Our First Visit to Efteling – Highs, Lows and Top Tips!

Travel

We flew from our local airport, Leeds/Bradford, to Schiphol with KLM during the UK school holidays. It was around a 50-minute flight. The information provided by KLM via the app/SMS was great and included the baggage carousel number we needed on arrival at Schiphol. We enjoyed a complimentary snack (Mini Cheddars, large cookie) and drink (tea, coffee, water) on board.

Highs – Schiphol is a huge airport and train station, but it is well signposted and has lots of food and drink options.

Lows - we used a recommended taxi company from Schiphol to Efteling that unfortunately was 1h 30m late collecting us as they had gone to Eindhoven by mistake! There are however taxis available at the airport.

Top tips – the transfer from Schiphol to Efteling took around 80 minutes. Eindhoven is much nearer to Efteling if you can fly into there instead. Public transport was highly recommended by others if you don’t have lots of luggage. Theme Park Worldwide have some great travel vlogs on YouTube that cover the public transport options.

Accommodation

The onsite Boshuys lakeside accommodation in the Bosrijk section we can highly recommend! Spacious, with lovely little touches for children. I don’t want to give too much away so I will just say there’s a fabulous view of Mr Sandman’s castle from these houses.

Highs – location! Only a 5 minute walk from the shop/reception/pool area (known as Poorthuys) and a 10 minute walk from the park. It was quiet and comfortable, and we would happily stay in that area again. There was a microwave and hob and plenty of crockery and cutlery including for children. There’s a little stand for children to reach the bathroom sink, a stairgate, child’s toilet seat and a highchair.

Lows – there are no toasters available. The onsite shop has very limited supplies of milk, bread, water etc. If you need a bigger shop you’ll need the supermarket in town or a delivery from Albert Heijn. Access to accommodation and the pool uses a digital key on the Efteling app and the app kept logging me out, as did the WIFI, so the digital key was a bit of a pain at times.

Top tips – If you need something, ask at reception! There wasn’t enough toilet roll in our accommodation on arrival and the shop did not stock it, but staff on reception were very helpful and friendly and provided us with some. I also heard someone asking for a spare hairdryer which reception provided. The shop is not open all day, so make a note of the opening hours when you arrive. There is luggage storage so you can enjoy the parks on arrival and departure day – any stay at Efteling accommodation includes unlimited park access on all days of your stay and the tickets arrive on your app 8 days before your arrival date.

Park

The range of rides and attractions is fabulous. There really is something for everyone. Our favourites included Baron 1898 (dive coaster), Danse Macabre (dynamic motion stage dark ride), Symbolica (trackless dark ride) and Pirana (river rapids) (I’ll let you guess whose is whose). We all commented on the chilled atmosphere of the park and the friendly nature of the staff.

Highs – early ride times and single rider queues came in handy so that my Dad could get on the bigger rollercoasters quickly without us all having to wait around. The rides that are on offer during this time, and those that have a single rider queue are listed on the website along with the attractions closed for scheduled maintenance. There’s no Fast Pass option affecting queues so the longest we waited was 40 minutes approximately for Danse Macabre and Symbolica. There are plenty of toilets in each area and the toilets near Danse Macabre are gender neutral.

Lows – the early ride availability was poor 2 mornings out of 4. The signage/route can be a little confusing so we used maps a lot. Some of the older toilet blocks were not great for accessibility.

Top tips – you can collect photos via the app throughout your stay and then decide at the end whether you want to buy a photo pass. These can be downloaded to your phone or turned into souvenirs. If you have a disability, there’s lots of information about accessibility on the website.

Food and drink

We prebooked Polles Keuchen (pancake restaurant with great theming) and Pinokkio’s (pizza and pasta) in the park and Eethuys at Poorthuys as soon as the dates became available, approximately 3 months before our arrival day. We also ate in Kashba and Het Witte Paard (these have lots of different options to choose from in a school canteen style layout), Fabula, Poffertjes, Backerei Krumel and had a coffee pitstop at Station de Oost. The service and food quality was good at all of these locations and we found the prices reasonable for a theme park.

Highs – there is so much choice across the resort for a range of budgets and there’s plenty of seating available too.

Lows – most of the kiosks do not open until nearer lunchtime, so we learnt to go armed with drinks and snacks for first thing. The map did sometimes show expected opening times but there’s nothing advertising these anywhere else if the app is not updating. There also didn’t seem to be much choice for dietary requirements advertised.

Top tips – we asked the waitress at Pinokkio’s if we could book in again for the following night. Although there was no availability showing on the app, the waitress booked us in no bother, so do ask in person if you can’t manage to book via the app. 

Merch

There’s plenty of shops full of merchandise of favourite rides and characters.

Highs – prices were fairly reasonable for many items and there were some pocket money options e.g. €2 for a pen, €6 for a tote bag.

Lows – clothing sizes/proportions seemed a bit hit and miss and most were transfers (i.e. not embroidered) so we worried about the longevity of the item after a few washes. T-shirts were around €25 and some jumpers were €50.

Top tips – purchases can be sent to the hotel, so you don’t have to carry them around the park.

Budget

It’s no secret that theme parks can be expensive places to visit so I have listed some key prices below to give you a rough idea but a visit to Efteling can definitely be done cheaper than what we did here if you opt for the other accommodation on offer, lighter bites to eat or public transport.

KLM flights - £279.73 per adult, £231.83 for a child.

Taxi transfer to/from Schiphol – we got 2 quotes and both were €190 each way.

Efteling accommodation and park tickets – €1778.60 for the 4 nights accommodation/5 day park tickets (booked June 2024 for April 2025).

Digital photo pass - €25 for 1 day or €35 for the week. We got 11 photos and 1 video over our 3 days.

Average meal cost for quick service restaurants (main, dessert and drink) – €25 per adult and €9 for a child’s meal.

Eethuys – we opted for the 3 course sharing menu which was €38 per adult. The child’s main was €12 and dessert was €8.

Pinokkio’s – pizza and pasta mains were €16- €18.50. The children’s pizza cost €11 and dessert €7. They also had a 3 course menu offer of €32.50 per adult and €19 per child.

Polles Keuchen – I had the apple, cinnamon and raisin pancake (€11.25) and the children’s make your own pancake was priced at €7.25. My son also had the “magic water” souvenir for €3.

Efteling really is such a lovely resort full of well-themed areas that has captured our hearts and imagination. I hope this information helps you plan your magical stay!