Effeling

My wife is from near there, so some bias. The theme park is a firm family favorite. Our little one (now 11) has been several times, the first time when they were 5, and absolutely loves it.

There are rides for all ages, I'd highly recommend Max and Moritz and Symbolica as well as the Fairy tail forest, carnival festival, land van Laaf and Droomvlucht. The water show at the end of the day is also highly recommended. Plan for a full day as you won't even see everything even on a quiet day.

We have never stayed on the resort, there are some other places you could stay near by. There is a holiday park called Roompot De Katjeskelder which is great. Alternatively there is the Beekse Bergen which is a fantastic safari park. This allows you an alternative place to visit which is only a bit more than half an hour away and has great accomodation. If you want a simple hotel we can recommend the Ibis in Tilburg. 

Written with input from everyone. Recommendations made by the 11 year old.

We had a day at Eftelling (having been camping in the Voseges and then in Goolderheide in Belguim) and stayed at one of the hotels on site. We easily filled a whole day and didn't pop back to the hotel.

How tall are your children? Our 4 y/o (small for age) was 98cm and they would not let her on Max and Morritz 🙁 Our 6 y/o was tall enough for the bigger coasters (120 cm+) and mostly enjoyed them.

The real gem is the fairy-tale stuff - walking around the animatronics; Droomvult, the house thing (Symbolica). We were not exactly prep'd for our visit so didn't do the iconic stuff until later on int he day. We also bought the Eftelling fairy tale book before we left and have been reading these bizarre European fairy tales ever since, which helped explain the whats and whys of the theme park! We have some new favourite stories that didn't make a lot of sense when we saw them in the theme park.

If you are near Newcastle I could lend you this for a while, which will help you understand these random animatronics and displays! 

Thanks so much for the feedback! And apologies for the spelling in the title!!

It sounds like it would be a good day out. We are thinking about a week at a nearby Eurocamp, maybe De Flaasbloem or TerSpegelt, the advantage being we can use the tunnel not the ferry (we still have some PTSD from using Brittany ferries the last few summers). 

We're looking at heading over there this summer.

Any suggestions for camping in the area? We have a VW T4 camper and awning so looking for something with decent facilities (kids are 7 & 10) to stay at for a few days. 

It sounds like it would be a good day out. We are thinking about a week at a nearby Eurocamp, maybe De Flaasbloem or TerSpegelt, the advantage being we can use the tunnel not the ferry (we still have some PTSD from using Brittany ferries the last few summers). 

TerSpegelt + Efteling is what we've booked this summer. Note that staying in Efteling includes passes and also slightly earlier park access. I''ve never been but my wife went as a child and still raves about it.

I'm going to state bias here, my wife has been a number of times as a kid and we've been as a family once and are going back again for a few days this year.  So I'm definitely a fan.  Recently been to Legoland and Disneyland Paris and imho Eftling is superior to both parks on many many levels.

It does the fairytale stories much much better than Disney do.  Pricewise it's very cheap compared to other parks.  Both the hotels have recently (last year) been done up and are decently priced.  We stayed in the main hotel a few years back and it was very nice, so can't wait to see what it's like now it's been totally refurbed.

Staff are amazing and all the rides are very well run.  You don't have to worry about being exhorted for a 'fast queue' pass or similar.  Most of the rides take a decent number of people so you never have to wait for too long.  They also have a very well run 'single rider' system, which you can use if you want a quick go on a rollercoaster the kids won't go on.  There's 6 really decent rollercoasters.  Loads and loads of super atmospheric rides.

They have these bins around the park which make noise when  you put rubbish in, which all the kids love.  There's an excellent fairytale forest section.  Long Neck!  The park also does the background music better than any theme park I've ever been to. 

The only slight downside imho is the food, which is pretty standard theme park fare.  Tho I do like the Stroopwaffels.  There's an ok sit down restaurant in the middle of the park and plenty of stands.  The chicken kebabs near Fata Morgana are decent enough.

It's open from 0930 till 1800.  I think you can do all the 'big' rides (but not all the coasters) in a day.  It's worth staying around till the bitter end as the rides run right up till shutting and it's entirely possible to get multiple goes on something you like, eg one day we literally had 5 goes on Dreamflight in the last 30 minutes of the park being open.  This is possible on plenty of other rides as well.  But I would recommend 2 days if you want to do it all. 

Iconic rides are (in rough order of what you should do):

Dreamflight

Symbolica (best ride of it's kind I've ever been on)

Danse Macabre - brand new and I'm totally hyped for this, should be amazing

Fata Morgana (only once, it's one of their oldest rides and it shows)

Villa Volta

The 'kids' ride:

Carnival Festival - similar to Disney's 'It's a Small World' and equally annoying.  But your kid will love it, if they're young.

There's also a show called Ravelin, which is great.

Other good rides are:

Max and Moritz is a great kids rollercoaster

Joris an Drak - excellent

Vogel Rok - good dark rollercoaster (better than Hyperspace Mountain, Crush's Coaster is slightly better than it)

Python is a decent coaster with (iirc) 3 loops

Baron is a good drop coaster, with a fun bit after the drop

De Village Holander - water coaster, not actually done this one

Piranha was a bit pedestrian when I did it, but apparently it's been revamped and is a bit faster.

Also as this is a bike forum, there's this (which I think is great fun) 100 year old cycle powered ride:

https://www.tiktok.com/@themepark_explorers/video/7262335929757486368?lang=en

So yeah, definitely worth a visit.  I'm sure you'll have a great time.  Feel free to ask for more details about any rides.

Following as we're booked to go in August, staying at https://www.camping-kaatsheuvel.com/ nearby. 

Think we'll do a couple of days at Efteling, any other must-dos around there? Will probably take bikes so we can explore around there a bit.