This is the UK’s only alpine rollercoaster which goes up to 25mph and has been described as a ‘must-do activity’.
There’s no shortage of rides for thrillseekers in the UK, with theme parks like Alton Towers, Thorpe Park Resort and Blackpool Pleasure Beach drawing in millions of visitors per year. However, there is only one rollercoaster that takes you soaring through stunning woodland – Zip World Fforest Coaster located near Betws-y-Coed, North Wales.
The one-kilometre track takes you on a tour of the Welsh woodland at thrilling speeds, but you can use brake levers to slow down for more control.
You can ride the rollercoaster up to three times, on your own or with someone else – but children under nine must be accompanied on the same sled by an adult.
Skye Hornby and Ryan Purvis, who document their adventures in the UK and across the world on TikTok, recently posted a video on the platform sharing their experience riding the Fforest Coaster. The 14-second-clip shows one of them speeding past rows of trees along the twists and turns on the track.
The couple captioned their TikTok post: “Forest Coaster, Zip World, Wales. This is the UK’s only alpine coaster and goes up to 25mph on a 1KM track through the Welsh woodland, a must do activity if you’re going to Wales we had so much fun doing it.
“Each person gets a wristband which entitles you to 3 goes and the cart has built in brakes to control the speed you go down.” Zip World’s description of the track on its website reads: “Escape into the forest and ascend 300m of track before darting back down the remaining 700m.”
It adds that depending on the time of year, this adventure can take up to an hour to complete.The ride begins with a “scenic ascent through the woodland” where you’ll just sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery for around four minutes while the sled “does all the work and automatically takes you slowly through the forest.”
Then, once you’ve reached the very top of the track it’ll be time for you to take control of your sled using the two levers which are used to move you forward and control your speed as you go along 700m of track, where you can reach “ground-rush speeds”. With each Fforest Coaster ticket, you get three rides so you can build your confidence and speed with each run.
After you’ve had your three goes on the ride, you will be located next to the Fforest Coffi bar and Tipi Bar where you can get a bite to eat. Skye and Ryan’s TikTok video has garnered nearly 200 comments, with other people sharing their thoughts on Fforest Coaster.
One participant said: “I’ve been on that can’t say I enjoyed it.” The further shared that they “didn’t like the bends.”
Another added: “I’ve been on this it’s brilliant.” A third commented: “This is so much fun, I did it a few years back.”
Someone else asked an important question: “Does it automatically brake if it’s someone else in front?” Skye and Ryan replied: “No you have to brake yourself hahah but you can wait at the top for the other person to get a good distance in front of you and they send you up with distance in between as well so usually not that close to others.”
Tickets for the Fforest Coaster are £25 per adult or child above nine-years-old and a shared sled with one adult and one child under nine-years-old costs £35. Book tickets online via the Zip World website.