Flipflops and Floaties

We spent three nights in Duinrell, in September 2019, and we are already planning our trip back. If I was to describe the Holiday Park in three words it would be: Paradise for children. We would happily have stayed for longer but with Ellie starting school this year, and Brian having very little annual leave left, we settled for the three days, and made the most of our short trip. We had hoped to rent bikes and explore the local area, but we never made it outside the gates of the park because there was just too much to do onsite.

Getting There

We flew Dublin to Amsterdam return, which took 1 hour on the way over and 1 hour 20 minutes on the way home. The short flight was an absolute dream. We are so used to flying to Lanzarote, so having to only entertain Oscar for such a short flight, made for a great start to the trip.

We booked our transfers through Leidse Regio Taxi. They are the recommended transfer company on the Duinrell website, so we felt this was the best option, with it being our first time taking the kids to Holland. We paid €60 each way for a family of four. They picked us up outside departures and dropped us to the gates of the park, so it was perfect for us. I would definitely recommend them if you are looking for transfers from Schipol airport.

Accommodation

Having read tons of reviews before we left, we had prepared ourselves for the vast size of the park, and expected to be staying miles away from the theme park and other attractions. We were pleasantly surprised when we ventured out of our accommodation, only to find we were a two minute walk from both The Plaza and the Theme Park.

It was very basic, but perfect for what we needed for the couple of days. We left our accommodation in the mornings and didn’t return until we were ready to fall into bed in the evenings.

We booked our accommodation through The Sun Newspaper promotion. We paid a whopping £63.30 total for the accommodation. Eurocamp provided a highchair and travel cot free of charge for the duration of our stay, which came in very handy as we only brought hand luggage. Bed linen was not included but could be rented from Eurocamp prior to the trip. Unfortunately, I forgot this little detail and when I contacted Eurocamp a couple of days before the trip they were unable to offer us the bed linen as it needed to be booked a minimum of 7 days before the trip. Not ideal, but also not the end of the world, and completely my own fault. So, we packed a couple of sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases and all was right with the world again.

Access to the theme park, and use of all rides was included in the above price. Tiki pool access is not included however, so keep this in mind when pricing with Eurocamp or another third party provider. Prices for the Tiki Pool can be found here.

If you book direct with Duinrell, access to the Tiki Pool will be included in your stay. You can check out the Early Bird Offer that Duinrell are currently running for 2020 holidays here. With the early bird offer you will get:

• 3 hours of Tiki Pool access per day
• Unlimited access to the newly expanded outdoor pool
• Free Wi-Fi during your stay (max. five devices)

Theme Park

The theme park is set in a beautiful forest, and offers something for all of the family. We were amazed by the size of the theme park, and also by the amount of attractions that it offers. Around every corner was another fun packed area to explore, with roller coasters for the dare devils, train rides for the youngsters, playgrounds, bumper boats, indoor fun factory, ball pits, shadow room, slides, ferris wheel, the list goes on and on. You can check out all of the attractions here. By day three we were still discovering new attractions and areas of the park that we had not yet come across.

There are plenty of options when it comes to food, whether you are looking for hot snacks, pancakes, fruit dipped in chocolate, candy floss, sweets, ice cream, you will find it all on site. Price wise it is not cheap, but then what theme park is cheap for food?! If you arrive expecting prices from the likes of your family holidays to Spain or the Canaries then you will have a rude awakening, but if you come over expecting similar prices to other theme parks, or prices from Ireland then you will be on the right track. You will find more details on what food is available in the theme park here.

There are plenty of picnic benches and green areas around the theme park, so if you are concerned about your budget then you could always bring a picnic into the park with you, and enjoy a nice lunch in the forest, or on the grass with all of the family. Next time we visit we will definitely be making use of the bakery in the supermarket on site, buying fresh baguettes and having more picnics.

Tiki Pool

If you like water parks, then you will love the Tiki Pool. It exceeded all of our expectations, and was a huge hit with with the boss; Ellie. According to Ellie, the Tiki Pool was the best pool ever, and she is not easily pleased so this is akin to winning a prestigious award. She was particularly fond of the indoor wave pool, which is located right infront of you when you enter the indoor pool area from the dressing rooms. I loved the fact that the water was heated to just below 32 degrees, so no shivering or frost bite, like you might get in other resorts.

Kids under 1.2m are required to wear armbands, this rule is enforced even if they can swim so throw some armbands into your luggage before you leave. We brought armbands for Oscar, but as he is only 13 months old the lifeguards were not satisfied with him wearing armbands and instead wanted him in a baby float. We didn’t have one with us, but they are available at the check in desk so it wasn’t an issue.

There are over 20 slides in the Tiki Pool, so you could easily spend hours in there without hearing a single moan from the kids. You can check out all of the slides here.

You will need passport size photos to stick on your tickets for the pool. There are passport photo booths in both the Tiki Pool reception, and downstairs in The Plaza. It costs €4 for the photos. We all hopped into the booth together and used the same photo for all of our tickets, so it only cost €4 total instead of €4 each.

During our visit we spent the mornings and afternoons in the theme park and then headed into the Tiki Pool in the evening time. The theme park closes at 6pm, and the Tiki Pool closes at 10pm, so this seemed like the obvious thing to do to make the most of our short trip.

We were kindly gifted free access to the Tiki Pool by the wonderful staff in Duinrell. Thanks a million guys, we loved every minute of it.

The Plaza

We were blessed with our location, we were only a stones throw away from the Plaza. This is where you will find the pub, mini bowling alley, arcade, supermarket, fast food, restaurant, takeaway pizza. Prices here were similar to what you would pay back home, maybe even slightly more expensive. If you can peel yourself away from the park for an hour, there is a Jumbo Supermarket just down the road where you could stock up on food and drink.

The bowling alley is in the pub, so you can relax with a nice cold beer or cocktail while the kids are entertained. The cost of the bowling is €4 per person.

Kids Club

We actually didn’t even realise that there was a kids club on site until our last day, so we can’t really comment too much on what it includes. We did manage to make it to the mini disco though, and the kids had a ball at it. The mini disco was on just before 6pm in the pub in The Plaza.

There is a huge selection of bikes on site that you can rent, including 4 seater bikes which we will definitely make use of on our next trip. Oscar was just a tad too small for them this time around.

We would highly recommend a trip to Duinrell, for an adventurous family holiday. We cannot wait to return.

Don’t forget to follow our adventures on Instagram and check out our highlights on our page for videos and more pics of our trip to Duinrell.