When you think of states to visit for theme parks many may think of the main ones like Florida, California, or Ohio – but others must be great for theme parks too- right? Well, you may find it surprising to hear that New Hampshire is home to a few great amusement parks. They have Clark’s Bears – with some highlights being the bear shows and a roundtrip train ride with a full story. Storyland is another well-themed park with much revolving around the fairytales and folklore we grow up with. There is a wide range of activities from a carriage ride up to Cinderella’s castle to a Dino themed exhilarating coaster. A third park that is recommended is Santa’s Village. While the park is themed around winter and Santa and Christmas, don’t let the name fool you, it is not a winter-only park.
The park is open regularly during summer and for most weekends throughout the year. This is a popular theme park that visitors flock to and so for at least the 2022 season park admission must be purchased online for the specific date of attendance. Admission often sells out in advance so make sure to plan ahead. Santa’s Village has so much to do that it is near impossible to complete in a single day, but then at least there’s something new for next time. There’s a wide range of activities, rides, and shows. One of the best activities to start your day off with begins by heading on over to Elf University. You can enroll and engage in a scavenger hunt throughout the park looking for 26 elfs, each with a letter they represent. You can focus on finding them all at the start which will introduce you to all actions of the park, or take it leisurely and complete it as you go about your day. Just remember at the end to head on back to Elf University for your hard earned diploma.
And don’t worry about age at this University, young and old alike are encouraged to join in. As you begin to explore the ride options, know that they have classic rides like: antique cars, bumper cars, drummer boy spinning drums, Christmas Ferris Wheel, Yule Log Flume, a Reindeer carousel, and more. They also have a few rides that are more unique to the park. There’s a children’s ride, Hot Shots Fire Brigade, where they can pretend to be firefighters and raise up the ladder to reach all the windows of a burning building. There’s a family dark ride where your goal is to shoot away all the humbugs. No humbugs wanted during the holidays! The Skyway Sleigh lets you ride, I mean fly, around the park in Santa’s sleigh- but not without saying the magic words! This is by far the best view of the park, even beating out the ferris wheel. After taking a ride on Santa’s sleigh, what better thing to do than visit all his reindeer. At Reindeer Rendezvous you can even purchase special treats that you can feed to the reindeer for all their hard work. A visit to Santa’s Village wouldn’t be complete without visiting the big fella himself. Santa can be found at his home eager to meet his guests.
Other notable things to do at the park include watching the two shows that they have in their theater. One of which has real life mascots involved in introducing a fun 3d film. One of the mascots was an animatronic tree that looked really fun or evil depending on your state of mind. The film itself was good but the intro involving the mascots was great. The other show featured various Christmas music and Christmas lights. You know those insane Christmas light shows that some houses do each year? Imagine that but on a stage! It was pretty amazing seeing these lights come to life with various songs.
Overall, we were blown away by the quality of this park. We were pleasantly surprised at every corner we turned. There was so much detail in this park and the rides were quite fun. This isn’t necessarily the park for young adults unless they love theme parks like we do but it is the perfect place to bring your children. The park has a lot to offer various ages of children and nothing seemed really scary(unlike Disneyland which can have scary moments). To watch our full trip to the park, click the video below and watch our vlog of the park.
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