Immediately after you enter the park you’re faced with Amsterdam-style gabled houses on your left and pastel coloured Mediterranean villas on your right. Pick up a map of the Theme Park from the Information Centre and continue straight ahead to the giant golf ball, better known as the Fountain Stage.

SAMCHULLI LAND

The area to the left of the Fountain Stage features a Korean-style Haunted House, complete with a heart attack inducing active element, a Lotus Fountain, a large picnic area, an amphitheatre with 3000 seats, and the Top Spin ride, which has nine different rotation patterns, most of which involve you hanging out of your seat as gravity battles your safety harness. This ride is not for the fainthearted.

TOMORROW LAND

At the end of Samchulli Land the rides are even more stomach churning. The Flying Carpet ride thankfully keeps you upright as it rotates 360 degrees to a height that had my friend punching me for persuading him to accompany me. Straight ahead, the two roller coasters tower over the park. The first, the blue Double Loop, reaches speeds of 85 km/h as it goes through two long tunnels and the two loops from which the ride takes its name. The Black Hole 2000 and situated to the right en route to Fantasy Land, is the longest in Korea and reaches speeds of 100 km/h. To be honest, neither is anything special and both gave me terrible back and shoulder pains for days afterwards due to my height.

Far better, but alas far shorter in duration, is the X-Drop, which bounces its seated passengers up and down to a height of 52 metres. Nearby, the Sky-X is touted as the best ride in the entire park, although you have to pay another 15000 Won to experience bungee jumping and simulated sky diving. I particularly liked the Sky Flyer ride in front of the second roller coaster, although my friend wasn’t too enamoured with the slower 360 degree loops that had his fingers clutched tightly around the overhead cage. The World Cup ride located a little to the right spins its passengers in varying directions while simultaneously tilting to 90 degrees from the ground.

FANTASY LAND

Child-oriented rides with a large playground keeping the kids happy while adults seek out, or desperately avoid, the spinning Rock & Roll cars, which spin you and a partner remorselessly back and forth in a motion similar to being strapped onto a turning hamster’s wheel. You’ll also find the dodgems here as well as the Para Tower, which replicates a falling parachute after meandering up to a height of thirty metres or so.

ADVENTURE LAND

Located to the right of World Plaza and the Fountain Stage, this small area features Korea’s biggest Pirate Ship and a decent Log Flume ride.

EATING AND DRINKING

There are several Korean and Western restaurants as well as a Lotteria fast food franchise and two branches of Dunkin Donuts.