Think of French theme parks and Disneyland Paris, or maybe even Parc Asterix, spring to mind. But what if I told you that there is another theme park in France that is just as good, if not better?
Located near the town of Poitiers in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Futuroscope is both the oldest theme park in France and the most futuristic, where you can journey into worlds of science fiction, space and technology thanks to a combination of rides, immersive experiences and cutting-edge technology.
What’s more, Futuroscope now has Aquascope, which means you can combine a day at the theme park with a day whizzing down waterslides at Europe’s most exciting new water park.
It’s easy to think that you need three or four days to make a trip to France worthwhile but that’s just not true. With careful planning and the right timing, you can experience France’s most unique theme park, enjoy its spectacular night show, whizz down some waterslides at Aquascope and still be back in London by Sunday evening.
We recently spent a weekend at this most innovative of theme parks and had a fantastic time. If you’re a theme park fan, or if you’re looking for a fun family weekend, or you simply want a quick break to France, then here’s how you can plan your weekend in Futuroscope Park.
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What is Futuroscope?
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But first, it’s worth explaining what Futuroscope is because this is not your typical amusement park filled with rollercoasters and drop towers.
Opened in 1987, the Parc du Futuroscope was conceived by local politician René Monory who wanted to revive the local agriculture-dependent economy through tourism. Instead of simply building a traditional theme park, however, Monory envisioned interactive experiences and immersive attractions that would explore the “world of tomorrow”.
Partly based on the Epcot theme park in Florida and the Tsukuba Expo in Japan, the park was a huge gamble but it paid off, transforming the area into an innovative hub, bringing employment to the local community and making tourism one of the area’s main sources of revenue. I also like to think that it also brought a lot of joy to local families.
Since opening, the park has welcomed more than 50 million visitors and it was just crowned the Best Theme Park in the World in the 2026 Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards.
Aquascope opened in 2024 and a year later was awarded the title of Europe’s Leading Water Park at the World Travel Awards. Together, Furturoscope and Aquascope, are known as Futuroscope Xperiences.
Getting to Futuroscope
Getting to Futuroscope is incredibly easy from London. For speed and simplicity, Ryanair operates direct flights from London Stanstead to Poitiers. Although RyanAir is not my favourite airline, this is a really convenient route for reaching the Futuroscope amusement park.
We caught the 6.45am flight on Saturday morning and landed 90 minutes later in Poitiers. From there, it’s a short 20 minute taxi ride to the park. Returning, we caught the 4.05pm flight on the Sunday back to London Stanstead. This gave us a full day in Futuroscope and the Sunday morning in Aquascope.
If you prefer the train, then I would recommend leaving a day earlier in order to really maximise your time. Take the Eurostar to Paris followed by the high-speed TGV to Poitiers. The entire journey takes around five hours. It’s longer but not by much. Plus, you get to avoid airport security, you can enjoy countryside views, and you arrive directly at Futuroscope station, which is right next to the park gates.
Travelling by train also gives you a few hours in the park on Friday afternoon, which your kids can use to recce the rides and attractions and make a game plan for the next day.
Where to stay when visiting Futuroscope
Most guests, ourselves included, stay at one of the on-site Futuroscope hotels that sit just outside of the park entrance.
We stayed in the Hôtel Ecolodgee, an eco-friendly collection of wooden lodges set around a lake filled with a chorus of frogs who were particularly vocal at night. Modern, fuss-free and very comfortable, the rooms are perfect for families with a double bed that looks onto the small balcony on the water’s edge and a cosy nook with two single beds that are ideal for children.
As for breakfast, you order the night before at reception and it arrives in a wicker basket outside your door at 8am. Ours was filled with goodies including yogurts, pastries, orange juice and tea.
Other accommodation options at the tech-forward French theme park include the Hôtel du Futuroscope, a very simple and affordable one-star hotel that has rooms for families of five.
Impossible to miss is the Hôtel Station Cosmos (Station Cosmos Hotel). Set amid a lunar-looking landscape with a space terrain vehicle parked outside, this four-star space station-themed hotel is worth visiting even if you don’t stay here. The Space Loop restaurant is the only rollercoaster restaurant experience in France and the Bar des Pilotes is ideal for some intergalactic drinks.
All three hotels offer accommodation plus park entry deals. There’s also a new hotel – and a major new attraction – in development. Both are scheduled to open their doors in 2028 but for the time being, no-one at Futuroscope is sharing any details of what the themes might be.
How to spend a weekend at Futuroscope: Day 1
Futuroscope opens its gates at 10am and I would highly recommend arriving for opening time. The park is really popular and can get very busy, particularly during school holidays. It’s for this reason that I also recommend investing in one of the park’s fast pass options, especially if you only have one or two days at the park.
The Premium Plus Pass starts from €40 per pass and gives you access to five attractions without having to queue. You also get a discount in the Futuroscope shops.
There’s also the Gold Pass, which is €99, and gives you access to all the attractions (apart from a handful of smaller attractions such as the Upside Down House and Journey into the Dark), and one-off priority access to three activities inside the Kid’s Town of Futuropolis. You also get reserved seats at the lakeside theatre for the evening show, free parking and a 15% discount in the shops.
It’s also worth downloading the Futuroscope App, which is not only handy for navigating your way around the park but it gives you real-time info on attraction start times and queues.
Short on time? These are our favourite Futuroscope rides and attractions
- Mission Bermudes
- Objectif Mars
- La Serre du Monde
- La Machine a Voyager dans le Temps
- Danse Avec Les Robots
Morning in Futuroscope
Once you’re inside the park, I recommend heading straight to the excellent Danse Avec Les Robots (Dance with the Robots). This is one of the most popular attractions in the park so it’s worth getting there early.
I was initially a little hesitant about getting on this ride – 23ft-high robotic arms that jerk you around – but it’s actually not as frightening as it looks. You can choose either the beginner or expert setting before the arm moves you in all directions accompanied by music from French DJ Martin Solveig. It’s a lot of fun but if you’d rather not spend an entire minute hanging almost entirely upside down I would recommend the beginner level!
From here we went to try out the T. Rex experience. New this year, this is an attraction of two parts. The first is in a regular cinema room where a short film explores how advances in A.I. could help with de-extinction and conservation. You’re then ushered into an immersive IMAX dome theatre where, thanks to the wrap-around curved screen, you’re immersed in the world of dinosaurs. Dino-mad kids will love it but at the moment, it’s only available in French.
Next was Objectif Mars (Objective Mars), a park favourite and the only real rollercoaster in Futuroscope. We managed to ride Objectif Mars three times during our weekend in Futuroscope and the ending surprised us every time!
Our last experience before stopping for lunch was La Serre du Monde, (the Greenhouse of the World). This multiform walkthrough is one of the new attractions from last year and it’s another one of my favourites.
As with many of the attractions at Futuroscope, La Serre du Monde has an educational element to it. Guided by a slightly mad professor on screen (with English and Spanish subtitles), you’re led through four different immersive rooms where plants grow along the floors and walls and where you ultimately have to help to restore balance and protect the plants. It’s very clever and a wonderfully unique experience.
Lunch in Futuroscope
There are snack stalls and crepe stands in Futuroscope, as well as a cool new food court that was introduced last year, but we opted for the all-you-can-eat buffet at La Table d’Arthur. One thing that I really like about French theme parks and their food options is that you generally have a lot of choice and the food is typically freshly-prepared and local.
The buffet at La Table d’Arthur had everything from salads and cold meats to hot foods. Of course, there are the ubiquitous chips and chicken nuggets too.
The buffet costs €32 per adult and €16 per child, which is not the cheapest but it does includes starters, hot dishes, desserts, and free-flowing apple juice, orange juice, and coffee.
Another option is L’Atelier des Saveurs, a table service restaurant located next door to Objectif Mars. We ate dinner here and the food was very good but the standouts were the creative deserts such as the plant-themed Mission Mars and the Mystery of the Bermudas that came in a lava-like sphere, complete with dry ice.
Afternoon in Futuroscope
Post-lunch we took flight on L’Extraordinaire Voyage (the Extraordinary Journey), a flying theatre immersive experience where you’re suspended in front of a massive curved screen. It’s incredibly clever and you do really feel as though you are soaring over Yellowstone National Park, being sprayed by snow as you whizz through the Himalayas and narrowly missing the top of the Taj Mahal while gliding through India.
Then it was time for Mission Bermudes (Mission Bermuda), which is easily one of the best attractions in the park. This water ride only recently opened and is themed around a rescue mission to the Bermuda Triangle.
There’s a palpable sense of drama as you navigate rapids, avoid sinkholes and cross your fingers that you don’t get too soaked when passing underneath a waterfall. My favourite bit comes just before the final descent when a vertical elevator lift raises the boat up 16 metres.
Next was La Machine a Voyager dans le Temps (the Time Machine), which is a hilarious madcap journey back in time, accompanied by the Raving Rabbids. I wasn’t familiar with the Rabbids before my trip to Futuroscope, but these animated rabbit-like aliens are wildly popular in France (think the Minions but in rabbit form!).
Our last experience was Les Chasseurs de Tornades (Tornado Chasers), a clever immersive adventure into the world of storm hunters that takes place in the world’s largest indoor LED surround screen.
We didn’t get to try out all the rides and attractions, rather we prioritised the must-see attractions and going back on the rides that we really loved. There are over 40 rides, attractions and experiences at the park so you would need more than one day to do them all but the ones listed above are definitely the ones that I would recommend.
If you’re travelling with younger children then there’s also Futuropolis to consider. This play area has games and attractions designed for a younger audience.
Futuroscope’s Night Time Show
Taking place every evening, La Clé des Songes (the Key to Dreams) is Futuroscope’s night time show. Combining projectors, lasers, water screens and fireworks, the 25-minute show is a delight. It typically starts after sunset (10:45 in our case) so it’s a long day but it’s well worth experiencing.
Day 2 at Futuroscope: Aquascope
Today is all about Futuroscope Xperience’s newest attraction, Aquascope. This really is an incredible water park filled with slides, lazy rivers, a wave pool, and even a cinema that you can enjoy while floating in the water.
The key to enjoying Aquascope, however, is in the timing. The water park opens at 9am and I would really recommend that you arrive for when the doors open (and you must book tickets in advance).
Aquascope can get very busy and by 10.30am the wait times for the waterslides can balloon from less than five minutes to half-an-hour or more. So, arrive early, do as many of the waterslides as possible and then enjoy the rest of the park.
There are 13 waterslides in total including eight in the so-called Espace Sensation (Thrill Zone). I was happy to go down the larger slides, including Alien (my favourite) and Flash but left my far more adventurous youngest to go down the others. This included the unique-in-Europe spiral slide, Spiral, that wraps around the middle of the building and Rocket, with a trapdoor that sends you whizzing down when you least expect it.
Elsewhere the indoor lazy river was one of my highlights as well the outdoor river with jets to push you along. Designed by Moment Factory, the same company behind the Greenhouse of the World in Futuroscope, is Les Abysses de Lumiere (The Abyss of Light), where colourful botanical animations light up giant screens. This is where you’ll find Aquacine, the cinema area, as well as a pool with moving images along the floor. These are best enjoyed using the complimentary swim masks that float in the water for visitors to use.
There’s a dedicated zone for younger children as well as an outdoor pool area. There’s also a cafe where we stopped for lunch, ordering burgers and bagels before changing for our return trip home.
We spent three hours in Aquascope and for me that was enough time but I know that kids, mine included, would happily spend longer. In fact, they would happily spend longer than just one weekend at Futuroscope. But if a weekend is all that you have, then it’s a great place to spend a mini break.
Futuroscope: What you need to know
Prices: You can stay three days and two nights at Futuroscope from £774 for a family of four. This price includes two nights at the Hotel Ecolodgee and three days at Futuroscope as well as tickets for Aquascope.
Fast Tracks: The premium pass costs €40 and allows you to jump the line for five attractions. The gold pass costs €90 during low season and €149 during high season. this vies you unlimited priority admission to all the attractions in Futuroscope (except for the Upside Down House, Pulse and Journey into the Dark), plus one-off priority admission to three activities inside the Kid’s Town of Futuropolis and reserved seating at the lakeside theatre for the evening show. You will also get free parking at Futuroscope and 15% off in shops (except for photo souvenirs and the bookstore).
