Furuvik Sweden trip report

This little place is a hidden gem in Sweden IMO. Maybe not for enthusiasts yet, but still. I have so many great memories from this place as a child.

 

My uncle felt nostalgic and asked me if we could visit this place. It dates back to the early 20th century. It's a place where you can take a three generation visit with your family and no one will feel out of place, because everybody have been here growing up. There aren't many of those places around anymore.

 

Parks and Resort took over the place in 2010 and it is already showing great improvements. Thanks to a great new concert program they managed to make over 2 million USD in profit last season, that covers 2/3 of the new coaster in one year alone!

 

 

The monkeys is the parks big pride, but they still have lot's of other animals and rides. A few improvements I would like to see in the future is the addition of one or two more major animals. Also the park could use a large water ride (large as in flume ride or rapids) and a few more major flat rides (when I say major I mean something like a Gerstlauer polyp or a flying carpet, not any giant frisbees or so). The new Vekoma family boomerang for next year will be such a perfect addition for this place!

 

Enough now, onto the photos!

 

Welcome to Furuvik just outside Gävle about 1.5 hour north of Stockholm.

Main entrance.

This is truly a hidden gem in Sweden. The park is 100% family oriented and not really that suited for coaster enthusiast, yet.

Everywhere you are in the park it is green and beautiful. It's really well taken care of.

The atmosphere is really great! Some of these little shops stands from the early 20th century!

Walking down toward the park.

Nice and green everywhere!

As I said earlier the atmosphere is great!

A bit further down the main road into the park.

Nice and good looking!

First thing you stumble upon is where the Chimpanzee's live.

Great looking atmosphere!

It's just a real nice looking park.

One of the nice little cafe's.

Souvenir shop.

This is the main entrance to the park's tivoli. More on that later.

The main animals at the park is all of the different monkeys they have. Here's where the Chimpanzee's lives. Unfortunetly they wern't that into being outside today. We only caught a glimpse of them on one occasion on the outside.

Just chillin!

On the inside you could catch one of them!

Did I say that the park is great looking? This is where the Lemur's are living.

A good petting zoo is always fun!

Main thing in order to win cheap over is to scratch them behind the ears like a dog. At least this one.

These guys were awesome.

Here's the only water ride they have in the park. It's called River-run in the Amazonas. Note the living flamingos in the photo that walks around the ride.

It's a great ride with a great theme.

They told us we could ride in one boat. I'm not a heavy guy but the group together is pretty heavy so we barely made it round. We could feel the boat bottoming through all the ride, it was awesomely fun!

These fellows were also walking around the boat ride.

Cow's are always awesome.

The camels weren't really feeling the mood to mingle with the humans today, no hard feelings!

Here's the second large hang for monkey's, this one is for the Orangutan's.

This is one awesome sight!

The park really love it's monkey's. They take very good care of them and they constantly run different scientific programs with them together with Lund's University located in the south of Sweden (which is also were I'm studying to become an engineer).

We had a really great lunch in the Thai place in the park. Chicken Penang Curry is always lovely and Parks and Resort have a great supplier of it (they serve the same in Skara and Kolmården as well).

Yummy!

Another interesting thing is that outside of the park there is a small island that houses a now defunct coastal battery from the cold war. When the wall fell the swedish politicians decided that there is not going to be another war in Europe and then they very systematically mounted down 99% (literally) of the armed forces. This battery is one of very few that have been preserved and since 1993 it is included in the park with a very short bridge to the island.

Great view toward Finland.

In 1981 a soviet submarine loaded with nuclear torpedos run aground in the south of Sweden. It was this battery (well not this one, but an identical one down south) that forced the soviet's to not daring to enter swedish water with a rescue force, despite having a huge advantage in the number of ships.

The park is right on the coast!

In the recent years Parks and Resort have invested heavily in making the park more toward a resort. This guest harbor and camp site was built in the last two years.

Now these were definitely the highlight of the visit!

These are Barbary sheep's from Sahara.

What an awesome sight!

They were just so extremely friendly and curious on everything. It was a really long time ago since I met such an awesome animal!

There are lot's of other animals in the park as well, but no major ones like elephants, tigers etc.. Let's move to the part you been waiting for!

This is Rocket. It used to be Black Hole at Alton Towers. It was refurbished by Gerstlauer before it landed here in 2011.

I'll have to be honest. I did not feel this coaster at all. I know it's a classic but I can't help it. It was very loud and shaky. i did not like the trains and it slammed hard into the brakes.

But I'm a sophisticated coaster snob, so nobody gives a crap about my complaints on the ride. The GP seemed to all enjoy the coaster and it constantly had a line during the day. That's all that really matters.

 

It sure will be great to have another coaster from next season and onwards!

Here's the parks MainStage in the middle of the tivoli. Parks and Resorts invested in a great concert program last season that really payed of and they are now repeating it.

Here's another of the places that serves food. The park only have great food, there's only one place that sell the classic burgers and fast food.

Remember this awesome ride? It is "extremely" missed at Gröna Lund but it seemed "extremely" appreciated here as well. I could hear teenagers and grown ups talking about it all day on how they would challenge and force each other to ride it.

 

Even the smallest of parks needs a thrilling ride IMO for this purpose.

This is a Huss Bee Bee. It looks like a children's ride, but boy did it surprise me!

It was totally awesome!

I have been on lot's of disco's, but there was something with this one! It spun really fast and crazy, it packed a big punch!

Perhaps there are different settings on these rides and I never experienced this mode before?

The coffee pots are screaming for some colors!

New for this year, awesome ride for the little ones.

Small free fall tower.

Also new for this year, I really like frog themed rides.

Slightly larger, but still small, free fall tower.

In the middle of the tivoli is the fast food restaurant.

All good parks need a big quality chair swing!

This is the only ride I'm not feeling. It's just to small and weirdly placed.

 

Furuvik deserves a really classic double decker with some nice flower plantations on the side! Hopefully Parks and Resorts will realize this as well, they have only been in charge for a few years yet.

This is the haunted castle. It have been here for as long as I can remember.

It's a funny one, a bit outdated though.

If it's staying in the park for much more I'm hoping it will receive an overhaul in the future, like Gröna Lund did with their haunted house.

Nice car ride for the smallest ones.

Nothing to see here. Move along, move along!

Chair swings is just such great rides. And they sure are beautiful as well!

Always gotta play for some candy!

Such a nice park!

The horses are out of the photo unfortunately.

Great looking place!

Hello little friends!

Sadly the day is over and it's time to leave.

Great old classic swedish phone booth.

The park also house a great pool area back at the entrance to the park.

It has a nice play structure for the kids.

And a big pool for playing.

Never been on these slides myself, but they look great!

And from the other side!

The town of Gävle is actually a king when it comes to old train history. They have a great old train museum and it have spread over to the park as well.

These are actually old sleeping coaches and works as a motel in the park.

Gonna have to check them out some time in the future!

Pool area again.

And one last shot.

Time to say goodbye for this time, will definitely be back for the new coaster next year. Hopefully it's the start of some wonderful new additions to the park so that more enthusiasts starts visiting this great little place!

What a great park this is!

 

And a "few thrills" here and there in it, too.

 

Lots of space to breath and enjoy being outdoors, with a farm/park as well!

 

Thanks for sharing your visit!

Thanks for those pictures and the review, nice to see one from a small park we don't usually see a lot.

What a beautiful little park. It looks like simple old fashioned fun. Nice TR.

Wow, this place looks pretty cool! Thanks for sharing--it's good to see the little places that provide a refreshingly different atmosphere from the big corporate coaster parks. Those sleeping cars are a really cool idea for a hotel!

Thanks for the TR!

Last time I was at Furuvik was in 2008 (still the only Wacky Worm I've ridden), looks like they're heading in the right direction with Parks & Resorts. It really is a quite special place with it's surroundings, old park feel and the coastal battery. Really looking forward to visit once again in the future!

Wow, this place looks pretty cool! Thanks for sharing--it's good to see the little places that provide a refreshingly different atmosphere from the big corporate coaster parks.

 

Agreed. I like reading reports about obscure, quirky little parks. Furuvik looks like a nice one for families.

I love big budget rides, huge coasters, etc. as much as the next guy, but I am a sucker for small, well-maintained nostalgia parks like this one. They just have a feel that you can't get in the big boy parks. Great update, thanks for sharing!

Awesome trip report! Looks like the park has a really nice atmosphere. Love the sleeping coaches used as motel, that is really cool. Thanks for sharing!

Looks like a beautiful place- wouldn't expect anything less from place SAAB came from.

...Agreed. I like reading reports about obscure, quirky little parks. Furuvik looks like a nice one for families.

 

Great title for a coaster/parks book there, Chuck.

They have Paulaner and curried chicken so I'm sold.

This is awesome! I love seeing parks like this. I know my son would love the Train Motel at the park...I think that's a pretty neat idea. In my opinion, I think animals integrated with parks is a great idea. You can get your fill for animals and then your fill for thrill all in one day! It doesn't have to be a complete zoo but I think, especially for families, taking time to relax and go check animals out is a way to get some down time for a busy day of running around with little ones.

 

Jimmy "Swedish Meatballs?????" Bo

Furuvik looks welcoming as f#ck. Just... absurdly charming. Northern Europe is so cool.

Wow, this place looks pretty cool! Thanks for sharing--it's good to see the little places that provide a refreshingly different atmosphere from the big corporate coaster parks.

 

Agreed. I like reading reports about obscure, quirky little parks. Furuvik looks like a nice one for families.

 

Agreed as well. Such a pleasure to be introduced to parks like this; thanks!

I like little cute parks like this. It's Canobie but even more family based, and I think even my mom who doesn't like parks would enjoy a day here!