We visited Kolmården Wildlife Park a few weeks ago during Easter. At the time, they had just opened for the season and the theme park area for kids, known as the World of Bamse, was crowded with long queues for many of the attractions. We visited the park again yesterday and this we hoped for a bit fewer visitors and shorter queues. We were certainly lucky, even though it was a Sunday there were short queues and fewer crowds at the World of Bamse. Little A was more than happy to have time to explore as much as possible and try as many of the rides as she could.
Read more about our earlier visits here:
- Kolmården Wildlife Park, Sweden – An Easter Visit 2022
- Kolmården Wildlife Park, Sweden – A Summer Visit 2019
Bamses Värld – The World of Bamse
Bamse is a Swedish cartoon and the “World’s Strongest Bear”. The cartoon was created by Rune Andréasson in 1966 and has for decades been popular with Swedish kids. Bamse goes on adventures together with his friends the rabbit Lille Skutt and the tortoise Skalman. Upon eating Dunderhonung, in English “Thunder Honey”, Bamse becomes strong and saves his friends.
At Kolmården Wildlife Park the theme park The World of Bamse is the main play area for kids. It opened in 1998 and has since grown with both the number of rides, theme buildings, and an open-air theater.
Dunderhonungsburkarna
This could kind of be described as the Bamse’s honeypot merry-go-round. These spinning honeypots were our first stop and Little A was happy to get going on her first ride for the day. She has mentioned the ride once or twice since we arrived home, but the excitement was soon to be replaced by other rides in the park. It turned out that Litte A liked a little more excitement and was not so fond of spinning around.
Mini-Hopp
Mini-Hopp is an 11-meter high tower. The ride is all about bouncing as it goes up and down a few times. While other kids seemed scared, the one next to Little A even cried, Little A just laughed through the whole ride. She really enjoyed the excitement and wanted to go over and over again. It was eventually hard to convince Little A that there was more to explore in the park. I must, however, agree that it was quite a fun ride. Especially since it was possible to see the brown bears just a short distance away.
Bamse Theatre
The open-air theatre at the park has a performance by Bamse and his friends a few times per day. The performance lasts for about 30 minutes and it usually attracts a large crowd of kids. Little A too seemed to enjoy it. Bamse is not really a favorite of hers, it is mostly about Pokemon at the moment. But a good story is something she usually enjoys and this one about going on a boat vacation seemed to have been to her liking. It was not a very hot day, but it must be hard to wear those costumes later during the summer months.
Lunch and the Playground
After the theatre, we opted for lunch. Little A was already hungry and we chose to head to the restaurant Hyllan, a restaurant with a view out over the bay. The buffet here included many options that Little A liked and we were able to sit outdoors enjoying the sunshine. It might have been a bit expensive considering the quality, but it was a good option for this day. We also had the possibility to see the red pandas on our way to the restaurant. In fact, the red panda is currently Little A’s favorite animal. Sadly enough they were hiding far up in the trees during our visit.
After lunch, we walked past the South American animals and saw the tapir, the nandu, and several more. This while Little A used the map to guide us to the playground. And for a girl that so much enjoyed the excitement of the rides, the playground turned out to be a bit scarier. The towers were a bit too high and many obstacles were probably made for older kids. She still enjoyed it, but it took quite some time before she found her area of interest. A large playground is not always the best, but it does give options. As a parent, this would have been a nightmare had it been more crowded.
Skalmans Flygskola
We were soon back at the World of Bamse, which is actually right next to the large playground. The first ride we encountered was Skalmans Flygskola, in English Skalman’s Flight School, and it is a new attraction for this year. This ride turned out to be quite a disappointment, but there might be other kids that enjoy it more. We were soon on our way to other rides.
Bamses Flygande Matta
Our next stop was a ride that Little A tried with her grandmother during our last visit. Bamses Flygande Matta, “Bamse’s Flying Carpet”, is a ride where it is possible to press a button to make the carpet fly higher as it goes around in a circle. The button really makes it a bit more interactive and the view when you are flying high is actually quite nice.
Skalmans Bilar
From the flying carpets, we continued to Skalmans Bilar, or Skalman’s Cars. This is a slow ride where you sit in a car that goes around a track. Little A insisted that we both sit in the back seat and we were joking the whole ride about who is actually driving the car. Otherwise, this is a ride that is probably more fun for smaller kids, but still quite enjoyable when a 5-year-old needs to slow down a bit.
Godiståget
We were soon on our way to the next excitement. Well, I first thought that Little A would be too small for the rollercoaster and would get scared. I was so wrong. The ride, known as “The Candy Train”, is a small rollercoaster of 190 meters and a top speed of about 40 kilometers per hour. Still, Little A had fun, the speed and turns really got her going and we went over and over again. Most of our afternoon would eventually be spent here. For myself, it was really fun to see all of Little A’s expressions as we went along the ride. Her screams of joy as the train went down the first major slope did make my day, that is for sure.
The Petting Zoo
We eventually made our way from the rides and by now Little A really started to get tired. Well, she still wanted to go on more rides, but it was noticeable that her legs were in need of some rest. So with the promise of petting some animals, we left the World of Bamse and headed to the nearby petting zoo. This is where we could relax a bit, pet the many goats and sheep and Little A could prepare herself for the thought of going home. So was it, we said Goat Bye to the animals and headed back to our car. Little A was asleep before we had left the parking lot.
