Efteling in Holland Anyone been and is it really good, or parc Asterix better..

[ElfontheShelfIsWATCHINGYOUTOO]

ANYONE Been to either? many thanks

The Dutch divide the country into three zones and stagger the school holidays

wow, sounds very forward thinking and clever? I wonder how it works out in reality?

Thanks so much for infor Baroness.

Yes, we are in the first zone and school finishes 3rd July this year. You can get all the dates here:
www.schoolvakanties-nederland.nl/schoolvakanties-2015.html

It's not accurate for May though, as in practice most places will have a full two weeks off.

May's always weird isn't it? You get days off, go back, get a week off, go back, and then off again for Pinkster. You hope to get two weeks in a row but it doesn't always happen!
This year we have.

So glad you are going - Efteling is wonderful.

We love it, and having been three times will definitely go back. Went to Disney Paris recently and spent the whole time comparing it to Efteling.

I love the whole place, and the fact that though there is tat and merchandise to spend your money on, it doesn't feel like it's all just one big attempt to make you spend once you are in there. I also think the food is perfectly fine - we like the Octopus cafe near the entrance. Great animal themed playground inside and perfectly good sandwiches, salads and pasta.

And the fresh cinnamon doughnuts are incredible.

Oh excellent - so if we go in our first week - end of June - so long as all of NRW aren't there it should be quietish!

My family enjoyed a great day at Eftling so can highly recommend. For the little-ones, you can hire a wooden-wheelie-seat-pull-along-thingy so their little legs don't get too tired; brilliant. Memorable features, a beautiful carousel, big rides, good food outlets, landscaped well and park train. Enjoy!

We went last week of August and had a great time. Only went for one day and didn't even cover half the park! The DC really enjoyed stopping to look at all the scenes in the fairytale forest and playing in the playgrounds.

We combined it with staying at Kempervennen Center Parcs which was just under an hour's drive away.

Nice easy drive from Calais too.

It was quiet in the park on the Friday that we went but it did boles earlier, whereas they had more shows on the Saturday.

Center Parcs was very busy - mostly with Brits!

We did Efteling last Easter (at a point when France and the Netherlands had gone back to school so Bosrijk Village was very reasonably priced and the queues averaged 0-15 minutes ). I think we did 2 nights/3 days and it was good to be able to wander in and out of the park. We live fairly close to Bristol airport, so it was so simple to fly to Amsterdam and rent a car.

DD, then 6, absolutely adored it. We had a Merlin pass for a couple of years so she has been to Chessington and Legoland at least a dozen times (and the Legoland in Denmark). De Efteling is her favourite. There were a few rides she didn't want to go on (phew). Some of the rides had a "single-rider" queue (so often we didn't need to queue at all on the scary rides if we split up). She DEFINITELY wants to go back!!

It isn't obvious from the maps/guides, but there is a really cute indoor kids play area near the Octopus cafe/Pandavision. It is a great rainy-time location.

We tended to take bags of fruit and sandwiches etc with us, adding a few ice creams/coffee/frites.

Negatives? I remember being amazed that you could smoke (or perhaps aren't stopped from smoking). That bothered me a tad next to a wooden roller coaster...but then it started raining.

Thanks for posts people, I didn't realise!
Madcats thanks for your review too...I have been to lego land and it wasn't amazing really...

I am booked - after not being able to contact them and panicking, I went to their facebook page and got instant communication, have to say website is rubbish. Thanks for play ground tip too! We have booked for three nights. [yippe]

Just wondering if any people who posted about going on this thread have been yet?