Our Stay at the Efteling Hotel!
While visiting the Efteling Resort, we knew we wanted to stay “on property” and chose The Efteling Hotel as our resort stay. This charming castle-like hotel sits toward the back of the theme-park property and is about three minutes walk from a private park entrance for hotel guests. In addition to a private entrance, Efteling Hotel guests also have early park entry 30 minutes before official park-opening. Other perks include intimate character meets, complimentary breakfast, and theme park admission. Yes, you read that right. Guests of the Efteling Hotel have park admission included with their stay, including check-in and check-out day. Meaning, a 4 night stay comes with 5 days of park tickets!
We booked an Excellente Suite on the 8th floor, and we were so excited to film a room tour for our viewers. Amenities in this suite type included a king-size bed, double shower, whirlpool bathtub, bathrobes, slippers, coffee machine, tea kettle, and a mini-fridge bar. All drinks and snacks in the mini-bar were included in the room stay - and restocked by housekeeping daily!
If you, like us, arrive hours earlier than check-in at 4:00PM, the front desk staff are happy to help you store your luggage in a private and locked storage locker in the main lobby. They will also help you print or download your park tickets to your smartphone so that you can enter the park and pass the time having fun while waiting for your room. We also noticed right away that many hotel staff are fluent in multiple languages (including English) as noted on their name tags, and communicating with staff was a breeze.
The hotel itself was small, especially compared to our theme park resort stays at Disney and Universal. The lobby had a small waiting area with a TV and a small gift shop. Of note, there is no resort pool at this hotel, but guests do have access to the pool at the Bosrijk, another Efteling Resort property. The elevators were also very small and would often fill up if guests had large suitcases or strollers. A line would sometimes form during busy hours of the day, such as after breakfast.
Above: The Efteling Hotel offers a daily (complimentary) breakfast buffet at De Hoffelijke Heraut Restaurant
Speaking of breakfast, we did have to reserve a breakfast time at check-in for each day of our visit. The popular breakfast hour was right before park opening from 8:00AM to 9:00PM, but it was worth waking up a little earlier for a less busy time slot. Breakfast was a self-serve smorgasbord of hot and cold items including: eggs, bacon, pancakes, various pastries, fresh bread, cheese, deli meats, fruit, yogurt, cereal, coffee, and tea. Everything we tried was absolutely delicious.
During our stay we also had a meal at Bar De Gelagkamer. We were told this bar has a “limited menu” and were encouraged to eat in the park when we could, but we were really happy we tried it for dinner one night. The menu was small but had several appetizers and entrees that caught our attention. This is also the location for nightly meet and greets with Efteling characters, and we were lucky to catch Pardoes getting into some mischief during our meal.
Another perk of staying on Efteling property is discounted tickets for the “Caro” show. This show takes place select nights in the Efteling Theatre at the main entrance and is an up charge from park admission. Featuring familiar songs, acrobatics, water stunts and pyrotechnics, it was a wonderful way to wrap up of final night at Efteling. Regular admission was about 25 euro per person but hotel guests get 50% off. We definitely think the show is well worth the regular price alone, but certainly not to be missed with the discount. Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at the Efteling Hotel. Be sure to check out our vlog for a review of our complimentary breakfast, an in-depth room tour of our Excellente suite and more!
