Guide: Amusement parks within driving distance of Raleigh
Triangle residents do not have to travel to Orlando or Los Angeles to enjoy top theme or amusement parks.
There are a handful of parks within a half-day drive of the Raleigh area: two theme parks in Dollywood and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, two amusement parks in Carowinds and Kings Dominion, and a smaller family park named Tweetsie Railwoad. The four large parks have a substantial number of roller coaster and flat ride attractions, while Tweetsie Railroad only has a collection of smaller flat rides for kids.
Luckily for us, these parks in our driving distance are not your average parks. They are award-winning parks. Amusement Today's 2023 Golden Ticket Awards (think: the Oscars of the amusement industry) named Dollywood the Best Park in the world, stuck with Busch Gardens Williamsburg as the world's Most Beautiful Park for the 25th time, and Carowinds' Fury 325 once again took the Best Steel Coaster in the world award, as it has every year since 2016.
Let's take a look at some of the basics about each park so you can decide which is the best for your family to try.
Park Superlatives
- Quickest trip from the Triangle: Carowinds and Kings Dominion
- Most fun for your buck: Carowinds and Kings Dominion
- Best themed experiences: Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Dollywood
- Best park for young families: Tweetsie Railroad
- Best food: Dollywood
- Best scenery/greenery: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Best parking: Kings Dominion
- Best roller coaster: Fury 325, Carowinds
- Most intense roller coaster: Project 305, Kings Dominion
- Most roller coasters: Carowinds
- Best dark ride: Blazing Fury, Dollywood
- Most total rides: Kings Dominion
- Most shows: Dollywood
- Best Christmas event: Smoky Mountain Christmas, Dollywood
- Best Halloween event: Howl-O-Scream, Busch Gardens Williamsburg
General Tips
- If you pan to visit a park more than once, absolutely go for the season/annual pass options. They will cost more up front, but some of the passes will let you avoid the expensive parking prices and offer discounts on the expensive food and merchandise inside the park.
- Anyone who wants to frequent both Carowinds and Kings Dominion can purchase the Cedar Fair All Park Passport add-on to a Gold or Prestige season pass. The All Park option is an additional $100 onto the Gold Pass or an additional $125 onto the Prestige pass. With either one of those base season passes, you are able to park for free.
- Don't bring a large bag. Many attractions require riders to place their bag in small lockers before entering the queue. Pack only the essentials into a smaller bag. Your back will also forgive you at the end of the day. Don't forget the sunscreen!
- Wear a pair of shoes that are broken in. Amusement parks are not the place to break in a new pair of shoes. There is always more walking required than you'd expect.
- Bring a drink cooler and leave it in the car. You are allowed to re-enter parks on the day of admission. Experienced park goers often leave a cooler of drinks and snacks in their vehicle to have the option to step out and recharge in the middle of the way. Kings Dominion even has picnic tables in the parking lot for this purpose.
- Download the park's app ahead of time. These apps have replaced the printed park maps and can serve as your ticket through the front gates. Some even have a live GPS functionality to give you walking directions to rides, restaurants and restrooms.
- Some of the parks offer discounted tickets for active or retired U.S. military members
Carowinds
Charlotte, NC
- Approx. drive time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
- Water Park: Carolina Harbor
- Number of roller coasters: 14 (3 family)
- Number of other rides: 25
- Typical hours: 10 AM - 8/10 PM (spring hours vary - only open weekends/Fri-Sun through Memorial Day)
- Single-day tickets: starting at $39.99
- Season pass: Silver $99, Gold $115, Prestige $250
Of course, we have to start with the park that is actually in North Carolina. Carowinds resides on a plot that is both on the southern tip of Charlotte as well as in South Carolina. The state line is actually visible down the center of the park. Now 51 years old, the park exists as a tribute to the Carolinas.
Carowinds is owned by the Cedar Fair Entertainment company, which also owns Kings Dominion. Those two destinations within our driving distance make up 18.2% of the corporation’s amusement parks. At some point in the future, Cedar Fair will officially merge with SixFlags to create a super chain of amusement parks. The new company will be based in Charlotte.
In the past, Cedar Fair’s amusement parks were not known for their intricate and creative theming around attractions and guest pathways, but there has been a noticeable effort to make investments there as of late. Recently, Carowinds opened heavily Carolina-inspired lands like Blue Ridge Junction, which features the inversion-heavy, smooth multi-launch coaster Copperhead Strike. The park debuted Aeronautica Landing in the 2023 season. The new land features four new rides in Air Racers, Airwalker, Gear Spin and Windstar. The new area is whimsically themed and has the awesome backdrop of the Afterburn inverted coaster taking on its turns and flips.
Fury 325 is the obvious star of this park. Widely considered to be one of the world's best attractions, it is the tallest coaster in the world to use a traditional chain lift at 325 feet. Its airtime is incredible and has a couple of moments on intensity that you don't normally find the designs from its manufacturer, Bolliger & Mabillard. The track is smooth and the elements on the course are well-paced. For such a thrilling ride, it is kind of relaxing.
Carowinds has a similar, but slightly smaller, coaster on the other side of the park in Thunder Striker (previously known as Intimidator).
Camp Snoopy, the park's family area, is as big a kids section as you will find. It is themed well and feels cozy with the camping aesthetic. There are a dozen different rides in the area now, and the park is rumored to be planning to add to the area ahead of the 2025 season.
Carowinds is great fun now, but the park also has a lot of growth opportunity in its future. There are multiple areas do be developed and some older rides that can turn into new ones (looking at you, Hurler).
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
James City County, VA
- Approx. drive time: 3 hours
- Water Park: Water Country USA
- Number of roller coasters: 9 (1 family)
- Number of other rides: 22
- Typical hours: 10 AM - 8-10 PM (summer hours, park is closed some weekdays in April and May)
- Single-day tickets: $111.99 (regular price, but check for frequent deals of up to 50% off)
- Season pass: Fun Card $156.99, Basic $225, Unlimited $300, Premier $378, Platinum $495
It is no fluke that Busch Gardens is considered to be the most beautiful park in the world. Busch Gardens puts the "park" in theme park. The flowering gardens are beautiful, and the park's landscapers effectively use larger vegetation to visually separate the themed areas.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg brings pieces of Europe to America. Six different countries are represented with their own "hamlet" themed areas: England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Each section does a splendid job at transporting you into each unique culture. The architecture and landscaping choices play a big role in the immersion.
Thrills-wise, this is the park to go if you love launch coasters. The new Pantheon multi-launch coaster takes a lot of notes from its sister ride, VelociCoaster at Islands of Adventure, which is considered by many fanatics to be the best in the world. Pantheon is not quite as good as VelociCoaster, but it has one of the best airtime moments out there with its backwards vertical spike. Busch Gardens has three more coasters with multiple launches: the new and completely indoors DarKoaster, Verbolten, which has a great indoor section, and Tempesto. Apollo's Chariot is an older hyper coaster, but it still hits the right notes. The invested coaster Alpengeist and dive coaster Griffon are two of the best in their category. Modern wooden coaster InvadR packs in many airtime moments. While not a coaster, Finnegan's Flyer is a Screamin' Swing that hurls guests 100 feet over water.
For families, you'll find most of the traditional flat rides and a Sesame Street land for the youngest children.
Tip: If there is anyone who plans on frequenting Busch Gardens and also happens to be traveling to SeaWorld this year, the Platinum pass will get you into both parks an unlimited number of times and take care of your parking.
Dollywood
Pigeon Forge, TN
- Approx. drive time: 5 hours, 30 minutes
- Water Park: Dollywood's Splash Country
- Number of roller coasters: 10 (4 family)
- Number of other rides: 24
- Typical hours: 10 AM - 8 PM (park is closed Tuesdays and Thursdays in April)
- Single-day tickets: $92 adult, $82 children
- Season pass: $169 Silver , $244 Gold, children born in 2019 or 2020 are eligible for a free pass
One of the world's greatest theme parks is nestled just outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Originally known as Rebel Railroad, Goldrush Junction and then Silver Dollar City Tennessee, the park was re-branded as Dollywood when legendary performer Dolly Parton invested in the park in 1986. Today, Dollywood is a part of a massive 150-acre resort.
In addition to its 2023 Golden Ticket Award for Best Park, Dollywood was named the No. 1 theme park in the U.S. by Tripadvisor and won Best Guest Experience at the GTAs in 2022. It's Christmas event, Smoky Mountain Christmas, has won Best Christmas Event at the GTAs for 15 consecutive years.
The park has over 10 immersive areas, each representing an aspect of the Smoky Mountain way of life. The architectural theming is immaculate. The park creatively operates multiple festivals and events based on the season (and they get more intricate by the year). Dollywood is also well known for its best in the industry food and cleanliness.
Dollywood has indoor dark rides with sets that rival the attractions found at a Disney or Universal Park. Blazing Fury and Mystery Mine are renowned coaster/dark ride hybrids. Firechaser Express is an outdoor coaster with a great set piece. Dollywood is also home to one of the world's best hybrid roller coasters in Lightning Rod, as well as a top wing coaster named Wild Eagle.
Last year, the park opened its longest coaster, named Big Bear Mountain. The tame multi-launch coaster received immediate praise from riders of all ages. Big Bear Mountain is a part of the larger Wildwood Grove family area, which has won the GTA's Best Kids' Area award every year since its opening in 2019.
It is the furthest trip for Triangle residents among the parks shared here, but Dollywood has two large resorts and cabin options to stay in overnight.
Kings Dominion
Doswell, VA
- Approx. drive time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
- Water Park: Soak City
- Number of roller coasters: 13 (2 family)
- Number of other rides: 34
- Typical hours: 11 AM - 10 PM (summer hours, the spring hours vary - only open weekends or Fri-Sun through Memorial Day)
- Single-day tickets: starting at $39.99
- Season pass: Silver $99, Gold $115, Prestige $250
No park close to the Triangle has more rides than Kings Dominion, which is located outside of Virginia's capital Richmond. It also represents the "easiest" escape day for Triangle residents. Kings Dominion sits off of I-95 and has an ample parking situation. Since the park isn't dramatically themed and landscaped, finding your way around is pretty simple. The tickets are considerably cheaper than Dollywood or Busch Gardens and the lines never seem to get too long.
Kings Dominion is a member of the same company as Carowinds: Cedar Fair, so it has also made a recent push to produce more intricately themed areas. The new Jungle X-Pedition section area has given a fun facelift to what was an older section of the park. It introduced a new coaster in Tumbili, which is a free-spinner that is designed to challenge even the strongest of stomachs. This area also has Reptilian, the unique bobsled coaster.
Project 305, formerly known as Intimidator 305, is one of the most intense rides in the world. A lot of riders "grey out" as they reach the bottom of the 305-foot lift hill and take on the relentless long low to the ground turn that ensues. It has moments of negative air time that are reminiscent of Fury's but it mostly focuses on pushing you as far into your seat as possible. Next to Project 305 is Flight of Fear, a very thrilling indoor launched coaster themed to aliens. The front of the park features Dominator, a smooth, inversion heavy floorless coaster that your feet will dangle on.
The park is also known for its classic wooden coasters. Racer 75 is an older racing coaster that still has solid moments of airtime. The bump Grizzly had substantial amounts of its older track replaced in the 2023-2024 offseason and reportedly has been an improved experience. In 2018, Kings Dominion converted its version of the Hurler into a steel hybrid coaster. Now known as Twisted Timbers, the experience is smooth is visceral. If the ride was a tad longer, it would be in the conversation with Fury 325 and Project 305 as the best coaster in the region.
Tweetsie Railroad
Blowing Rock, NC
- Approx. drive time: 3 hours
- Water Park: None
- Number of roller coasters: 1 (family)
- Number of other rides: 16 (mostly small flat rides for kids)
- Typical hours: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. (only on weekends + some weekdays in summer)
- Single-day tickets: $60 adult, $40 children 3-12, free for children 0-2
- Season pass: $140 adult, $100 children 3-12, free for children 0-2
Tweetsie Railroad is a Wild West theme park outside of Boone that is designed for young families. The park's namesake attraction is a 3-mile train ride that uses two historic coal-fired narrow-gauge steam locomotives to traverse the track loop. These train rides have Wild West themed elements throughout the journey. The park has multiple events that utilize the train systems in different ways. There is a Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine, which runs from June 7-10 and 13-16. It also turns into a spooky Ghost Train each October. During Christmas time, the park lines the tracks with over 1 million holiday lights.
The park has steadily grown from just a train attraction into the full theme park that it is today. It features a handful of shows, as well as a zoo with nine different friendly species of animals. There are 12 flat rides, a small coaster for children, a mini train, a go-cart track ride, a drop tower, and a relaxing chain lift up to Miner's Mountain.
