Theme park to stay at, ideally with water park

[BendingSpoons]

We had a great holiday last year to the Hague and then Duinrell. The kids loved the theme park and also the water park there. I liked being near the coast, although this is not essential. I am looking for a similar holiday for next year. So far I have considered:

• Efteling - it's pretty close to Duinrell and ideally I'd like to explore a different area, although still a possibility. I don't think there is a water park there?
• Europa Park - our youngest would be 6. I don't know if this would be better to save for when they are older
• Billund for Lalandia and Legoland. This looks great. I'm a bit put off by price (is it very expensive?). Also not a deal breaker but no flights from our local airport and no obvious city nearby to also explore

Ideally I would like:

• Theme park where you can stay on-site so people can head back to the room if tired
• Water park I.e. swimming pool with slides
• Accessible without a car, so taxi ride from a main transport hub
• Near a city/somewhere else we could also explore for a few days. Without a car it is hard to do day trips, so was thinking 3ish days at a theme park and then go somewhere else nearby

Any recommendations?

No but following!

I would love to know too!

You can travel between Billund and Copenhagen easily by bus/train, and Copenhagen is a fab city.
Not sure how expensive Legoland/Lalandia are as we only went to the Lego House (older kids), but there's a regular free shuttle bus that goes round all of Billund. We stayed at the airport hotel which might be cheaper than being on resort and is on the bus route.

Thanks @BathTangle I would love to visit Copenhagen but had briefly looked at the map and it seemed far apart. Have briefly checked the Google Maps public transport route and it looks doable, so that could be an option.

Would love to hear any other ideas, as I imagine we might be looking at these sorts of holidays for a few years!

PortAventura World in Spain. It’s made up of 3 parks: PortAventura, Ferrari Land and the water park. It’s 15 mins from Reus airport and less than an hour on the train from the centre of Barcelona. It has its own train station.

I also came on to say Port Aventura , it’s very good

I’d always go with Lalandia, it’s amazing!!! Much better going there better food, lots of choice and over the road from Lego land and 2mins down the road from the airport.

Agreed! We went on a work trip and took kids and they loved it. I was impressed everything was so close and easy. Water park really good and easy walk from onsite hotels.

https://www.slagharen.com/en ?

I haven’t been but was reading about it recently. May be able to combine with Efteling? (No idea re distance.)

PortaVentura is great. We went there in august.

Phantasisaland? Lots of cities nearby.

https://www.phantasialand.de/de/

Or Legoland Ulm. No water park but it's great compared to Winsor
https://www.legoland.de/en/?

Not been myself, but been looking at Lake Garda in Italy which has Gardaland?

I will definitely look at Port Adventura. I am still tempted by Lalandia too. I had forgotten about Garda Land, that was somewhere I had considered before. Phantasialand is new to me so I'll look at that one too. Thanks for all the ideas, lots to look in to.

We have visited Efteling and Europa park and very impressed with both - cleanliness, lack of queues, well priced and variety of food (even healthy stuff(. What we liked best was though was preparation for bad weather - lots of indoor attractions and rides to enjoy if it's raining. The water park at Europa park is suitable all year round (heated indoors)

We have the opportunity to do a term time holiday mid March and would love to do a theme park break but lalandua in billiund and dyinrell are expensive for 1 adult, 1 child. How is porraventura? Are there heated indoor pools if the weather is bad?

No water park at Efteling and the hotel swimming pool is extremely basic.

Assume Universal and/or Disney Florida aren't an option? Waterparks and an of on site accommodation.

Garda land isn't that big. We did the theme park and water park in one day. Im not sure you'd get a full holiday out of it, though of course Lake Garda itself and the surrounding area is fabulous.

Sorry, missed a word. Meant to say an "abundance" of onsite accommodation.

DS went to Port Aventura as part of a school trip to Barcelona. He had a fabulous time and would recommend.

I’ve been to a few of them, my kids are 6 and under.

We’re just back from Lalandia and my children loved it. I didn’t think it was too expensive, guests can buy gold wristbands so kids can do almost every activity for free. I need a holiday after the holiday as it was exhausting - they wanted to swim/bowl/trampoline/mini golf etc every evening after a full day of activities, I don’t think I sat down the whole time 😂 the houses are lovely and modern but I thought the centre needed some TLC. Legoland is nice and then you have Lego House which is a fab day and Wow Park is brilliant.

Efteling is beautiful but we only found playgrounds outside the park. Our houses didn’t have access to the swimming pool. Kids had a great time but it was all about the park itself.

Europa Park is brilliant but I didn’t think Rulantica was great with younger kids - the wave pool was pretty fierce and the slides, lazy river etc all had waits. It was too warm to do much outside (it was 37 degrees both times we were there) and lots of the slides are out doors. I think it was expensive for the water park tickets. Europa park itself is brilliant and there are some cute places nearby.

Another option might be Village Nature and Disneyland Paris. Village Nature is a Centre Parcs. I’ve only been to it (no other Centre Parcs) but I think it’s a a bit more basic than the UK ones. My kids love it, fab swimming pool, lots of activities and Disneyland is 10 minutes away. Easy to visit Paris by train as well.

Hope that helps, we’ve been doing a bit of a theme park tour this year!

how Suitable is it for a 1 and 3 year old?

@LiquoriceAllsorts2 I’d say it would be fine but better to wait a few years maybe ages 3&5 purely because they’ll be much more they can go and go on. The water park had a ‘baby’ area and so does the soft play but you wouldn’t be able to do many of the other activities such as climbing wall, ski slope, toboggan, high ropes, bowling, shuffle board, roller blading and trampolines. The shows would be ok I suppose but best to wait a few more years to make the most of it!

The Efteling is great, really recommend. No water park though. You could two two nights/ three days at the Efteling (accommodation prices include park tickets for the days either side) and then move to one of the Dutch Centre Parcs for the rest. Search on here to see which ones people recommend but they are cheaper than the UK.

Seen this thread again, thanks for all the recommendations. I am considering Center Parcs near Paris (DC wants to practice their French and like the idea of taking Eurostar). Also there is a new flight route to Billund from our airport, so tempted by that too, maybe alongside Copenhagen.

Florida is probably too much for us. One of mine dislikes long flights and my youngest might get a bit overwhelmed. He prefers to do a few hours and then chill for a bit, which is probably a bit of a waste at Disney.

Will keep some other ideas for the future!

Can I ask what you’d recommend visiting around Europa Park, please? We’re heading there soon for the first time. And any other tips? Thank you