Spain is home to a large mix of amusement parks.
You have some smaller family parks along with a few large parks like PortAventura and Parque
Warner Madrid.
As a result, the country has an interesting mix of roller coasters.
In this video, I rate my top 10 coasters that I have personally ridden in all of Spain.
10) Stunt Fall at Parque Warner Madrid- One of the few Vekoma Giant Inverted boomerangs
ever built, Stunt Fall has an intense first drop.
There’s something terrifying staring straight at the ground nearly 200 feet in the air and
you get a true freefall sensation on the drop.
It felt like a more intense version of Falcon’s Fury.
That’s followed by a moderately snappy cobra roll and mildly floaty loop.
You then repeat the course in reverse!
This is significantly better than the traditional boomerangs because it’s considerably more
intense and most amazingly, it’s a much smoother ride.
I still hit my head a few times because of the oversized restraints, but it’s not brutal
like some of Vekoma’s other coasters.
9) Tornado at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid- One of the rare Intamin inverts, Tornado rides
somewhere in between a B&M invert and a SLC.
It’s not glass smooth, but there’s only light headbanging as opposed to the concussive
blasts you’ll get on a SLC.
Tornado requires a full train to be dispatched and I could see why because the coaster doesn’t
hold its speed well in between elements.
However, both vertical loops are decently forceful and the snappy corkscrew over the
midway is easily the highlight.
I loved that inversion!
8) Tarantula at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid- This is a very bizarre spinning coaster.
While most focus on twists and turns, Tarantula is located on a hillside and has a series
of larger drops.
The positive here is that these drops are quite thrilling, especially if you’re traveling
in reverse.
On the downside, the cars don’t have as much of an opportunity to get spinning.
7) Superman la Atraccion de Acero at Parque Warner Madrid- Superman should be one of the
best B&M floorless coasters.
It has great height at 164 feet or 50 meters.
And it has 7 inversions.
However, the inversions are quite forceless and the ride has a nasty rattle.
However, the ride is redeemed by the drops.
This coaster gives some great airtime on the drops and camelback.
Those elements feel more like a B&M hyper than a B&M looper.
I’m hoping I just got a bad ride on Superman, but this is where it ranks based on my experience.
6) Furius Baco at PortAventura- This is a very hard coaster to rank as there’s a major
difference between the front row and any other seat.
And the issue is exasperated by the fact you cannot choose your own row; the staff is very
strict about assigning rows on Furius Baco.
Up front, Furius Baco is quite smooth.
However, the low-to-the-ground turns are really uncomfortable in any other seat.
And it’s a shame because Furius Baco has a powerful launch that’s just a hair less
powerful than the other hydraulic launch coasters.
And I love the sustained airtime on the hump after the launch and hangtime on the barrel
roll.
If I could get the front row every time, Furius Baco would have placed fourth on this list.
But in any other seat, Furius Baco is closer to the bottom of this list so I averaged it.
5) Abismo at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid- I love everything until the end of Abismo.
The inverted chain lift is freaky and offers some of the scariest hangtime of any coaster.
The following barrel roll and sky drop offer a unique combination of hangtime and whip.
You then have a greyout inducing overbank, a camelback with great sustained ejector airtime,
and one last floater hill into the station.
However, this ride’s Achilles heel is the gut-punching stop on the final lift- brought
on by the awful restraints.
The lap bars on Abismo actually rest on your stomach and after they tighten during the
ride, the abrupt stop on the vertical lift crushes your stomach.
I spend the whole ride dreading this moment, which is a shame because everything else is
great.
4) Batman : Arkham Asylum at Parque Warner Madrid- I don’t care that this is a clone.
The B&M Batman clones are smooth and intense coasters.
And the one at Parque Warner Madrid is among the best.
This one has a better themed queue than its American counterparts and this one doesn’t
have a hint of headbanging.
It’s just a very forceful coaster that caused me to greyout on the vertical loops.
And the snappy 2nd half was absolutely leg numbing.
3) Dragon Khan at PortAventura- Often called Spanish Kumba, it’s not hard to see why.
Dragon Khan has a very similar layout with a few exceptions.
Rather than having a curved drop, Dragon Khan has a straight drop, but unfortunately it
doesn’t have any airtime.
It then follows an identical sequence of inversions- except there’s a second vertical loop after
the cobra roll.
All of Dragon Khan’s inversions are forceful and snappy, only feeling a pinch less intense
than those on Kumba.
And there’s only a tiny bit of headbanging on a few of the transitions.
But I do prefer Kumba overall primarily for the setting.
Dragon Khan is plopped in an empty field while Kumba is landscaped beautifully around it.
2) Red Force at Ferrari Land- This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think Red Force
is better than Top Thrill Dragster or Kingda Ka.
Yes the magnetic launch on Red Force doesn’t have the same initial kick as the hydraulic
launches.
However, once the ride starts accelerating, the sense of speed makes the launch feel just
as intense since the blast of wind at 112 mph or 180 kilometers per hour is breathtaking.
But Red Force has three improvements over the US strata coasters.
One, the ascent over the top hat gives stronger floater airtime, presumably since the magnetic
launch is more consistent.
Two, the drop only has a 90 degree twist as opposed to the 270 degree twist.
This means you straighten out sooner and the drop gives some wonderful sustained floater
the whole way down unlike Dragster or Ka.
Third, there’s a surprise jump into the brake run that gives a quick pop of ejector
airtime.
Red Force is short but sweet.
1) Shambhala at PortAventura- The best coaster in Spain is easily the best B&M hyper coaster
on the planet.
The ride is the complete package.
The ride has a beautiful setting along the coast, is glass smooth, and every drop delivers.
The airtime is sustained for an extremely long time on the first drop and it feels similar
to the B&M giga drops, which are among the best drops on any coaster.
All of the camelbacks that follow deliver copious amounts of sustained floater airtime
as well and it was accompanied by a stomach dropping sensation that made the airtime even
more intense.
I’m not sure how Shambhala did it, but my thought is that it had something to do with
how drawn out the hills are, how you don’t slow down over them, and the super long trains.
Shambhala has the staggered V-style seating like Diamondback or Behemoth, and the resulting
whip on the drops is glorious.
Shambhala also has a fantastic speed hill similar to the one on Orion or Mako and no
real mid-course brake run, the first brake run occurs right before the final brake run,
so the pacing isn’t ruined halfway through the ride.
This is the best paced B&M hyper and combining that with the wonderful airtime makes Shambhala
one of my favorite coasters in the world.
So those are my top 10 coasters in Spain.
What are your favorite coasters in Spain or thoughts on this list?
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments down below.
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Thanks for listening!