Dutch fairytale theme park that’s described as ‘cheap alternative to Disneyland’ – just 1 hour from UK with £14 flights
FAMILIES looking for theme park fun on a budget should check out Efteling – a 71-year-old park in the Netherlands based on fairytales, ancient myths and legends.
The attraction in Kaatsheuval – just three hours drive from Calais and a one-hour flight from the UK, has been is being hailed by British families as a “cheap alternative to Disneyland.
Parent and Tiktoker The Travel Mum, who is known as the thetravelmum on the social media platform, visited the theme park with her family in the October half-term.
In a video she posted on TikTok, she described Efteling, she said: “We have been told this theme park is better and cheaper than Disneyland.
“With no queue to get in, tickets starting at just £34, and these cool little trolleys that you can pull bigger kids around in, I’m already impressed.
“As you walk around, there’s all the magic and attention to detail that you get from a Disney Park, with some amazing indoor rides, which absolutely blew my son away.
“There’s a fairytale forest, where we spent two whole hours exploring, and the good thing about this park is there’s also a lot of bigger rides for adults and big kids.
“There are tons of themed restaurants and all the food we had was delicious and really well-priced.
“The shows are all spoken in Dutch, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying them. Overall this place is fantastic value.”
She then compared Efteling and Disneyland Paris in greater detail in the comments.
She wrote: “[Efteling] is definitely a cheap alternative to Disneyland – everything from the tickets, the parking, the food to the hotel are much cheaper.”
Users on TripAdvisor have also been raving about the price difference between the two theme parks.
One wrote: “We love theme parks and have visited Disneyland Paris many times but we all agreed Efteling gets our vote for a return trip next year.
“We found that food and other sundries were much cheaper than their Disney equivalents.”
Someone else said: “Efteling was a lot cheaper than Disneyland Paris, with a lot more bang for the buck and more charm.”
The Dutch theme park gets good reviews on TripAdvisor, with a 4.5/5 star rating from more than 8,000 reviews – and it’s easy to see why.
Efteling first opened in 1952, and quickly became hugely popular with Dutch Families.
The theme park spans 180 acres, and it is home to plenty of attractions like a play forest, a steam carousel, a swinging ship, pedal trains, and a museum.
For braver guests, there are adrenaline-inducing rides too, including Baron 1898 and Symbolica – a haunted house ride that opened in 2017.
Fun for all the family comes in a 4D cinema and plenty of park shows, plus quirks that will appeal to both adult and child’s humour, including a statue of a donkey that poops plastic coins and bins that burp their gratitude for rubbish.
Guests can also stay at Efteling overnight, where there are themed hotel rooms and holiday homes.
To get to Efteling, it is 30 minutes from Eindhoven Airport or a three-hour drive from Calais.
Ryanair operates direct flights from Stansted Airport to Eindhoven, with a flight time of just one hour and five minutes.
Ticket prices start at just £14 for a one-way fare, with return journeys costing from £29.
Entry tickets to Efteling start from £33.15 (€38) per person, while a one-day date ticket to Disneyland Paris costs £73.54 per person.
Despite the price difference between the two parks, the Travel Mum said both theme parks were “on par” when their offerings were compared.
Sun Online Travel recently visited the Dutch theme park too, with writer Catherine Lofthouse managing to save hundreds off her holiday bill by using clever hacks for transport, tickets and accommodation.
Next year, the park is getting a new themed area alongside a 20-metre tall attraction called Danse Macabre.
Visitors will be immersed in a spooky Huyverwoud Forest that they will enter through an abandoned and derelict abbey square.
Meanwhile, the Danse Macabre attraction will take the form of a large 18-metre-diameter turntable with six smaller turntables on top, where 108 visitors can be seated.
The large turntable will rise, tilt and fall, spinning like a coin before ending up flat.
Meanwhile, Alton Towers is set to open a new £12.5million indoor ride, currently known as “project horizon”.
And Drayton Manor is also set to open a new “thrill ride”.