Rollercoaster and alps adventure - advice needed!!!

[Eddie Twadds]

Next summer, me and wifey are planning a 15 day European roadtrip to Austria and I’d welcome some route advice. The primary reason for the trip is a week in Seefeld in the Austrian Alps for some walking, R&R, beer and strudel! The rest of time we want to visit theme parks and other places of interest en-route. Driving fun is also part of the equation (#Pistonheads) in our leggy, but so-far reliable SLK350.

The current itinerary is:
Outbound
Hull ferry to Rotterdam – Rotterdam to Andernach, NL – Andernach to Rothenburg, Germany – Rothenburg to Seefeld, Austria

Return
Seefeld to Colmar, France – Colmar to Dinant, Belgium – Dinant to Walibi Belgium (theme park) Walibi Belgium – Walibi Holland (another theme park), Biddinghuizen, NL – Rotterdam ferry and home

Other than having to be on the outbound ferry on Saturday evening and arrive in Austria on Tuesday for a week and then on a return ferry from Rotterdam two weeks later, we are pretty flexible on routes, stopovers and places of interest. We’re also happy to trade theme park stop-offs for places like Europapark near Strasbourg or Phantasialand near Brühl in Germany - even if that means a complete route change. As you may have guessed, theme parks are important to our trip

So, any pointers on routes, roads, stop offs or otherwise are welcomed as the routes have been picked based on getting to the destinations rather than the enjoyment of the journey. PH do your worst!

[magpies]

Just arrived back from the area, check out this route from Colmar to Sedan

https://goo.gl/maps/rpJBGYD9WkvmLZxb7

[magpies]

Vianden on the Lux / German boarder is surrounded by brilliant roads and a good place to stop for lunch, also 2nd half of this route to Colmar is very good.


https://goo.gl/maps/XGX1Lhpdm7gcWPQS9

Edited by magpies on Friday 8th September 13:28

[Eddie Twadds]

Cool - will have a look.

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

If you want to do theme parks, do you not want to do Disneyland Paris, Asterix Parc and Europa Park

[toastyhamster]

Bit left field given the ultimate destination is Austria, but you could do Chunnel, Plopsaland (Ride to Happiness!) and then either Parc Asterix (Toutatis!) or Disney, then do the Walibi's or the German parks on the way back. You probably know but Phantasialand can get incredibly busy depending on season.

If you stick with your original route why not include Efteling?

Don't be tempted to extend into Italy and do Gardaland, it's a Merlin park, and it shows.

Got Energielandia and PortaVentura (again!!!) booked for October half term, but I'm not driving there!

[Eddie Twadds]

toastyhamster said:

Bit left field given the ultimate destination is Austria, but you could do Chunnel, Plopsaland (Ride to Happiness!) and then either Parc Asterix (Toutatis!) or Disney, then do the Walibi's or the German parks on the way back. You probably know but Phantasialand can get incredibly busy depending on season.

If you stick with your original route why not include Efteling?

Don't be tempted to extend into Italy and do Gardaland, it's a Merlin park, and it shows.

Got Energielandia and PortaVentura (again!!!) booked for October half term, but I'm not driving there!

Thanks for the pointers. We thought about the Chunnel but I couldn't be ar$ed with the 5-6 hour journey from Halifax. The ferry is a nice way to ease into the holiday. We're a bit torn on what to do. We've already booked Austria accommodation so no real time on the outbound journey so we may skip a day in Austria and sneak in a day or two at Europapark which we love. Already done Eftleing, Toverland and Phantasialand (and I want to do them again) but also wanted a change.

Re Energielandia, what's the weather like in half term as it's on my list.

[toastyhamster]

Eddie Twadds said:

Thanks for the pointers. We thought about the Chunnel but I couldn't be ar$ed with the 5-6 hour journey from Halifax. The ferry is a nice way to ease into the holiday. We're a bit torn on what to do. We've already booked Austria accommodation so no real time on the outbound journey so we may skip a day in Austria and sneak in a day or two at Europapark which we love. Already done Eftleing, Toverland and Phantasialand (and I want to do them again) but also wanted a change.

Re Energielandia, what's the weather like in half term as it's on my list.

Never been, it won't be hot though, if it's 7-8 degrees and dry that'll do us. We did Efteling in Feb half term this year and it was lovely, we've been very lucky with our park trips with the weather.

Europa park and Phantasialand next year for us, after that maybe the Walibi's but the European parks will be pretty much done. The only one we return to regularly is PortaVentura.

[Eddie Twadds]

Did PortaVentura last Easter. Was an absolute bun fight; clearly half of Spain, England and Germany had the same idea we did. Enjoyed it but don't think I'd go back.

[toastyhamster]

It'll be dead after Halloween, they go nuts for it, but 1st November it'll mostly be walk on. Or it was last year anyway, barring a couple of coach loads of school trips, we fly 31st and back 3rd. We also went (as part of a bigger Spain hol) in August last year, far too hot for us and I ended up buying fast track for the kids which I never usually cave in to.

[TB404]

Mate if you're in the area you have to visit this one:

Possibly the best Alpine coaster, we've been to. Nice long, high tech (carts have 'adaptive cruise' and break automatically if you're too close to someone). Beautiful views, but can be busy, try to get there first thing in the morning. Last time we've bee on a road trip to Italy (In an EV6, no problems whatsoever) - we made a special detour to visit this one, again.

good luck and have fun

https://goo.gl/maps/vCFbmV9ucMWSa91r6

[gazza5]

Watching this with interest - its one thing I have wanted to do with the kids, and they are at the right age now where they can get on most things, although our youngest is not interested in anything fast.

Done disneyland paris a few times, but want to do Europa park amongst lots of others, will combine it with centre parcs trips going forward.

[Dave80s]

I visited Walibi Belgium last month, really good. I bought discounted tickets through tripper.nl (which is a bit like Groupon).

We also went to Plopsaland which wasn't as good I thought, not too keen on spinning rides so didn't like Ride To Happiness (preferred Kondaa at Walibi) and the food and drink is a rip off. Parking stings at 15 euro as well.

Europa Park is always worth a visit, a new coaster - Voltron Nevera (sponsored by Rimac) is opening in 2024.

Innsbruck is a nice town to spend a day, and Munich if not too far?