Roller coaster · Ghost Town
GhostRider
The West's signature wooden coaster — a dark 108-foot first drop out of the Ghost Town mountain into the longest woodie course in California.
48" minLine-skip
Southern California · Buena Park, California
Knott's Berry Farm
America's first theme park — a real ghost town, the boysenberry, and the haunt that started the entire industry.
Knott's is the oldest park on this site and the odd one out in the best way: it began as a berry farm and fried-chicken dinner house in the 1920s, added a ghost town in the 1940s to entertain the dinner queue, and became the first American theme park by accident. Ghost Town's buildings are real relocated structures, not facades, and the park still feels like a place rather than a parking lot with coasters.
The ride lineup is deeper than the park's family reputation: GhostRider is one of the West's best wooden coasters, HangTime is a Gerstlauer infinity coaster with a beyond-vertical drop, Silver Bullet is a full-size B&M invert, and Xcelerator's 1950s-themed launch tops out at 82 miles per hour in just over two seconds.
And then there is October. The park's separately-ticketed Halloween haunt, running since 1973, is the oldest big haunt in the country and the direct ancestor of Halloween Horror Nights and every regional scare event. The farm's identity splits cleanly: family park by day, industry-defining haunt on select fall nights, and knowing which you are buying is the single most important planning decision of a Buena Park visit.
Last verified July 2026
At a glance
- Best for
- Families with mixed ages · Coaster enthusiasts · Halloween devotees · Southern California locals
- Less ideal for
- Visitors expecting a resort campus · Peak-summer crowd-avoiders · Guests who dislike commercial surroundings
- Days needed
- 1 day minimum
- Tallest requirement
- 48in (122cm)
Everything about this park
All 11 attractions
The complete list, sortable and filterable
Height requirements
4 rides with a minimum height
Where to eat
3 restaurants, carts, and lounges
Best snacks
4 tracked items with prices
Park map
Printable, works offline
Accessibility
Transfers, rentals, quiet spaces
First-timer guide
A plan you can actually follow
Headliners
The rides you plan the day around
If you only get a handful of long queues in you, spend them here.
Roller coaster · The Boardwalk
HangTime
California's only infinity coaster — a 96-degree beyond-vertical drop that hangs you over the crest before dropping into five inversions.
48" minLine-skip
4 distinct areas
The lands
Walking order from the entrance. Each land page carries its full attraction and dining list.
Opened 1941
Ghost Town
The original 1880s ghost town — real relocated buildings, working artisans, and GhostRider's wooden structure towering over Main Street.
3 attractions3 places to eat
Fiesta Village
The reimagined Mexican-heritage section, home to classic coasters and the long-running Montezooma's redevelopment.
3 attractions
The Boardwalk
The seaside-pier section where HangTime's beyond-vertical drop and Xcelerator's launch carry the park's modern thrill load.
4 attractions
Camp Snoopy
The PEANUTS-themed family section — the under-48-inch heart of the park and the reason Knott's works for mixed-age families.
1 attractions
Food
What to eat here
Our highest-priority items in Knott's Berry Farm. Mark them on the tracker and they save to your device.
Boysenberry hand pie
Boysenberry Bakery Cart
A warm single-serving pie filled with the farm's signature boysenberry — the founding flavor in walkable form.
Our take: The single most on-brand food item at any park on this site. Buy one, eat it in Ghost Town, understand the whole farm.
Boysenberry pie
The farm's signature berry in pie form, served at the restaurant that started everything.
Our take: Order it first if the table is smart. The boysenberry is the reason there is a park at all, and this is its canonical expression.
Fried chicken dinner
The 1927 original: fried chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits — the dinner whose waiting queue invented the American theme park.
Our take: A genuine institution and the best full meal associated with any park on this site. Reserve, order the pie after, and understand why the ghost town exists.
Boysenberry punch
Boysenberry Bakery Cart
Boysenberry punch — the drinkable version of the berry that named the farm, sold by the cup and the souvenir glass.
Our take: Sweet, tart, and cheaper than a funnel cake with more identity per ounce. The correct coaster-queue companion.
Things worth knowing before you go
October is two parks
Day-park operations shorten for haunt setup, and the event itself is a separate ticket with its own crowd. Family visitors should target mornings; haunt fans should buy the specific night early — the best dates sell out.
Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant
The 1920s origin story still serves the fried chicken and boysenberry pie that started everything, just outside the gate. Reservations are real and worth making.
GhostRider at night
The woodie's queue dies at close and the night ride is the park's best single experience. Save it.
The season pass math is local math
For SoCal residents the pass pays off in two or three visits — the park's calendar rewards repeat short visits more than any park on this site.
The location is the trade
Beach Boulevard in Buena Park is commercial sprawl, not a resort campus. Hotels are plentiful and walkable, scenery is not the product — the park inside the gates is.
Getting there
Parking
Multiple lots around the park's perimeter on Beach Boulevard; most are a five-minute walk to the gate. Independent lots nearby undercut the official pricing on many days.
At the entrance
The main gate faces Beach Boulevard. Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant sits just outside the turnstiles — the 1920s original and still the best meal in the zip code.
How to get here
- By car: Beach Boulevard (CA-39) in Buena Park, off the I-5 or SR-91. Twenty minutes from Disneyland, forty from downtown LA without traffic.
- By rideshare: well-served, with drop-offs at the main entrance on Beach.
- Several hotels within walking distance — the rare walkable park on this site.
Knott's Berry Farm questions, answered
What is the best ride at Knott's Berry Farm?
GhostRider. The 1998 wooden coaster was rebuilt in 2016 to ride like new, and its combination of first drop, airtime and night-ride atmosphere is the park's signature. HangTime and Xcelerator carry the modern thrill load behind it.
Is the Halloween haunt included with admission?
No. The haunt is a separate hard-ticket event on select fall nights, and it transforms the whole park after dark. Day admission and haunt admission are two different products with two different crowds.
What are the height requirements at Knott's?
GhostRider, Xcelerator and HangTime at 48 inches; Jaguar at 42. Camp Snoopy carries the family tier below that. As always on this site, confirm the current figure on Knott's own page before promising a rider.
Can you do Knott's in one day?
Yes, comfortably — the park is compact and the loop is short. A full day covers the coasters with re-rides plus Ghost Town's atmosphere. October days run shorter hours for haunt setup, so check the calendar.
Is Montezooma's Revenge open?
It has been closed amid Fiesta Village's redevelopment — the 1978 flywheel-loop shuttle is one of the last of its kind anywhere and its return has been long-awaited. Check the park's current attraction list and this site's closure tracker before promising anyone a ride.
How far is Knott's from Disneyland?
About twenty minutes by car down Beach Boulevard and the I-5 — the two parks are genuine same-trip neighbors. That proximity is the classic SoCal play: a Disney morning and a Knott's afternoon is a real, if exhausting, day.