Sarkanniemi is the second most popular amusement park in Finland, just behind Linnanmaki. And both
these Finnish parks share a lot of similarities- both good and bad. Both have solid ride lineups
and exciting atmospheres, but they are incredibly small and compact parks. In
this video, I will explain why Sarkanniemi is an interesting park well worth visiting.
Sarkanniemi originally opened in 1969, but not as an amusement park. The park originally opened
with an aquarium, planetarium, observation tower, and children’s zoo. Then in 1973,
the 25 acre amusement park was added and that is the focal point of Sarkanniemi today.
25 acres is quite small for an amusement park,
but like many city parks, Sarkanniemi is a dense park. There is zero wasted space.
You have a mix of compact cloned coasters, flat rides, and a few unique rides with sprawling
layouts that cross over-and-under other rides and pathways. The compressed nature of the
park results in an electric atmosphere and it’s further amplified by Sarkanniemi’s location.
The park is located in the heart of Tampere, which is Finland’s second most populous city.
The park feeds off the energy of the city and this setting is one of the park’s biggest strengths.
Sarkanniemi is located on a peninsula that juts out into the Black Gulf. The combination of the
water and surrounding buildings create some of the most picturesque views of any amusement park.
The park itself looks great too. Sarkanniemi had a surprising amount of shade towards the
front half of the park and the rides looked good too. Everything seemed well maintained. The only
slight gripe from an appearance standpoint were a few rides towards the back that looked like
carnival rides with their busy backdrops. Getting to Sarkanniemi is extremely easy
with public transportation. The city buses service the park.
However, getting to Sarkanniemi can be a bit tricky…if you’re traveling by car. Since the
park is located in the middle of a bustling city, you have several obstacles. First,
traffic. Nobody likes traffic and there’s a lot of it near the park. Second, the lack of parking.
Sarkanniemi only has a modest sized parking lot and it can’t fit everyone on a given day. It’s
located near the main entrance and if you want to park here, I strongly recommend arriving early.
This lot cost 15 Euros as of 2021. If the lot is filled,
you can park at a few different parking garages within a 1 mile walk of the park.
Visitors have the option to purchase individual admissions for the planetarium,
aquarium, observation tower, or rides. One thing that surprised me for my visit was that there was
no option to purchase individual ride tickets. That’s something you see at most city parks.
I’m not sure if this was related to covid or the norm, but the only way tot access the rides was
to purchase a rides pass for roughly 39 Euros. During my visit, I spent almost all my time in the
amusement section. The one exception was when I took a ride atop the Nasinneula Observation Tower,
which is the tallest free-standing structure in Finland, reaching heights of 551 feet
or 168 meters. A ticket atop this tower cost roughly 8 Euros
and it was well-worth it. The views were stunning. I got a birds-eye view of all the park’s rides
set against the beautiful sea and skyscrapers. Nasinneula and the other attractions outside the
amusement park have separate hours than the rides, so just keep that in mind. On the day I visited,
the observation tower opened a few hours before the amusement area.
I visited on a sunny Saturday late in summer of 2021.
And the park was quite busy. The physical queue lines for many rides weren’t particularly long,
so it often bled onto the midway. This made the park feel even busier.
Lines moved at a steady pace thanks to the staff. They would load rides as fast as possible. The
only issue was that many of the park’s rides had limited throughputs due to small trains,
limited number of a ride vehicles, or long cycles. All of the roller coasters, including the kiddie
coaster, had roughly half hour waits. And the park’s premier flat rides had similar waits.
The two longest lines were for the water rides. I was stunned this was the case with
temperatures in the mid-60s, but both the flume and rapids ride had waits approaching 45 minutes.
Sarkanniemi has 5 coasters. Four of them are clones, but they are clones I enjoy.
The park also used to have a 6th coaster in the prototype Intamin Half Pipe coaster, but it was
removed in 2019 due to technical issues. The one custom coaster at this park is Tornado,
which is the undisputed star for me. This is a rare Intamin full-circuit inverted coaster
and while it feels distinctly different than the Bolliger and Mabillard inverts,
it compares quite favorably. Tornado has an exciting location past trees, pathways, and rides
before diving underground for its signature element- the inline twist over the load platform.
This inversion has one of the scariest near-misses of any coaster while offering some incredible
hangtime. The coaster also includes another inline twist and 3 other inversions focusing
more on positive Gs. And it’s a very smooth coaster too. I have a separate review going
into more detail, but Tornado is a great coaster. Hype is the tallest, fastest, and newest coaster.
This Premier Rides Sky Rocket II clone is one of the best installations out
there. This one not only offers the stunning view of the water and city, but this is one of the
few to operate without comfort collars. Having your entire upper-body free makes the hangtime
on the barrel roll and the intense ejector airtime on the ascent and descent even better.
Trombi is a Zamperla Volare. I know most enthusiasts find this model uncomfortable,
but I enjoy these coasters for their forceful turns and scary hangtime on the barrel rolls.
MotoGee is a Zamperla motocoaster. This coaster has a repetitive layout, but I do like the
deceptively strong initial launch and profiling into the turns that causes these tiny pops of
airtime. This is probably the park’s best family coaster, but I just wish they had one that could
accommodate guests shorter than 48 inches. The final coaster is Vauhtimato,
a Zierer kiddie coaster. Based on this coaster’s dismal throughput, this may be worth prioritizing
early if you have kids or want the credit. Vauhtimato is part of Angry Birds Land,
which is a sizable children’s area themed to the popular mobile game. The area is colorful and
features plenty of attractions for younger guests. You have a mixture of play structures and rides.
Complimenting the adult coasters are a series of flat rides.
You have the usual family ones, but there are a few standouts in the thrill department.
X is an intense Zamperla discovery alternating between hangtime and crushing positive Gs.
High Voltage is a disorienting Zamperla Power Surge that will flip you more times than you
can count. And this one is extra wild since it’s one of the few that still has a rotating base.
This induces more flips than usual. Tyrsky is a Zamperla Disko coaster that
extends down a thin sliver of the peninsula, so you get fantastic views paired with the
usually dizzying ride experience. And then there are two other unique
flat rides that probably aren’t worth riding despite their uniqueness.
Boom is a rare adult Zamperla drop tower. The views are incredible, especially since the tower
spins throughout, but the drops are forceless. Then you have TakeOff, which is a spinning ride I
have never seen before. The ride doesn’t travel particularly fast nor does it pull crazy Gs,
but the spinning can be disorienting due to all the axes of rotation.
Moving onto the water rides, you have a fun log flume in Tukkijoki. I love the wooded layout
that is intertwined with Tornado. And there are several smaller drops along the course.
The one downside is that the final drop is super shallow. This flume gets you fairly wet,
especially if you’re seated in the back if the logs stack returning to the station. I got
a surprise wave of water down my back. Then you have Koskiseikkailu,
the park’s Intamin river rapids ride. The layout is well-shaded and has a solid series of rapids,
but the most interesting thing about this attraction is its location. It’s located
outside the amusement section towards the zoo. It’s quite the walk from all the other rides.
So do I recommend Sarkanniemi? If you’re in Finland, absolutely. This park has a top
notch atmosphere and a solid ride lineup. Tornado is a very good inverted coaster
and the other attractions are a worthy supporting cast covering all sorts of genres.
Compared to Finland’s other parks, I think Linnanmaki reigns supreme,
but the second spot is a toss-up between PowerLand and Sarkanniemi. PowerLand has better rides,
but Sarkanniemi has a superior atmosphere. I strongly recommend trying all three parks if
you find yourself in Finland so you can form your own opinion.
So those are my thoughts on Sarkanniemi, the enjoyable amusement park in downtown Tampere.
Have you been to this Finnish park? What do you think about the park? I would love to
hear your thoughts about Sarkanniemi down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!