We visited Heide park on a Saturday in July as the start of our big Germany and Scandinavia trip. We weren’t very hyped for the park as I had visited this park before and was left very disapointed and my girlfriend, who I was visiting with, didn’t know a lot about the park. After a long and tiresome day we left the park happy and underwhelmed at the same time.
Heide park is one of the largest theme parks in Germany. The park is located in Soltau, Germany and has a total of 9 roller coasters and a large collection of other great rides. The park is owned by Merlin Entertainments which guarantees good quality. But there are a few big flaws.
Getting to the park
To get to Heide Park we wanted to use public transport as none of us have a driver's license or a car. We missed our train in Düsseldorf so we had to take one later. This meant that we also missed our bus to Heide park, which is located in the middle of nowhere. It's worth noting that there is only one bus to Heide Park in the morning, which I find quite inconvenient. So we took another train to Wolterdingen. This station is the nearest station to Heide Park if you are walking, it is around a 30 minute walk. So after a lengthy train ride and a long walk we finally arrived at Heide park at noon.
The entry experience
Before we entered the park we had to go to the guest service to get a speedy pass for people with a disability, I already bought the tickets with a reduced entrance. Small side note: I was visiting the park with my girlfriend who has autism and has the right to these tickets.
So when we tried to enter I discovered I accidentally bought the tickets for the wrong date. So I had to go back to the guest service. When I explained I had accidentally bought the wrong tickets,tickets for the day before, he understood and said that he could change the date. Then he showed me Google translate with the message: ‘Sorry but you will have to pay a fee of 10 euros to change the date’. Only when I put my card in, I discovered that this was 10 euros per ticket. I know that you can’t just rebook a ticket but this is a very hefty fee in my opinion.
But this is not where the pain ends, not even close. As mentioned before, this park was the first stop of a trip of around 16 parks. So we carried a big suit-case with us. We thought it was standard that you can just store your luggage in a locker, which Heide Park has, and if the luggage doesn’t fit that guest service or another service will hold it. We thought wrong. Before we entered the park we asked the man at the counter of the guest service that we could store the suit-case inside the park, he just said that we should ask the staff inside the park. So we entered with our suitcase, this is where the nightmare starts. We took a look at the lockers and they were way too small. So we went to the guest service next door and they said they didn’t know where we could store our suitcase. We had to ask around 3 other people before even one person gave us any kind of help.
So we decided to go to the campsite ,which is right nextdoor to Heide Park. They had lockers that could store our suitcase. Why didn't they tell us directly that we could go there? I don’t know. I am also wondering why they don’t have the same lockers inside the park. This would be more convinient and it would save people the trouble of asking a dozen people where to store their luggage.
After we had finally stored our luggage we had to reenter the park. Again, a catastrophe. The tickets didn’t work anymore so I had to run back to the campsite. Luckily they were very friendly and helped me out with new tickets to reenter the park.
The attractions
Heide Park has a collection of 9 rollercoasters. Ranging from a small kiddie coaster, Indy-Blitz to Colossus: Kampf der Giganten. The collection is solid and has something for everyone. However the collection of thrill coasters is mediocre. With two great coasters at the top, Colossus and Flug der Dämonen. The rest is mediocre at best.
Setting the mediocrity aside we can talk about the theming. The theming in this park is top notch, as you can expect from most Merlin parks.
Their ‘’newest’’ addition, Toxic Garden, previously Limit, looks great although it doesn’t ride great. This just leaves out their two supporting thrill coasters Big Loop and Desert Race which both could use some refurbishment.
Their line-up of supporting attractions is great with most of your standard amusement rides.
The biggest one being Scream. Scream is one of the best drop towers I have ever done. It dominates the skyline and can be seen from far away. It pulls some great forces and has amazing views.
The food
The food at the park is just bland. The park doesn’t offer a lot of variety and what they offer isn’t that good. However they do offer great hot dogs that you can fully customize to your liking. They also offer pizza and some other typical fast food options.
I would recommend bringing your own drinks to the park as it is very expensive over here. One soft drink will cost you around 4 euros. This is the same as a bottle of water. To save some money you can buy yourself a menu which should save you a couple of euros but it would still be cheaper to just bring your own bottle.
The merchandise
The park offers a great collection of merchandise. If you collect pins you can go full out with pins of all major coasters. The same goes for t-shirts and magnets.
Overall conclusion
Heide Park is a fun park but nothing out of the ordinary. It should be on your list of parks to visit because of Colossus and Flug der Dämonen. But if you are looking for one park to visit in the north of Germany when you are on a vacation I would recommend you go to Hansa Park instead.
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