Today there are more than 700 different roller coasters in Europe, an amount that is increasing from year to year. Besides inversions, wild launch tracks and a breath-taking speed, the height is often the most gut-wrenching element. Therefore, we would like to present our continent’s tallest current coasters, whereas the tallest will be surpassed by the new coaster of 76 m (around 249 ft) “Shambhala” coming to the Spanish amusement park “PortAventura” within this year.

N° 5: iSpeed (Mirabilandia, Italy)
The launched roller coaster “iSpeed” towers 55 m (around 180 ft) and was built in 2009 by Intamin and designed by Werner Stengel in the layout of Formula 1. One of the most popular features is the start launching its riders within almost 2 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h (around 64 mph). Moreover, thanks to the nice ride and settings “iSpeed” is one of the top roller coasters in Europe.

N° 4: Stunt Fall (Parque Warner, Spain)
Generally spoken, Spanish people are afraid of roller coasters – the reason why number 4 goes to the vicinity of Madrid of all places can probably answer the operator only. The two towers of “Stunt Fall” reach 58 m (around 190 ft) and are, therewith, the amusement park’s eye-catcher. Exceptional thrilling moments occur, above all, when the train backs out of the station and up the vertical lift hill with the visitor’s legs dangling in the air. Afterwards, the train zooms through the station heading into a few cobra rolls with a speed of more than 100 km/h. However, these elements of the coaster, manufactured by Vekoma, may almost be considered relaxing compared to the start.

N° 3: Stealth (Thorpe Park, England)
The magical figure of 60 metres outstrips number 3: “Stealth”, opened in 2006, is located at Thorpe Park and provides a breath-taking view in a height of 62.5 m (around 205 ft). However, there is not much time left to enjoy it, because the train accelerates to almost 130 km/h (around 80 mph) within less then 2 seconds. Like “iSpeed” this out and back coaster is designed by Werner Stengel with an appealing colour scheme of white and dark grey – especially attractive when the glaring red trains descends the top hat element.

N° 2: Pepsi Max Big One (Pleasure Beach Blackpool, England)
This, by European standards truly giant, coaster of 65 m (around 213 ft) in height has been the continent’s tallest for a long time and since its opening in 1994 it hasn’t lost any of its fascination. The hyper coaster, manufactured by Arrow Dynamics, not only scores points for its height, but also for its course length of almost 1.700 m (around 5.577 ft) – at a maximum speed of nearly 120 km/h (around 75 mph) the “Big One” takes 3 minutes. Despite of its giant height, the ride is a bit bumpy and, therefore, not much fun for some riders.

N° 1: Silver Star (Europa-Park, Germany)
The gold medal in the competition for the highest roller coaster in Europe goes to Germany – to the Europa-Park in Rust, to be more exact. For around 10 years “Silver Star”, built by Bolliger & Mabillard, keeps this record persistently. It towers more than 70 m (around 230 ft) and the comfortable, stylish silver trains speed up onto camel backs. Although this hyper coaster, suitable for the whole family, does not feature inversions, it provides great g-forces and thrilling moments in the blue sky.