Abandoned Water Parks Around The World That Are Creepy But Also Nostalgic

Five kilometers outside of the town of Beja in Portugal there lies an abandoned water park known as The Beja Aquatica. This short-lived aquapark had a limited run of just three years before it closed, welcoming the public between 1989 and 1992. Since then it has been abandoned, with money for the project running completely dry.

Also running dry are the abandoned and filthy waterslides, covered as they are in moss and dirt and long grasses. The remains of the park have been explored by curious ruin-hunters and squatters; the latter allegedly caused a fire back in 2014. There seems little hope that the park — whose owners had ambitious plans of a tourist complex and hotels — will be returned to its previous splendor.

In 2014 a new, multi-million-yuan aquapark in China opened its doors to the public for the first time. Children and families in the nation were excited by the Wenzhou Dolphin Bay Dream Water Park, but all was not well behind the scenes. The construction company which built the exciting attraction hadn’t been fully paid by its owner, who didn’t have the money. The legal fight led to the owner declaring bankruptcy, and the park was forced to close.

There were numerous auctions to try and sell it off at a bargain price, but so far no one has stepped up. This led to the Wenzhou water park being deserted, and left to the elements. Subsequent explorations of the site have shown its state of disrepair, from filthy mega-slides and dilapidated buildings to swimming pools full of stagnant water and litter. 

The now-defunct and abandoned Macassar Beach Pavilion water park was constructed back in 1991. You can find the remnants of it on Cape Town’s False Bay coast in South Africa. The remains of the park are set within a special 2,760-acre conservation area which has been set up to safeguard its unique environment, characterized by shrubs known as fynbos and sand dunes.

Macassar Beach Pavilion was the place to be for South African kids before financial issues began to bite. It was then closed and deserted, and has led to an eerie landscape being formed around it. Urban explorers have taken plenty of photos and video of the abandoned water park, which has been partially submerged by the shifting dunes and destroyed by the elements.

Here’s a novel water park — one that is hidden away inside a hotel. The Paradise Landing water park can be found inside the Hilton Milwaukee, which is located in the heart of Wisconsin’s largest city. But there is one unfortunate problem once you find it — the indoor aqua park is now closed.

Yes, the once-impressive undercover water park shut in 2013 and is now deserted, though the hotel which surrounds it is still very much in operation. The slides and pools remain though, but are in a state of disrepair along with the fake houses and parrots. Twitter user Rachell Underhill took a look around, and tweeted, “I love gawking at the 20,000 square foot super-creepy abandoned indoor water park in the basement!” while noting the nightmare-inducing ghost-mannequins which stood around the joint. Freaky!

Here’s a cautionary tale from Australia: a yarn centered on dreaming too big. It’s the story of the Atlantis Marine Park in Two Rocks, which opened its doors to the paying public in 1981. The complex aimed to rival the beach-laden Gold Coast. At its pomp it boasted numerous pools, live Sea World-style shows with dolphins and pedal boats to get around.

But rather like a great white shark, the owners financially bit off more than they could chew. Sadly, then, the Atlantis Marine Park Down Under had to shut its doors for good in 1990. It was then largely left to the elements and vandals, before a property developer called Fini Group took control of the area. Interestingly, the locally famous sculpture of King Neptune — which was carved out of limestone and overlooked the park — was restored after an internet petition in 2015. 

It was 1976 and America’s bicentennial year when Disney opened up the River Country water park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. For the rest of the ’70s and right through the ’80s and ’90s the venue welcomed countless families for water-based frolics. But the fun was over in 2001 when Disney pulled the plug on it.

There had been numerous fatalities at the water park, and presumably Disney felt it had become something of a liability and a PR disaster. Or else it was running at a loss. Anyway, the park was subsequently abandoned, and its once awe-inspiring slides and pools filled with grass, weeds, moss and dirt. Not surprisingly, urban explorers have frequented the place, and captured its now creepy splendor.

Wild Waters stood proudly in the historic Silver Springs area of Florida from April 1978 until its closure on September 5, 2016. The water park was relatively small compared to its sister attraction Silver Springs Nature Theme Park and its many rivals, boasting a more old-fashioned family focus. Still, it led the way with its fiberglass flumes that are now widely used.

But after almost 40 years open to the public, Wild Waters was shut down. For a few years it remained abandoned, its slides overrun by grasses, weeds and trees. The ticket booths were boarded up. Restaurant windows were smashed. Urban explorers soon frequented the eerie site and its epic waterslides. Finally, demolition teams moved in during December 2018 and today Wild Waters is little but a precious memory for those who enjoyed it.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Aquaria Park in the Pinarella di Cervia area of Ravenna was a hugely popular place for locals and traveling families. The water park in northern Italy — which opened in 1992 — was adored for its swimming pools, whirlpools and long, twisty water slides. It also boasted tennis and beach volleyball courts, and a regular disco named Jameika where you could party into the night.

But all that fun came to an end in 2004 when the park sadly closed due to bankruptcy. The once-proud water park was then left to the elements, abandoned to the point of disrepair. Since then, urban explorers and drone enthusiasts have filmed the remnants of the complex. It is eerie to see the huge, twisting waterslides covered in dirt and surrounded by weeds, while the volleyball and tennis courts are left barren.

Lake Dolores Waterpark had a long and storied history. The aqua fun park in Newberry Springs was built way back in the early ’60s, and named after the missus of the entrepreneur who founded it. A decade later it was a favorite haunt of many families in California. But harder times were round the corner, and by the late 1980s it was forced to shut its doors.

In 1998 Lake Dolores would reopen its doors to the public, by now reimagined as a 1950s-style nostalgia trip, and renamed Rock-A-Hoola. But this incarnation of the park didn’t last long — a bad accident in which an employee was left disabled contributed to its closure. A final attempt to revive the site came in 2002, but Discovery Waterpark closed just two years later. Since then, it has been abandoned and its once impressive slides and pools covered in gunk and grasses.

It was back in 1982 that Alberta’s Wild Rapids Waterslide Park opened for the first time. The now-abandoned Canadian aquatic fun park — which is located in the Sylvan Lake neighborhood of Alberta between Calgary and Edmonton — had quite a run too. Its owners welcomed the public for over three decades until the attraction’s permanent closure in 2016.

So, what happened? For quite some time, Wild Rapid Waterslide Park was a hugely popular place for Canadians’ and holidaymakers’ aquatic entertainment needs. Not only that, it was Alberta’s second-biggest water park, and its largest outdoor one. Now, its 12 slides, pools and hot tubs lie largely destroyed and deserted.

Here’s a water park that had a real tongue twister of a name — Ebenezer Floppen Slopper’s Wonderful Water Slides. It was the brainchild of a man named Mark Collor and opened to the public at the beginning of the 1980s, on a former landfill site. But the aquatic fun park in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, shut down completely in 1989 for undisclosed reasons.

Since then, the once thriving water park has become overgrown and lost to nature. The slides and pools are decrepit and covered in graffiti, and the site is only popular now with urban explorers, animals and insects. We suppose you could say it has gone full circle, and returned to its landfill heritage.

For family entertainment, Wild Waters was once one of the jewels in Idaho’s crown. When it opened at the beginning of the 1980s it was one of the north-west’s biggest and best-loved water parks. But by 2010 the Coeur d’Alene venue was closing its entry gates for good, never to be enjoyed again by local youths.

Since being abandoned over a decade ago, Wild Waters has become something of a blot on the landscape. The slides are covered in gunk and surrounded by trees and tall grasses. We wouldn’t recommend jumping in the stagnant pools either. The community around it in Coeur d’Alene have got together to try and get it repurposed, or even turn it into a skate park. But currently the formerly grand deserted water park is the eyesore of the I-90.

The next stop on our worldwide journey around abandoned water parks takes us to western Europe: Spain, to be exact. Even more precisely, to Sitges, a small Catalonian town south-west of Barcelona that is noted for its horror movie festival, and the deserted aqua park L’Aquatic Paradis.

L’Aquatic Paradis first welcomed the Spanish public and holidaymakers from abroad at the start of the 1990s. But around 24 months into its opening run, a deadly accident occurred in which a wave machine engine malfunctioned and drowned a child. The park became embroiled in legal issues and its debts mounted. It was closed and abandoned, becoming covered in graffiti by local artists, and frequented by skaters making use of its vacant pools.

There was a time when Water World in Phoenixville was the place to be in the heat of the summer for the residents of Pennsylvania. But in 2012 that world came crashing down. Or more accurately, it was permanently closed. Since then it has been abandoned and left to the mercy of the elements.

Yes, Water World — presumably not named after the costly Kevin Costner movie flop — has remained in place, but is now a sorry, deserted mess, only frequented by urban explorers and squatters. The slides are still there, but covered in grime, and the pools are filled with stagnant water and algae. The buildings are dilapidated, seemingly ransacked and covered in graffiti. Sadly, an auction held by Max Spann failed to elicit any serious bids for the site back in 2015.

A unique idea if ever there was one, the Safari Lagoon Waterpark in Padan was constructed on a mall’s roof. Yes, you read that correctly. The Malaysian attraction opened its, erm, elevator, back in 1998 and was one of the biggest water parks in south-east Asia upon its unveiling to the public.

Sadly, things would soon go wrong for the Safari Lagoon Waterpark. Firstly, a worker at the park died in a high-pressure water pump partition when they got stuck and couldn’t get out. Secondly, authorities would find out that it had been running without the required license for almost a decade. As a result, it closed in 2007. Now, it’s an overgrown mess on top of a mall, its filthy pools and slides an eerie reminder of a once-glorious idea.

As the 1980s began Midland-Odessa residents were welcoming a new family entertainment venue. That place was Water Wonderland, and for over a decade, it provided aqua-based summer fun for all the family. But by the ’90s the Texan attraction had run into cashflow and legal problems — the latter stemming from an incident in which a child was badly hurt in the park — and its owners filed for insolvency.

Water Wonderland acquired different owners at several junctures. But it was all in vain, and the site closed for good in 2003. After that, it was abandoned, and was soon overtaken by weeds, trees and tall grasses. Drone footage has shown the once-formidable park in a sorry state of disrepair, with slides covered in dirt and graffiti. Still, the land that made up Water Wonderland was bought in 2018, and there is hope it could yet return as a different venue.

Those who used to visit Wet n’ Wild back in the day might not recognize it if they saw it today. The once-thriving water park in Vineland Station, Ontario was a must-visit attraction for Canadian families enjoying the summer holidays. But it closed its ticket booths for good in 2002.

Yes, Wet n’ Wild has been deserted for two decades now, and it shows. Video footage posted on YouTube by a man named Daniel Coz reveals the once-epic water park has become an overgrown wasteland. Graffiti has been daubed all over the slides and destroyed buildings, and it is clearly a popular spot for urban adventurers. Will it ever be reopened? It looks unlikely at the moment, and it would require a lot of money and effort to return the attraction to past glories.

Remember the Wildwater Kingdom Water Park in Geauga Lake? It had quite the history before it was shut for good and abandoned in 2016. So, the Ohio water park originally opened in 1970 as a branch of Sea World. Soon after it joined forces with Geauga Lake Theme Park, becoming Six Flags World of Adventure by the year 2000. Cedar Point’s owner bought it in 2004 but the theme park section ceased operations in 2007.

Still, the water park would continue to welcome the public until 2016 when it was permanently shut and just left to the elements. Some of the water slides were sold off, but the outline of the once-thriving water park remains. Buildings are ruined beyond repair, and the former pool and slide areas are covered in graffiti. There’s an eeriness to the abandoned park that feels similar to Pripyat, the ghost town near Chernobyl deserted after the nuclear accident.

To Denmark now on our epic journey, and the small railway town of Aarup. This locale lies on the island of Funen in the south of the country, and was once home to a thriving water park called Fun Park Fyn. That aquatic entertainment venue began welcoming the Danish public in the 1980s.

But when the 2000s hit, things started to go south for the park. By 2006 it had to close for good; bankruptcy was apparently the reason. After that, the park and its colorful slides were deserted, and the complex is now like a ghost town. The windows of the buildings have been smashed, and graffiti is scattered around the complex. Still, it doesn’t look unsalvageable if some entrepreneur suddenly found the money and the will to build back better.

The final stop on our worldwide tour of abandoned water parks is south Asia, specifically the country of Vietnam. In the city of Hue in the center of the country, there lies a deserted water park known as Ho Thuy Tien. The once-grand aquatic adventure complex — which is thought to have cost up to $3 million to construct — had started trading in 2004.

But Ho Thuy Tien was only in business for a few short years before it was shut down and abandoned. The deserted water park has become a notorious haunt for urban explorers, graffiti artists and backpackers since. A giant, scary dragon still overlooks the natural landscape, but the buildings are decrepit and graffiti-covered inside. You could still probably ride the dirt-filled slides, but we certainly don’t recommend it!