Duinrell - worth a visit?

[Ouchy]

Hi, just looking for opinions of those who’ve been with children. Primary age. Thank you in advance

Definitely, went two years running with 5, 7 and 10 year olds.
We booked directly with Duinrell and got bonus time in the indoor water park. Got the DFDS ferry from Newcastle to Holland.
Wassenaar is a great wee town too.

Thank you! 😁 Any more for any more?

We went, we camped. It’s got a feel of a Dutch Butlins, we ended up going out often as the place just wasn’t for us (after one day doing theme park)
Waasner is a beautiful little town and you’re not far from Amsterdam (caught train from Liden).
If you do go, the beach is about a 15 minute bike ride away and definitely worth a trip, beautiful beach side restaurants.
It’s a very short drive from the ferry port (we left from Newcastle) no longer than 1/2hour.
Second half of our trip was to De Paal www.depaal.nl/en/
Couldn’t recommend it more! You’re right in the middle of the Forest, a huge sand pit (we spent ages here) indoor and outdoor swimming pools, little zoo etc. De paal felt authentic Dutch as only a handful of UK families whereas Duinrell was mostly UK families.

Thank you, interesting...

Duinrell isn’t Alton Towers. It is a lot smaller, and there aren’t as many rides as some of the larger theme parks in the UK, but there also aren’t the queues either. Spending time at the theme park was relaxing – and I don’t think I’ve ever felt relaxed taking my toddler round a UK theme park before.
There is a good mix of roller coasters for older children through to bumper boats, train rides and trampolines. There is a ball pool and indoor soft play in case it rains, and all of the attractions are surrounded by large oak trees which give the whole park a real woodland feel.
We stayed in one of their Esprit holiday homes. This had 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and suited our needs perfectly. Outside there was a large decking area with dining table and a couple of sunbeds. It was quiet, and we had our own parking space just outside our holiday home. Most importantly, it was centrally located and the theme park, Tikibad and supermarket were less than a 5 minutes walk. I had prebooked bedding and a welcome pack.
We booked our ferry travel through Eurocamp, and it was considerably cheaper than booking it direct with the ferry operator. Booking it via Eurocamp also meant the cost of the ferry was added to the holiday price so we only had to pay the balance 8 weeks before departure.
Eurocamp check in is 3pm but we arrived at Duinrell at 10am. You can use the facilities of the park until your holiday home is ready.
The theme park is 5 minutes walk from most of the holiday homes and you don’t need to show a pass to get in – you just come and go as you please.
It’s a perfect option for younger children who might not be able to hack a full day at a theme park in one go. You can visit the park for a few hours, pop back to your holiday home for a nap or lunch, and then go back in the afternoon to go on a few more rides.
The bikes for hire at Duinrell are in great condition. A twenty minute easy ride took us to Wassenaar, the local beach. One day we cycled further afield to the larger and more commercial beach at Sheveningen. We had the most epic ice-cream on a walk along the very cool enclosed pier!

We went last year for 4 days and enjoyed it, but like someone else, joined it onto another campsite somewhere else. We're going again for a bit longer this year as the kids requested it, but I suspect we'll have then 'done it' after this trip. We have camped at quite a few other Dutch sites and I agree that it's a very different feel. It's quite expensive to camp there (compared to a bog standard site!) but we felt it was value for money compared to visiting the theme park /water park for the day.

The theme park is exactly as RiceKrispie22 says, but there are also lots of other parts to it, like the themed areas, big park, toboggan, big slides and soft play. I would say that the theme park is better suited for 5-13 year olds than older.

The water parc is the main reason my children want to return, it is much better than centre parcs and if you book direct, you can get 2 or 3 hours included every day.

It is a big site, but there are quieter areas and the camping facilities are good.

We camped there for a weekend and had a fab time.

We really liked it but I booked a quiet children’s lodge and it was bloody miles away from the park and swimming pool. We had a 3 yr old, 6 and 9yr old. Loads to do for all ages, they loved the swimming pool although it was busy. The park wasn’t too busy as we picked our times, walked into the town at the busiest times etc. We would go again but book a lodge closer in to the action. We totally underestimated the scale of the entire park, it’s vast and we spent an awful lot of time walking between the lodge and the park/ swimming/ town/ etc.
We visited Amsterdam and the public transport was really efficient and easy to use.

Parts of the park are open until quite late in the evening, all the large play areas etc. It was lovely letting the kids just run free in the evening, lots of families about, I think the evenings were the best bit actually!

Thank you very much for the info. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too ‘Brits abroad’ but it sounds like it isn’t... we normally prefer to be out in the quiet and countryside but I’m thinking of the children with this one

So were we! But we ended up really enjoying it. We are Scottish so were able to go out with the English holidays. It was mainly Dutch school trips!

Ooh if you do go.... the ice cream shop in Waasner is amazing!! The queue is always huge but worth it.

We went end of August a couple of years ago. Loved it. Couple of hours in pool or theme park then off site to Delft, Leiden, The Hague, the beach. Walking distance to Jumbo supermarket and places to eat in Wassenaar. Kids met British, Dutch and German kids to play with. Heading back this August. Tagging on two days at Efteling which is amazing.

Thank you for sharing your tips/experiences

We're going to Duinrell for the second time in late May. We loved camping there - clean spacious site with everything you need and all facilities are clean and tidy. Last time we went just before the English half term started and I was ashamed about the shift in feel once the English arrived - just a less respectful attitude towards small stuff like litter, washing out the washing up sinks after use, shouting across the campsite instead of walking over etc. It was noticeable that "the Brits had arrived" Nowhere near Butlin's behaviour though!

Does anyone have any recommendations for days off site? I'd really like to see tulips and am tempted by Amsterdam or another city, but we'll have 4 children with us this time, aged 9, 9, 5 and 8 weeks, so I'd like some fairly specific advice on days out to feel confident doing it? Things like whether to use public transport (how? Where?) or drive, what would interest the kids in a city? etc etc.

Can anyone help? And I hope that doesn't count as a de-rail to the thread as it's so related to the OP

Mine loved it, we went a few years ago, the theme park looked a bit tired in places but we had a lovely time, they also loved the water park. It's also a great base for exploring we visited Amsterdam and we also visited canals and windmills .