New $26 Million Bear Grylls Theme Park Based on Near-Death Experiences

There will be no survival-food vendors at the new £20 million ($26 million) Bear Grylls theme park, set to open in the U.K. in 2018. Guests will not have to dig for water, sleep in deer carcasses, or row a bathtub-boat in the buff.

At least, not that we know of.

The Bear Grylls Adventure is inspired by the global escapades of Grylls, a former British special forces trooper who is best known for the Man vs. Wild series. His survival show ran on the Discovery Channel for seven seasons.

But the 86,000-square-foot theme park will offer much tamer versions of Grylls’s real-life adventures—rock climbing, indoor skydiving, and “the highest free-roam high ropes” course in Europe.

Merlin Entertainments Plc, the company behind Legoland, the London Eye, Madame Tussauds wax museums, and Peppa Pig World (but not SeaWorld), announced details on Monday of the Bear Grylls Adventure, which is being built at at the NEC, a major event space in Birmingham.

In addition to the rides, the theme park will have a Basecamp where guests can “hone their adventurer skills through a selection of mental and physical challenges.”

The park will “test our resolve and spirit to never give up and to go the extra mile,” Grylls declared in a statement.

For those who want a woodsier experience, Bear Grylls also has a branded Survival Academy that offers daylong to weeklong wilderness courses in Germany, the U.K., Northern Island, and the U.S. To cap off some of the longer courses, participants are dropped on a remote island and have to navigate back to civilization.

The theme park will probably opt for exit signs instead.

Source: skift.com