Three of nation's top-rated amusement parks are only a day trip from Columbus

When U.S. News & World Report published its list of the 17 best amusement parks in the nation earlier this year, nine of them were in California and Florida, leaving wide tracts of the nation thousands of miles away from one of the publication's top-rated thrill operations.

But not Columbus and central Ohio, which sit in the center of an amusement park triangle, with three of the 17 parks on the list in day-trip territory between about 85 and 195 miles away: Kings Island, in Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati; Cedar Point, in Sandusky, about an hour west of Cleveland on Lake Erie; and Kennywood, in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.

Unlike much of the nation, which must pack the family onto an airline flight — with all that entails — Columbus-area families looking for one last summer fun trip before school or college resume are within driving distance of being launched, lifted, splashed, spun and scared.

Here's a roundup of what's available, starting with the closest:

Kings Island

Location: Mason, Ohio

Distance: 85 miles from Columbus, about 1 hour, 33 minutes

Opened in 1972, Kings Island initially gained national attention from visits by television's “The Partridge Family” and, the following year, by “The Brady Bunch.” The amusement park attracted 3.49 million visitors in 2019, ranking it 17th in the top 20 parks in the Themed Entertainment Association "Global Attractions Attendance Report" for 2021. In 2020, the pandemic cut attendance by more than half, but the association says attendance rebounded in 2021 to 3.18 million and 3.34 million 2022 — 104,000 visitors shy of its main rival, Cedar Point.

Cedar Fair, the parent company of both Kings Island and Cedar Point, said the association's attendance figures are estimates, and the company doesn't release its actual annual attendance at individual parks. Kings Island is "one of the most attended amusement parks in North America," according to Cedar Fair's annual report.

Kings Island ranked 14th nationally in attendance in 2021 and 16th in 2022, competing against many amusement parks that operate year-round in warmer-climate locations rather than seasonal. The park is open seven days a week from mid-May through late August, with additional weekend dates at the start and finish of the season. The park has 330 developed acres of attractions, with another 350 undeveloped acres in reserve, according to the firm's annual report.

Kings Island has 65 rides and waterpark attractions, including 15 roller coasters, according to its website. Major coasters include The Racer, the iconic wooden, side-by-side racing coasters that have been there since opening day; the looping steel-tracked Invertigo; the 91-mph Orion, the park's tallest, fastest and longest steel coaster; and the 1979 monstrosity The Beast, which originally "broke all existing records as the longest and fastest ride in the world" and is still listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the "longest wooden roller coaster in the world at 7,361 feet," according to the website.

Aside from its thrill rides, Kings Island also "features a children's area that has been consistently named one of the 'Best Kids' Area in the World' by Amusement Today," the Cedar Fair annual report says.

Daily ticket prices start at $44.99 online. For more information, go to visitkingsisland.com.

Cedar Point

Location: Sandusky, Ohio

Distance: 123 miles from Columbus, about 2 hours, 22 minutes

Cedar Point has a history that starts 100 years earlier than Kings Island.

Visitors started heading to the park there, often by boat, for its sandy Lake Erie beach strategically located at the tip of a 5.6-mile-long peninsula that juts out into the waters of Lake Erie, forming the natural entrance to Sandusky Bay.

To help entertain the beachgoers, the park constructed its first roller coaster in 1892. The Switchback Railway, "stood an amazing 25 feet tall and reached an unbelievable top speed of 10 mph," the park's website says.

The visitors of the 1800s would not recognize the peninsula today. Gone are the steamers that took passengers from Detroit, Cleveland and other cities, while 725 acres of the total 870 acres that make up the park are jammed with high-rise steel thrill rides that light up the darkened lake at night in a blaze of moving colors.

"Cedar Point is annually rated one of the best amusement parks in the industry by Amusement Today's international survey," the company annual report notes.

One of Cedar Points' charms is that — despite being the coaster capital of the world — many of its rides date to an expansion in the 1960s, such as the Blue Streak roller coaster, the jostling, noisy, wooden track coaster built in 1964, which has been a rite of passage for many novices.

The coaster list has since grown to 18, many of which offer bigger challenges than the iconic Blue Streak. Among them are the Magnum XL-200; Raptor, the track-on-top ride that the park describes as akin to if a bird were to grab you in its claws and fly you "on a terrifying journey to wherever it pleases;" the retrofitted Steel Vengeance; and the scream-inducing Millennium Force, whose 310-foot first drop sends passengers thundering through a wooded section of the park at 93 mph.

As fast as those are, they were slow in comparison to Top Thrill Dragster, which opened in 2003 and went from zero to 120 mph in less than four seconds, launching cars straight up a 420-foot hill. But that ride closed after a Michigan woman waiting in line was severely injured by a piece of metal that broke off the ride in 2021. It is being retrofitted into a newly designed Top Thrill Dragster 2 coaster, set to open in 2024.

Cedar Point had 3.44 million visitors in 2022, ranking it 15th in the nation, according to the latest TEA report released in mid-June. While that's a substantial improvement from the just over 1 million visitors during 2020, when the park was shuttered due to COVID-19, it is still down 4.5% compared to 2019, pre-COVID.

Being surrounded by the lake, water is everywhere you look at Cedar Point. Charter boats are available to visit the nearby Lake Erie islands, and a kids-themed riverboat ride explores the peninsula's inner lagoons. Several mechanical splash rides keep visitors cool on hot days, and the original sand beach is still there with "bungalow" rentals available until 11 p.m. And, for a separate entry fee, the park offers an adjacent full-service water park with slides, fountains, a lazy rivers, pools and other attractions.

Daily ticket prices start at $49.99 online. For more information, go to cedarpoint.com.

Kennywood

Location: West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh

Distance: 195 miles from Columbus, about 3 hours, 10 minutes

If Ohio's two mega-amusement parks don't do it for you and you're willing to travel a little bit further, Kennywood is also among U.S. News & World Report's top 17 parks in the nation.

Billed as "America's Finest Traditional Amusement Park," Kennywood dates to 1899, when it opened as a "trolley park" — one of the station's amusement parks situated at the end of a street car line that became the precursors to modern amusement parks and offered a way to get out of the city for the day for picnics and concerts. That makes it a longstanding destination for family fun and "the best theme park in Pennsylvania," according to the park, owned by Palace Entertainment.

While Kennywood has about one-third of the footprint of Cedar Point, there is plenty of excitement packed in. Kennywood offers more than 40 rides, including seven roller coasters. Three of them date to the 1920s: Jack Rabbit, Racer and Thunderbolt (the latter originally the Pippin until its makeover in 1968). There is also a 12-ride kids area.

But a warning to Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals fans: Being part of the Pittsburgh metro area, Kennywood may subject your kids to not-so-subtle Steelers indoctrination techniques.

Kennywood and the NFL team have entered a collaboration that it describes as "the first-ever theme park area devoted to a professional sports franchise," called Steelers Country. The section includes a black-and-gold coaster, The Steel Curtain, a reference to the 1970s defensive line that helped the team to four Super Bowl victories. That coaster is 220 feet tall and 4,000 feet long and features nine "inversions," where riders go upside down.

The Steel Curtain coaster is, fittingly, made of steel, not wood. It was recognized when it opened in 2019 as the holder of the North American record for most inversions and the world record holder for the tallest inversion. As of Aug. 8, however, the ride was temporarily closed for maintenance, and the park was working with the manufacturer to reopen it as soon as possible, according to the park's website.

Kennywood also has an extensive kids' rides area, as well as the Raging Rapids water ride.

Daily ticket prices start at $44.99. For more information, go to kennywood.com.

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus a day-trip drive from three of nation's top amusement parks