Review - Gasten Ghost Hotel - Liseberg Sweden
Theme Parks, sunny weather, Sweden and one of the best scare attractions in Europe? What a perfect way to spend a Friday in August! I recently visited Liseberg, situated in Gothenburg, Sweden to ride some of the best roller coasters in Europe and FINALLY visit one of Europe’s most well-known scare attractions – Gasten Ghost Hotel!
Gasten Ghost Hotel opened it’s doors in 2008 to critical acclaim and has been entertaining (and terrifying!) guests since. The upcharge attraction is located in the picturesque ‘harbour’ area of the stunning Liseberg theme park and is relatively well secluded, blending in with the other harbour buildings and offices. Walking up to the attraction, the first thing you notice is how well themed the outside is, it’s actually quite unassuming, with just subtle elements of horror which is fantastic to see, it feels somewhat ‘exclusive’, as though you just found the attraction in the area – really novel approach instead of in-your-face theming elements.
Gasten Ghost Hotel is an upcharge attraction, and comes in at around the £5 mark if I remember correctly – which is a STEAL for a 15/20-minute experience. After paying the entrance fee, you walk along a decked queue line area and out of the theme park into what feels like a really secluded area, covered in trees and foliage, it sets you up with a really uneasy feeling.
Your group (maximum of 6 persons, which is fantastic) starts the experience in a small luggage area where the story of the attraction is creepily delivered to you – in ENGLISH, this tact to adapt the speech to whatever language the group is is something I love to see in European attractions and really enhances the experience.
What follows is one of the best, most cohesive experience I have ever experienced in my entire life. I have visited well in excess of 120 separate scare attractions and I can safely say that Gasten Ghost Hotel is my favourite. I’m a huge fan of theming and set design, so this attraction truly is like Mecca for me. Each set is gigantic in scale, there’s not one corner, crevice or corridor that isn’t themed to the hilt, it is by far the most immersive set I have come across in my entire life. The level of detail doesn’t just stop at the sets, the characters are equally thought out and fitting with the theme. Each of them given bespoke costumes that fit the period of the hotel and the makeup was perfectly apt, rarely do I enter an attraction and become so fully engrossed with the narrative that I forget the scare actors are merely that, performers aimed to scare you, but I did with Gasten Ghost Hotel. They become enhancements to the existing experience, they felt so ‘right’ and in the moment, like they truly were the ghosts of the hotel stalking you along every corridor and in every room – words cannot describe the level of immersion this attraction offers.
Dramatic heat changes, smoke effects, projection effects, tactile scares such as cobwebs and vibrations, and some truly amazing illusions create such an intense immersive experience. At times you will be walking in a room that’s sinking in deep water, hopping from one upturned table to a piano and then you’ll enter a corridor where you walk along a plank above a huge drop between buildings, every single detail has been highlighted in the attraction. One of my pet peeves in attractions is that the transition from one scene to another doesn’t ‘flow’, you go from one scene to another with little to no sense behind it – none of that happened inside Gasten Ghost Hotel. Every single room fed into the following via a transitional corridor between the two and just when you felt safe, BAM, you were attacked by another vengeful spirit.
Without spoiling the entire experience (because where’s the fun in that?), you will laugh, you will scream, you will become oart of the story and scramble your way out of the attraction and back into reality wondering how something so fantastic can be in existence.
Would I visit again? I’m already planning my next visit, and you should, too!
Gasten Ghost Hotel opened it’s doors in 2008 to critical acclaim and has been entertaining (and terrifying!) guests since. The upcharge attraction is located in the picturesque ‘harbour’ area of the stunning Liseberg theme park and is relatively well secluded, blending in with the other harbour buildings and offices. Walking up to the attraction, the first thing you notice is how well themed the outside is, it’s actually quite unassuming, with just subtle elements of horror which is fantastic to see, it feels somewhat ‘exclusive’, as though you just found the attraction in the area – really novel approach instead of in-your-face theming elements.
Gasten Ghost Hotel is an upcharge attraction, and comes in at around the £5 mark if I remember correctly – which is a STEAL for a 15/20-minute experience. After paying the entrance fee, you walk along a decked queue line area and out of the theme park into what feels like a really secluded area, covered in trees and foliage, it sets you up with a really uneasy feeling.
Your group (maximum of 6 persons, which is fantastic) starts the experience in a small luggage area where the story of the attraction is creepily delivered to you – in ENGLISH, this tact to adapt the speech to whatever language the group is is something I love to see in European attractions and really enhances the experience.
What follows is one of the best, most cohesive experience I have ever experienced in my entire life. I have visited well in excess of 120 separate scare attractions and I can safely say that Gasten Ghost Hotel is my favourite. I’m a huge fan of theming and set design, so this attraction truly is like Mecca for me. Each set is gigantic in scale, there’s not one corner, crevice or corridor that isn’t themed to the hilt, it is by far the most immersive set I have come across in my entire life. The level of detail doesn’t just stop at the sets, the characters are equally thought out and fitting with the theme. Each of them given bespoke costumes that fit the period of the hotel and the makeup was perfectly apt, rarely do I enter an attraction and become so fully engrossed with the narrative that I forget the scare actors are merely that, performers aimed to scare you, but I did with Gasten Ghost Hotel. They become enhancements to the existing experience, they felt so ‘right’ and in the moment, like they truly were the ghosts of the hotel stalking you along every corridor and in every room – words cannot describe the level of immersion this attraction offers.
Dramatic heat changes, smoke effects, projection effects, tactile scares such as cobwebs and vibrations, and some truly amazing illusions create such an intense immersive experience. At times you will be walking in a room that’s sinking in deep water, hopping from one upturned table to a piano and then you’ll enter a corridor where you walk along a plank above a huge drop between buildings, every single detail has been highlighted in the attraction. One of my pet peeves in attractions is that the transition from one scene to another doesn’t ‘flow’, you go from one scene to another with little to no sense behind it – none of that happened inside Gasten Ghost Hotel. Every single room fed into the following via a transitional corridor between the two and just when you felt safe, BAM, you were attacked by another vengeful spirit.
Without spoiling the entire experience (because where’s the fun in that?), you will laugh, you will scream, you will become oart of the story and scramble your way out of the attraction and back into reality wondering how something so fantastic can be in existence.
Would I visit again? I’m already planning my next visit, and you should, too!
Links:
Official Website: Liseberg
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