Efteling - tips please

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Hi, hoping to go Efteling in October half term. Any tips appreciated.
How many days/nights would you recommend? Also which accommodation for 2 adults and three children?
Places and shows not to be missed? Where to eat?
Thank you!

Watching with interest!
We've booked to go next week!!
We've got a family room in the hotel for five of us...breakfast included. We're only staying one night, but can have two days in the park.

We've got teens and a tween. We're in Amsterdam for a week before. Hoping it's a cool as everyone on MN says it is!

I prefer the bosrijk village, if I could afford a lake house I would have one, otherwise an apartment in the central pootyhius apartments is lovely. All house's in bosrijk are lovely thought,with lake and play area's.new loosne land is supposedly nice but not quite as lovely as bosrijk.i would stay minimum 3 night's probably 4. But park probably close earlier than summer. Unlike Disney there is only one big show, ravelign about half hour in total but fantastic, Def see it. Un missable for me is long amble through fairy tale wood. Very relaxing enjoying

chimchar where are you staying in Amsterdam? We were thinking of a few days in central amsterdam after Efteling but it's so expensive.

We were here for 4 days and 3 nights. Booked on a whim based on mn reviews - totally lived up to the expectation! The roller coasters are great as is the fairy tale forest - more for little ones but my teen and tween loved it just as much.
Rajevkin is awesome in the dark. There were two nights were tge park was open till 11 so we did the whole nap in the day thing (again picked up from mn) and could stay till 11. There's extra showtimes when the park is open longer. Aquanora is also good - fountain light show. (Spellings!?)

We're staying in a Europarcs place....It's about 30mins out of the city...we couldn't afford to stay centrally. We've got a little self catering house.

It looks nice. We're planning to use the Park and Ride facility to visit Amsterdam.

Looking forward!

Are you driving from Amsterdam airport to Efteling or taking the train & bus?

We're driving the whole way (from home in Wales!)
So driving from the Europarc near Amsterdam to Efteling. Then home from there.

We drove there and stayed with friends living nearby. Did lots of sightseeing in the area. One day in efteling with two kids- amazing park. Make most of it. Loved it more than Disneyland in Paris. We r seriously considering going there back just for efteling.

We just went this weekend. Did two nights and about 2.5 days. Stayed in a family room in the main hotel (sleeps 5 - one double, bunk beds and pull out bed). Room was not huge but quite luxurious with some really nice touches (won't spoil the surprises).

We used our early start to queue for the new Symbolica ride. It's really good but there's no way to do it without queueing. We were first in the park at 9.30 (having got to the hotel guest park entrance at about 9am) and queued until they switched it in at 10.00 and were about 100th in the queue. The rest of the day the queue was never less than 120mins when we walked past. If your kids are over 120cm and happy to go on without you can skip a lot of the queue by going in the single rider line as each "cart" seats six and they make sure they are all full. You'd be unlucky to not ride within 2 carts of each other.

Our kids are primary and smaller, but we saw lots of very big rollercoasters. The evening atmosphere was amazing too - lots of live music and stands. Queues seemed shorter too so worth planning to stay out late.

Hotel reception will book Ravejlin show tickets for you (they are free but it is ticketed to control numbers). No need to turn up early to get a good view for parade or aquanura show. Plenty of space even if you arrive as they are starting.

It wasn't as glossy as Disney and although everyone speaks perfect English and signs we're in English there were bits without translation, it must be amazing as a Dutch speaker. But actually probably more enjoyable than Disney as shorter queues and more laid back and interesting.

Thanks pineapple. That's really useful.

I was underwhelmed by symbolica - wasn't dark enough and got glimpses of everything before getting there. Considering the wait time was double of everything else I was a bit disappointed. But the kids loved it.

I really liked Symbolica (but only queued for 30mins or so, wouldn't of queued for hours). It was about perfect for my 5yr old. I'm a big wimp and liked that it didn't have any scary moments/heights.

Other one I liked was Droomvlucht (a bit like Peter Pan at Disney). Carnival Festival was basically "Its a small world" - again, 5yr old liked it but it was a bit uncomfortably stereotyping (and irritating) as an adult.

We've just come back from Efteling! It was just fab...really, really lovely.

Symbolica was disappointing for me...nice, but not as good as the Droomvlucht ride! I utterly loved that!!

The Raveleijn show was ace.

Vogel rok was bloody brilliant, and no queues so we went on it 5 times!

We stayed in the hotel in loonche land. The restaurant menu was very limited and very noisy with kids running riot! You can stay in lodges there which look great. I can imagine you would need good waterproof boots to stay in October...we had an afternoon of rain, and many of the paths in the lodge but we're flooded and muddyish.

You'll have a great time. We would really recommend it to everyone!

Also dissapointed in Smbolica, also happy with a calm ride and no sudden drops but compared to the level of detail in Droomvulcht - none of the scenes had that level of depth, the botanicam room was bare! hallways bare, the set then that was it and I felt like I was on a harry potter set at the end - loved it but not in a world which is how Drumvukcht and fata morgana feel, and no special scents like the other two rides. I feel they could have done soo much more with it, just in terms of depth of theming.

Loonsche land was wonderful the dc loved it compared to apartment in Borsick without a doubt, huge (little) houses felt v spacious - gorgeous scenery, HOWEVER not a single place to hang or put clothes! Each room had a little hook for thee hooks and two coat hangers???? Whats wrong with someone to un pack?

Anyone reading this thinking of booking in pootyhus apartment - centrally located in Borsick - make sure they dont put you in punishment apartment 111! also you cant use the pool in borskick whilst staying in loonse which was a shock!