Unleash the Fun: Top Budget-Friendly Amusement Parks for Your 2023 Family Vacation

New research has revealed the best value amusement park for a family, in America, with Kings Island in Ohio coming out on top.

The study by family vacation experts FamilyDestinationsGuide.com analyzed the price of hotels, tickets, food, reusable branded water bottles, and transport; combining these for each park to determine which offers the best value.

The results are based on a family of two adults and two children under nine years old.

The results show that Kings Island is the cheapest day out for a family of four compared to other US amusement parks. A family’s average daily spend is $368.20. Kings Island had the lowest daily food spend at $26.32 and the lowest average cost for park tickets at $159.96 per day.

Coming in as the second cheapest US amusement park is Silver Dollar City in Missouri, with a combined daily total of $578.01. It had a daily hotel spend of only $93.13, which is 44.8% less than the $168.75 average of all other hotels on the list).

Cedar Point, Ohio, came third overall with a daily total of $585.27 and had the second lowest daily ticket price at $179.96 – a whopping $223.69 lower than the average price of all other parks.

Fourth place goes to Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, with a daily total of $603.32. Daily park tickets cost an average of $319.78, and the cost of lunch was $11.73 cheaper than the average price of $57.57.

Fifth place was given to Universal Studios Orlando with a total daily total of $608.62, ticket spend of $388.56, and an Uber spend $28.33 lower than the average of $94.29.

Universal’s Islands of Adventure ranks sixth with a daily total of $619.54 and takes the title for the lowest-cost hotel at $65.78 ($102.98 lower than the average cost of all other parks).

Busch Gardens (Tampa) comes in seventh place with a daily total of $628.96 ($52.01 lower than the average cost of $682.96). Busch Gardens beat the average price for park tickets, daily hotel stays, water bottles, and daily lunch for a family of four.

Eighth place was awarded to Six Flags (Magic Mountain), which had a daily total of $632.63. Not only did it beat the average price of park tickets by $103.69 and the return cost of an Uber to the hotel, but it also beat the $73.27 average price of water bottles set by all the other parks by $23.31!

Coming in ninth place, Hersheypark had an overall daily spend of $648.65. It beat the average ticket cost by $95.85, the average daily hotel cost by $12.58, and the price of an Uber from the local airport to the hotel by $32.49.

Disneyland Park & Disney California Adventure Park claim the 10th place with an average daily spend of $681.83. These parks also beat the average cost of park tickets, hotel stays, and Uber. It also had a lower-than-average cost of reusable water bottles by $4.60.