TerSpegelt (Netherlands Eurocamp) tips!

[WitteWijn]

We (being me, DH, 11yo DS and 5yo DD) are off to the TerSpegelt Eurocamp resort in the Netherlands next week, driving from Calais.

I'd love any tips or recommendations about the journey, camp, local area etc! Specifically:

• are there any decent nearby supermarkets?
• is Efteling worth it for a day out?
• are there plenty of services to stop at on the drive?
• highlights (or lowlights 😬) of the camp and facilities?
• any other great attractions or places to visit for families close by?

And just anything else in general.

Thanks 🙏

No experience of TerSpegelt but I highly, highly recommend Efteling and I don't usually like theme parks. Don't go on Monday as a lot of schools will be closed for Pentecost and it will be busy, but it will be quieter the rest of the week as the Dutch kids will be back in school.

Amazing, thanks! So we go end of next week and into the following week, so might do that Monday (1st June I think) to avoid the weekend??

That's a good plan. The Efteling website has a 'crowd calendar' which is helpful! https://www.efteling.com/en/park/opening-hours

We stayed here last year, great camp, we hired bikes as there’s a huge network of forest trails that are perfect for cycling right on the doorstep. They had quite a lot going on in the camp for the kids too during day and evening.

Efteling is fantastic, definitely get at least a day there. Beekse Bergen safari park is good for a day out too.

The only thing I didn’t think was great about the camp was the pool, it was too cold when we went for the amazing outdoor lake etc and the indoor pool setup was pretty small and it was extremely crowded. We only went once as no one really enjoyed. But there was so much other stuff to do the kids didn’t really care.

You can order pizza and they will bring it to your cabin. We had a great setup where the cabins were in a circle around a centre play area so all the kids congregated there to play together, so you could chill on the verandah or cook inside and see them the whole time.

We would definitely go back there. Just a really nice camp with lots going on, good play areas and facilities, etc.

Oh that's super helpful, thanks!

Shame about the pool being small - it looks huge on the website 😂 I'm hoping that as it's outside of Dutch and UK holidays we might be lucky and it's not too busy. The forecast currently looks very warm though so maybe we'll brave the lake!

Good to know re. bikes - my youngest is still on stabilisers but determined to come off them so I might make it my mission to get her more confident in the next 8 days 🙈

I'd forgotten about Beekse Bergen safari - we almost booked to stay there! We've got 5 nights, so just 4 full days... So I suppose it depends on how much else they want to do on-site.

Has anyone driven and found any easy to access supermarkets en route? Just googling and it seems wine food prices are much higher in the Netherlands than France (Belgium middle-ground), but I don't know if I want to stop immediately at the cite Europe for the shopping.... Especially the fresher bits and pieces! Any tips or suggestions of where is good value (or any local markets?!) would be very helpful...

There are 3 supermarkets in the local town of eersel. About 10 mins in the car.

No advice but following as we are going there later in the summer - would love to hear how you find it! Are you booked into Eurocamp accommodation?

There’s the big splash pool bit with some slides and shallow water which is fine but it was a bit cold in October for running around in.

The actual indoor heated pool isn’t very big, there was another pool IIRC that was shallower but it was literally shoulder to shoulder so we went in the other (still very busy) pool but it was too deep for kids to stand in so they weren’t a massive fan.

Also DD2 found a poo on the floor of the changing room 😂 (which was so busy we had to change out in the open as no cubicles, luckily we had swimwear on underneath clothes!). But as I say, we only went one time so maybe we were just unlucky! The camp itself didn’t seem busy so I suspect it was just a case of the outdoor stuff not being usable so everyone had to pack into the inside bit. With warmer weather it won’t be an issue.

They have some really cool activities like flying down ramp in a giant inflatable donut etc and they had big lantern festival when we were there where the kids made lanterns during day then met for a procession round the lake at night.

This was our cabin ‘block’. They seemed to be mostly like from what I remember.

Also the shop on site was actually pretty good and a good size. We were only there for six days or so so we just took some non perishable stuff (bread, cereal, pasta, diluting juice, etc) with us in the car and then just bought some fresh bits at the on site shop for lunches and a few dinners (we ate out/got a pizza the other nights). A bit more expensive than the supermarket but it was very convenient and they had fresh baked bread every morning, cheese, meat, fruit and veg, cooking ingredients, cakes etc.

Thanks so much @Clefable

I'm planning to take various food stuffs with us, but obviously nothing fresh or perishable. I'd prefer to find a decent supermarket so the cost isn't extortionate but good to know the on-site shop is decent! We talked about shopping when we get off the tunnel but that's then 3 hours of food being in the car (although I might just have to do this anyway as I really really want some morbier 😂).

There’s a decent Jumbo in Eersel-it’s about 6 minutes drive.

We loved our TerSpegelt holiday! We took an inflatable boat and used it every day on the lake. Also scooters to get around plus took a couple of bikes and hired more as needed. We shopped in Eersel at Lidl - it has a fab ice cream place in the centre toom Efteling was a highlight, you must go!

Oh guys. The forecast for this weekend is looking pants! 😭 So we might have to do Efteling on Sunday so we can still potentially have a lake day on Monday. Would you all say there's plenty to do indoors to keep the kids entertained?!