perfect place to live for a coaster addict?

I was wondering where the best place for a coaster addict to live. I was not thinking next to the best park but within a day trip to multiple parks. Does not have to be the best coasters but the best way to get all types of coasters and parks in general. I'm doing very good with possible day trips to Cedar Point, Kennywood, Kings Island. What other locations are by many good parks?

Anywhere in Pennsylvania?

Seattle, obviously.

I've always felt that eastern PA was about as good as it gets if you want lots of parks close. Like Allentown-ish.

Using Dorney as a central point, there are 55 operating parks with a roller coaster within a 200 mile radius. (83 parks if you expand it to 300 miles - not sure what everyone considers a day trip)

I can't think of anywhere else that offers an equal concentration of parks in the same radius.

^^ Yeah, I'm sitting pretty right outside of southern Allentown. Parks within 10 minutes: Dorney. Parks within 1.5 hours: Hershey, sometimes Knoebels (depending on traffic and how fast you drive). Two hours? Great Adventure. About four hours: Six Flags New England, Six Flags America, Kings Dominion.

Only thing that sucks: winters. I'd also recommend Orlando or Tampa or Sarasota/Bradenton area. It's warmer, and you've got Universal, Disney, FunSpot, Busch Gardens Tampa, Sea World all within 3.5 hours (depending where you live).

Bunky, how come you ain't never been nowhere? :-)

I've always said that where I live, central Ohio, is kinda perfect for parks and number of available rides to take. While we have but one local coaster to speak of, day trips are easily made to Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Kennywood. (Unfortunately we've lost Idora, LeSourdsville, Geauga, and Kentucky Kingdom, which I realize take our desirability down a notch now) But go just a little farther and you get Holiday World, Idlewild, Indiana Beach, and Waldameer, parks I would probably do as overnights. A little farther and there's Canada's Wonderland, Darien, Fantasy Island, Dollywood, Six Flags Gurnee and St, Louis. We can get to those in less than a day, go to the park in the evening and the next day, then drive home the third. Not too bad.

I love living in Columbus, Ohio. We're like a blue dot in a red state. And we have the world's best ice cream.

I would agree with Eastern Pennsylvania. Where I live in Northeastern PA it is:

1 hour 15 minutes to Dorney

1 hour 30 minutes to Knoebels

2 hours to Hershey

2 hours 10 minutes to Dutch Wonderland

2.5 hours to Coney Island

Less than 3 hours to Great Adventure, Quassy, Rye, and Lake Compounce

3 hours and 15 minutes to Lakemont and DelGrosso's

SFA, SFNE, Great Escape, Seabreeze and Sylvan Beach are under 4 hours

All of the Jersey shore piers are within 2-4 hours, with Morey's being the farthest at 4 hours even.

I have Camden Park closest to me, about an hour away. The next nearest is Kings Island, which is about 3.5 hours away. Beyond that, I have to drive five or six hours or more to get to a park.

Life is hard, but I manage.

The caption for this photo, located on my Facebook, reads:

See that "2" next to Charleston, WV? That's Camden Park, in Huntington. I live pretty close to there; about 45 minutes to an hour. The other numbers on the map represent locations of other amusement parks and how many coasters they have. The point of this image is to show how freekin' far away I live from any amusement parks.

The map in this image is from an awesome website called Coast2CoasterMap. I highly recommend you to take a look if you haven't already.

I've never heard of that Coast to Coaster map thingie. Thank you, Travis! You're informative for all!

That is a fantastic site Travis. I can't believe I have never come across that. I see me spending a lot of time on the site.

RCMAC said:

I love living in Columbus, Ohio. We're like a blue dot in a red state. And we have the world's best ice cream.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa..... Where is this "worlds best ice cream" of which you speak?

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, look it up. I love ice cream and I'm permanently spoiled by the stuff. Jeni Britton Bauer developed an ice cream recipe and opened her first place as a stand in our North Market. The flavors are unusual, and change all the time as the ingredients are as local as possible.

There's 8 or 9 scoop stores in Columbus and they're slowly expanding, with the latest in the Nashville area. She made a sensation at Austin's SXSW with her ice cream food truck, I think they may be her next city. You can find it in supermarkets and on line. She's had write ups in national food magazines and has brought attention to Columbus for something other than hillbilly shenanigans or Buckeye football.

It's expensive. I've said many times that I wish I had people lined up down the street ready to hand me six bucks for something.

I don't know if you're east or west, but it looks like Dave's, Heinen's, Constantino's, or Whole Foods are likely places in your area. Pints run about 12, and trust me it's worth it. Just keep it hidden for yourself and let the kids eat the cheap stuff!

Jeni's is awesome but pricey ($10 a pint). Heinen's carries a few flavors, but the newest and seasonal ones are only in the shops. The only store in this half of the state is in Chagrin Falls, and I'm hardly ever in that area, but that's probably a good thing, else I'd be spending way too much on it.

In a car outside of the entrance to Great Adventure. Why? El Toro. Nuff said.

I'd hate to sit next to you on El Toro, blasterboy, unless your car has a shower. lol

Pottsville PA. Within 2hrs of about 8-12 parks and yuengling as fresh as it gets.

I'm also going to go with Eastern PA. I live outside Philadelphia and within a 3 hour drive I can get to Dorney, Hershey, Great Adventure, Knoebels, Morey's, SFA and a lot of other smaller parks. It's also nice being less than an hour away from both Great Adventure and Dorney so it's no big deal to go for a half a day trip and can plan a trip at the last minute.

Looking at the coast2coaster map(great find), I would think any place in central Europe would be the perfect place for a coaster addict.

Easily, Columbus Ohio. Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Holiday World.

Second,

South Carolina, Have Family there, No hotel fees. LOL

Disney World, Universal Studios.

Between Disney World and Cedar Point what else do ya need?

No need to travel West:)

LostKause said:

I'd hate to sit next to you on El Toro, blasterboy, unless your car has a shower. lol

Jeez, Travis..you won't sit with me because of the counting (ONCE!) You won't sit with blasterboy (see above)..Just who WILL you sit with??!!!