my top 5 list, but my favourite roller coaster was easy. Kärnan, need I say more? I probably should. Kärnan is this giant green roller coaster located at a fantastic theme park in Germany named Hansa Park. I’d known and revelled about its existence shortly after it opened. Since then it quickly became my top bucket list roller coaster. Several years on, I remember approaching this ride for the first time, and wow, I don’t think I’d ever been more excited to be at a theme park riding roller coasters. Fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed after my first ride. In fact, I was in shock, and had to ride it again straight after to clear my head. In my opinion, Kärnan can be summarised as a roller coaster that has a bit of everything. It has a well established theme and story-line, a fantastic first drop, strong airtime, grey-out inducing positive forces, relentless speed and lots of secrets. To me, no part of the experience feels the same. Each turn is different and adds to the overall ride. Kärnan isn’t a perfect roller coaster by any means, but it certainly is a unique one that does so many things well. So, if you want to ride not just a roller coaster, but a true chaotic experience, only one roller coaster should come to your mind - Der Schwur des Kärnan at Hansa Park!

Aron

Fury 325, Carowinds

I've always had a difficult time ranking roller coasters and picking my number one is no different. Growing up visiting mostly European parks, I have learned to highly appreciate theming and immersion with any ride. Therefore, these elements bear a large weight in my personal rankings, making it hard for unthemed roller coasters to crack the top of my list. This is a big reason to why rides like Taron have topped my personal favourites for a long time. However, there has been one ride that had so much pure roller coaster power, that the lack of theming or immersion could not keep it from taking my top spot; Fury 325 at Carowinds. Driving up to the park for the first time you already know you are in for an amazing roller coaster; a lift hill towering above all else on the horizon is hard to beat. The speed gained by this immense first drop is the highlight of the ride for me. Fury 325 manages to maintain its speed so well that it feels like you're flying through the layout. Paired with some great elements and bridge interaction it's an incredibly enjoyable ride that will take the breath away of even experienced enthusiasts. I remember riding this beast with just the biggest smile on my face until the moment it hit the brake run. Fury 325 will always hold a special place in my heart as it was my first giga and I hope to be able to ride it again at some point in the future.

Andrew

Lightning Rod, Dollywood

Choosing a favourite coaster to me has always been a tricky subject. I adore the airtime buffets that are Steel Vengeance, El Toro, Twisted Timbers and Phoenix. The chaotic nature of rides such as Skyrush, Maverick and Intimidator 305 always leave a smile on my face hitting the brake run. So really I guess I do not really have a favourite coaster, but a handful of rides that I find to be incredible. That being said, and for the sake of this post, I have to choose something. While my opinion changes constantly, I’d say my favourite coaster I have done is Lightning Rod at Dollywood. From the wonderful presentation of the ride to the insanity of the rides elements, Lightning Rod is one of the few coasters I have done that had left me speechless at the end. Starting off with a launch up the mountain and dropping into a layout that has airtime in every possible direction is simply one of the most aggressive coaster experiences out there. In fact, the quadruple down is one of the only times in recent memory a ride had me shout involuntarily. It was THAT shocking to me. To make it even better, I got the opportunity to get a few laps in during the evening and when I say you see nothing back there. I mean you see NOTHING. For just the reason alone that a coaster can make me question what happened is enough to make me say it is my favourite. Just a shame the ride (and park) is 10 hours away from me.

Joel

Intimidator 305, Kings Dominion

When people ask what my favourite roller coaster is there’s always 2 that come to mind for me; Intimidator 305 is in my opinion the best roller coaster I’ve been on and my number 1 in my rankings, but Alpengeist is my favourite roller coaster for many weird personal reasons. In any case for simplicity’s sake I’ll just talk about my number 1 coaster. Intimidator 305 is, simply put a rush. You barely have time to process it. The first turn after that 300ft drop is an endurance test of positive g-force that left me temporarily blind 75% of the times I rode it. After that you fly over the massive floater-airtime hill and into several insanely fast low to the ground turns, stupidly snappy, breakneck transitions and even some pops of airtime. Admittedly Intimidator 305’s airtime is far from the best out there, but what it lacks in good airtime it makes up for in everything else. The front row is definitely the place to be, you really feel the speed with the wind rushing against your face, I sat there for my first ride and I knew it was my number 1 coaster the moment we hit the brake run. I may live in the UK, but I’ll definitely be crossing the Atlantic to ride it again in the near future.

Zoe

Helix, Liseberg

Choosing a favourite anything is always such a difficult task for me, and choosing a favourite coaster is no exception. I like different coasters for different reasons and depending on my mood. There’s also the possibility that I might only like a coaster because it’s new to me and I haven’t ridden it many times. But since we’re all obsessed with choosing a firm favourite, I do have one: Helix at Liseberg. My first ride on Helix back in 2018 was the perfect combination of being blissfully unaware of what to expect from the coaster and surprise at how much it managed to blow me away. I don’t consider myself a full-on enthusiast, but riding Helix was one of the few moments when I get feelings about a ride that make me understand theme park enthusiasts. It had everything I look for in a coaster, it was smooth and comfortable, yet thrilling and fun. The pacing was absolutely spot on, the air-time was great and it made me laugh the whole way round (that’s how I know I’m really enjoying a ride). But it felt different than other rides somehow - it was as if riding had lifted my mood in a way that other coasters hadn’t managed before. When I got off I remember feeling shook. I didn’t expect to love Helix as much as I did and I think that made me love it even more.

It’s really hard choosing a favourite when there are so many amazing coasters out there! But we did it.

What’s your favourite roller coaster?

- The Coaster Bot Team

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