Amusement parks and theme parks used to be marketed to kids, tweens and teens (I blame Disney for that), then came the parks with scary-to-terrifying rides, and adults ceased feeling irrelevant. I haven’t been to many of these parks but, several months ago, I found myself in a place that I can – without any reservations – declare to be my favorite theme park. EVER. And it’s called EVERLAND (see what I did there?!?). And I had to go all the way to South Korea for it, and even further out of Seoul.
We were actually choosing between two amusement/theme parks to go to during our trip: Everland Resort or Lotte World. In the end, Everland won out, mainly because it is OUTDOORS. And it had the T-Express.
(Before you ask, why not go to both parks? Well, we didn’t want to spend our limited vacation time in South Korea to be all parks. Something’s gotta give.)
Everland Resort is located in Yongin in the province of Gyeonggi, just out of the Seoul metropolitan area. If you remember, Yongin is also where the Korean Folk Village is located. (To jog your memory, check out my KFV-related posts by following the Gyeonggi tag.)
Fondly referred to by Koreans as simply “Everland”, this is the largest theme park in the country, and it is owned by the Samsung group. Yes, THAT Samsung. It has a “sister” park, which is a water park, and it is called Caribbean Bay. We didn’t get to go to it, though, even if they are just beside each other. We spent the entire day at Everland.
It was around 8:40 when we boarded Bus No. 5002 at Gangnam Station, and we arrived at Everland at 9:40AM. Which is just right, since the park opens at 10:00AM. We secured our tickets and brochures and went right in.
Prior to the trip, we noted that our travel dates coincided with the Korea Grand Sale, so I downloaded coupons off the VisitKorea website, just so we could avail of discounts. When we arrived in Seoul and swung by one of the many Tourist Information Centers, we saw brochures of these discount coupons, and one of them is a 50% discount for Everland and Caribbean Bay. At that time, too, foreign visitors are automatically entitled to this 50% discount.
So, instead of paying 52,000 KRW (Php 2,050 or USD 44), we paid only half.
Everland has 5 zones, each with its unique theme: Global Fair, American Adventure, Magic Land, European Adventure, and Zootopia.
- GLOBAL FAIR
This is the first zone you will arrive at once you enter the gates of Everland. Kinda like Disneyland’s “Main Street”.
As the name implies, Global Fair features buildings and structures with architectural styles from the different ancient and contemporary civilizations.
It is also where the K-Pop Hologram was located (haha! We’ll get to that later). But yes, this is the YG Entertainment “corner” in Everland. It’s easy to spot, especially when there’s Big Bang and 2NE1 pictured right there.
The park is open all year round, and they have festivals and activities that are in keeping with the changing of the seasons. It was summer when we got there, so the prevailing theme was “summer splash”, with flower setups and installations in various areas. Like this “Nymph Garden” set up.
If you don’t feel like moving from one zone to another by foot, you can find cable car lines that move around zones. Like this, the Sky Cruise, which takes you from Global Fair to American Adventure.
- AMERICAN ADVENTURE
This has an all-American vibe, with attractions that you’d normally see in an American theme park. There’s even a KFC place, with a giant KFC cup on the roof.
But what drew our eyes was the T-Express in the distance. And the distant sound of shrieking and screaming from those who are riding it. Seriously, it gave us the chills… and made our cold feet even colder.
if you’re hungry, there are snack bars pretty much everywhere in the park, in all the zones. Take your pick,
To be honest, we were psyching ourselves up to ride the T-Express later, and we decided it won’t be a good idea to fill our stomachs. ….you get the picture, right?
We ignored the ferris wheel (it was closed at the time…maybe because there weren’t people lining up. My guess is they went directly to the T-Express.) We did, however, tried one kiddie ride, then proceeded to the next one, THUNDER FALLS.
(If you are from the Philippines, and you’ve been to Enchanted Kingdom, it’s kinda like the Jungle Log Jam, only with a longer course, steeper drops, sadistically slow ascents, and lots of splashing water.
This zone is also where most of those thrill rides are located, such as Hurricane, Double Rock Spin (it looked so heart-stopping. Watch the video at the end of this post) and Let’s Twist.
We got on the Rolling X-Train, which is a typical rollercoaster that goes on for about 90 seconds. After the ride, we felt like we were more ready to get on the T-Express.
- MAGIC LAND
Kids will feel right at home in this zone, which is centered around fantasy and fairy tales. There are also rides, which are designed more for kids. We, uhm, basically passed on this. 🙂 What we did was, from American Adventure, we rode on the Sky Way to get to the European Adventure.
- EUROPEAN ADVENTURE
Feel royal and European in this zone, where we found most of the couples-on-date enjoying the romantic atmosphere.
This also happens to be where the T-Express is. T-Express is the first ever wooden roller coaster in South Korea and, at 77 degrees, ranks fourth in the steepest roller coaster drops all over the world.
After our T-Express ride, that was the only time we felt confident to ingest anything. But we were too excited still so we just settled for some very light snacks, and proceeded to the nearby zone, Zootopia.
By the way, horror lovers out there would probably like this, but we passed on it, too.
- ZOOTOPIA
This is where the Amazon Express is located, as well as the Safari World and the Lost Valley. Which I will get into more detail in a succeeding post.
Here’s a pic of some treats for sale at Zootopia. Bear-shaped mini-pancakes.
Out of all the five zones, we spent the longest time at the Zootopia. If I had more time, I’d spend two days in just Everland. But that’s just me. And I didn’t have more time. So we squeezed in as much as we could. I’m fully aware that we barely explored and enjoyed more than half of what Everland has to offer, but I’d like to think that we covered the most important parts.
There were kids with their parents (naturally). Groups of friends. And lots and lots of couples on dates. Not surprised, since Everland seems to be a good date spot for many young Korean couples.
Hollywood has not touched Everland. In fact, it is safe to say that, except for those touches of the west in the American and European Adventure zones, this theme park is purely Korean. They don’t even have English tours in the Zootopia tours we got on.
And, speaking of being all-Korean, it would not be complete without PORORO!!
Now, how did Everland become my favorite theme park so far? It’s because it has everything for everyone. They have the rides for both thrill-seekers and those who prefer to play it safe. They have festivals for those who appreciate spectacles. They have live animal attractions for animal lovers. I honestly did not expect to see as much as we did when we went there. I just thought there’d be rides and attractions, some animals on display, and that’s that.
Boy, was I glad I was wrong. I felt like I visited a theme park and a zoo/safari in just one day.
Some tips:
- Wear comfortable shoes. Because you’d be walking and walking and walking. Unless you spend your entire visit riding the cable cars moving from one zone to another, but what’s the fun in that?
- If you’re going to be taking on the rides, bring a change of clothes. Maybe an extra shirt or something. We got drenched in one ride, you see. I’ll get to that in the next week. 🙂
- In order not to waste time (if you want to try out as many attractions as you can, refer to the map. Haha!
- Be there early. If you’re taking the bus, make sure to be early, because there is sure to be a queue at the bus stop. We were supposed to go the previous day but we were kinda late, and the buses were full, so we moved the Everland trip to another day. It was a weekday, too. I mean, just check out this part of the parking area… and this is, like, 5% of the entire parking area of Everland Resort. Sheesh.
In my next several posts, you will see why I fell in love with this place. See you then!
As promised, here’s a video of the Double Rock Spin, which had me spellbound just watching the people lose their minds. And whatever’s in their pockets.
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