Swedenmark May 2026 - Day 3: Bakken my day...

[Burniel]

Scandinavia is home to a number of amusement parks located within or very close to major cities, making it an attractive region for trips with friends who have a passing interest in this hobby but an (understandable!) aversion to travelling internationally solely to ride roller coasters. I recently spent a long weekend in Gothenburg and Copenhagen with Ben, a friend I haven't had the pleasure of travelling with since Poland 2024 , taking in both cities and a couple of highly-anticipated parks along the way.

Day 1 - Gothenburg
As all great trips do, Friday started with a train from London to Stansted, a breakfast and pint from an airport Wetherspoon, and an international flight with Ryanair, three things which through the magic of capitalism always seem to cost about the same. Our flight time was carefully chosen to allow time for a half day at Liseberg on arrival if we didn't encounter delays, but we balked when it became clear from queue times on a similar weekend last year that doing everything in one day should be possible and, thanks again to the magic of capitalism, Liseberg's dynamic pricing system wanted ~£50 per ticket even when booked a week in advance. This also allowed us a few hours to properly see Gothenburg, which the schedule would otherwise leave very little time for.

Travelling from the UK to Liseberg really is as easy as international theme park tourism gets: fly to Gothenburg Landvetter, then get on the airport bus and alight when it drives past Balder and Helix (the stop is called Korsvägen and is literally the first stop after you leave the airport complex). We stayed in a private room at Göteborgs Vandrarhem (Göteborg Hostel) which, for this type of place, I honestly can't recommend enough. Comfortable beds, friendly staff, and clean shared facilities, situated literally across the road from the park, at a fraction of the price of full-service hotels in the area. Couldn't ask for a more suitable place for our needs and budget.

Getting to the centre of town from Liseberg is a short tram ride, but the area's very walkable so we opted for that instead. There's not loads to see until you're a bit further in, but it's a nice way to get acclimatised, especially as we didn't really have a plan about where to go. We ended up sticking "Haga" (the city's "old town"/tourist magnet area) into a map and figured we'd find stuff along the way.

Vasaparken, home of the university's flagship building, was the first notable place we bumped into. In keeping with the hilliness of Gothenburg in general, it's a real hike to walk around, but does have this nice bust of a Swedish poet I'd never heard of.

Just up the road is Hagaparken, home of the substantial and rather pretty Haga church.

Then Haga itself was bustling with activity (relatively speaking), featuring the classic combination of cobbled streets and shops selling tat.

To the north of Haga is the Göta älv river - more of an industrial area than somewhere you'd take an evening stroll, but impressive nonetheless.

Meanwhile to the south, you can hike all the way to the top of Skansenparken, home of Skansen Kronan, a 17th-century fortress originally built to defend against potential attacks from Denmark. This was easily the coolest monument we saw that evening and its height also means it offers great views of the city - definitely worth a visit if you have the time.

We stopped for food at Göteburgare, a stealthily vegan burger place to the west of Haga, which only advertises that all food is vegan on the menu, by which time you've already sat down and mentally committed. I'm not vegan myself, but can't deny the food was brilliant, and the local(-ish) beer it came with wasn't bad either.

We hadn't wrapped up nearly warm enough for a Swedish evening, so despite it still being relatively early, we started meanering back towards the hostel, only to immediately walk past a pub emblazoned with the two words guaranteed to part me from my hard-earned krona...

It's a nice place, Gothenburg. We almost certainly missed a bunch of sights, but what we did see was great and the central areas had a very safe and genuinely welcoming vibe. I don't think I'd ever plan to spend several days here, but it's well worth a look around if you're staying over for Liseberg.

Tomorrow - we actually go to the park.

 

[Burniel]

Day 2 - Liseberg
The forecast for our planned full (and now only) day at Liseberg was grim. 11 hours of 90% predicted rain coverage never bodes well for a first visit, especially to the most substantial park of the trip. With nothing to do but don the raincoats and hope it would at least discourage others, we pressed on.

On arrival it seemed our hopes had manifested somewhat, as the park was almost deserted 15 minutes before opening and we became only the second group in a pre-queue for Lisebergbanan (#159). Sure enough, almost bang on 11am, we hopped aboard the first train of the day with no more than 5 minutes worth of queue having built up behind us.

Much has been said about Liseberg’s oldest operating coaster, so I knew roughly what to expect here. Still, there was something quite surreal about climbing all the way up the park’s hill and repeatedly diving off. The ride has just the right level of weirdness to turn a decent family thrill coaster into something quite special. Not for the last time this trip, it felt like riding something that embodied the classic “spirit” of the roller coaster in a way that few 21st-century thrill machines do. It's not trying to "be" anything, it's just pure fun from the top of the lift all the way to the ruthless brakes.

The park's hillside setting means their signature roller coaster lies at the top of two sets of escalators. In past reports, I’ve discussed the personal significance of large-scale roller coasters built in the early- to mid-2010s, as it was in this period that my first obsession with the hobby began. Helix (#160) is the latest such ride I’ve been fortunate enough to tick off, having been one of my most anticipated in Europe for as long as I can remember. The ride is objectively brilliant: a drop and inversion out of the station starts proceedings with a bang before the train navigates two launches, several further inversions, and a few solid airtime pops, all across well over a minute of prime ride time, with stunning views of Gothenburg and the rest of the park.

Despite all this, my sky-high expectations meant my initial reaction was rather nonplussed. “It's just Blue Fire but better” I said to Ben in a slightly disappointed tone as we hit the brakes on our first lap. Even as I said it, I knew it was daft. This is one of the most beautiful and well-regarded coasters in Europe. Had I really become so jaded this early in my career, or had I simply spent 12 years setting the bar impossibly high?

With crowds still mostly non-existent, we decided to go straight back around, this time on the front row. In the 10 minutes since our first lap, the rain had turned from light to heavy, resulting in 4500 feet of raucous laughter as we got absolutely pelted at 60mph, and Helix instantly secured its rightful place in my top 10. An important lesson learned in not idolising bucket list creds (easier said than done) and the importance of re-riding whenever possible before passing any harsh judgements.

Liseberg offers a free and easy-to-use virtual queue system, largely unnecessary on a day like this, but nevertheless a nice touch. While awaiting our slot on Balder, we popped back down to the ground floor to pick up Rabalder (#161). As a common Zierer Force, albeit not a layout I’ve done before, this was mostly as expected. Slightly disappointing operations for this part of the world though, with a roughly 4-train wait taking the best part of 20 minutes to get through.

Balder (#162), my first Intamin prefab, would likely be the most hotly anticipated ride of the trip were it not for Helix. Our pre-booked slot combined with a free-flow station allowed us to jump almost straight onto the back row. From this position, Balder is an almost disconcertingly smooth wooden coaster punctuated by aggressive ejector airtime over every hill, which delivers in spite of the superfluous seatbelts. Unusually for its genre, it rides just as well in the front, where the long train pushes you into those perfectly-constructed hills with force. While I missed the wild twists of a GCI, Balder’s relative grace allows the airtime to really shine, making it very re-rideable. It's probably the second best woodie I've done behind Wodan.

Just next door, the drop for Valkyria (#163) towers impressively over the front of the park. I had mixed feelings heading into this, as I’d been on 3 dives before, all of which performed well at 2 of the 3 main criteria that make these rides good:
- Oblivion has a brilliant drop and good theme, but no follow-up layout.
- Sheikra has a great drop and good layout, but somewhat limited theming (at least compared to the other 2).
- Baron 1898 has world-class theming and a good layout, but the drop’s relatively short.

Valkyria is different in that it’s very respectable in all 3 departments, but doesn’t stand out in any. The drop is tall enough to create anticipation on the edge, but it's nothing too crazy. The layout is decent, but at points feels like it's just killing speed until it can justify the brake. And the theming is impressive for a park that doesn't generally go all-out, but it's obviously nothing on Efteling (what is?). There's also a fourth consideration added here in the form of vest restraints, which while completely unnecessary didn't hinder my experience as much as I feared.

Over-analysis aside, I did enjoy Valkyria. While it’s clearly the weakest of the three major thrill coasters at the park, that's more a sign of Liseberg's stacked top two than the ride doing anything especially wrong. I do, however, have a gripe with how it's currently operated, as bags must be stowed in single-use lockers at a rather silly charge of 5 SEK (about £0.45) - why bother charging at that point? Surely frustrating the guest with this Americanised nonsense isn’t worth such a small revenue gain.

We missed Atmosfear on our first trip to the top of the hill due to a staggered opening, so as I was already itching for another go on Helix we headed back up to check it out. With a drop of 100m down a tower itself situated high above the lower-level rides, Atmosfear is comfortably both the tallest and highest thrill ride I’ve experienced to date, causing some trepidation. But I needn’t have worried; Atmosfear is a great ride offering fantastic views and a strong but not overwhelming freefall sensation. A re-ride was a must before heading back down to pick up the remaining creds, though not before yet another lap on Helix!

As an aside, I really liked the entrance and queuing area for this. On a quiet day, it's silently eerie and very much leaves any nervous guest feeling alone with their thoughts. A real contrast with the lively amusement park outside.

Luna (#164) is the latest roller coaster to open at Liseberg, a custom family boomerang winding around the park’s upper terrain. This is now my most ridden coaster model, but they’re excellent family rides so I've yet to get too bored of them. This installation runs right along the steepest edge of the park’s hill, which slightly increases the thrill level, especially when travelling backwards.

Despite only being lunchtime, and almost every queue being posted at 0-10 minutes, we figured we may as well finish up the creds quickly and so went in search of Stampbanen (#165). Though we were clearly not the target demographic, the 1-train wait and friendly operator allowed us to enjoy this for what it was without feeling too out of place. It rides exactly as it looks really, a little janky but in the way you can kind of get away with on smaller creds like this.

Liseberg’s flat ride collection is highly commendable, featuring several installations of modern, high-capacity thrill and family rides, many of which I hadn’t experienced much (if ever) before. I spent much of our initial walks around the park saying “oh cool, they have one of those”. As the poor weather very slowly started to ease, and queues for the coasters very slightly rose, I worked through as many as I could, including:

- Loke, the largest Gyro Swing I've experienced. Very fun, beats Maelstrom at Drayton Manor (the closest point of comparison I have) in pretty much every way possible.
- Stormvåg, my first ART Wild Swing. I only discovered while writing this that it opened 2 days prior to our visit, so here's my lukewarm-off-the-press review: the "non-inverting top spin" sensation was mostly as expected, though I was pleasantly surprised to find it more forceful than I gave it credit for off-ride. I'll gladly ride more as I encounter them (ART seem to be selling plenty), but not at the expense an interesting thrill flat.
- Uppswinget, a Screamin' Swing. Rides a bit closer to how I remember Rush at Thorpe Park running a decade ago. Its position on the hillside offers either great views or the option to hang over the edge (kind of - there's a platform off the side of the hill that means you're not quite looking straight down to the bottom in the way I first imagined).
- Kraftverket, one of those new-fangled disco-style HUSS breakdances. Way more intense than I expected, easily one of the most unhinged permanently-installed flats I've done to date.
- Mechanica, a star shape. This was my first of these and it felt underwhelming, but in retrospect I may have just done too many flats by this point.
- AeroSpin, a Gerstlauer Sky Roller, also my first of the type. I couldn't invert this one, unsure if I just lacked experience, the conditions weren't right, or it's just a difficult one generally.

By the early evening the weather had really started to clear up, allowing us to actually enjoy the water rides. I'd heard good things about Flumeride in particular, which didn't disappoint. A classic ride, with absolute textbook use of terrain and fun drops to boot. The Kållerado rapids are also worth a go if you have time. There's something about an 8pm water ride that feels oddly special, possibly because it reminds me of being at Universal with the family as a kid. I will say this was one of those rapids where the effects got us wetter than the system itself, but I'll let that slide as there were only 2 of us in the boat and we didn't want a drenching anyway.

Also notable is Underlandet, a cute little dark ride tucked right into the far corner of the kid's area, meaning we very nearly missed it. Nothing to write home about (yet here I am), but like everything in the park it was clearly created with a level of care that's not always guaranteed at many parks these days.

Through our own geographical blindness, we'd assumed the 10pm close would allow for at least 1 night ride on Helix. It wasn't until the sun had barely started to set at 9:30 that it occurred to me at this time of year being this far north results in even more hours of daylight. Regardless, we were grateful for the opportunity to ride at sunset (and in the dry!) and managed to snag a front row for what was my ninth ride on this beast, ending the day with probably the most enjoyable ride experience I've had so far this year.

It's safe to say our day at Liseberg exceeded both of our expectations. The poor weather had definitely acted more in our favour than against (I hit 37 rides without really trying thanks to how dead it was) and didn't significantly obscure the beauty of this incredibly well-presented amusement park. It's one of those places where everything is made to feel effortless, the ride lineup is great, and above all else the place just has a really positive vibe without feeling overbearing.

As though to illustrate this one last time, some local annual pass holders approached us as we were taking photos at the exit and, having clocked us as Brits on Helix, asked us about our trip, what we thought of their home park, and how it compared to parks in the UK. We had a brief but very enjoyable chat, swapping notes on the park's lineup and airlines you can use to get between London and Gothenburg. As I've started to visit more and more European countries, I've become increasingly sensitive to how "welcome" I've felt as a tourist in different places, especially as one from the UK, and I can't stress enough how much this brief encounter solidified my already favourable opinions of Gothenburg, and Sweden more generally. I'd love to return to the country some time soon (and not just because there's an RMC).

Tomorrow - Denmark.

 

[Flash Shift]

This report is making me want to go back to Liseberg. I only went on a Friday which had a 3pm-10pm opening so didn't get on anywhere near as much as you, but still got a bunch of rides on Helix and Balder as it was fairly quiet.

You had no chance of getting a night ride on Helix at this time of year lol, even when I went in September it wasn't dark until the last hour. Shame though as it is spectacular.

 

[Jarrett]

Liseberg is a beautiful park. Looks great, their ride collection is amazing, and it's a level of class I've yet to see elsewhere. Helix is great and I'm so glad you enjoyed (you really need a few rides to appreciate this one), bu I'm also glad to see some love for Lisebergbanan!

Did y'all take the ferry or train to Denmark? The ferry boat with Stena Line is a great way to make the hop.

 

[Burniel]

You had no chance of getting a night ride on Helix at this time of year lol, even when I went in September it wasn't dark until the last hour. Shame though as it is spectacular.

Yeah, bit of an oversight on that. No big loss as we hadn't exactly planned the trip around it, but will likely be more of a consideration for a future visit. I can imagine Halloween, once being in the north starts working in favour of darkness, being an awesome time to go!

Did y'all take the ferry or train to Denmark? The ferry boat with Stena Line is a great way to make the hop.

Train, as our plans in Denmark only covered Copenhagen and it seemed easiest. But if when I return to the region for more places/parks, I'd love to give the ferry crossing a go!

 

[Burniel]

Day 3 - Bakken my day...
After a marathon day at Liseberg the day before, and with no specific train booked out of Sweden, neither of us fancied an early start. We settled on an 11am departure, on the basis we didn't have much we had to do in Denmark on this day, so it wouldn't matter if we weren't there until mid afternoon. Looking online, there are various apps and train companies that are recommended, but we were uncharacteristically unplanned and bought our tickets from a machine at the station 15 minutes before departure, where a direct train cost us about £30 each (including a small discount for travelling together), which felt like a pretty good deal for ~200 miles at short notice.

The journey takes about 3.5 hours, but the seats (if you can get one; there were parts of the journey where it got busy enough for people to stand) were very comfortable, with surprisingly generous legroom. The scenery is pleasant, albeit largely unchanging, and the trains can reach up to 125mph. The route involves occasional stops along the west coast of Sweden, including at other major towns and cities such as Helsingborg, before reaching Malmö and hopping across the Øresund Bridge to Denmark. For this last stretch, we noticed a considerable increase in English accents, presumably from fellow tourists visiting Copenhagen, I suspect having hopped across to Malmö just for the day to cross the bridge - a landmark in itself - and/or get the country cred.

The crossing from Sweden to Denmark really is the highlight of the route, sweeping over the seemingly never-ending bridge, having a classic "is this the other side?" moment on the artificial island in the middle, before diving into a tunnel that takes you right to the heart of Copenhagen. I'd recommend the journey; it's pleasant, affordable, and a whole lot more fun than flying home and saving Copenhagen for another day.

Bakken was the only planned activity for the rest of the day - just as well, as by the time we'd dropped our stuff in an Airbnb and worked out how to get there (which is supposedly a straight shot on the S-bahn "C" line but we still managed to get lost), it was nearly 4pm. Thankfully, much like in Gothenburg, the culture here promotes later opening hours, allowing us up to 5 hours in the park, which is easily enough.

Entry to Bakken is free, with ride wristbands available at a rather pricey £40, though savings can be made if you sign up to their mailing list and book in advance. The place really is just in a big local park, with lots of understated entrances and exits, bars, restaurants etc. It's clearly a well-diversified local attraction which likely does as much business out of everything else as it does the rides.

That said, we were there for the rides, and where better to start than Rutschebanen (#166), the younger of Copenhagen's two wooden coasters at a sprightly 94 years old. An absolute classic, the ride has a compact layout featuring some surprisingly powerful double-downs and a level of roughness which befits its age without discouraging re-rides - a noticeable difference when compared with Blackpool's collection!

Previously brakeman-controlled, the ride was retrofitted with Kumbak trains in 2010, which are... not the best. The restraints tighten painfully on the double downs and the ride now brakes far more strongly than it needs to, as if being controlled by a slightly over-cautious brakeman. It's tempting to slate the park for these decisions, but given the inevitable lack of resources they have compared with the park up the road, I have to assume that these trains have significantly lengthened the ride's lifespan and reduced operating costs. Rides like this are a dying breed, and this is a small park, so while I wish the new trains were a bit better I'm giving them a pass on there not being a brakeman if the potential alternative is not being able to experience this piece of history at all. And it's still a decent ride; we both enjoyed it quite a lot at the time, though in retrospect I think it's for the best we did this before the one at Tivoli.

A jarring contrast can be found right opposite Rutschebanen in the form of Tornado (#167), an infamous Intamin spinner that features a relatively tame-looking layout which turns downright violent when trains are flung into it off the wildly fast chain lift. The first half is extremely aggressive; it's near impossible to know where in the layout you are and it'll hurt your neck quite a bit if you're not careful. There's a brief moment to breathe around the halfway point before a similarly intense second half, and particularly brutal final helix, once again take your breath away. The ride is the definition of insanity, the most deceptively painful and unnecessarily intense small-scale spinner that doesn't remotely fit in this family amusement park.

And that's exactly why I love it.

It's one of those paradoxically brilliant out-of-place investments that's so ridiculous people of various interests will make the effort to head out of central Copenhagen just for it. The site is steeped in amusement park history, but the fact that Bakken is perhaps best known for this hilarious torture device is testament to how crazy Tornado really is.

I'd also heard good things about Mine Train Ulven (#168), another tame-looking coaster that's a bit more thrilling than it first appears, albeit not to the same extent. The surprisingly steep drops on here are good and it does over-deliver for its type, but it very much still is family-friendly, at least towards the front. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get the back on either of our laps, so perhaps we missed how out of control it can be. Regardless, it's great fun.

De Vilde Mus (#169) is much less interesting, a standard Mack wild mouse with trademark Mack smooth cornering. I'm possibly in the minority here, but to me the extreme laterals are what makes these rides, and having Rattlesnake so close to home has kind of ruined these tamer ones for me.

And then you have the +1 of the day, Mariehønen (#170), surprisingly the only Zierer Tivoli in Copenhagen. Pleasant enough, and easy to obtain without much of a wait, so can't ask for much more from it really. "I look forward to riding that 9 more times," I joked as we exited.

This awful photo is all I have of Mariehønen... but it's perhaps even more telling that I don't seem to have anything for De Vilde Mus...

"9 more times" had quickly become our running joke of the day. When we booked our wristbands online, there was a disclaimer that they were only valid for up to 10 laps on each ride. We assumed this was just smallprint so they can kick you off a ride if you try to marathon it all day, but it's actually quite thoroughly enforced, with each ride having scanners which track how many laps you have left. There's nothing here I'd want to ride more than 10 times, but I did find this quite an interesting system. The upside is that, when it's quiet, on most rides they're very happy to send you straight back around after re-scanning your wristband without waiting for any minimum ridership, because you're still using up a theoretically finite number of "credits". Most notably, a very cheerful operator sent a frisbee-style flat ride 3 times in a row with just 3 riders each time, pausing the ride only for about 30 seconds each time to rescan our wristbands and recheck our restraints. While in principle I think a full-price wristband should mean unlimited rides, the system works well and maybe(?) helps to defend against wristband sharing, so whatever.

There's a range of flats and even a couple of dark & water rides, many of which we did as it was quiet ("and we've already paid for 10 laps on everything!") but most of which weren't remarkable. I'll comment on two though:

1. They have a Sky Roller here too, and this time I had no trouble inverting my plane, managing 37 inversions, much to the amusement of onlookers, not least Ben, who'd watched me fail miserably at Liseberg the day before.
2. There's a little ghost train hidden in a far corner, which I declared was "rubbish" just before some very well-placed head ticklers scared the life out of me. So I'll upgrade it to a mediocre ride with impeccable comedic timing. Easily missed, but worth a quick go.

The evening quickly began to draw to a close and while we'd had plenty of time to snag a few re-rides on the worthwhile stuff, I still had one last thing on my shopping list. I'd heard the legends. I'd heard they possibly don't do it any more. But I hadn't come all this way not to find out. I ventured solo into an empty Tornado station and very timidly asked:

"So what's this boost mode I've heard about?"
"You're getting it. I just switched it on."

Turns out any customers in the last half hour of this now deserted Sunday night were getting boost mode, like it or not! I half-wondered if this was a lie, if they just said this to placate the visiting enthusiast and maybe even trigger a placebo effect, but there was no mistaking the additional roaring lurch at the top of the hill being decidedly more powerful than my previous rides; this was it, the rare ultra-extreme experience I'd seen so many clickbaity videos about.

Now, I'm normally very composed on rides: arms up when appropriate, maybe the occasional noise of appreciation over a good airtime hill, but never any loud screaming or cheering. So it's every credit to boost mode that, as I was flung into the first drop at high speed, I sent an involuntary stream of profanity echoing loudly off the ride's walls. It is undoubtedly the most intense moment I've experienced on a roller coaster, leaving nothing to do but hold on and wait to regain some idea of where I was. The small moment of respite you get in normal mode is completely eliminated as the car speeds relentlessly through the full layout, finally ending with a neck-crunching version of the final turn and a ruthless slam into the brakes, still spinning like a top.

It's insane. Why would you make this? The experience is impossible to rank in terms of coaster quality, but it's easily the most deranged entry in my list to date. I rode once more to cement the memory and genuinely don't think I could have done more if I wanted to. Time to head back to our accommodation... is it just me, or is this S-bahn carriage spinning?

Bakken is a weird place, being further away from Copenhagen and having more of a local funfair vibe than I expected, but it did eventually win me over. It's got a fun vibe, the staff I encountered seemed mostly up for it, and the ride lineup delivers a little more than a glance on RCDB might suggest. I didn't even realise until we were on the way back that I'd once again racked up around 30 rides, despite only being there for a few hours. It's a pretty obvious first visit for any enthusiast already visiting Copenhagen for Tivoli, but the fact I'd be keen to return if ever in the area again (be it for the full wristband or a beer and lap on Tornado... maybe not in that order) is pretty impressive for a park of its calibre.

Tomorrow - central Copenhagen turns me into a good tourist and bad enthusiast.