The T-Express in Everland. (Photo by Everland)

Hold on tight! With summer soon to end, now’s the time for an outdoor thrill ride. Korea is dotted with picturesque theme parks and extreme rides that offer world-class fun set in beautiful locations. 

By Seoul’s Jamsil Station (Line 2 and 8) sits Lotte World Adventure with Magic Island in the middle of Seokchon Lake. The indoor/outdoor facility is home to classic amusement park features and a fantastic aesthetic beside a modern urban cityscape that includes the adjacent 123-story Lotte World Tower. But this theme park is not all about scenery and romance.

The most popular attraction here is a ride called Atlantis. This rollercoaster reaches speeds of 72 km/h and rises 20 meters in the air, at times flying over the lake, at others through dark tunnels. Rapid drops terrify riders as they whizz past the quaint gold and blue fairytale steeples of this impressive amusement park and the fantastically tall sky scraper.  

The Gyro Swing is another favorite at Lotte World Adventure. Its riders are seated facing outward on the edge of a giant wheel that is suspended from a pendulum. They are spun around as the arm holding the wheel swings higher and higher. Telling up from down, east from west becomes tricky soon enough as the lake, blue sky, surrounding buildings and fellow riders come in and out of view in milliseconds.

The Gyro’s fraternal twin, the Gyro Drop, again has riders seated at the edge of a spinning wheel, but this time, they are lifted straight up 72 meters above the ground where the faint laughing and tiny bodies of those below appear surreal underneath the strapped-in daredevils’ dangling feet. At the top, the riders are given a false sense of security as all motion stops for a few seconds just before they suddenly plunge back to earth – stunned and relieved – after reaching a terminal velocity near 100 kilometers per hour. 

Be careful searching “Gyro Drop Lotte World” on YouTube; don’t be fooled by one unbelievably scary viral – albeit computer-generated – fake video. One viewer responded to the video: “If this was real … I would never ride this even for a thousand dollars.” Luckily, there is nothing as extreme as that in Korea – yet!

In the Gyeongsangbuk-do Province about 270 km southeast of Seoul, thrill-seekers can follow blood-curdling screams to the X-Zone inside Gyeongju World. There Korea’s first inverted rollercoaster, the Phaethon, hangs riders from its track, flipping, dipping and dropping them as if they were with the son of the sun god as he lost control of his father’s chariot on his fatal joy ride across the sky. But hanging with Phaethon might seem easygoing compared to a ride on the yellow reptilian beast entangled high in the sky – the Draken. Holding riders in suspense at its zenith, the Draken drops from a 63-meter ledge on a 90-degree angle and does two 360-degree inversions on the way to its heart-pounding end.

Moving back toward Seoul, earlier this summer, a set of endangered Giant Panda twins were born at the Everland theme park in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do Province. There, on the T Express – the world’s tallest wooden rollercoaster – adrenaline junkies plummet into a chasm at an angle of 77 degrees and a speed of 104 km/h.

Last year, Lotte World Adventure opened a second park in the southern port city of Busan with the 1-km-long Giant Digger as the feature ride. It has a top speed of 100 km/h and completes four inversions. The Giant Splash and Giant Swing also target thrill-seekers there.

Rollercoasters originated back in 18th century Russia. High and steep wooden slides were built around St. Petersburg and covered in ice and snow to provide exhilarating sled rides. To extend the fun year round, wheels were fixed to the bottom of the sleds that would roll down tracks. In the many decades since, rollercoaster designers have employed steel and other materials as well as new technologies to embrace the exhilaration of speed and flight and test the human mind against the very real laws of nature. 

But if it all sounds a bit too much, how about an extreme walk in the park? SpaceWalk in Pohang is a 333-meter “walkable rollercoaster” with 717 steps. It is a way for those a little more used to an easygoing pace to experience a rollercoaster ride. Or you could always opt for the old-fashioned Camelot Carousel at Lotte World Adventure under pretty lights.

The Gyro Spin in action at Lotte World Adventure in Seoul, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. (Photo by AP)

Lotte World Adventure Busan’s rollercoaster Giant Digger (Photo by Lotte World)