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31Rank

Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Score7.2
01 / 20
🇺🇸United StatesTheme parkNorth America (USA)

Williamsburg, Virginia, United States

A Virginia park themed to European villages, often voted the world's most beautiful.

Overall score

Weighted index · out of 10

7.2
Thrill8.6
Family8.0
Value5.0

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About rank badges

Opened

1975

Size

422 acres (171 ha)

Rides

53 attractions

Avg. visit

7 hours

Ticket range

$60–$90 USD

Busch Gardens Williamsburg overview

Busch Gardens Williamsburg at a glance

A Virginia park themed to European villages, often voted the world's most beautiful.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has won "world's most beautiful theme park" more than 30 times, with wooded hamlets themed to England, France, Germany, Italy and Ireland connected by a steam train and skyride. Pantheon, Griffon and Alpengeist keep the coaster lineup genuinely strong.

BEST TIME TO VISIT · Fall

Our editor's recommendation

Worth a day, but build it into a wider trip rather than flying in for it. It ranks #31 of the 50 parks we score, at 7.2/10 with 53 rides and attractions and a typical visit of about 7 hours. Tickets run $60–$90 a day. The strongest reasons to go are its big-ticket thrill rides. The honest catch: tickets are expensive for what you get, and queues average around 17 minutes. Best time to visit: Fall.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg highlights

High-Speed Thrills on Pantheon Multi-Launch Coaster
High-Speed Thrills on Pantheon Multi-Launch Coaster
The Classic Wild Maus Roller Coaster
The Classic Wild Maus Roller Coaster

Rides & attractions at Busch Gardens Williamsburg

These are the top attractions at Busch Gardens Williamsburg — 10 rides and experiences hand-picked and verified by our editorial team, including 6 signature rides you shouldn't miss. Use the filter bar below to narrow the line-up by rider height, zone, category or thrill level.

SHOWING 10 OF 10 ATTRACTIONS · 6 SIGNATURE

  • Alpengeist at the park
    SIGNATURE

    Alpengeist

    EXTREME

    ROLLER COASTER

    137 cm min
    DURATION
    3m 10s
    TOP SPEED
    107.8 km/h
    HEIGHT
    59.4 m
    TRACK
    1158 m
    INVERSIONS
    6
    OPENED
    1997
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Apollo's Chariot at the park
    SIGNATURE

    Apollo's Chariot

    HIGH

    ROLLER COASTER

    132 cm min
    DURATION
    2m 15s
    TOP SPEED
    117.5 km/h
    HEIGHT
    51.8 m
    TRACK
    1472 m
    INVERSIONS
    0
    OPENED
    1999
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
    SIGNATURE

    Griffon

    EXTREME

    ROLLER COASTER

    137 cm min
    DURATION
    3 min
    TOP SPEED
    114.3 km/h
    HEIGHT
    62.5 m
    TRACK
    945 m
    INVERSIONS
    2
    OPENED
    2007
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
    SIGNATURE

    Loch Ness Monster

    HIGH

    ROLLER COASTER

    122 cm min
    DURATION
    2m 10s
    TOP SPEED
    96.6 km/h
    HEIGHT
    39.6 m
    TRACK
    1000 m
    INVERSIONS
    2
    OPENED
    1978
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Pantheon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
    SIGNATURE

    Pantheon

    EXTREME

    ROLLER COASTER

    132 cm min
    TOP SPEED
    117.5 km/h
    HEIGHT
    54.9 m
    TRACK
    1014 m
    INVERSIONS
    2
    OPENED
    2022
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
    SIGNATURE

    Verbolten

    HIGH

    ROLLER COASTER

    122 cm min
    DURATION
    3m 25s
    TOP SPEED
    85.3 km/h
    HEIGHT
    26.8 m
    TRACK
    864 m
    INVERSIONS
    0
    OPENED
    2012
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Battering Ram at Busch Gardens Williamsburg

    Battering Ram

    MODERATE

    THRILL RIDE

    122 cm min
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Escape from Pompeii at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
    Seasonal

    Escape from Pompeii

    MODERATE

    WATER RIDE

    107 cm min
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • InvadR at the park

    InvadR

    MODERATE

    ROLLER COASTER

    114 cm min
    TOP SPEED
    77.2 km/h
    HEIGHT
    22.6 m
    TRACK
    646 m
    INVERSIONS
    0
    OPENED
    2017
    Skip-the-line eligible
  • Skyride at the park

    Skyride

    MILD

    TRANSPORT

    No height requirement

Plan your visit to Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Operating hours
Typically 10am-8pm in summer, shorter in spring and autumn
Operating calendar
Seasonal: published day-by-day 2026 calendar, daily through summer with reduced days in spring and autumn, plus Howl-O-Scream and Christmas Town.
Seasonal closures
Closed roughly November to March apart from Christmas Town event dates
Queue-skip pass
Quick Queue and Quick Queue Unlimited, priced by date. From about $60 USD.
How long to stay
Full day
Multi-day tickets
2-day and combo tickets with Water Country USA offer a clear per-day discount.
Season pass
Annual or season pass from about $160 USD.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg map

Official park map

Click the map to view it full size.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg events & shows

  • Snow-covered Christmas market stalls and string lights inside a theme park at night

    HOLIDAYMid November - early January

    Christmas Town

    Large-scale holiday event with millions of lights across the European hamlets and festive shows.

  • Decorated food festival stalls and visitors strolling through a theme park

    SEASONAL FESTIVALMarch - May

    Food & Wine Festival

    Spring festival with international food and drink stalls plus a concert series.

  • Snow-covered Christmas market stalls and string lights inside a theme park at night

    HOLIDAYSeptember - October

    Howl-O-Scream

    Separately ticketed Halloween event with haunted houses, scare zones and live shows.

Event dates shift each year — confirm on the park's official site before booking.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg reviews & ratings

Amusement Park Ranker overall score

7.2/10

An aggregate of 3 public review platforms, each normalized to a 0–10 scale and weighted by review volume.

Scores aggregated from public review platforms, not independently verified by Amusement Park Ranker.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg wait times

  • Typical day

    17MIN

    All-park average: 20 min

    −2 min vs average

  • Crowd & wait score

    5.4/10

    All-park average: 5.5/10

    −0.1 vs average

Averages compare Busch Gardens Williamsburg with all 50 ranked parks. Source: Queue-Times.com 2025 all-ride annual mean (park 23), first-season attractions excluded. Average posted queue times, indicative only.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg records & achievements

  • Golden Ticket Award for World's Most Beautiful Park

    1990

    Busch Gardens Williamsburg has won Amusement Today's Golden Ticket Award for Most Beautiful Park every year since the awards began in 1990.

Attractions near Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Water Country USA, a water park near the park5 KM
Water Park

Water Country USA

Sister water park with wave pools and 1950s surf theming.

Colonial Williamsburg, a landmark near the park9 KM
Landmark

Colonial Williamsburg

The world's largest living-history museum of the American colonies.

Jamestown Settlement, a landmark near the park16 KM
Landmark

Jamestown Settlement

Recreated 1607 fort, Powhatan village and full-scale ships.

Virginia Living Museum, a zoo near the park35 KM
Zoo

Virginia Living Museum

Nearest zoo/aquarium hybrid, showcasing Virginia native species.

Things to do near Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is part of our index of theme parks ranked worldwide. Planning a shorter shortlist? The top 20 amusement parks in the world narrows the field to the essential stops.