Whimsy and magic at Efteling, Europe’s fairytale theme park

Efteling. The place where magic breathes life and dreams come true. Forget Disneyland, Efteling is the hidden gem of The Netherlands. Europe’s fairytale theme park that is still under the radar. 

Efteling covers 72 hectares, and the wider resort around 276 hectares. From absolutely stunning world immersion to adrenaline-fuelled rollercoasters, this fairytale theme park is the perfect day trip for children and adults alike. 

It really feels like you’re stepping into the pages of a Grimm’s fairytale book. Even though it’s all kid-friendly, they don’t shy away from some of the darker original tales. This isn’t Hollywood-approved fluff. It feels like a love letter dedicated to real European mythology and folklore. 

I can’t believe that before visiting my Dutch friend in Utrecht this year, I’d never heard of Efteling. We went during early December on a weekday and the park was pretty empty. The longest we had to wait for any ride was maybe 20 minutes. It was a truly special day, and I’m writing this post in the hopes that I can also help others experience the magic of Efteling!

So without further ado, here’s everything you need to know to make your Efteling visit just as perfect. 

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on any of those links and make a purchase, I’ll get a small commission, at no cost to you, to help support this website. 

Efteling is open 365 days a year, and changes according to the season. We went during the winter season in December and it was beautiful. There was a giant ice rink, a German Christmas market, and fairytale winter decor to make the experience feel like a winter wonderland. 

Spring and Summer are good times to visit for longer daylight hours and more time spent in the park, while in autumn you can experience the changing colours of the trees. 

You can also spend Christmas or New Year’s Eve at Efteling, though these tickets sell out quickly so should be booked well in advance.

Basically, there’s no bad time to visit Efteling. But I recommend visiting on weekdays instead of weekends and avoiding national holidays to minimise crowds. Efteling offers a useful crowd calendar on their website to help you plan your visit.

From Amsterdam: It takes around 2 hours to get to Efteling by train from Amsterdam (the return ticket is around 30 euros) and 1 hour 20 minutes by car. This makes it a great day trip option. Parking is 15 euros a day.

From other cities in the Netherlands: Efteling is very accessible from all major cities in The Netherlands, all within 1.5 hours – 2 hours by train from Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and more.

From Antwerp: You can also visit the park from nearby Antwerp in Belgium. It takes around 1 hour 45 minutes by train, and 1 hour 10 minutes by car. 

Efteling is a resort with several overnight accommodation options, including two luxury hotels within the park and 2 holiday home areas. Staying in the park is a good idea if you’re planning to make Efteling a multi-day trip (and there’s more than enough stuff to see to make that worth it!). 

If you’d prefer a cheaper option though and would rather stay outside the park, nearby Tilburg is  only half an hour away from Efteling by bus and has many good hotel options. A few top ones include: 

• Mecure hotel Tilburg Centrum
• Hostel Roots
• City hotel Tilburg

Of course, you can also stay in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Antwerp or any other major city and just visit Efteling for the day.

Efteling has multiple themed cafes, bars, hot dog stands and restaurants within the park. My friend is vegetarian and they had a surprising amount of veggie and vegan options available too, so that wasn’t a problem. 

We had breakfast at bakery Krümel, which was near the entrance to the park. They had a good availability of freshly baked sweet pastries and savoury sandwiches and snacks. 

For dinner, I highly recommend the pancake restaurant. They serve a full menu of creative and intriguing pancakes, from savoury to sweet and everything in between. I also had a traditional Dutch mustard soup which was delicious! My favourite thing about this pancake restaurant was the interior decor, with spinning pancake plates make the atmosphere very lively. 

We didn’t book the pancake restaurant and turned up at 6pm when all the rides closed, and got a table easily. You can also book online though, which is recommended during busier seasons.

This stunning enchanted forest is an open-air attraction within the park where you can discover all your favourite fairytales brought to life. From real, life size gingerbread houses to sleeping beauty in her castle and Pinnochio’s workshop, this was such a fun and relaxing way to spend an afternoon. 

The forest is huge and we didn’t have time to walk around all of it, but it’s definitely worth seeing. I recommend sitting on the magical mushrooms – they sing!

This thrilling wooden rollercoaster has a really unique premise. It’s a double track rollercoaster with two parallel lines – one for fire and one for water. You have to choose one to defeat the dragon. 

Each ride, the two carriages race against each other along the parallel tracks. Whichever one wins the race gets cheered for at the end!

Something I really love about Efteling is that so many of the rides are really story-driven. In this ride, you get ushered into an audience with the king of the palace and taken through a magical world of sorcerers and magic. 

It’s not a thrill-seeking ride, it’s more about appreciating the beautiful scenes and rooms you’re taken through and appreciating the whimsy and magic of the place. It’s a great one for young children and families.

This is another story-driven ride where you’re treated to a haunted spectacle involving a ghostly choir in a creepy, gothic abbey. 

In the story, a choir were all killed during a performance in the abbey by an evil being. You’re now invited to enter the abbey where their ghosts remain. 

Unfortunately this ride wasn’t open on the day I visited, however my friend who’s visited Efteling 20+ times says this is her favourite ride!

This watercoaster has really cool Pirates of the Caribbean / ghost pirate ship vibes, and the ride itself was thrilling and so much fun! You do get a little wet at the end, but not much. 

There are many other attractions at Efteling well worth visiting, but these ones listed were my personal favourites! Keep in the mind that some, such as Villa Volta, have story elements in Dutch that you may miss if you don’t speak the language. However in general this isn’t a major problem for visiting as a tourist. 

Efteling is a great place to visit solo. In fact you’ll get on to many of the rides more quickly as the rollercoasters all have ‘single rider queues’ where you can fill in empty spots and skip the long queues!

Read more: One day in Utrecht: how to spend 24 hours in the city

This depends, of course, on your priorities. But if a day filled with magic, whimsy, and stepping into a real life fairytale sounds like fun, Efteling is well worth the visit!

I was very impressed by the amount of effort put into creating the themed decor, architecture and rides at the park, which really helped me feel immersed in the world. The quality of the park is very high, and all the facilities are extremely clean and well-kept. 

The best part is that it doesn’t have the crowds or price tag of Disneyland (yet). So I highly recommend planning a visit to Efteling before it gets too popular!

Have I successfully convinced you to add Efteling to your Europe bucket list?

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