Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2026: Tickets, Dates and Tips

Winter Wonderland opens on Thursday, November 19, 2026, and closes after Sunday, January 3, 2027. It's open every day in between except Christmas Day, Friday, December 25. The organizer says the last day will be a Family Fun Day, with details still to come when we checked.

The park stays open until 10pm every night, and last entry is 9:30pm. Most days it opens at 10am, but some weekday mornings open later. According to the official tickets guide, the exceptions for 2026 are:

• Opens at noon: November 19–20, November 23–26, November 30 and December 2.
• Opens at 2pm: Tuesday, December 1.
• Opens at 11am: November 27, December 3–4, December 7–11, December 14–18 and December 28 to January 1, 2027.

Every other date opens at 10am, including weekends. The guide doesn't list separate hours for Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve, so check the header on the official site, which shows each day's hours, before you book either date.

Some rides and attractions close their lines before 10pm so that everyone already waiting gets through, so don't leave your must-do ride until the last half hour.

Winter Wonderland isn't free to enter. The tickets guide is blunt about it: "Whether you're 2 or 92, you must have an entry ticket." What an entry ticket buys you is access to the park itself: the markets, the food and drink stalls, the lights and the atmosphere. Almost everything you'd queue for inside costs extra.

Entry tickets and time slots

You book a date and a one-hour arrival window between 10am and 8pm, and you need to get through the gate within that hour. Once you're in, you can stay as long as you like. There are three price tiers, color-coded on the booking page:

• Off-Peak (green slots). The quietest times. The official guide calls these slots "always free to enter," but you still have to book a ticket, and the same page shows a £1.00 price, so check the figure at checkout. Every Monday to Thursday in November is priced as Off-Peak, and attractions are cheaper in these slots too.
• Standard (gold slots), £5.50. Available all day on some dates and across many mornings and afternoons.
• Peak (orange slots), £8.25. The busiest sessions, mostly later in the day and on weekends.

Booking fees are included in those prices. Advance prices are available until 11:59pm the day before your visit. You can buy on the day, but you'll pay more, and in popular periods slots sell out in advance.

How to get entry free

Spend more than £25 in a single online booking on attractions, rides, packages, Ride & Game Credit or food and drink meal deals, and your entry ticket is free. Every £25 you spend unlocks one more free entry ticket, so a family of four booking a rink session and a show will often clear the bar. It only works online and in advance.

Packages and passes

If you already know what you want to do, a package is usually the better buy: the organizer says attractions cost 10% less inside a package, and both of these packages unlock free entry. Two examples from the 2026 range:

• Arctic Adventure Package (adults from £44.50): ice skating, the Magical Ice Kingdom and the Real Ice Slide, plus £20 of Ride & Game Credit.
• Festive Favourites Package (adults from £48.10): Bar Ice, the Real Ice Slide and the Giant Wheel with a fast-track upgrade, plus £20 of credit.

There are ride passes and a Santa Land package for younger kids too, and a new VIP Tour Experience at £149 that promises to skip the lines. If your plans change, the official site has a rescheduling tool for moving a booking to another date in the 2026–27 season.

These are the headline attractions and their 2026 advance prices from the official site, shown as Off-Peak / Standard / Peak. Each needs its own ticket and a time slot, and each price tier matches the entry slot you book.

The Ice Rink

Billed by the organizer as the UK's largest open-air ice rink, it's built around Hyde Park's bandstand under a canopy of lights. Sessions last 45 minutes, run from 10am to 9pm, and skate rental is included.

• Adult £12.65 / £17.05 / £19.25; child £9.35 / £11.55 / £13.75; family £37.40 / £46.20 / £55.00.
• Arrive 20 minutes before your session. Skaters must be at least 3, and children aged 3–12 must skate with an adult.
• Bags go in the cloakroom at £2 an item, and phones and cameras aren't allowed on the ice. The rink runs in all weather, so bring a spare pair of socks on wet days.
• Wheelchairs are allowed on the ice, with ramps on and off the rink.

Gandeys K-Pop Dragon Circus

New for 2026, a 55-minute show in the big top that mixes K-Pop music and dance with circus acts. Shows start at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm, with extra noon and 8pm shows on selected days.

• Adult £13.75 / £17.60 / £19.80; child £10.45 / £14.30 / £16.50; ringside seats cost more.
• Strollers can't go into the big top (there's a buggy park), and the show uses flashing lights and loud music. Late arrivals are admitted only at the circus's discretion.

Magical Ice Kingdom presents Neverland

A walk-through Peter Pan world carved from more than 500 tonnes of ice and snow, in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. Allow about 20 minutes. It's the easiest big attraction with small children: strollers and wheelchairs can go through.

• Adult £10.20 / £12.95 / £14.60; child £8.00 / £10.75 / £12.40.

The Giant Wheel and Bar Ice

The 70-meter Giant Wheel gives you a 10-minute flight with views across the London skyline; the last flight is at 9:30pm. Adult and teen tickets are £8.80 / £9.90 / £12.10, a fast-track upgrade is £5.50, and a private pod for up to six is £46.20 / £52.80 / £61.60. At busy times you may share a pod.

Bar Ice, new for 2026, is a 20-minute session in a snow cave kept at -10°C, with one cocktail included and coats and gloves provided. Tickets are £17.05 / £18.70 / £19.80, and no one 12 or under is admitted after 7pm.

Beyond these, the organizer counts more than 150 things to see and do, including rides, a Real Ice Slide, ice-sculpting workshops and a Bavarian Village of bars, each priced separately. Pre-booked rides can be used at any time on the day of your visit.

The organizer's own pricing tells you when it's busy. Peak slots fall mostly later in the day and on weekends, and the tickets guide warns that you should leave extra time for lines and for walking between attractions in those sessions. Off-Peak slots are pitched as the time to come "when the park is quieter."

• Go on a weekday in November. Every Monday to Thursday in November is priced as Off-Peak, which makes it the cheapest and calmest stretch of the season. Note that several of those weekdays don't open until noon.
• Arrive early in your slot. You must get through the gate within your hour, and an early entry slot gives you the longest day: a 10am ticket lets you stay up to 12 hours.
• Book timed attractions before you go. Rink sessions, circus shows and Bar Ice run on fixed times. Booking them at the same time as entry also gets you advance prices and, above £25, free entry.
• Leave gaps. The park is large. The organizer suggests leaving plenty of time between pre-booked attractions so you're not racing across it.
• Buy fast track where it counts. Fast-track passes skip the line at rides such as the Giant Wheel, and they're limited each hour.
• Budget the time. The organizer's first-timer guide says most visitors stay four to five hours.

For photos, come for sunset. The sun sets around 4pm in late November and December, so a mid-afternoon slot lets you see the park in daylight and then lit up. Whatever the slot, dress for several hours outdoors: the rink and rides run in all conditions.

Winter Wonderland has four gates, and the organizer matches each one to a different zone. Pick your station by what you want to do first, because the park is large.

• Blue Gate (south). Closest stations: Hyde Park Corner, Green Park and Victoria. The organizer says this is the gate for the Ice Rink. Hyde Park Corner is on the Piccadilly line, one stop from Green Park, according to TfL.
• Red Gate (east). Closest stations: Bond Street and Marble Arch. Best for Santa Land and the Thrillville rides. Marble Arch is on the Central line, according to TfL.
• Gold Gate (north). Closest stations: Marble Arch and Paddington, for the Luminaires and the Arctic Circle (home of Bar Ice and the Magical Ice Kingdom).
• Green Gate (west). Closest stations: Knightsbridge and High Street Kensington, for the Bavarian Village and the Christmas markets.

The organizer warns that Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge and Marble Arch are expected to be busy and can sometimes be closed. For a calmer trip, it suggests Victoria, Bond Street or Paddington, which are a 12- to 20-minute walk away. If you need step-free access or have a stroller, it recommends Green Park or Bond Street, which have lifts.

Driving isn't recommended; if you must, the organizer points to the Q-Park car parks with entrances on Park Lane and at Marble Arch. Every London bus is accessible, and there are stops beside the event. Santander Cycles docks are at Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge, among others.

Getting home: the nearest taxi rank is on Park Lane, opposite Brook House, and it's busy all evening. Minicabs can't be hailed, so book a licensed one. On Friday and Saturday nights, the Central and Piccadilly lines run the Night Tube. Also note the organizer's warning that the Elizabeth line has no service on December 26. For more on late-night travel and safety, see our London night tours guide.

Winter Wonderland is a full evening, but it's only one part of Christmas in London. The West End lights on Regent Street and Oxford Street are a short ride east, and a guided lights tour is the easiest way to see them in one go.

• Christmas lights by bus. Golden Tours Gray Line London's 90 minutes tour leaves from the South Bank with a live guide and loops Regent Street, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus and the Trafalgar Square tree. Book it for a different night than the park: you won't want two cold evenings back to back.
• Christmas lights on foot. Love London Tours's small-group walk starts in Covent Garden and ends on Carnaby Street, with stories of how the Victorians reinvented Christmas.

We compare every bus and walking option in our Christmas lights tours guide, and our Christmas in London guide covers the other markets and rinks, from Skate at Somerset House to the Southbank Centre Winter Market, plus what closes on Christmas Day. For dates and tips on each market, see our London Christmas markets guide.

Want the skyline from the river instead of the Giant Wheel? Compare London Eye tickets on the South Bank, where the live-guided lights bus also starts.