Very Photo Heavy TR: Sweden and Denmark 2024

So I am going to break this up in a few parts, with tons of pictures at the end of each section, so apologies in advance.

Trip Summary: Flew to Stockholm for a few days, which included visits to both Grona Lund and Kolmarden, before taking a high speed train over to Gothenburg to visit Liseberg (one of my bucket list parks) before finally taking another high speed train down to Copenhagen for a few days to finish the trip off with visits to both Tivoli and Bakken.

Stockholm – Beautiful city… As mentioned in a previous post, while we expected Copenhagen to be the stand out city, Stockholm took the win here. One highlight was taking a ferry from Stockholm up to Voxholm, which was a scenic one hour boat ride one way from the city center. On the way back, got some old dingy boat with a ton of charm and the night views of Grona Lund and the city were just unreal. Obviously, amazing bakeries and some great food (legit Swedish Meatballs are always a win) among other things.

Would absolutely come back here on a future trip, though. Reminded us a bit of Amsterdam mixed with perhaps Salzburg in Austria slightly? But with a more nautical vibe. Either way, loved it… When I think back on this trip, my memories just go right to Stockholm.

Parks:

Gröna Lund – I didn’t expect to like this park nearly as much as I did. While I know I would enjoy it, it completely exceeded my expectation. Incredible rides, super clean, amazing vibe right on the water. The views were unreal from the rides… Had some “pinch me” moments when cresting the lift on Monster or the view from the most insane drop tower I’ve ever ridden, Ikaros, which had me questioning life’s choices… Basically the same as Falcon’s Fury but it actually was open and with a better view (been to BGT a handful of times and never saw FF open…). But anyway, the upcharge Haunted House was super cool and well done, the dark rides, fun house and handful of other rides here… Super cool park. Monster was the highlight here for me being a B&M invert fanboy and it was far more intense than expected given it’s a bit more new school… We had practically no waits anywhere the evening we visited. At night, the park was just magical… The theming and atmosphere was just top notch. Strong start with the first park on our trip.

Kolmarden – The next day, took about a 1.5 hour train/bus ride to reach the park from Stockholm. Of course, this is where the terrain RMC Wildfire resides… While I’m not the biggest RMC fan to be honest, believe it or not, Wildfire looked more up my alley than most of the installations. Plus, it’s at a huge zoo which we love visiting so it was worth the trek for sure. Needless to say, Wildfire was… Good… But I’d say mid-tier if you again take away the most epic views from the ride. I prefer Iron Gwazi for sure and maybe even some of the smaller installs… But it was still a very good ride. Smooth and typical RMC, I suppose. The zoo itself was a bit of a let down, though. It’s huge and sprawling, but it was far from a stand out zoo for me. The ~45min cable car was amazing though, probably my favorite thing at the entire zoo. The day we visited the place was PACKED, but Wildfire with only 1 train at most was about a 15 minute wait. Ended with 3 rides on it, which was good enough for me. Was glad I got to experience it, though, for the setting alone.

Our final day was a full day in Stockholm to just explore before the next morning departing by train over to Gothenburg. Among the days in Stockholm we took the boat to/from Voxholm, the Avicci Museum, got lost around the city sightseeing, visited a few beer bars, enjoyed proper Swedish meatballs and even walked through an Ikea for the hell of it. Can’t go wrong.

Part 2

Gothenburg – Another really cool city… While not as ‘grand’ as say Copenhagen or Stockholm, it was a really fun city to explore and we had a really great time. The main reason for the stop here was Liseberg, where we spent two days (well, two half days give or take). With our hotel, we took the ferry across to the main center area. Love being able to hop on a ferry to get around, sure beats a bus or subway. We ended up finding an amazing NY style pizzeria (Bennys Bar and Slice Shop) for lunch which was as good as we have had in Manhattan and Brooklyn (trust me, we are huge pizza snobs and basically went to NYC to do a pizza crawl for ‘research’ purposes, haha). The texture, flavors and the overall vibe were spot on. We ended up coming back here the next night… Highly recommended.

Liseberg – I was so excited for this park and it really met expectations. They have such a strong selection of rides, the park is beautiful, they had some great food options and the setting is just unreal (reoccurring theme, yes?). There is a huge hill/mountain feature along the edge of the park you take escalators up to/from Helix and some other rides at the top of the hill, hence why a few of these rides utilize terrain (and do it so well…).

Any who, onto the rides:

Helix – Take Maverick, give it some epic terrain, better trains and just make the ride 5x better… That is Helix. This literally jumped up into my top list, whatever that may be, because this ride really has it all. Smooth, great pacing, the terrain, setting, amazing airtime and elements… It’s just so fun. Rode this a handful of times and for sure is my #1 ride on this trip and probably up there with Ride to Happiness and Taron for best ride in Europe… It’s that good.

Balder – The OG Intamin pre-fab… Running unbelievably well, super smooth, great air time. Just a solid, fun ride. Crews were great and my back seat night ride with the view of lit up downtown Gothenburg was just incredible... Did I mention how beautiful Sweden and Denmark are yet?

Valkyria – Their newer-school B&M dive coaster, which I had no real expectation for considering these rides all basically do the same thing. However, this one did it all with some attitude… The pacing was so good on this one with a punchy drop, snappy turns, a really whippy g-roll and a really fun barrel roll. I was genuinely shocked by how much I liked this one (my previous favorite being Griffon, followed by probably Baron?), but this now took my top spot for a dive coaster. Totally unexpected. Love when that happens.

Lisebergbanan – A really cool Schwarzkopf/Ziere collab, I guess? But either way, this was a really fun ride along the terrain with big sweepy turns and helices. I recall a nice pop of air here and there, too. A perfect family ride.

Luna – New Vekoma Boomerang at the top of the hill… Nothing really to say about this one. The station was really nicely done, the views of course… But the ride itself is just your typical family boomerang. Nice add for this park, though.

Spökhotellet Gasten – The parks year-round haunted house… We almost missed this due to limited hour windows, but thankfully we didn’t. They make you join in groups of 5-10 or so, and you have to create a ‘train’ where the person behind you holds onto your shoulders while going through… A bit weird as an American who likes their personal space, but, thankfully we ended up with some really cool people with us. Super fun, well done haunted house with some really nice special effects and other things going on. We all hit the exit laughing and having a great time, so happy we didn’t miss out.

We also did the parks dark ride among some other things at the park. Ate at the German restaurant near Valkyria and had some amazing Schnitzel, to be honest. One of the best I’ve had. Also enjoyed a hot dog for some ridiculously low price earlier in the day ($2 or so for a ¼ pounder size tube steak?)… I just love how European parks don’t rob you for food… It’s just so refreshing. Even full course meals are cheap relatively speaking and the food is really damn good everywhere we’ve been throughout Europe. Complete 180 from parks in Murica’.

Woke up the next morning, found a cool coffee roaster near the hotel, explored the city and the like. Eventually went back to Liseberg in the evening for another couple hours to conclude our time in Gothenburg, but not without more of that amazing NY style pizza after a quick brewery stop once we left the park. The next morning hit up a bakery right next to our hotel before catching our train to Copenhagen.

Part 3

Took our train to Copenhagen, which was going smooth until the train broke down about an hour outside of our destination (door would not close properly)… They eventually kicked us off the train and told us to catch one of the next ones, which meant we lost our seats (grr) and had to stand in a crowded train the rest of the way… Bummer considering we had First Class roomy seats and enjoying the quiet, nice ride down from Gothenburg… Anyway… It happens.

Had a few days in Copenhagen which we spent exploring, some museums, the Copenhagen Zoo, doing a brewery tour at Carlsberg (super cool, actually…) and of course Tivoli and Bakken, among other things.

Side note highlight, at one of the local pubs we visited, the bartender stopped over to talk with us and show us a very popular game in Denmark called Mia... Very fun bluffing dice game, worth looking into and playing with friends!

Onto the parks:

Bakken – The day following our arrival, we headed to Bakken. The park was a train ride out of the city to reach, plus a little walk, but once we arrived we saw the place was packed. It reminded me a lot of like if Conneaut Lake Park was more developed/nicer and had the most insane crowd you had even seen. Needless to say, this park wasn’t exactly our type of vibe, but I can appreciate it for what it is. Pretty cool to visit the worlds oldest amusement park and also get to try out the madness that is Tornado along with Rutschebanen.

Rutschebanen – This was updated with new trains, so the brake person was eliminated and no longer required. The ride was smooth, quite fun and had a really good air time moment. No complaints here!

Mine Train Ulven – This is actually a Giovanola mine coaster, which I never knew existed, but was the star of this park honestly. Fun layout, hugged the terrain/trees/shrubs a bit and was overall quite a good time.

Tornado – How this ride exists is beyond me. I expected a crazy experience, but it’s way more than that. This thing is brutal, wrong and uncomfortable in every single way. It spins too fast, the transitions are too abrupt, the trains suck, it’s jarring and overall just not a pleasant ride, at all. I was genuinely dizzy when we hit the brakes and was unlike anything I’ve ever ridden before. It really makes the S&S freespin things seem like child’s play (and I really don’t like those, either…). But yeah, this thing was pretty bad. One and done, easy.

We kind of walked around Bakken a bit more and decided to head out after just two hours or so… Perhaps on a slower day it would be more enjoyable, but we just wanted to get back to the city (and Tivoli!)

Tivoli Gardens – We spent two days here, the first night was in the evening with the place lit up, just to walk around and enjoy the vibes of this place. They had a concert going on the first night (Chris Issac), so the vibe was actually quite fun to be honest. The park itself, much like Liseberg or Grona Lund just has so much damn charm. It’s hard to describe, honestly. But Tivoli is incredible and actually, a bit larger of a park than I had expected for being landlocked the way they are. They really made use of the space they had, that’s for sure.

The second day we actually bought our ride wristbands and found out we lucked out… It was the annual dog day at the park, the one day a year where people can bring their dogs into the park and it was pretty amazing. I mean, even the Italian restaurant put out giant bowls of spaghetti and meatballs for dogs to take and snack on. Then there was water bowls, agility courses, etc… People were just having a great time (ourselves included). It doesn’t get much better, haha.

Ride wise, Tivoli has some really great attractions.

Rutschebanen – This is more like it… Not like the ‘fake’ one at Bakken! Haha. I kid, I kid… But yeah, we rode this thing probably 10 times throughout the few hours with no wait, with the dusk/night rides being just magical. The people, crews and atmosphere of the ride/park just made for some special moments. Really fun ride, though.

Dæmonen – The baby B&M floorless… Rode this 2 or 3 times and it was good for what it was… A bit of a rattle, but not bad enough to hinder it too much. Fun, but not much beyond that… It’s about what you’d expect by looking at it. At night, it’s gorgeous with it’s lighting package, like everything at Tivoli.

Mælkevejen – Mack Powered coaster thingy… Pretty fun, a bit forceful and a great ride for families. Had the longest line at the park we waited, I think… So it’s popular.

Tik Tak – What. The. Hell. Is. This. Thing.

No… Seriously.. How is this legal?

No contest, the most insane flat ride that has to exist anywhere. Has to be.

Anyway, almost skipped this because it looked so insane but the beautiful night got the best of us and we both felt we would regret it if we didn’t… And that would have been true. You can’t put into words though what this experience is like. It’s certainly just a one and done, but I’d absolutely ride this thing again next time I found myself at Tivoli. That’s all I can really say.

For the remainder of the night, we basically hit up the dark rides, walked through gift shops, enjoyed some salty licorice gelato, took laps on the antique cars, walked through the fun house and just lapping the park over and over.

What a gem of a park...

Part 4

That concluded our trip for the most part, as it was time to fly home... "But wait, there's more!"

As an avgeek, our flight home from Copenhagen took us through Amsterdam flying on KLM on both legs, a carrier I had always wanted to fly on… But not only that, our 777-300ER from AMS to ATL was in international business class… Bucket list stuff right there! I did not originally book Business (way too much $$$), but being diligent to check routes and my booking every few weeks snagged me these seats for only a few hundred dollars over my original booking in Economy Comfort... So it was a no brainer to take our first Business/First class seat on this 8.5 hour flight and be able to experience it.

Long story short, we had the best flight ever with the most stunning crew, amazing meals/wine/beer/whatever and a super comfy lay-flat pod that allowed me to sprawl my 6’6” frame out and sleep for a bit. Doesn’t get any better. Or does it?

That super cool crew ended up inviting us after the flight into the cockpit to meet the pilots, sit in the flight deck and geek out a bit with the super friendly pilots. Really could not be a better way to finish our trip. KLM is a wonderful airline, through and through. Not to mention their lounge in Amsterdam is just stunning, where we had a few hours to sit on the outdoor balcony and just take in the aircraft movements to/from the terminal. Just awesome.

After our wonderful flight we took our final leg from ATL to CLE, where we ended our 20+ hour travel day and got some well earned sleep.

Nice review/TR.

If you had to pick only one park that you experienced to go to as a first-timer, which would it be?

What about if you could only pick two?

Thanks,
EV

Thanks for sharing your photos. That looked like an incredible trip. Grona Lund and Tivoli are two parks I have always wanted to visit. Maybe one day I'll finally take the plunge.

As someone who loathes large crowds, those pics from Bakken were quite disturbing to see. And speaking of disturbing, this sign is pure nightmare fuel. Seriously, that is horrifying!

EchoVictor:

If you had to pick only one park that you experienced to go to as a first-timer, which would it be?

What about if you could only pick two?

That is really tough... I pondered on this a bit and at the end of the day, I might have to go with Gröna Lund. The other half agreed with this vote, too.

But it's really, really splitting hairs between Gröna Lund, Tivoli and Liseberg... At the end of the day, I'd probably go with Liseberg for #2 just for it's well-roundedness of really great rides and still maintaining that wonderful atmosphere.

But having been to just shy of 70 parks now, there is no doubt that Gröna Lund, Liseberg and Tivoli are all the top 10 somewhere.

RayP1970:

As someone who loathes large crowds, those pics from Bakken were quite disturbing to see. And speaking of disturbing, this sign is pure nightmare fuel. Seriously, that is horrifying!

No kidding! And that sign about sums up the place... haha

SteveWoA:

That is really tough... I pondered on this a bit and at the end of the day, I might have to go with Gröna Lund. The other half agreed with this vote, too.

But it's really, really splitting hairs between Gröna Lund, Tivoli and Liseberg... At the end of the day, I'd probably go with Liseberg for #2 just for it's well-roundedness of really great rides and still maintaining that wonderful atmosphere.

Thanks for the input. Liseberg is quickly moving its way higher on my overseas amusement park bucket list.

Later,
EV