Latest news with #Futuroscope
Daily Mirror
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'New type of terror thrilled my kids at theme park two hours from UK'
Futuroscope is a theme park with a difference – the rides are shows too, awakening all your senses on this sprawling French site, which boasts futuristic-style architecture. Think 4D and IMAX motion simulators, and terrifying rides combined with huge screens, so the tornado chaser takes you right into the eye of a (digital) storm. I booked a two-night break with my 11-year-old son, Otto, and we were keen to try an alternative type of terror. The park is in southwest France, a few miles from Poitiers, and also includes a 'digital' water park. Arriving at the theme park, we picked up translation headsets first – the screens that accompany almost every ride have commentaries. We ventured into The Time Machine and sat on a moving conveyor, facing the 4D film with the Raving Rabbids, feeling the wind and travelling into a snapshot of the future. Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@ Most kids will recognise the Rabbids from the video-game series, and they are a huge feature of the park – naughty rabbit-like creatures scream and gibber at you from screens around the site. Next up was the €20million attraction, Destination Mars. We become astronauts at the space training centre, before bracing ourselves for a shuttle ride into orbit. The roller-coaster carriages spin you senseless and launch you down an indoor, vertical free-fall drop, right at the end. Looking back on the Earth, as we hurtled away, added a great touch. I staggered out, dazed, and Otto dragged me to one of the omnipresent burger stands. A huge theatre with a 4D nature documentary didn't just provide respite from the adrenaline adventures. The screen rolls under your feet as you fly over mountains and immerse yourself in life under the sea. Danse Avec Les Robots had all the mad futuristic feels you could hope for – giant robotic arms flipped us upside down and high into the air. Dancing to the thumping beats, attached to the arm of this monster, was one unpredictable ride. We watched Cosmic Collisions in the Planetarium and sat back in reclining seats, staring at a journey around the planets, on the ceiling, all translated via the app into headsets. At the Space Loop restaurant, meals hurtle down from the kitchen on a mini roller coaster towards sets of tables, some doing a loop the loop. Get them quick because incoming containers knocked a few of our side dishes off the track. Retrieving them from the floor, we roared with laughter alongside the other diners served by the same metal track, trying to work out which meal was spiralling down at us at an alarming rate. You order through the screens on each table – and the blue-bunned burgers are fun. Having walked around what felt like every inch of the 148-acre park, we headed, with aching feet, to the nearby Eco Lodges, set around a lake with a small waterfall. The wooden hut has a separate kids' sleeping area and glass doors open out on to a balcony, overlooking water. So far, so good. I was longing for a cup of tea, but in true environmental style, there are no kettles. The lack of a TV was refreshing, though, and I decided to have a long, hot shower and sit outside, in the tranquillity of nature, after a day of non-stop thrills. A firm advocate of the sacrifices we must all make in the face of climate change, the Eco Lodge quickly showed me up to be a complete fraud. We were in for a short, sharp shock. After a few moments of bliss, the shower turned cold as hot water is limited to a few minutes to keep the carbon footprint low. Otto screamed his way through his freezing wash! At night the lodge was sweltering. I opened the French doors at around midnight and the cold air was a delight. I even noticed three frogs on our balcony. Breakfast arrived – croissants and yogurt – in a wicker basket and the tea and hot chocolate we had ordered came in flasks. Unfortunately, the drinks were stone cold. I bought a cup of tea at the lodge reception area and armed with swimming gear, we walked to Aquascope water park. There's a choice of eight huge waterslides, with light displays as you whizz down the tunnels. The Rocket involves a 400ft free fall. The Lazy River circles the whole site, and Aquadynamic's currents push you through an outside 'river'. There's a fun tots' area too. It was very busy and we jostled into others in the wave pool, before discovering the magical cavern around the corner. Ideal for younger swimmers, a huge aquatic cinema envelops the pool, showing a mix of cartoons and the ocean, set against a starry night sky. There are underwater lights and random bubbles and we watched the sun rise on the screen, floating, mesmerised. I honestly felt as if I was in the sea. We've enjoyed a number of family holidays with water slides in Europe, but have never been to a digital water park. It's impressive and very clean but the queues were long. We visited at Easter, but careful timing could avoid the region's school holidays and crowds. We rounded off our trip with the late-night light show at the theme park, which takes place in an open-air arena. The seats filled up quickly, and no wonder. The display, which played out on giant screens over water, was an explosion of digital illusion and sound. It was absolutely spectacular. Futuroscope is the ideal place for space-mad pre-teens and theme-park fanatics because it's totally different from anything the UK has to offer. I'd recommend Hotel Ecolodgee for true climate zealots, but there are hotels dotted around the site, including a space-themed one, so you can truly carry on embracing that Futuroscope feeling. The fun definitely landed. Book the holiday Fly from Stansted or Edinburgh to Poitiers, or get the Eurostar from London St Pancras International to Lille Europe then connect via a TGV to Poitiers. Stay two nights at Futuroscope Experiences from around £724 for a family of two adults and two children under 12. Includes two nights at Ecolodgee on B&B, two-day tickets to Futuroscope and tickets to Aquascope. Price based on September dates.
Scottish Sun
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
I went to the ‘world's best waterpark' just three hours from the UK and it's like being on another planet
For more thrills, there's even an amusement park right next door SPACED OUT I went to the 'world's best waterpark' just three hours from the UK and it's like being on another planet DESPITE most of my friends having never heard of it, the indoor waterpark Aquascope has been named the 'best waterpark in the world' - so I had to find out for myself. Eight miles north of Poitiers in France, there are three things that make this water park stand out from the crowd. Advertisement 5 Aquascope has 8 waterslides, a wave pool and immersive zone with an aquatic cinema Credit: ©JL AUDYFUTUROSCOPE 5 Another attraction is the lazy river Credit: ©JL AUDYFUTUROSCOPE Firstly, Aquascope is an indoor attraction – an absolute blessing for us in the 35C heat in France at the time so no chasing everyone around with the factor 50. It is also is on the same site as major French attraction Futuroscope, if you wanted more theme park elements. But by far the most appealing thing about Aquascope is that it combines its hardcore water features with truly impressive tech effects, so it feels, in the words of my youngest, 'like you're swimming around inside a cool video game'. Think lights, screens and cascading colour and you're on the right lines. Advertisement Picture the scene. Two spiral stairways, each signposting a route to the top of a different slide. Everyone carries their inflatable rafts up (depending on the slide, there are four-seater inflatables, two-seaters; one-seaters; mats with handlebars; and slides that you don't need any accessory for). You can even watch through the transparent tubes, showing you the people ahead of you squealing down. We counted eight slides in total, each offering a completely different thrill. Advertisement Scots waterpark crowned 'best in the country' to reopen in weeks 5 There are lots of ride from high thrills to smaller slides Credit: ©JL AUDYFUTUROSCOPE We loved 'Alien' (a tube raft race with some serious skids and swirls) and 'Sprint' (like head-first bodyboarding). 'Quick' was exactly as it sounds, a short sharp bolt with one free-fall funnel stretch. After four goes, I lost count of how many times we waited in line for that one. The most adrenaline-pumping? For us, that was a toss-up between 'Spiral', a 130m of giddy twists, nail-biting speed, and deep-pool plunge. Advertisement And 'Rocket', where you step inside a space capsule and count down to lift-off when the floor disappears beneath your feet. The most impressive thing about Aquascope was that in addition to the crazy slides there's a totally different change of pace and vibe at Aquascope's Abysses-de-Lumière, an underworld of fairytale caves and canyons. One minute you're swimming right up to a massive, mesmerising screen, then meteors crash around you, then you feel like you're swimming underwater with cute sea creatures. 5 The waterpark makes you feel like you're on another planet Credit: Lucy Shrimpton/Aquascope Advertisement There's a lazy river too that carries you along in floats beneath a magical sky. There is also an outdoor section with a hotel-style pool where I managed to get my sun-lounger fix for a while. Little ones meanwhile will be in their element in the minis zone with water maze, overhead soakers and a musical grotto. As for Futuroscope next-door, that was surprising, because if you thought that a virtual-reality ride couldn't be as exhilarating as a rollercoaster, Futuroscope will make you eat your words. Advertisement In 'Extraordinary Journey' for example you whizz at breakneck speed around all the world's sights, sounds and even smells without leaving your seat. It's just one of Futuroscope's 40 experiences, some of the type you'd expect at a theme park ('Destination Mars' your rollercoaster, brand-new 'Mission Bermuda' your aqua-flume),. We couldn't get enough of Tornado Chasers (flee the storm before it swallows you!) and Robot Dance (its arm throwing you around to the DJ's beat drop). The verdict? For us the combination of speed and special effects was a winning formula and so worth the drive. Advertisement If my grown-up kids AND my 58-year old husband had to be dragged away (the biggest kid of all), that tells you pretty much everything you need to know, right? Here's More About Where To Stay and Eat at Aquascope... Drive: via Le Shuttle from Folkestone, rolling off in Calais just 35 minutes later. Aquascope is an onward drive of around 6 hours. (To break up the journey with a day in Paris, a trip to Disneyland Paris, or a trip to Parc Asterix, spend a couple of nights at Eurocamp's Le Grand Paris.) Stay at: Ecolodgées Hotel, serene cabins designed to restore peace after the day's high-energy. Eat at: the Space Loop restaurant scoring high on fun factor. Order food on your table's screen then wait for it to land via mini rollercoaster. For further details including pricing, restrictions, app etc. visit OR you can fly to Nantes from the UK, taking around 1h25, with Aquascope around two hours from there
The Irish Sun
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
I went to the ‘world's best waterpark' just three hours from the UK and it's like being on another planet
DESPITE most of my friends having never heard of it, the indoor waterpark Aquascope has been named the 'best waterpark in the world' - so I had to find out for myself. Eight miles north of Poitiers in France, there are three things that make this water park stand out from the crowd. Advertisement 5 Aquascope has 8 waterslides, a wave pool and immersive zone with an aquatic cinema Credit: ©JL AUDYFUTUROSCOPE 5 Another attraction is the lazy river Credit: ©JL AUDYFUTUROSCOPE Firstly, Aquascope is an indoor attraction – an absolute blessing for us in the 35C heat in France at the time so no chasing everyone around with the factor 50. It is also is on the same site as major French attraction Futuroscope, if you wanted more theme park elements. But by far the most appealing thing about Aquascope is that it combines its hardcore water features with truly impressive tech effects, so it feels, in the words of my youngest, 'like you're swimming around inside a cool video game'. Think lights, screens and cascading colour and you're on the right lines. Advertisement Read More on Holidays Picture the scene. Two spiral stairways, each signposting a route to the top of a different slide. Everyone carries their inflatable rafts up (depending on the slide, there are four-seater inflatables, two-seaters; one-seaters; mats with handlebars; and slides that you don't need any accessory for). You can even watch through the transparent tubes, showing you the people ahead of you squealing down. We counted eight slides in total, each offering a completely different thrill. Advertisement Most read in Family Exclusive Scots waterpark crowned 'best in the country' to reopen in weeks 5 There are lots of ride from high thrills to smaller slides Credit: ©JL AUDYFUTUROSCOPE We loved 'Alien' (a tube raft race with some serious skids and swirls) and 'Sprint' (like head-first bodyboarding). 'Quick' was exactly as it sounds, a short sharp bolt with one free-fall funnel stretch. After four goes, I lost count of how many times we waited in line for that one. The most adrenaline-pumping? For us, that was a toss-up between 'Spiral', a 130m of giddy twists, nail-biting speed, and deep-pool plunge. Advertisement And 'Rocket', where you step inside a space capsule and count down to lift-off when the floor disappears beneath your feet. The most impressive thing about Aquascope was that in addition to the crazy slides there's a totally different change of pace and vibe at Aquascope's Abysses-de-Lumière, an underworld of fairytale caves and canyons. One minute you're swimming right up to a massive, mesmerising screen, then meteors crash around you, then you feel like you're swimming underwater with cute sea creatures. 5 The waterpark makes you feel like you're on another planet Credit: Lucy Shrimpton/Aquascope Advertisement There's a lazy river too that carries you along in floats beneath a magical sky . There is also an outdoor section with a hotel-style pool where I managed to get my sun-lounger fix for a while. Little ones meanwhile will be in their element in the minis zone with water maze, overhead soakers and a musical grotto. As for Futuroscope next-door, that was surprising, because if you thought that a virtual-reality ride couldn't be as exhilarating as a rollercoaster, Futuroscope will make you eat your words. Advertisement In 'Extraordinary Journey' for example you whizz at breakneck speed around all the world's sights, sounds and even smells without leaving your seat. It's just one of Futuroscope's 40 experiences, some of the type you'd expect at a theme park ('Destination Mars' your rollercoaster, brand-new 'Mission Bermuda' your aqua-flume),. We couldn't get enough of Tornado Chasers (flee the storm before it swallows you!) and Robot Dance (its arm throwing you around to the DJ's beat drop). The verdict? For us the combination of speed and special effects was a winning formula and so worth the drive. Advertisement If my grown-up kids AND my 58-year old husband had to be dragged away (the biggest kid of all), that tells you pretty much everything you need to know, right? Here's More About Where To Stay and Eat at Aquascope... Drive: via Stay at: Ecolodgées Hotel, serene cabins designed to restore peace after the day's high-energy. Eat at: the Space Loop restaurant scoring high on fun factor. Order food on your table's screen then wait for it to land via mini rollercoaster. For further details including pricing, restrictions, app etc. visit OR you can fly to Nantes from the UK, taking around 1h25, with Aquascope around two hours from there 5 Aquascope in France is one of the best in the world - and looks otherworldly Credit: ©JL AUDYFUTUROSCOPE
The Sun
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I went to the ‘world's best waterpark' just three hours from the UK and it's like being on another planet
DESPITE most of my friends having never heard of it, the indoor waterpark Aquascope has been named the 'best waterpark in the world' - so I had to find out for myself. Eight miles north of Poitiers in France, there are three things that make this water park stand out from the crowd. 5 5 Firstly, Aquascope is an indoor attraction – an absolute blessing for us in the 35C heat in France at the time so no chasing everyone around with the factor 50. It is also is on the same site as major French attraction Futuroscope, if you wanted more theme park elements. But by far the most appealing thing about Aquascope is that it combines its hardcore water features with truly impressive tech effects, so it feels, in the words of my youngest, 'like you're swimming around inside a cool video game'. Think lights, screens and cascading colour and you're on the right lines. Picture the scene. Two spiral stairways, each signposting a route to the top of a different slide. Everyone carries their inflatable rafts up (depending on the slide, there are four-seater inflatables, two-seaters; one-seaters; mats with handlebars; and slides that you don't need any accessory for). You can even watch through the transparent tubes, showing you the people ahead of you squealing down. We counted eight slides in total, each offering a completely different thrill. Scots waterpark crowned 'best in the country' to reopen in weeks 5 We loved 'Alien' (a tube raft race with some serious skids and swirls) and 'Sprint' (like head-first bodyboarding). 'Quick' was exactly as it sounds, a short sharp bolt with one free-fall funnel stretch. After four goes, I lost count of how many times we waited in line for that one. The most adrenaline-pumping? For us, that was a toss-up between 'Spiral', a 130m of giddy twists, nail-biting speed, and deep-pool plunge. And 'Rocket', where you step inside a space capsule and count down to lift-off when the floor disappears beneath your feet. The most impressive thing about Aquascope was that in addition to the crazy slides there's a totally different change of pace and vibe at Aquascope's Abysses-de-Lumière, an underworld of fairytale caves and canyons. One minute you're swimming right up to a massive, mesmerising screen, then meteors crash around you, then you feel like you're swimming underwater with cute sea creatures. 5 There's a lazy river too that carries you along in floats beneath a magical sky. There is also an outdoor section with a hotel-style pool where I managed to get my sun-lounger fix for a while. Little ones meanwhile will be in their element in the minis zone with water maze, overhead soakers and a musical grotto. As for Futuroscope next-door, that was surprising, because if you thought that a virtual-reality ride couldn't be as exhilarating as a rollercoaster, Futuroscope will make you eat your words. In 'Extraordinary Journey' for example you whizz at breakneck speed around all the world's sights, sounds and even smells without leaving your seat. It's just one of Futuroscope's 40 experiences, some of the type you'd expect at a theme park ('Destination Mars' your rollercoaster, brand-new 'Mission Bermuda' your aqua-flume),. We couldn't get enough of Tornado Chasers (flee the storm before it swallows you!) and Robot Dance (its arm throwing you around to the DJ's beat drop). The verdict? For us the combination of speed and special effects was a winning formula and so worth the drive. If my grown-up kids AND my 58-year old husband had to be dragged away (the biggest kid of all), that tells you pretty much everything you need to know, right? Here's More About Where To Stay and Eat at Aquascope... Drive: via Le Shuttle from Folkestone, rolling off in Calais just 35 minutes later. Aquascope is an onward drive of around 6 hours. (To break up the journey with a day in Paris, a trip to Disneyland Paris, or a trip to Parc Asterix, spend a couple of nights at Eurocamp's Le Grand Paris.) Stay at: Ecolodgées Hotel, serene cabins designed to restore peace after the day's high-energy. Eat at: the Space Loop restaurant scoring high on fun factor. Order food on your table's screen then wait for it to land via mini rollercoaster. For further details including pricing, restrictions, app etc. visit OR you can fly to Nantes from the UK, taking around 1h25, with Aquascope around two hours from there 5
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I rode the world's first water roller coaster - it rivals Disneyland and it's only a few hours from the UK
'Can we just go one more time?' pleads my son as we race back round to the front of the queue (making full use of our fast passes). I sat in the front first time and my shorts got soaked. This time I'd managed to get slightly less wet in the third row and so – in the name of research – I agree to another turn to see if the back row is the place to be if you want to remain dry. We're trialling Mission Bermudes, the newest attraction at Futuroscope, the science-meets-thrills theme park in western France. The ride – which comes with splashes and surprises – officially launched last month. It's one of Europe's most ambitious theme park rides to date, combining the soaking chaos of a white-water rapids ride with the G-force drama of a rollercoaster, all set within a spectacular physical environment that includes mist-shrouded jungle, secret bunkers and a swirling vortex that threatens to suck the ride in. Boarding the specially designed 10-person 'Rocking Boats', we're told we're on a rescue mission to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a scientific team studying strange phenomena in the infamous Triangle. What follows is 10 minutes of nonstop twists, reversals, near-misses and a finale that involves a vertical 16-metre plunge. It's bold, baffling (particularly if you don't understand French) and completely bonkers – in the best possible way. We start in a foggy swamp, dodging half-submerged aircraft wreckage and passing long-lost boats before we hurtle into rapids – where miraculously this time I remain dry – have a near-miss at a blow hole and then we get sucked backwards into a concrete bunker. From there, we're lifted into the sky and spat out onto a rail that plunges into a splash pool at speeds of more than 60km/h. What makes this attraction stand out is the technology. When on water you feel as though you're on a boat, but the ride is actually on hidden rails and the electromagnetic motors allow the 'rocking boats' to climb slopes, pivot unexpectedly and even travel backwards. While other attractions in the park use screens and 3D glasses, this is like being on the set of your own action movie complete with Hollywood-worthy special effects: bubbling geysers, falling trees and even a giant water bubble that bursts metres from your boat. The immersion is physical (quite literally if you position yourself in the front seat). If Futuroscope isn't yet on your radar, it should be. Located near Poitiers in the Vienne region of western France, it's one of France's largest theme parks, attracting more than two million visitors a year. Opened in 1987, it predates both Disneyland and Parc Asterix and it's always been the clever cousin of the amusement park world – more science and space than superheroes and cartoons. Among the other rides we found motion simulators, interactive theatres, and cutting-edge projection formats focusing on space, climate, exploration and invention (we particularly enjoyed the 4D tornado chaser ride that took us into the centre of a twister). Mission Bermudes is the headline act in a €300 million revamp that's transformed the place into a full resort, with two new hotels and a brilliant new indoor/outdoor waterpark called Aquascope – the place to head if you really want to get wet. As we exit the ride for the third time, my son runs ahead repeating his cry of 'just one more time!' This is the sign of a good ride - perhaps the most exciting you'll find in Europe this summer.
