This March, we visited Efteling, a fantasy-themed amusement park in the Netherlands. There is something for everyone, from toddlers (carousels, car rides, steam trains, diorama, pedal trains, gondola rides, monorails, playgrounds) to grown-ups (free-fall roller coasters with double spins).
Getting to Efteling
Efteling is placed in Kaatsheuvel, near Tilburg or Den Bosch.
We flew from Dublin to Eindhoven, and from there are a few options to get to Efteling.
You can either use public transport through the 9292 website, which recommends taking a bus from the Eindhoven airport to the bus station in Eindhoven, which is a 5-minute walk from the Eindhoven Centraal train station. From the train station, you can take a train to Tilburg, walk for 5 minutes from Tilburg train station to the Tilburg Centraal Station bus station and take a bus to Efteling. This one-way journey for a person takes about one hour and a half and costs approximately €14.31 in 2022.
Another option might be to rent a car and park it in the Efteling car park, which costs €12.50 per day (2022 prices). Parking is complimentary for the guests of Efteling accommodations (Efteling Hotel, Holiday Villages Efteling Bosrijk or Efteling Loonsche Land).
We found it easier to take a taxi. For two one-hour journeys (back and forth to the Eindhoven airport), we paid about €200.
Instead of flying to Eindhoven, you can fly to Amsterdam, take a train from the Schiphol airport to s-Hertogenbosch, walk for 5 minutes to the bus stop Den Bosch Centraal Station and take a bus to Efteling Hotel. This one-way journey takes about two hours and costs approximately €24.44 per person.
Accommodation
We paid €865 for a three-night stay in the Efteling Hotel (one of the last accommodations available when we booked). This price also included park tickets for the three of us for four days (including the day when we checked out from the hotel). Park tickets for a day for our family of three were around €132, which means that the tickets included in our hotel accommodation were €528. So, the actual price for a junior suite in a 4-star hotel with two double beds, breakfast included and half an hour early access to the park comes to €112 per night.
You can take advantage of a 15% early booking discount if you know your travel dates well in advance (e.g., checking prices for September, a three-night stay for a comfort room to accommodate four people costs €769).
Our room looked like this: (image credit Efteling website)
The room felt spacious and comfortable. It had all kinds of quirky stuff (a mouse hiding, a cat lamp, trash cans like boots, a crown table with a board game) alongside the usual (kettle, TV, safe, minibar, dark blinds).
The accommodation also had breakfast included. Each table in the restaurant had a tray of food (an assortment of bread, cheese, salami, jams and spreads, and pastries). There were buffets with hot food (fresh pancakes, fried bacon, omelettes, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs) or fruits, yoghurts, orange juice, apple juice, milkshakes, chocolate milk, fresh milk, coffee or tea. We took fruits, gingerbread, or muffins from the breakfast tray to have in the park.
This hotel is very child-friendly (kids get a small present, hand puppets, at check-in), and fairytale characters (Red Riding Hood) come into the restaurant for breakfast or dinner, chatting or taking pictures with children.
Check-in is at 3 pm, and check out is at 11 am, with free access to an unsupervised cloakroom to leave luggage. As we arrived before check-in, we left our bags in the cloakroom, and we visited the park until check-in (we showed our tickets through the Efteling mobile application).
Efteling Hotel guests have a special entrance to the park and can enjoy a session of 30 minutes early access to some of the attractions. The queue for the hotel guests is still quite long, so we did our best to arrive ten or fifteen minutes before they let hotel guests in the park.
Other Efteling accomodations are Holliday Village Efteling Bosrijk (detached accomodations suited for groups of 8 ore 12 people with cooking facilities) and Holiday Village Efteling Loonsche Land (holiday homes for up to 6 people with cooking facilities). Also, as Efteling Hotel guests, you can enjoy the Badhuys indoor splash pool in Holiday Village Efteling Bosrijk.
You can also check prices for accommodations either in Kaatsheuvel, the village where Efteling is placed, or in the North Brabant province, where Kaatsheuvel is located (Den Bosch looks like a fantastic city, and you can mix visits in this city with daily trips to Efteling).
How much time is needed for Efteling?
It depends, as a family with toddlers will have a different rhythm from a family with teenagers. We went during the Irish school break of Saint Patrick’s day, which didn’t correspond to a Dutch school break. We found Ryanair tickets from Dublin (flying to Eindhoven on Wednesday) to Eindhoven (flying to Dublin on Saturday). That allowed us to visit the park in the middle of a school week, which meant slower mornings and busier afternoons (as the locals came to the park too).
We managed to cover everything we wanted to see (limited by height restrictions) with our five-year-old daughter in one day and a half. That left us with another extra day for leisure. Things would look much different and busier during a Dutch school break or a weekend. Next time we will probably buy tickets for two full days with accommodation either in the Efteling Hotel, Kaatsheuvel or Den Bosch.
Tickets
Tickets can be purchased through the Efteling website, but we didn’t take this step as our accommodation came with tickets included.
Children aged 0-3 enter for free, and the price for tickets for adults and children aged 4+ is the same. As of May 2022, the price for a full-day ticket (10 am – 6 pm) is €41 during the week and €44 during the weekend. When we went, the opening hours were 11 am – 6 pm (10:30 am for Efteling Hotel guests). Efteling is open all year round.
Attractions
The park is divided into five sections: Marerijk (Tales realm – home to fairy tales and more quiet rides or attractions), Fantasierijk (Fantasy Realm), Reizenrijk (Travel Realm), Ruigrijk (Rough Realm, most of the thrill rides are located here) and Anderrijk (Other realm, mix of rides). During our visit, there were a few closed shows and attractions: Joris en de Draak, Pagode, Raveleijn.
The interactive map of the park is here.
We decided to go for the faster riders in the mornings and have more relaxing rides after lunch.
As our first day in the park also included flying from Dublin, we had only a few hours in that day dedicated to the park, in which we visited Sprookjesbos (Fairytale Forest) from Marerijk. After visiting Sprookjesbos, we ended our day in the park with the slow-moving steam train that connects some of the park sections to have a general view of the park.
The Fairytale Forest is an incredible attraction, where fairy tales are depicted as buildings, outdoor scenes, animatronics, statues or fountains. Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, The Gnome Village, Rapunzel, The Wolf and the Seven Kids, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Cinderella, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and many others are shown in this area, described by Efteling as the ‘largest living picture book’. After hours of walking through it, you understand why. The fairy tale park is immense. If you think you covered it all, there might be something you missed, as there are many left and right turns to take.
Many stories have interactive elements (opening the door at the Hansel and Gretel story, waiting for a tree to talk, or stealing the cranky dragon’s crown).
We were mostly enchanted by the Gnome Village, and we spent a very relaxing afternoon in this area. Paraphrasing Forrest Gump, this attraction was like a box of chocolate: we didn’t know what we would see next.
Images credit: Efteling website
In the following days, we visited other attractions from Marerijk: Diorama, a miniature world, Stoomcarrousel (a merry go round over 100 years old), Droomvlucht (Dream Flight), Het Volk Van Leaf (People Of Leaf), Villa Volta, or Anton Pieck Plein. Raveleijn was unfortunately closed when we visited.
Droomvlucht is insanely gorgeous, a world of wonders where fairies and trolls come alive. You visit the attraction by independent carriages, which means that there are always some other people who have finished their rides, so the queue is moving quickly. There is a somewhat faster descent on the last part of the attraction, so hold tight to little ones or your belongings. This is one of the rides we did multiple times during our visit.
Het Volk Van Laaf is another area that enchanted us. According to the official description, The Efteling is home to a special group of people – the Laafs. All over Laafland, you can see the Laafs go about their daily business. They go to school, make music and uhm… like to take naps! The bakers are busy baking their bread, but oh dear… watch out!
The architecture of the houses is so much like what you would see in the fairytale books, so whimsical and full of colour that I didn’t want to leave.
There was also a slow monorail ride that we enjoyed.
Oh, and try to find the house where the stairs make funny sounds when you step on them (farts or cats meowing).
Another ride nearby is Villa Volta, the first madhouse in the world (where the visitors feel that either the building, the visitors or both are turned upside down). The only issue for us, as non-Dutch speakers, was that the beginning story was only in Dutch (no options to translate into other languages), so we had to wait for about ten minutes as the story was told.
Lastly, Marerijk contains my favourite square, the Anton Pieck Plein (Anton Pieck Square), as it gave me the feeling that time stood still, and I am somewhere in the XIX or early XX century.
Next, Fantasierijk (Fantasy Realm) has two main attractions, Symbolica and Aquanura.
Symbolica is a palace where Pardoes, the magic jester and mascot of Efteling, comes and takes the tour in this dark (indoors) ride. The queues on a Saturday morning for this attraction were very long, so we were glad that we did this on one of the week mornings. There are three queues for different routes, and after queuing, we sat inside a carriage, floating around and visiting rooms inside a magical palace. We enjoyed this attraction, but we only did it once during our visit.
Aquanura is a show with water, music and fire that lasts for about 12 minutes. When we visited, Aquanuara started at 6 pm, a perfect end to a day in the park.
Another section of the park is Reizenrijk (Travel Realm), where we also found the attraction we visited every day during our half-hour early access, Sirocco. Sirocco is a teacup ride in the magical world of Sindbad The Sailor. We did it every morning at least four-five times in a row as it was a massive hit with our daughter.
Other rides are the Carnaval festival, an indoor ride where you visit different countries. Visiting Carnival Festival once was more than enough for us.
Pagode, a flying Thai temple, was closed during our visit.
Vogel Rok is a roller coaster in the dark with a minimum height of 1.20m, so we didn’t visit as our daughter is not that tall yet.
We enjoyed Gondoletta on a lazy afternoon, a 20-minute long boat ride around the lake situated in the middle of Efteling. All boats are automatically towed, so there was no effort from our side.
Then, in Ruigrijk (Rough Realm), we have the most thrilling section of the park.
Attractions that we didn’t visit because they were closed or because of our daughter’s height: Joris En De Draak (closed, height requirement 110cm – double, wooden racer rollercoaster), De Halve Maen (The Half Moon – height requirement 1.20m, a ship swinging back and forth at 180°), Python (height requirement 1.20m, a roller coaster of 750 metres long and 29 metres tall, with two loops and two corkscrews), De Vliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman, a water coaster, height requirement 1.20m) and Baron 1898 (height requirement 132cm).
We particularly enjoyed watching people screaming in Baron 1898 before their free fall.
Our daughter liked the most from this section D’Oude Tuffer (The Old Puffer), a vintage car track over bridges and around hills.
There is also Kinderspoor (a pedal train) that took us through a typical Dutch setting with windmills and tulips in bloom.
The game gallery is the only place in the park where you have to pay separately to try your luck at winning prizes. Our daughter spent almost all her money that we gave her for this trip here.
The last area of the park is Anderrijk (Other realm), with attractions that include Max & Moritz, a double rollercoaster with a height restriction of 100cm, Fata Morgana (an indoor ride with hundreds of animatronics) or Piraña, a river rapids ride with waterfalls, rocks or totem poles. You might want to keep a change of clothes as you will get wet. We did the attractions here only once.
In all areas, there are plenty of souvenir shops, restaurants, snack shops, toilets, playgrounds or talking bins that eat trash – Holle Bolle Gijs (Big Mouth).
Eating Options
Food options in the park are reasonably priced and quite tasty. We ate at Polles Keuken, a pancake restaurant with sweet and savoury pancakes, Het Witte Paard, a self-service restaurant with ample indoors and outdoors areas, Fabula with a lovely igloo and iceberg playground and cheaper food options, or De Vrolijke Noot, a self-service restaurant with sandwiches, salads or hot meals. We also sampled various snacks from around the park (spiralled potatoes on a stick, fish and chips, or poffertjes, traditional Dutch mini pancakes).
Polles Keuken stands out through the animated “kitchen” in the centre, where pans simmer, kettles whistle, and ladles tap around the cooking stove. Our favourite was Het Witte Paard as it is a restaurant with spacious seating areas, plenty of choice for hot meals, and self-service, so there is not much queuing or waiting time for dishes to come (we had to queue for about ten minutes at Polles Keuken and wait for about twenty minutes until our meals arrived).
When we watched the Aquanura show, we bought some sandwiches from the nearby De Vrolijke Noot to eat while watching the show.
On the Efteling interactive map, you can also check where you can go for dinner, as some restaurants are open after the park is closed.
From the Efteling FAQ:
Where can I eat gluten-free in the park?
For gluten-free products, you can visit the Eigenheymer locations, Fabula restaurant, Frau Boltes Küche restaurant, Het Wapen van Raveleijn reastaurant, Het Witte Paard self-service restaurant, Panorama, Pinocchio’s pizza & pasta restaurant, Polle’s Keuken restaurant, Station de Oost restaurant, Smulpaap snackbar, and Toko Pagode takeaway.
Can I bring food and drinks in the park?
It is possible to bring your own drinks and food in the park. However, it is not permitted to consume this food and drinks in the park’s catering locations and terraces.
There is a very well-stocked Albert Heijn supermarket close to Efteling (about a 15-minute walk – here are the Google Maps directions from Efteling to the supermarket) where we bought water, fruits, veggies, and snacks for the park.
As there is a highway in front of the Efteling hotel, you must walk to an underway pedestrian crossing (a hotel employee showed us the way) to get to the supermarket.
I saw plenty of Dutch families enjoying picnics in the park (some had the isothermal backpack from Decathlon), and I intend to do the same next time we visit.
Tips and Tricks
Our daughter’s hand luggage was Trunki, a travel backpack that doubles as a booster seat we used for the taxi rides to and from Eindhoven airport.
Read the Efteling FAQ.
For example:
Do you have any tips for avoiding long queues?
The free Efteling app shows you the current waiting times at the attractions, so you can quickly see where the queues are shortest.
Downloading the Efteling mobile application is a must as it contains the map and waiting times for attractions with height requirements. We made our wishlist of attractions on the Efteling app, and as we visited each attraction, we removed items from the list until we were left with none. The Efteling app made it much easier to plan the day and see what we could do when an attraction we wanted to visit was too busy (queuing times for 15-20 minutes). We also used the Efteling app’s interactive map to find restaurants and toilets.
Bear in mind that many locals come from school or work to enjoy the park in the afternoon.
What to do when children are tired?
We took advantage of the mornings (we felt more energetic, and there were fewer people), so we did the more exciting rides in the morning and left the afternoon for the slower riders (Gondoletta, the steam train from one station to the other, the vintage car track, the monorail from Laaf land). Somehow, when we were in a playground, our daughter miraculously forgot she was tired as she jumped from place to place. There is also the option of renting a stroller for €4.50 a day for a young child.
All Efteling employees speak English, and there are English, French or German signs.
There are also attractions with baby switch where one parent joins the queue while the other waits with the baby at the attraction’s exit. When the first parent leaves the attraction, they take the baby from the second parent. The second parent is then free to enter the attraction via the exit.
As expected, Efteling put its own fairytale-like twist on souvenirs too. Donkey lift your tail, in the Fairy Tale Forest area – if you insert a coin, a souvenir coin comes from the donkey’s rear. Or in Anton Pieck Plein (Anton Pieck Square), De Gekroonde Eend (The Crowned Duck) or De Stenen Kip (The Stone Hen), where if you insert a coin, the duck or the hen will lay a surprise for you. There is also Het Smidje (The Smithy) in the same square, where you insert a coin, and a little smithy will forge a pin badge.
The opening hours differ by season. When we visited, the park was open from 11 am to 6 pm (and for the Efteling hotel guests from 10:30 am to 6 pm). Checking tickets in May, the park is open from 10 am to 6 pm, and in June from 10 am to 7 pm.
There is also a theatrical performance show in the evening, Caro, that lasts for 70 minutes with no breaks, suitable for the whole family. We didn’t visit it as we were exhausted, and our daughter was fast asleep by 8:30 pm.
We enjoyed our visit to Efteling tremendously, and we know we will revisit it, as there were quite a few construction sites which means new attractions to come. Also, we will have to take some of the more thrilling rides once we are past height requirements. We didn’t perceive the height requirements as a limitation because there was so much to cover anyway (there is always the option of the baby switch).
Visiting this park during a Dutch school week greatly impacted how we perceived our visit because we could adopt a leisure mode and enjoy the views. Also, the weather in March when we visited was incredible, with thousands of flowers in bloom. If we were to queue in the rain or the sun, we might have remembered this visit differently.
What impressed us the most was the strong fairytale-like character of this thematic park, from the Fairytale Forest, Droomvlucht, the Anton Pieck Square, the quirky and whimsical village of Laaf people, to the talking bins or ATM coffers, all in the middle of natural surroundings, with flowers, trees, and birds everywhere. In fact, Efteling started as a nature park (Efteling Nature Park Foundation – Stichting Natuurpark de Efteling in 1950). This park didn’t leave an over the top commercial taste, as the shops, restaurants, and garbage bins, all were designed with that delicate, whimsical character.
I wholeheartedly recommend this park to anyone, not only families with children, as there are so many things to discover.
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