Efteling tips -hotels/meals

[ArthurChristmaslovesdinosaurs]

Planning our first trip to Efteling, will fly into Amsterdam. I'm looking for advice on the best place to stay for probably 4 nights and good options for meals with a 10 and 7 year old. Also any other tips and advice.

The first time we went we stayed at Bosrijk, which is good for a first time visit and especially good with young children. It’s got playground, a pool and lots of Efteling magic like re-enacted bedtime stories. It’s a short 10 minute walk or mini train ride from the park.
The second time we went we stayed in the local town at Guesthouse Hotel Kaatsheuvel. Even though we had our car with us, we didn’t need it much while we were there as it’s within walking distance. It’s really family friendly and you can buy Efteling packages.
For meals, I definitely recommend the pancake house for the experience as they have animated pots and pans that create music every once in a while, as well as "magical water" dispensers for a small additional fee. They will do any of the pancake toppings on a gluten free base. We had both savoury and sweet and both were good. The only criticism is that the service is a bit slow, and it wasn’t super busy on either occasion that we went.
We also liked Het Witte Paard as it had spacious seating areas, plenty of choice for hot meals, and self-service, so there wasn’t 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).

We've just come back. We stayed at Duinrell which is about an hour away from Eftelling, so just went there for the day. Depending on the time of year your going, we found one day there enough to go on everything, enjoy the pancakes and wander the fairytale forest

We’ve been twice. First as a day trip from Duinrell and second time 2 nights at Loonsche Land hotel. Personally I think 4 nights would be too long. We are at the Loonsche land hotel and the pancake house which was great fun and reasonably priced. We grabbed fast food, potato spirals and cakes etc throughout the days. Really nice funnel cake type thing from near the nest play area.

Have a great time. It is a lovely theme park.