Efteling: Is it the best theme park to go to as a family in Europe?

This is a guest post from an 11-year old girl who has written up her thoughts after a recent trip to Efteling, which staying at the Movenpick Den Bosch hotel.

Efteling is a great place to spend a day (or even a week!) as a family. The park caters for all ages including your little ones. Even if  it is raining then, Efteling is still one of the places I would recommend to go and visit. Some of the rides may scare your young ones, but are great for you and your older kids to go on.

Source: Efteling press

Food for fussy eaters to enjoy

The range of different kinds of food is like you have never seen before in a kids theme park. There seems to be something healthy, like a salad or a pasta in all the bigger restaurants. This includes a pancake shop for the realistic Dutch feel.

Source: Efteling press

There is a huge choice for fussy eaters and the kids menu even comes with a surprise and a healthy banana yogurt. Panorama, a restaurant located in the area Reizenrijk, has an adult menu with a range of hot and cold options. The snack carts dotted around the park all sell a selection of different kinds of ice cream, popcorn, waffles, candy floss and drinks. The theme of the snack cart is even sometimes related to the ride it is near.

Attractions for all ages

There are many attractions for every age group from baby to adult. Some scary rides, some slow rides, some wet rides and some attractions just to walk around, including the fairytale forest,🌳 which is a wonderful wood full of scenes from different fairytales; perfect for all the family.

The whole park is split into five main areas which are:

• Marerijk – home to rides mainly suitable for younger children including the Fairytale Forest 🌳,
• Reizenrijk – with many rides and attractions for the whole family,
• Ruigrijk – in which can be found a few suitable rides for your young ones, but mainly for ambitious, fear, and thrill seeking adults with their older children,
• Anderrijk – catering for older kids with some rides to scare you and some to blow your mind,including a haunted house and a 3D/4D movie on nature and
• Fantasierijk – with amazing shows and a new ride, called Symbolica, to mark their 65th anniversary.

We hope you enjoy exploring the park using the map, which you can find in different languages at the main entrance and just past security.

Shows

There are many shows to go and watch at Efteling, but any show with dialogue will be in Dutch. Some shows don’t use speech, so they are ok to watch for any nationality. The water show, called Aquanura, is on at multiple times in one evening, so you don’t have to stay and see the later one.

Source: Efteling press

In the evening, Aquanura is more effective because you can see the lights light up the fountains more clearly than if you went to the early show. This show is perfect for young and older kids because they can understand it and it is not to long. Other shows include a puppet show and a variety of other shows in the Efteling theatre.

Getting there and location 

There are many ways to get to Efteling, including buses, trains, cars and if you stay close enough to it then walking! For those staying in cities, then train is a great way to get to Efteling. For those staying in a town, by car or by taxi could be more convenient. Here is a list of places that tell you how long it takes to get to Efteling and how far away it is:

• Amsterdam – it will take you a long time to get there from Amsterdam, but when you get there, it will all be worth it. By car, it will take you around 1 hour 20 minutes to drive the 110km to the park. If you go by train, it depends on what train you get; it could take up to 1 hr 55 mins,
• Hertogenbosch – unlike Amsterdam, Hertogenbosch does not take long to get to it. You can even get there by bus! It is a 30 minute trip on the 800 bus from the central station. If you would rather drive, then it is a 25km drive that lasts 20mins. Trains take 35-50 minutes from the central station as well. If you love cycling, then this is the one for you; can you imagine a 22km ride lasting about 1hr 15 minutes,
• Eindhoven Airport – these instructions will help if you fly to Eindhoven and you are staying in Efteling. In a car or taxi it will take around 31 mins to go 41 km or you can take the train! This will take around 1hr 32mins, and i f you look on Google maps it will give you a reccomended route to take and
• Rotterdam – to get there from here, it will take around 49mins to go the 69km to get to Efteling. By train it will take you about an hour and a quarter.

My view

I found the map and the website very useful. The website is:https://www.efteling.com/en/park. There are many rides to enjoy and the map even has a list of things that are recommended; here are a few!

• Aquanura – (as mentioned in the shows section.),
• Baron 1898 – one of the faster more frightening roller coasters in Ruigrijk and
• Symbolica – the new ride made for the 65th anniversary of Efteling this year.

Personally my favourite rde was the wooden rollercoaster called Joris en de Draak also in Ruigrijk because it was fast and had an element of competitiveness, as you where trying to beat the other element ( fire or water). This roller coaster has two tracks next to each other and your team is trying to finish first on the high speed coaster. When the race has finished, they have a mini ceremony at the end; where the other people queueing cheer for their team if they win after watching some of the race. The ride is not suitable for under 1.10m

I would love to go back to Efteling, so that I can enjoy all of the rides and attractions I missed out on.

 

 

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