Paultons Park may still be best known for family days out and Peppa Pig World, but its best rides now make a much stronger case than that.

Paultons Park is no longer just “the Peppa Pig park” with a few rides bolted on around the edges. With Tornado Springs, Lost Kingdom, Ghostly Manor and now Valgard, it has built one of the UK’s most polished family-thrill line-ups.

That makes ranking its best rides more interesting than it first sounds. The biggest-looking ride does not automatically win, the newest ride does not get a free pass, and a family attraction can absolutely beat a more intense one if the full package is stronger.

This ranking is based on the Turnstile Score: ride experience, theming, queue, operations, queue value and memorability. In other words, not just “which one looks best in a thumbnail?” — though, mercifully, several of them do rather well there too.

Each ride is judged across our six Turnstile Score weighted categories: Ride Experience & Fun (30%), Theming & Story (20%), Queue Experience (15%), Operations & Reliability (15%), Value of Queue Time (10%), and Icon Status & Memorability (10%).

A ride does not win because it is famous. It wins because the full experience holds up.d coaster is charming, distinctive and more committed than its modest scale suggests — until the capacity starts doing its best impression of a bank holiday roadworks convoy.

5. Raven — Great · 72/100

Verdict: Great
Turnstile Score: 72/100
Score breakdown: Ride Experience & Fun: 7 · Theming & Story: 8 · Queue Experience: 7 · Operations & Reliability: 7 · Value of Queue Time: 7 · Icon Status & Memorability: 7

One-line verdict: A smartly reborn family coaster that proves a good re-theme can do wonders, even if Valgard may now be responsible for a national shortage of fake apples.

Raven earns its Top 5 place because the Valgard re-theme has significantly lifted what was already a lively family bobsled coaster. The trains look great, the station theming is strong, the animatronic ravens add personality, and the ride now interacts neatly with Drakon and the wider Viking land.

What keeps it in fifth is that the underlying ride is still the old Cobra experience at heart. It is punchy, characterful and much more complete than before, but not quite as rounded as the rides above it.

E-Ticket Moment: The themed tunnel element with the dragon, where Raven’s Valgard identity becomes part of the ride rather than just scenery around it.

Worth the queue? Yes, within reason. It is very good at short-to-moderate waits, but not worth letting the queue become the main event.

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4. Flight of the Pterosaur — Great · 73/100

Verdict: Great
Turnstile Score: 73/100
Score breakdown: Ride Experience & Fun: 7 · Theming & Story: 8 · Queue Experience: 6 · Operations & Reliability: 8 · Value of Queue Time: 8 · Icon Status & Memorability: 7

One-line verdict: A graceful, well-themed family coaster that gives younger riders the thrill of flight — even if the queue is mostly there to move everyone towards the dinosaur dangling machine in an orderly fashion.

Flight of the Pterosaur remains one of Paultons’ best step-up coasters. The suspended seating gives it an instant thrill hook, while Lost Kingdom’s rockwork, dinosaur theming and added animatronics help make the surrounding area one of the park’s strongest themed environments.

The ride itself is enjoyable rather than outstanding, and the queue is more functional than Paultons’ best recent efforts. Still, as a bridge between smaller family rides and bigger coaster confidence, it does exactly what it needs to do.

E-Ticket Moment: The sweeping suspended turns over Lost Kingdom, where the ride gives younger guests that bigger-coaster feeling without pushing too far.

Worth the queue? Yes, within reason. It is very good at normal Paultons waits, but not one to prioritise over the top three if queues are unusually high.

3. Drakon — Great · 76/100

Verdict: Great
Turnstile Score: 75/100
Score breakdown: Ride Experience & Fun: 7 · Theming & Story: 8 · Queue Experience: 8 · Operations & Reliability: 7 · Value of Queue Time: 8 · Icon Status & Memorability: 7

One-line verdict: Paultons’ first inverting coaster is a genuine family-thrill rite of passage, even if it is not automatically the park’s best coaster by default.

Drakon matters because it changes what Paultons Park can credibly offer. The vertical lift, beyond-vertical drop, two inversions and zero-G stall make it a major step up for younger thrill seekers, while the Valgard setting gives the ride a real sense of occasion. In short, Drakon is the sort of ride that makes Paultons feel as if it has started checking ID at the gate.

What holds it back is already clear from the full Turnstile Times review: the ride is short, there is some head-banging through the transitions, and operations were affected by downtime and throughput limits on our visit. It is a big moment for Paultons, but the score keeps it honest.

E-Ticket Moment: The zero-G stall near the end, where the train hangs upside down just long enough for Paultons’ family-thrill ambitions to feel very real.

Worth the queue? Yes, at around 20–30 minutes. Above that, come back later.

2. Ghostly Manor — Great · 79/100

Verdict: Great
Turnstile Score: 79/100
Score breakdown: Ride Experience & Fun: 8 · Theming & Story: 8 · Queue Experience: 8 · Operations & Reliability: 7 · Value of Queue Time: 8 · Icon Status & Memorability: 8

One-line verdict: A charming, surprisingly ambitious interactive dark ride that gives Paultons a proper indoor family attraction — even if the Phantom Phasers occasionally aim like they’ve had a long day.

Ghostly Manor is one of Paultons’ strongest complete attractions. It has indoor theming, interactive gameplay, a family-friendly spooky tone, reride value and a queue that actually supports the experience rather than just politely containing the public.

The only real issue is the Phantom Phaser calibration. On both rides, the screen-based sections seemed slightly off, with shots needing to be aimed more to the right than expected. That does not ruin the attraction, but on an interactive dark ride, accuracy matters.

E-Ticket Moment: The first moment the manor fully commits to the ghost-hunting setup and shifts from cute spooky ride into something with atmosphere, gameplay and purpose.

Worth the queue? Yes. Especially at sensible waits, and even more so if the phasers are behaving themselves.

1. Storm Chaser — Great · 80/100

Verdict: Great
Turnstile Score: 80/100
Score breakdown: Ride Experience & Fun: 8 · Theming & Story: 8 · Queue Experience: 8 · Operations & Reliability: 8 · Value of Queue Time: 9 · Icon Status & Memorability: 7

One-line verdict: A brilliantly judged family-thrill coaster that spins, swoops and surprises far more than its cheerful Tornado Springs packaging lets on.

Storm Chaser wins because it is the strongest all-round ride package at Paultons Park. It is fun, rerideable, surprisingly intense, well themed, operationally strong and supported by a mostly indoor queue — still a rare treat in the UK, where many queues appear to have been designed by someone who deeply mistrusts roofs.

Its biggest advantage is value. Even on a half-term peak day, Storm Chaser was mainly walk-on or around five minutes, which is outstanding for a ride this enjoyable. It may not be a national-level icon, especially now Drakon, Ghostly Manor and Valgard have shifted the park’s identity forward, but as a complete Paultons attraction it is extremely hard to beat.

E-Ticket Moment: The moment the spinning properly kicks in through the turns and Storm Chaser stops feeling like a polite family coaster.

Worth the queue? Yes. At anything under 20 minutes it is excellent; at 5–10 minutes it is one of the best-value rides in the park.

Just missed the cut

6. Vild Swing — Good · 69/100

Vild Swing is much better on-ride than it looks off-ride. It is surprisingly forceful, genuinely fun and avoids the nausea-inducing territory that some rides of this type seem determined to apply for in writing.

It misses the Top 5 because the wider package cannot quite keep up with the ride experience. The 16-seat capacity, lack of a pre-batching area and mixed sightlines hold it back: face Valgard and it feels like a compact Viking thrill; face Lost Kingdom and it becomes a brief cultural exchange programme with some dinosaurs.

7. Cyclonator — Good · 69/100

Cyclonator gives Paultons a useful thrill flat and adds real visual energy to Tornado Springs. The queue has good views of the ride, the theming works, and it gives older children and thrill-curious families something with a bit more bite.

It misses out because the ride can spin a little too much, the over-the-shoulder restraints sit tightly on adults, and dispatches can be slow enough to create unusually chunky queues for Paultons. It is a good thrill ride, but occasionally feels as if it has mistaken “family intensity” for “minor shoulder negotiation.”

8. Velociraptor — Good · 68/100

Velociraptor remains a solid family boomerang and a useful step-up coaster in Lost Kingdom. The forward-and-backward layout gives younger riders a memorable hook, and the dinosaur setting gives it more personality than a standard compact family coaster.

The problem is that Paultons has simply moved on around it. The queue is functional, the ride is short, and the current line-up now has stronger, more complete attractions above it. A good supporting dinosaur, then, but no longer the biggest roar in the paddock.

Final verdict

The strength of Paultons Park is no longer just polish for younger families. It now has a genuinely strong family-thrill identity, with different themed areas offering different versions of the same promise: accessible rides, good theming, sensible queues and enough ambition to keep older children interested.

This ranking also shows that Paultons is at its best when the full package comes together. Storm Chaser wins not because it is the biggest ride, but because it delivers the best mix of fun, theming, operations and queue value. Ghostly Manor nearly takes the top spot because it gives the park something genuinely different: a proper indoor interactive attraction with atmosphere and replay value.

Drakon is still the clearest sign of where Paultons is going next. It gives the park its first inverting coaster, its first vertical lift and a family-thrill rite of passage that will matter enormously to younger guests. But the final Top 5 proves the park’s growth is broader than one new coaster. Tornado Springs, Lost Kingdom, Ghostly Manor and Valgard now form a serious family-thrill spine.

Paultons Park may still welcome families through the front gate, but its best rides are starting to make a very convincing case for staying long after the Peppa Pig years are over.