#9 - Our trip to Efteling
For months I had been hearing whispers of Efteling, a fantasy themed amusement park in the Netherlands from my mum friends but also my husband’s clients so when it’s coming from both sides you know the universe is screaming at you to go.
We had planned a week away in the summer but that was cancelled because of impending war in the region so I thought why don’t we go to Efteling for 4 days over the bank holiday weekend.
It was sold to me as the Dutch Disneyland.. but cheaper.
Magic is nice, but affordable magic? Magical:)
My husband thought it would be a great idea to road trip there so road trip we did. He’s always had a caravan fantasy so I suppose this was a way of living that out somewhat.
It only took about 9 hrs door to door and 50 pee stops :) …..that sounds awful but it was actually ok. The carry potty and She-wee came in handy when there were no service stations in sight.
If we were to do it again, I would probably stay a night in Folkestone so you can just wake up and go and cut straight to arguing about directions on the continent instead of the UK and stay a few nights in Bruges or a city in Belgium on the way there.
I’m terrible at driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road so I agreed to drive the London-Folksetone leg of the trip.
We decided to take ‘Le Shuttle’ as they call it now, rather than the ferry as it’s only a 35 mins journey in the actual tunnel as opposed to the 90 mins crossing.
Before we left, my husband googled ‘Things to bring on a long car ride with young children’
We had a 3 yr old and 9 yr old in the back.
I summoned Amazon as I always do and got my 3 yr old some new sticker books, like I said in my previous post, novelty is key!
We also took her trusty etcher sketcher and 2 trays they could put on their laps so they could both colour.
She also has a little watch that plays music and voice records, we had scissors and paper and lots of snacks(apples, bananas), don’t forget plastic bag to act as a portable bin.
So much ‘I spy’ was played…
We also downloaded cartoons and tv shows for our older one that were on standby in case of emergency but in the end we didn’t need the iPad on the way there which was great.
I looked up accommodation and decided to go for a Europarcs site in Kaatsheuvel.
The Efteling hotel was 3 times more expensive and the Europarcs looked pretty decent and only a 5 mins drive away.
Once I booked it I was relieved to hear my mum friend had also booked there as well.
So off we went!
Unfortunately our shuttle was delayed so we ended up waiting another hour to get on it, once you’ve boarded it’s quick but the whole build up to it is tedious!
It was about a 2 hr drive to Folkestone and we needed to arrive between 1hr-2hrs before the shuttle so that’s a long time in the car…it was like waiting in car park purgatory till we could get through the pearly gates and glide into our European adventure.
We must have left the house at 10am ish and arrived at the Europarcs at around 6.30pm - 7pm.
That said, Europarcs had it all!
an outdoor and indoor playground, big bouncy ball, a kids club, 2 pools, waterslides, mini golf, a mini market with fresh croissants, 2 restaurants, a lake and loads of space to run around. I absolutely loved it! Oh and so did the kids :)
I’d never heard of Europarcs before but have been doing a deep dive into all their other sites to see what else they offer!
I think the only upside to driving there, besides not having to interact with airport security is that you can take ALL your ‘stuff’, be it toys, food, clothes, towels etc… just pack the car and go. No worrying about if the suitcase is overweight and if you have any liquids in the bags…
We settled in our 2 bed bungalow and headed to Efteling the next morning.
I downloaded the app which tells you how busy the rides are and what the waiting times are and considering it was a weekend it wasn’t too bad!
There were rides to suit both ages, carousels, steam train, rollercoasters, water rides, 4d experience, plenty of toilets, restaurants and food/ drinks/ ice cream stands.
When my little one was too small for one of the rides I took her to the playground and we entertained ourselves for about 40 mins while dad and sister were on the big rollercoaster.
The attractions are centred around various fairy tales, fables and folklore.
There’s a magical forest with talking trees, giants, musical mushrooms.
They had characters dressed up enacting scenarios, fairies, pirates that would take pictures with the children, some masks a little creepy but hey..
The weather was perfect, I’d imagine it would be different if you had to queue up in the scorching heat.
I’d suggest bringing a pram if you have little ones in case they get tired .. they also had little wagon type things for hire you could put the kids in and wheel them everywhere ..
We needed 2 days to do 90% of the rides so I’d say 2 days is long enough.
Children under 4 go free.
The girls had a wonderful time.
Until we had to drive back to London. Ha!
We had a 4pm shuttle back to Folkestone, so we left Europarcs at 10am and headed to Ghent in Belgium for lunch.
I really rushed the lunch because I was scared we’d miss our slot.
Then I set the navigator to Calais ferry, instead of Calais Le Shuttle which resulted in a mild marital crisis.
As we were rushing to get to Calais the children of course decided they were desperate for the toilet and there was nowhere to stop and so on and so forth…
So again I suggest more stops on the way there and more stops on the way back for a more ‘relaxed’ holiday.
Tot Ziens!