Ultimate 3 day trip?

[MisterBrow]

Accounting for travel time, money, and sleep what would be the best three day trip? Count the first park as the starting point, not necessarily your home park.

 

Score scale: ?/10 Coasters, ?/10 Cost, ?/10 travel weariness, ?/10 epicness

 

I will throw out Carowinds 6 hour drive to Kings Dominion then sleep, 4 hours drive to SF GrA, sleep then 3 1/2 hours fly Philly to Cleveland to CP, sleep then 5 1/2 hours fly to SFMM.

 

All of the 400', all of the 300', and 9/12 of the coasters at or above 230'.

 

Three days at CP would score high for me, because I live so far away. Probably not epic if you live there.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Absolute best actually feasible trip for me would be Dollywood, Holiday World, and Cedar Point.

[bert425]

Accounting for travel time, money, and sleep what would be the best three day trip? Count the first park as the starting point, not necessarily your home park.

 

Score scale: ?/10 Coasters, ?/10 Cost, ?/10 travel weariness, ?/10 epicness

 

I will throw out Carowinds 6 hour drive to Kings Dominion then sleep, 4 hours drive to SF GrA, sleep then 3 1/2 hours fly Philly to Cleveland to CP, sleep then 5 1/2 hours fly to SFMM.

 

All of the 400', all of the 300', and 9/12 of the coasters at or above 230'.

 

Three days at CP would score high for me, because I live so far away. Probably not epic if you live there.

 

you're going to go to Kings Dominion, but bypass the absolutely spectacular BGW (less than an hour from it) ??

 

hmmm. .

[jarmor]

Here are some I have done . . .

Trip one

First day . . . sesame place and SFGAdv

Second day . . . SFNE attempted lake compounce and the park with wooden warrior

Third day . . . dorney and knoebels

***Bonus day*** hershey park until time to fly back home

 

Trip two

First day . . . Kentucky kingdom

Second day . . . Kings Island

Third day . . . Cedar Point

*** Bonus day*** Dollywood on drive back home for a few hours

 

Trip three

First day . . . SFA

Second day . . . Kings dominion

Third day . . . Busch Gardens

 

Trip four (doing this next week)

First day . . . SFoT

Second day . . . SFoT and sea world

Third day . . . SFFT and switchback

[larrygator]

I will throw out Carowinds 6 hour drive to Kings Dominion then sleep, 4 hours drive to SF GrA, sleep then 3 1/2 hours fly Philly to Cleveland to CP, sleep then 5 1/2 hours fly to SFMM.

 

How is this a 3 day trip?

[Canobie Coaster]

Since I'm a huge Disney fan, I'd have to pick trips centered around these parks. I also don't think the suggested scale works too well since those parks shine in areas outside of coasters.

 

Trip 1- Florida

Day 1- Walt Disney World (realistically would want more than 1 day, but I could park hop to get on my favorites)

Day 2- Universal Orlando/Islands of Adventure

Day 3- Busch Gardens Tampa

 

There's also a decent chance the Fun Spots could be squeezed in as well.

 

Trip 2- California

Day 1- Disneyland/California Adventure

Day 2- Six Flags Magic Mountain

Day 3- Knott's or Universal Hollywood

 

I've never been there, but Tokyo Disney Resort would be up there for me as well.

[JT325]

Best three day trip?

Park yourself at Knoebels.

Walk away still wanting more.

[805Andrew]

Accounting for travel time, money, and sleep what would be the best three day trip? Count the first park as the starting point, not necessarily your home park.

 

Score scale: ?/10 Coasters, ?/10 Cost, ?/10 travel weariness, ?/10 epicness

 

I will throw out Carowinds 6 hour drive to Kings Dominion then sleep, 4 hours drive to SF GrA, sleep then 3 1/2 hours fly Philly to Cleveland to CP, sleep then 5 1/2 hours fly to SFMM.

 

All of the 400', all of the 300', and 9/12 of the coasters at or above 230'.

 

Three days at CP would score high for me, because I live so far away. Probably not epic if you live there.

 

you're going to go to Kings Dominion, but bypass the absolutely spectacular BGW (less than an hour from it) ??

 

hmmm. .

 

Yeah, he just lost his own thread.

 

I will throw out Carowinds 6 hour drive to Kings Dominion then sleep, 4 hours drive to SF GrA, sleep then 3 1/2 hours fly Philly to Cleveland to CP, sleep then 5 1/2 hours fly to SFMM.

 

How is this a 3 day trip?

 

Yeah, I counted at least five days, and even at five days this trip is a death march.

[MisterBrow]

I was just hitting the tall coasters and moving on.

[LiftThrill]

I'd say SFOG>Carowinds>Dollywood has got to be one of the better ones.

 

Also something involving CP and KI

[coasterbill]

Best three day trip?

Park yourself at Knoebels.

Walk away still wanting more.

 

Beat me to it.

[bill_s]

The OP's first plan showed it's possible to ride many of the largest coasters in the country in 3 days if you don't care about quality of experience or cost (or the realities of air travel). BGW has no place on it, I mean KD and Carowinds are on the same day, with more time on the road than both parks combined. Many of the other proposed trips aren't very practical either.

 

One realistic 3 day trip I'm looking at, maybe next year, would be to go to Hershey, Kennywood, and Knoebels. Kennywood is just too far to do by itself, the other 2 parks make the trip work. This is coming from Virginia, basically KD. Not sure if I'm really up for all that, even. Another for me would be Dollywood and Carowinds, preferably as .5+1+1+.5 days with 3 hotel stays, but if I do those parks it will more likely be 2 days with one night.

 

A compromise between enjoyment and numbers would require pairs of parks fairly close to each other, for example BGW and KD, 2nd day Hershey and Knoebels, last day GrAdv (+Dorney if you want the numbers, or head to Morey's and stay 'til midnight). For me some of those parks are better as dedicated trips since I'm in the middle, and more distant pairings I haven't really thought about.

[cparkes92]

Here are some ultimate three day trips I can think of (not counting a three-day tour of the Florida and SoCal parks).

 

Trip 1: Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom/Holiday World (the last two on the same day)

Trip 2: Dollywood, Kings Island, Cedar Point

Trip 3: Dollywood, Six Flags over Georgia, Carowinds

Trip 4: Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Trip 5: Hershey, Knoebels/Dorney (same day), Six Flags Great Adventure

Trip 6: Six Flags New England, Lake Compounce/Quassy (same day), Six Flags Great Adventure

Trip 7: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, California's Great America, Six Flags Magic Mountain

[bert425]

The OP's first plan showed it's possible to ride many of the largest coasters in the country in 3 days if you don't care about quality of experience or cost (or the realities of air travel). BGW has no place on it, I mean KD and Carowinds are on the same day, with more time on the road than both parks combined. Many of the other proposed trips aren't very practical either.

 

One realistic 3 day trip I'm looking at, maybe next year, would be to go to Hershey, Kennywood, and Knoebels. Kennywood is just too far to do by itself, the other 2 parks make the trip work. This is coming from Virginia, basically KD. Not sure if I'm really up for all that, even. Another for me would be Dollywood and Carowinds, preferably as .5+1+1+.5 days with 3 hotel stays, but if I do those parks it will more likely be 2 days with one night.

 

 

Add in Dorney.

 

VERY possible to hit everything you'd want to ride in just a few hours.

 

We did a Penn. trip a few years ago, flew into Pittsburgh, and did Kennywood, Hersheypark, Knoebel's and Dorney.. of course, we did that over 4 1/2 days, and then spent 3 days in Philly doing "historic" stuff. . bit VERY possible to do in just a few days, if you leave Kennywood early enough, make use of preview night at Hershey, and only account for a few hours at Dorney.

 

but Knoebel's is easily a full day, or 2 day park -- especially if you want to do the museums. the Eagles, and play a LOT of Fascination

[Samuel]

For relatively low cost and travel weariness in the US, I always recommend grouping Cedar Point + Waldameer/Presque Isle + Kennywood together in doable weekends that I have done and not regretted one bit! The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland can also be easily incorporated; it's memorable and unique if you enjoy music. I think Kennywood can be appreciated much more in this arrangement when compared to "credit rushing" the park during an Eastern PA/NJ trip. Also, RFII is not a coaster to be overlooked, and Presque Isle is beautiful.

 

Other nice combos include:

 

- Great Adventure/Dorney/Hershey/Knoebels

 

- Great Adventure & NYC

 

- Holiday World/KK/KI

 

- KD & BGW

 

- Dollywood & Carowinds

 

- Orlando and California (tons of options)

[anonymouscactus]

Knoebel's is easily a full day, or 2 day park -- especially if you want to do the museums. the Eagles, and play a LOT of Fascination

 

This guy knows what's up.

[MrSum1_55]

I am going to pick a trip outside the US, and this is a trip that I am kind of actually doing!

 

Phantasialand, Holiday Park, and Europa Park.

 

I cannot think of any other combination as well-rounded as this one. This trip allows you to ride one of the best roller coasters in the world, while also visiting two parks with theming that easily rivals Disney.

 

However, I would say that I am only kind of doing this trip. I am going to the general areas where these parks are located in that order, but I am staying extra nights somewhat close to these parks so I can also see the cities of Cologne, Bonn, Heidelburg, Freiburg, and Baden-Baden. (Yes, parks are awesome, but I also do like to see other things besides coasters).