Start a yearly tradition with your kids by visiting different Christmas Markets in Europe. Enjoy festive activities, food, and gifts at these markets. Check out the Germany and Austria Christmas Market City Breaks for some amazing options.
Last Updated on November 14, 2023 by Suzy McCullough
We are big fans of theme parks and have visited quite a lot. Our absolute favourite is Efteling in The Netherlands and that’s a joint decision between the three of us, Mum, Dad and son. We visited when he was 6 and again when he was 10 and you can get different experiences from visiting the park with different ages as there is something for everyone. Efteling is located around a 30-minute drive from Eindhoven Airport and around 1hr15 drive from Amsterdam airport. There are also overnight ferry links from the North of England.
Not only is there a great range of excellent rides, many of which aren’t like your ‘standard’ theme park ride. But the theming is excellent. It has a mythical and fantasy fairytale theme with some references to the history of The Netherlands. It is open in all seasons.
Efteling first opened in 1952 with its wonderful Fairytale Forest. It has maintained the same format for all these years with wonderful scenes depicting many different fairytales. These include Sleeping Beauty. Snow White, The Gnome Village, The Frog Prince and so many more. The Fairytale Forest has seen several improvements over the years and to explore it properly can take almost two hours.
Over the decades Efteling has expanded its rides and attractions. There are many rides for all the family and some just for younger children. Efteling also has a number of thrill rides which are all excellent.
There are some great places where you can stay at Efteling. We recommend 2-3 nights and theme park tickets are included with your stay. We have written a post that covers all the different hotels and accommodation at Efteling. Best of all for a theme park, the accommodation is excellent value for money.
We have stayed at the Efteling Hotel in their Ravelijn Suite. This has 2 bedrooms and a magical door. The hotel is just a short walk to the park and it has its own entrance just for hotel guests. We have also stayed in a Woodland House at Loonsche Land. This is great for those wanting to stay self-catering and we had two large bedrooms. The villages are very picturesque and feel other-worldly. Another bonus of staying in official Efteling accommodation is that you have entry to the Efteling theme park 30 minutes before the general public. A few of the rides open early and this is when we take full advantage of early access.
A lot of my readers ask me how long they will need for a visit to Efteling. We recommend 2 days and if you can have the bonus of fitting in an extra half or even full day then you won’t regret it. I would say it’s pretty much impossible to do everything at Efteling in a day. We don’t even manage everything in 2 days although we do a lot of re-rides. Please do check out our recommended itinerary for 2 days at Efteling. To get the most out of a visit there you really do need a plan.
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