Europa Park advice?

Hey all,

I know we have a few international travelers here. I will be in the Netherlands/Germany over Easter visiting family, and we've decided to swing down and visit Europa Park.

Everything I've viewed online recommends taking at least a couple of days to see everything, which we are going to do. Also highly recommended is to stay on property. From what I'm seeing, prices for the hotels are at least double of what I can find for a nice gasthaus.

For those that have done Europa Park, is it really worth staying onsite? Any other recommendations?

Thanks,
EV

I passed through and only had a day as part of a multi destination trip. I stayed at the Colosseo the night prior for EA. Which enabled me to get on Voltron multiple times before actual opening. This was like the month it opened.

Anyway, after being there and seeing just how good everything about that park was I want to go back for 3 maybe 4 days to meander around and take my time along with maybe a massage and a day at Rulantica. If you are just doing Europa take 2 days minimum. I hustled cause I only had one day but managed all the coasters and water rides. The mouse coaster is easily the best wild mouse I’ve ever ridden, Voltron is absolutely stunning. They have a solid B&M hyper. Wodan rides like a dream and they have lots of other awesome rides. Knockoff Pirates of the Caribbean is really awesome and even has the restaurant in the ride like the one at DLR.

The theming is amazing, the flora in the park easily outdoes anything I’ve seen in the states. I really can’t say enough about how well run that place is.

The park is that good, the staff are amazing, and I even got a picture with the mouse at breakfast in the hotel the morning I went into the park. It is a full resort property, and it is a blast. Stay onsite you won’t regret it. If you purchase non refundable it was a fair amount cheaper than reg rate.

While you are in the area, swing by Knoebels too!

Enjoy!

I've stayed onsite at El Andaluz, and I've also stayed offsite at the Holiday Inn Express Ringsheim. Both those hotels were clean and included a good breakfast. The 30 minutes of early admission from staying onsite is only marginally useful in my experience. The main advantage onsite is that it puts you within a short walk to the park (unless you stay at Kronasar), such that you can easily take a midday break in your room if desired. It's sort of like the convenience of staying at Breakers when visiting Cedar Point, combined with the thematic bubble you feel when staying onsite at Disney World. You'll need to weigh whether that is worth the cost difference.

The Europa Park hotels are terrific, but yes, they are expensive.

Normally I use the Holiday Inn Express at Ringsheim.

I guess expensive is skewed by Disney. I thought the onsite cost was a deal, that same hotel at Disney would have been 800 a night.

I'm thinking of going back to Germany in March of '27. Any idea when the park usually opens for the season? I may rent a car and drive over from Munich.

Aren’t they open all the time? Or maybe that’s Efteling.
On my (solo) trip I stayed at a little hotel that was literally across the street from the front gate. It was just fine, and cheap. Maybe a little weird but I found a lot of European hotels to be so. Breakfast in the morning. The little town is a couple blocks walk and couldn’t be more charming. I had a nice meal at an Italian restaurant and good beer.
As for the park, just ride all the rides. Every one, no matter how family friendly it looks. There’s an example of every ride Mack makes except one. Dark rides galore. Float rides. Track rides. Flats. All the conveyance rides. There’s so much enchanting, scenic stuff there. Nothing disappoints. I spent two days and I could. not. get. enough of that place. I wanted it forever across the street from me.
Eat at the roller coaster restaurant.

Can I go?

Efteling is open all year. Europa has a short off season. This winter they're closed from January 19 through March 27.

Crap. Starkbierfest is early in 2027 (follows the Easter calendar.) I think I'll be there a week or two too early.

We stayed at Krønasår right after it opened (literally days or a few weeks) in June of 2019 and got a great deal for it at the time and it was a stunning property. We paid 328 Euro, or around $370 USD at the time/conversion rate, for the two of us for the night, which included two day park tickets for each of us and breakfast at the resort. We ended up loving it so much we extended another night and stayed over again before continuing onward on our trip around Germany/Netherlands. Highly recommend it, personally. Europa was a highlight between the hotel/resort and the park proper. The hotel shuttled you directly to the park as it was a fair distance away from the park itself, but they have a bunch of different resorts to chose from.

We spent 2 days at Europa and it was a perfect amount of time for us. The park is huge and you can just spend a day alone just walking around, getting lost and exploring all the themed areas, enjoying the gardens, eating/drinking, etc... The rides are great, too.

I would spend no less than 2 full days in the park, you will easily fill that time. As far as the hotel, just depends on your budget and what you want out of it... We enjoy nicer hotels/locations and don't mind splurging, especially overseas where you get so much more value out of it than US resorts like Disney/Universal for example.

Hey all,
thanks for the great responses! We are definitely doing two days in the park.

I didn't think about looking towards the Autobahn, so that Holiday Inn Express is a nice recommendation. Really reasonable too. Leaning towards that direction, as the HI Express is around ~ 100 Euro/night, where the Europa hotel starts around ~350 Euro/night (with no park tickets). That more than makes up for the 10 Euro parking fee.

RCMAC,
you're welcome to meet up with us if you like! Targeting being there either 3/30+3/31 or 3/31+4/1.

Later,
EV