4 Reasons You Need To Visit Toverland's Halloween Nights

The Halloween season is a magical time of year of me. It's proof to me that I'm so much more than a coaster or even theme park enthusiast - I just have a genuine loved of themed attractions in general. I would argue that Halloween offers some of the most diverse attractions we get to see in the themed attraction world - everything from rides amplified with live actors to solitary experiences to VR to a good old-fashioned horror maze. There's just such a rich variety of attractions to get stuck into at this time of year and that's just so fantastic for me. But even with that said, there's definitely a mark of 'Britishness' when it comes to attractions here in the UK and even with the aforementioned variety there's still an expectation of what to expect.


Hence my appetite to head over to Europe every October. There's something about European Halloween attractions that you just don't get with UK or American ones. And there's a ton of reasons for that - attitudes towards H&S, the fact that we get scared by different things as a result of our environment, the themes/budgets of the parks in question. Just so, so many factors which is what makes travelling to these different parks for Halloween so fab in the first place. I guess what I'm saying is that there's a thrill from the unexpected and Europe delivers that in the best way, especially during spooky season. And on that note, here's four reasons why you NEED to experience Toverland's Halloween Nights!

I know y'all have seen endless photos and videos of the park's new for 2018 land Avalon and understand just how stunning the land is. But nothing could prepare me for just how incredible the land looks after dark. The majority of the land was themed to some kind of ice queen takeover, with icicles hanging from the lampposts and signs Winter Efteling style, and 'real' snowstorms blizzarding across the paths every so often. Then the bluish purple uplighting, my god it just looks absolutely breathtaking - like Narnia crossed with Westeros beyond the wall. I adore any land where I could legitimately just walk around and take it all in without even going on any rides, and Avalon ticks all those boxes and more.






And then there's Fenix! Never has a B&M wing coaster looked so majestic. It's kind of weird to me that a coaster themed to a fire bird would be lit and stylised with such icy colours, but honestly I don't hate it. I kind of read it as the coaster taking on a different identity once night falls - the once golden phoenix gliding and glistening in the sun by day takes on a more ghostly apparition by moonlight, spreading ice and snow across the land once the sun goes down. It's all very poetic and just beautiful, and something that must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

I'll be honest, the actual haunted houses at Toverland's Halloween Nights didn't really do much for me. Going by how incredible the theming of the rest of the parks and attractions you'll forgive me for being slightly let down. But that's where the scare zones come in to save the day, and proof to other attractions that you really don't need to invest in thousands of pounds of theming to create something really amazing.

And honestly, it was all in the scare actors. Their costumes and make-up were absolutely incredible - Halloween Horror Nights levels of good. And what's really fun was that once the event had finished, each cast gathered in the entrance plaza of the park and you could queue to pose for photos with them - how fab is that?! And they were really scary as well - huge and intimidating with loud accessories that would make you jump out of your skin as they came at you through the darkness and fog. Some of the most impressive Halloween casts I've ever experienced.








And speaking of fog, damn there was a lot of it! I think it's an impressive feat to pump an outdoor walkway with so much fog that you literally cannot see where you're going. Combine that with the fabulous actors, themed lighting and soundtracks and you'll understand why I fell so in love. The atmosphere this simple combo of lighting, fog, sound and actors created an absolutely incredible vibe at the park. It really felt like Halloween hand landed and entirely transformed the attraction!

I don't know what witchcraft it is, but there's something truly electric about riding an already fantastic coaster at night. I'm sure there's some scientific reason for why my brain thinks night rides are better, but for the time being I'm just going to accept it as gospel. This was my fifth visit to Toverland, but only the first time I've actually seen the place after dark which is kind of insane to me. Troy has always been a fantastic coaster in my opinion. It was the 200th coaster I ever rode and I fell in love with it from the word go - it's fast, relentless, has fabulous little pops of force and airtime and is just all round...well it's great.






So take all that awesomeness and put it in the dark with a sick lighting package, thick as hell fog through the station fly-by and FIRE and damn, you've got yourself an incredible coaster experience. A couple of people in our group even said it was one of their all time favourite rollercoaster rides. And honestly, it was absolutely that good! The fire at the first drop and the big turnaround added a couple of WOW moments at points where the coaster is already intense, the thrill of flying through the mad layout was amplified under cover of darkness and the station fly-by plus fog was...well it was incredible. I'm so sad the queue was kind of long because honestly I would have gladly sat on that thing all damn night.

So this one is testament to that European weirdness I'm oh so fond of. Firstly, I think it's inspired that Toverland choose to turn their funhouse into a scare maze. I'm all for parks making the most of their existing assets and now that they've done it it seems like an absolute no-brainer to me to turn a fun house into a horror thing and I'm actually surprised that more parks haven't followed suit. And whilst I didn't really find the attraction frightening as such, it was absolutely a very fun time. It was more creepy/cute than horrifying (they save the true terror for the scare zones it seems!)



For obviously reasons, a lot of the fun house effects were switched off so that we could wander our way through the house and keep our eyes peeled for the spidery fiends lurking inside. There were some fantastic scares inside, including one utilising those giant soft rollers that you have to squeeze through and an actor jumping out at you just as you were stuck in a most vulnerable position. Excellent! But then, the pièce de résistance, once you've gone through all the terror and suffering and horror, you exit the attraction via slide. Perfection.

To sum up, Toverland's Halloween Nights is fantastic. By no means the scariest or most intense Halloween event, but what it does have is gorgeous and vivid theming and lighting, some of the best scare zones I've ever experienced plus amplified night rides on some of Europe's best coasters.