Spain 03/18 – Ferrari Land + Tibidabo

Day 2

As I woke up today I further praised the option of staying on site at PortAventura. Getting a sensible night’s sleep and waking up at a decent time is something I could get used to on a coaster holiday.

Ferrari Land

Today began with a trip to Ferrari Land, the newest park at the resort.

Ferrari Land’s entrance is located right next to the entrance of the main park but absolutely counts as a seperate gate. With the shockingly low of amount of things to do in Ferrari Land, which I’ll get into in a minute, I do find it slightly odd that they have separated the 2 parks.

Red Force

We headed straight to the new park’s headline attraction, which at the time of visiting was it’s only coaster, the 370 foot tall Intamin launch coaster, Red Force.

First things first unlike the disappointing B&Ms next door, Red Force is an ugly looking mess. The supports on the top hat look like scaffolding, the new style Intamin track just looks wrong with this sort of coaster and the 3 massive Ferrari logos make it look like a 370 foot billboard.

The coaster itself rides almost exactly the same as all Intamin launch coasters that are basically Dragster clones.

Intense launch, very strong positive gs as you pull up, weightless feeling over the top hat, very strong positives as you level out again, then you hit the brakes.

Over in a flash and nothing too exciting in my eyes.

Red Force via the brake run being designed strangly does have one up on it’s almost clone brothers though because it has a vicious pop of air between the 2 sections of ending brakes.

After 2 laps of Red Force we’d seen enough and decided to try out the other, very few, Ferrari Land attractions.

Flying Dreams – A flying theatre attraction that was pretty awful.

You watch 3 pretentious Ferrari adverts in preshow form before you board the flying theatre which is pretty much just another Ferrari advert, as you follow various cars from their catalogue around for a while.

The simulator barley moved, the screen was blurry and you could clearly see that you were in a warehouse.

Racing Legends – A simulator attraction where you sit in 8 seater cars and jiggle around a bit infront of a large screen. But not before watching 3 more Ferrari advertisements.

And that’s for the most part the lot, I did say there wasn’t much to do in the park.

I’m sure if you were a big fan of Ferrari and you were able to look past the serious lack of things to do in the park then you’d have a great time in Ferrari Land. For me though, with it’s current line up, I’d probably never choose to return.

We chose to head into the main park to re-ride the coasters before heading off for an evening at Tibidabo. This ended up being a brilliant idea.

Before setting off though we decided to try out the pizza place next to Furius Baco and it was awesome. Really friendly staff, a lovely pizza, an interior I felt too poor to exist in and a very reasonable bill at the end.

Tibidabo

It began to rain heavily as we left PortAventura and we were half expecting a repeat of yesterday but thankfully it wasn’t and thank God because Tibidabo is fantastic!

Tibidabo is located on top of the highest mountain in the region and has been around for well over 100 years now. It’s a charming park full of adorable rides, bags of character and stunning views of Barcelona.

Muntanya Russa – The park’s star attraction is their terrain based Vekoma sit down coaster Muntanya Russa and it’s an absolute joy to ride. I fell deeply in love with this coaster and it’s breathtaking first drop.

Tibidabo Express – The park’s Zamperla powered coaster also uses the terrain to it’s advantage which makes for a pretty interesting experience. The highlight for me was when you race along the side of the main road.

After many laps on Muntanya, we needed to get from the lower level of the park to the upper viewing platform level. We failed many times to call the lift so we just decided to take the stairs.

It was well worth the effort though because some of the rides up here are unforgettable.

Avio (AKA Plane On A Stick) – A plane on a stick that’s been operating with the park since 1928, it’s charming, it’s mental, it’s adorable, I loved it.

L’Embruixabruixes – A suspended 8 seater monorail that opened in 1915 and it’s incredible! One second you’re outside hoping it doesn’t collapse and drop you off the mountain and next second you’re travelling through trippy projection mapped dark ride sections. It’s absolutely insane and then something happens just before you go back into the station, something that will scar you for as long as you live!

Talaia (AKA Bucket On A Stick) – So the amazing views of Barcelona from the viewing platform aren’t enough for you? Well then, climb into an almost 100 year old bucket attached to an almost 100 year old stick, with nothing holding you in, I did and I loved it. Easily one of the coolest, yet scariest rides I’ve ridden in years, where else does something like this exist? No where.

We ran from Bucket On A Stick down the many stairs to get one more lap of Muntanya just before close. With the sun going down and the city lighting up the first drop was stunning.

Tibidabo is simply amazing. A beautiful park with an awesome coaster, fascinating history, stunning views and more character than some can handle.

I really hope all those who visit PortAventura every year have visited this place at least once because it’s more than worth your time.

We got back to the hotel at gone 11pm but it didn’t matter because all we had to do was walk to our room and then crash for the night, beautiful.

Thank you for reading, click here for day 3, our final day at the resort, where we spend the day taking it easy at PortAventura park.