Hi Friends,
First time going to Efteling last week from Canada.
Dates - Wednesday - Friday Oct 7-9
Hotel - Bosrijk
Kids - boys 5 & 8
For background, we are Disney people. We’ve been to Disneyland several times with the kids and Disney World as well. We also visited DLP on this trip to Europe, that place was busy busy busy.
Top line: 3/4 family members enjoyed Efteling more than DLP. My wife loves the Disney nostalgia.
It took me a while to warm up to Efteling but by the end of it, what a magical park.
Efteling could be billed as a food park, the snacks and meals were so good. We loved Polles Keuken and Pinokkio’s was quite good (despite the bad reviews). We did do dinner at Brasserie 7, I’d skip it with kids to be honest. Wasn’t worth the price and food wasn’t better than the other spots.
Rides are good balance of thrill and theming, there’s even some rides I’ve never experienced anything like it before: Danse Macabre, de Vliegende Hollander and the theming at Symbolica and Droomvlucht is at least on Disney level. Lines seemed to peak in the afternoon, but we never waited more than 35 minutes. My 8 year olds favourite ride was Baron of course.
Bosrijk was a great hotel, the pool was very convenient when the parks close so early (compared to Disney). We’d go for dinner, then a swim and off to bed. Kids looked forward to the pool every night. Breakfast at the hotel was solid.
I worried that 2.5 days was too much, but I think it was the right amount for first time visitors. It takes a day to figure out how to get around the park and what exactly is going on and allows for a slower pace.
We took the train and bus from Amsterdam, it was a chore with all the kids bags but wasn’t super difficult. I think if we did it again, we may take the train and then a taxi but car seats are a challenge coming from the other side of the world.
All in all, what a special theme park and I’d recommend it for theme park lovers visiting Europe with their family, the pace is much more enjoyable than DLP.