Paul Bunyan Land Amusement Park & Campground — Hotel in Brainerd

We went camping in the Brainerd area over a long cool rainy weekend towards the end of August. We aren't big into fishing and this looked like it would be a fun diversion. This is aimed mostly at smaller kids (I would say ages 2-8 years old) but there are some rides the older kids and adults can enjoy (my son is 10 and still had a pretty good time).

The rides are all old carnival style (this is not Valleyfair) but are still fun. There were no lines so it was easy to get on and off rides. They don't have a lot of staff here so that staff ran between rides; so some rides would be running while others weren't and then the staff would move to a different ride. It sounds weird but it worked out fine.

In addition to the rides there is an old time village of sorts; this was more like a collection of old buildings filled with what could generously be called antiques (but was more like a collection of junk). Some of this was interesting; there's a lot of this on the one side of the park. We walked through some of it but got bored after 40 minutes or so.

I don't recommend eating here unless you have to. The food is concession style and took an incredibly long time to get. When we finally did get it a lot of the items were still cold and/or frozen...additionally it was expensive.

We ended up spending 2-3 hours here. At $20 a person it was okay. There really wasn't much else to do in the area and we had a surprisingly good time. However, I think it's a one time visit for us.

On a hot day this place would be miserable; there is minimal shade and I imagine it would be pretty buggy as well. On a cool cloudy day it...

This place cost us almost $100 for admission for 4. Any time we wanted to ride a ride there was no attendant at the ride and we waiting 20 minutes a couple of times and still had no success with getting an attendant over to any of the rides. These are pictures of all of the rides that had no attendant at 3:54pm on a Sunday (today). There were 3 rides operating at this time. There was even an attendant just standing at the exit of one of the rides staring at all of the people in the lines that were not operating. It seemed liked everybody went on break all at the same time for over two hours. At one point, an attendant had told us that he would be right back, we waited 15 minutes and then he was finally back. Then got us on one ride and then told us he had to go on break. The attendants also yell at these little kids while they are on the rides, trying to scare them…and they did scare several of them (it was weird).We are significantly disappointed with the steep price and the underwhelming experience. If we were to praise anybody or anything, We would praise the teenage workers that had a positive attitude and were awesome at their jobs. Abbie...

I love this place. Paul Bunyan is an icon in the Brainerd Lakes area, and he has been voted the #1 Best Local Celebrity four times! I live nearby, and visit this place often. Sometimes I like to sit at a picnic table to listen to Paul talk. He claims to be a "gentle giant" and I can see why. However, when the kids are nasty or disobedient once in awhile, Paul may be stern in a constructive way, and tell them what the kids (or parents) need to hear to stop the nonsense! Kids can be nice or naughty, especially when they rudely call Paul "creepy" considering Paul's an icon. Hearing Paul greeting youngsters by name here never gets old. He has a great sounding voice too. Best Paul Bunyan ever. Why? Not only does Paul talk, but he sings too! If you think the admission price and food prices are too pricey, go to Valleyfair, or Disneyworld and see what that costs! PBL is fun to visit for both young and old. 🙂

Note to parents: As constructive criticism, please stop your children from asking Paul the question: "What's my name?" Your children's names are only relevant when Paul first greets them. I have heard kids ask this annoying...