The Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

The best part of living in Norfolk is being surrounded by its beautiful and varied coastlines. From the pretty village of Mundesley with plentiful sands stretching for miles, to the candy-striped cliffs in Hunstanton where you can watch the sun set over the sea. For action packed adventures, Great Yarmouth has plenty to offer by way of arcades, attractions, fun fairs and great places to eat.


Great Yarmouth is a well-known seaside town that has a rich maritime heritage, famous gold mile promenade, pleasure beach and attractions. You’ll never be short of things to do in this special seaside town. Our family makes it a tradition to come to Great Yarmouth at least twice a year to spend time together. However, this summer we will be working together with Visit Great Yarmouth to explore all the exciting and fun things that Great Yarmouth has to offer. In the past few weeks, we've visited SEALIFE and the Merrivale Model Village, so we're quite eager to see what the summer holds.


For families, it is so important to explore as much as possible, and the seaside is the perfect place to do so. Visit Great Yarmouth want to encourage friends and family to take advantage of this incredible seaside town. It doesn't matter if you have young children or you're trying to distract your tweens or teens - there is plenty to explore and discover that will entertain your whole family.

We continued our seaside adventure this weekend by visiting the Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, situated right on the Golden Mile of Yarmouth. Families and thrill seekers alike have enjoyed this historic fairground since it first opened its doors over 100 years ago.



The Rides

Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is definitely an extensive amusement park with a mixture of modern and traditional attractions. With an old-fashioned fairground feel, it makes an excellent place for the entire family as well as those who want to have some candyfloss before riding every ride they can. Don't forget to ride the Dodgems, climb up to the Monorail and scream at the Haunted Hotel. The biggest and most popular ride at the park is the Roller Coaster that has been thrilling those who dare ride it since 1932. 


There are also around thirty newer rides at the park, including the Big Apple Coaster, Disko, Free Fall, and Lightning 360 as well as Bonanza, Floaty Boaty, The Log Flume and the Carousel. A reasonable-priced ticket gives visitors access to all of these rides for three hours. Besides the thrilling rides, the Pleasure Beach also offers amusement arcades, catering facilities, sweet shops, a slushie bar, and ice cream parlours. 


On entrance to the park, you will have unlimited access to the rides during the time slot either 11am - 2pm or 2.45pm - 5.45pm. Each session has a limited capacity meaning that the queues are generally shorter and the park is not overcrowded. Enjoy unlimited rides without waiting for hours. While all the rides are free you might choose to spend money in the Pleasure Beach in the amusement arcade, fairground games like hook a duck, food and drink and ride photos.


The Pleasure Beach now operates with a closed gate system. All standard ticket customers will enter via Gate A, B or C. Season ticket holders will enter via Gate D. Once inside the park you'll be encourage to stay on-site until their session has finished, however you are able to leave whenever you need to but won't be allowed back on the site. 

As soon as we got there we saw Leo the Lion the Pleasure Beach mascot and couldn't wait to pose for a photo. Our daughter has always been a little wary of mascots like these as when she was little one chased her down the street. But she was more than happy to have a hug and say cheese for a quick little snap with Leo the Lion


Eating and Drinking at the Pleasure Beach

Inside the Pleasure Beach you can get a all kinds of food and drink and there are plenty of picnic tables to eat at too. While there is timed sessions you might want to prioritise rides by eating before you go in and getting a snack on the way out. The Food Court is located in the middle of the park next to the Dumbo ride, that offers a variety of hot foods such as burgers, hot dogs, chips, and more. Served fresh all day. Pleasure Beach Inn, a fully licensed pub on site, offers freshly prepared baguettes, teas, coffees, snacks, plus an assortment of beers and spirits.



There is Gracie’s Rock Shop which is ideal for anyone looking for the perfect fairground treat, with its selection of rock, candy floss & freshly made doughnuts as well as coffee and tea. Leo’s Ice Cream Parlour offers a wide selection of flavoured ice cream, as well as Mr. Whippy ice cream, milkshakes and sundaes.


We just finished a lovely lunch further up the golden mile so before we left the Pleasure Beach we decided to head to The Jolly Rancher Slushie Bar. The slushie bar has many flavours such as strawberry, raspberry, watermelon, lemon, blueberry and more. Our daughter couldn't decided and asked for a little bit of everyone, which they staff were more than happy to do for her. We then had the different options for the size and style of bottom so my daughter got the 350ml funky bottle with a cute purple unicorn lid. 


Our Favourite Rides

The Pleasure Beach costs £15 per person which gives you unlimited rides, and you can visit the Pleasure Beach Gardens free of charge. There are paid attractions here, such as mini golf, an upside down house, and a grand prix track. Sara's Tearooms offers hot and cold food, beverages, and cakes.

We had the best afternoon at the Pleasure Beach and went on as many rides as we could. It was such a blast. My daughter's favourite rides were the Big Apple Coaster, Bonanza, Floaty Boaty and The Fun Factory. The Big Apple Coaster is a caterpillar that's the perfect first taste of a rollercoaster for little ones. Bonanza has ten horses that nod up and down as they make way around the track - our daughter went on this ride at least 7 times. It did take a little encouragement to get our daughter to go on the Floaty Boaty, which is new for 2022. Its a tugboat that is driven back and forth along a concave arc. While this is happening, the ride rotates around its centre. The Fun Factory is a themed walk around with moving floors, wobbly stairs and lots of mirrors to change the shapes of our bodies. Those floors move quite fast and I lost my balance getting across them. 




My favourite rides were The Rollercoaster, Monorail and Tea Cups. The traditional wooden Rollercoaster that opened in 1932 is the star attraction at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. I haven't been on for a few years, but I encouraged my daughter to come along this time. Wow, what an exhilarating experience. We both were a little scared at first, but as soon as we were in our carriage, there was no turning back. It was alright making our way up to the top, however the second drop caused our stomachs to flip upside down so we screamed our heads off. On the Monorail, there are eight four-seater cars, but seeing as we had little one with use we decided to get into the same cart. These carts are definitely on the smaller side. My husband and I accidently sat on the same side so we felt as if it was tipping slightly, our daughter found it highly hilarious. The Tea Cups and Saucers are an old favourite that everyone can enjoy. So of course we jumped in them first and while the cups go around you have the option of spinning them, which we did and felt very dizzy doing so.



The Rollercoaster, Disko and The Haunted Hotel were my husband's favourites. My husband is more of a thrill seeker than I am, so he couldn't wait to go on Disko which has an unusual feature with riders facing outwards sitting in a circle. As the Disko starts to spin, it runs along a curved track from side-to-side in a ‘U’ shape. The Haunted Hotel, which was renovated in 2019, takes you around in a small cart that sits 2 passengers through a scary themed track ride.



Our day at The Pleasure Beach was was full of fun, laughs and a few screams. It was the perfect place for thrill seekers and for those that like to take things a bit slower. We enjoyed so many of the rides like The Rollercoaster, The Fun Factory, Disko, The Haunted Hotel and of course the traditional rides like Tea Cups and The Carousel. It's a great day for the whole family that's amazing value for money. The timed entry makes it easier for visitors to enjoy their stay without ridiculous queueing time. Definitely a place that you should add to your must see days out list, when you're in Norfolk. 

**We have been kindly gifted our tickets from Visit Great Yarmouth as part of the ambassador program but as always my words and opinions are my own. Images are subject to copyright, please seek permission before using.**

16 comments

  1. This looks like an absolute ton of fun! I think my family would have a blast at Pleasure Beach.

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    1. It is such a great day out for all the family. There's something for everyone.

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  2. Looks like an awesome place to visit! I love places like this that have rides for my family and I to enjoy together. I also like how close it is to the beach.

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    1. When we went on the rollercoaster, we could see both sides of the beach! It was quite the view.

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  3. We went to the pleasure beach this year and it felt soo unique and interesting as an amusement park! The old school rides were amazing.

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  4. Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach looks great and with plenty of activities for the family to enjoy.

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    1. It was such a great place for us to explore this summer!

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  5. Looks like such a fun place to visit and check out! It's a perfect time of year too...lots of fun activities to check out!

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  6. Wow what a wonderful place to visit. It is so cold here right now that I am dreaming about time away!

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  7. That is funny about sitting on the same side. My kids would laugh too. ;)

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    1. Honestly, it was soooo funny but so scary at the same time!

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  8. What a neat place to visit. It looks like something my kids would really enjoy. I'll have to add this to places to check out.

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    1. Oh, yes! I'm sure your children would have the best time.

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