Efteling’s 11 Best Attractions!

I recently got a chance to visit a “new-to-me” theme park that had been near top of my list to go to for a long time, Efteling in the Netherlands. Now, although it’s a park I’ve really wanted to go to, I didn’t actually know much about it beyond that it’s themed to fairy tales, it may or may not have been part of the inspiration for Disneyland, and everyone I know who’s been there loves it.

But, as I was trying research what attractions I definitely shouldn’t miss, I was surprised to find a dearth of guides telling me what to ride (at least in English). So, in my attempt to help any future first time Efteling visitors with trip planning, I’ve put together a list of my eleven favorite attractions at the park, along with some bonus tips at the end.

A Brief History of Efteling

Before jumping into the list, for our non-European readers who maybe know even less about Efteling than I do, here’s some quick background. Located about an hour south of Amsterdam, Efteling officially opened in 1952 with the “Fairytale Forest” (het Sprookjesbos) featuring sets, animatronics, and special effects depicting ten fairy tales, all within a nature park that had opened two years earlier. That means it opened about 3 years before Disneyland did. The Fairytale Forest was primarily designed by a well known Dutch artist named Anton Pieck, who led the design of the park all the way until 1972.

The park expanded extensively over the years, adding a bunch of more scenes to the Fairytale Forest — there are over 30 now — along with multiple roller coasters, dark rides, and shows. All of the attractions are still themed to stories and fairy tales, and feature extensive theming. It’s also one of the most attended parks in the world, especially among ones without Disney or Universal in the name, attracting over 5 million visitors a year.

So, with that background, let’s jump into our top can’t-miss attractions at the park!

Efteling’s 11 Best Attractions

11. Sprookjesbos (Fairytale Forest)

Ok, so why is this 11 instead of 10? Basically because I couldn’t leave off the Fairytale Forest, but also couldn’t decide which other attraction to replace with it. The attraction that started it all, a tree covered area with winding pathways littered with small and not-so-small scenes of stories, over 30 of them. The tales are both old and familiar, like Sleeping Beauty, and more modern and less well known (at least in the US), like the Indian Water Lillies.

The whole forest is beautiful, and the scenes range in how elaborate they are, some with lighting and special effects, and some just a simple animatronic or two. Wandering aimlessly stumbling on the different tales was a great way to take a break in the afternoon, and you can spend as much or as little time in it as you’d like. But you can’t go to Efteling and not walk through at least some of it. They’re also always adding more scenes, like the Princess and the Pea scene that opened just this past May.

10. Joris en Draak

I’m a sucker for all GCI coasters, so of course I enjoyed Efteling’s racing wooden coasters. Loosely based on St. George fighting the dragon, this is probably the one ride on the list that isn’t REALLY a themed attraction. The two sides, Fire and Water, mostly run side by side, with a few crossovers. It has a great GCI layout with lots of small turns and hills, while surrounded by trees in a very Efetling fashion.

Now, there is a giant dragon animatronic located within the ride, but it’s almost impossible to see from the queue, you ride past it very quickly, and it’s unclear to me if its still working (it used to breathe fire, and definitely doesn’t do that anymore). With better dragon placement this could have been much higher on the list, but as it is it’s a very solid wooden coaster and worth a ride, but feels a little lacking compared to the theming of the rides higher up this list.

9. Vogel Rok

It’s amazing how much some lighting, on-board audio, and a few props can do for an indoor coaster. Themed to the story of Sinbad’s encounter with a giant mythological bird, Vogel Rok takes the Space Mountain approach to rides. The custom Vekoma sitdown coaster only reaches about 40 mph, but the almost completely dark ride with a few small points of light, and a few well illuminated prop birds and serpents make it feel much more thrilling. Add in an original soundtrack created for the ride by Dutch composer Rudd Bos, who created scores for multiple Efteling rides (if you miss attractions with original music, Efetling is a park for you.), and you get a really fun roller coaster. Plus it has a giant animatronic bird out front.Shorten with AI

8. Villa Volta

The original Vekoma Madhouse attraction! If you’ve been on Houdini’s Great Escape at either Six Flags Great Adventure or Six Flags New England, you know what these attractions are. I had not been on those, so I didn’t really have any idea what the ride was. And now having been on one, I love them. What a simple, family friendly, but extremely trippy and disorienting attraction. The story of Villa Volta is based on the Dutch folktale of the Buckriders, and is told two pre-show rooms, the second with a pretty good animatronic for 1996.

The pre-show is all in Dutch, but this is a chance to highlight the Efteling phone app! Probably the best theme park app I’ve ever used, for a few attractions it includes live subtitles for the preshow. So you open the app, it detects the audio, and then shows you subtitles (I presume in whatever language you want) in sync with the narration. I badly wish the overseas Disney park apps offered this! Villa Volta also features another fantastic score by Rudd Bos. I absolutely loved it for both the detail and simplicity. I wish we could have more of these in the US (and have them be kept up in immaculate condition)

7. Fata Morgana

The first full on dark ride on the list! Fata Morgana is a dark boat ride, with a lot of similarities to Pirates of the Caribbean. Opened in 1986 and built by Intamin, Fata Morgana is another ride based on “1001 Nights.” At about 8 minutes long, your boat floats through 10 different scenes featuring an astounding 140 animatronics! My first reaction while riding it was basically “this is what Pirates of the Caribbean would be if they cleaned it up and made it better.”

It might be my familiarity with Pirates that made me like this better, but it just felt like there was so much going on in every scene. Plus it’s designed so you’re the only boat in each scene, instead of a traffic jam of boats bumping into each other like in Pirates. I wish I’d had time to ride it a few more times to take in everything, as the scale of some scenes was definitely too much to spot everything. Oh, and of course ANOTHER excellent Rudd Bos score that gives it a much for mysterious and fantastical feel compared to most slow moving boat rides I’ve been on.

6. Raveleijn

Efteling’s signature show is entirely in Dutch, so I couldn’t really tell you what the plot is. But it turns out, you don’t really need to understand the plot to enjoy the mix of stunt horseback riding, stage sword combat, pyrotechnics, and a giant mechanical dragon! The set is elaborate, the stunts are solid, and its full of unexpected special effects. As elaborate a show as I’ve seen at any theme park, except for maybe my beloved Water World and one or two Disney shows, but this is definitely up there. I do hope the park someday adds English subtitles to the app the same way they do the Villa Volta pre-show subtitles.

Fun fact, unlike most Efteling attractions its a completely original IP and story, created by Dutch children’s book author Paul van Loon. But, the park also commissioned a book and 12 episode TV series based on the story! Sadly, the book and show are only available in Dutch.

5. Baron 1898

I typically love B&M Dive Coasters, but, as dive coasters go, Baron 1898 is relatively mild. The drop is only 123 feet tall and 87° steep, and the ride only has 2 inversions. What puts it here is that it’s one of the most themed coasters I’ve ever ridden. Obviously from videos and photos you see the detailed “mine shaft” design on the tower and the station. What you miss is that there’s a full dark ride show scene before the lift hill!

The story of the ride is that the Baron, Gustave Hooghmoed, discovers a gold deposit, but is warned by the “Witte Wieven,” another creature from Dutch folklore, not the disturb the gold. Of course he starts mine the gold, and the mine is cursed. The ride begins with a scene full of ghostly projections, a full soundtrack, along with mist and fog effects.

It’s a level of detail that 1) I wasn’t expecting since I did my best to avoid spoilers, and 2) is so much better than any other Dive Coaster I’ve ridden. While it’s clearly not the most thrilling dive coaster, the theming makes it one of my favorites. And it is an A+ tunnel on the initial drop (a key feature of all good dive coasters).

 

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4. De Vliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman)

Like Baron 1898, De Vliegende Hollander is a pretty good water coaster that’s also a fantastic dark ride. Themed to the legend of the cursed ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman, the attraction starts with deeply elaborate queue. The coaster part of the ride, easy to see in photos and videos, starts with a drop out of the show building down towards the water, banking into a ghostly fog, before a couple more twists and a visually impressive splash into the water (but not one that gets you too wet). What you can’t see in all of these off-ride videos is the best part: the dark ride.

The loading area is themed to a 17th century port, with a jaunty little song playing as you load your boats. I don’t really want to spoil any of the dark ride, because it was tons of fun going in knowing nothing about it, but I’ll say that Efteling knows how to use fog and mist to create a spooky atmosphere better than any other theme park. One cool little effect of the ride is there are certain sections where the only light in the fog comes from a lantern on the front of your boat. If you don’t mind spoilers check out the PoV below, but it’s more fun without knowing anything about the dark ride.

3. Symbolica

One of the most impressive rides in the park, Symbolica is a trackless dark ride built by ETF systems that opened in 2016. The ride features three different “tours” of the magical palace and you get to choose which route you want, with the queue splitting into three towards the front. The three different tours follow mostly the same scenes, but each has, I think, two unique rooms or sequences.

The scenes in the ride are beautiful, with animatronics, special effects, and some brief interactive moments that are done in a way that doesn’t distract from the show. It’s easily at the level of other trackless dark rides I’ve ridden, and I loved the mix of practical effects and screens and lighting. Sadly we only had time for one ride (and thus one tour), so I’d maybe move it up higher if I’d gotten some more rides on it.

2. Droomvlucht (Dreamflight)

Opening at Efteling in 1993, Droomvlucht takes you Peter Pan style in suspended gondolas above a world of fairies, castles, and trolls, a very European fairy tale setting. The ride is filled with animatronics and detailed sets. The scale of the five scenes you fly through is amazing, reminding me of the giant open room on the Calico Mine Ride in terms of size.

I think the best way to describe Droomvlucht would be “soothing,” or maybe dreamlike. As you gently soar over the elaborate scenes a peaceful score, another by Rud Boss, relaxes your mind. The ride even has a mildly thrilling climax, as your gondola spirals down to the troll forest floor, picking up speed as it goes. There’s definitely some gravity at work here, so I’m temped to call it a credit.

I think of all the dark rides, Droomvlucht felt the most like something I’d never seen before. The charm of the classic Disneyland dark rides, but at such a larger scale. For added atmosphere during the summer, the plaza outside Droomvlucht had characters dressed as the fairies playing in the middle of the square. I think everytime we walked through the area there were multiple characters out, so this isn’t a special timed thing, just all day park entertainment.

1. Danse Macabre

My favorite Efteling attraction at the park is also their newest. Opening on Halloween in 2024, I went into it knowing basically nothing about the ride, other than that it is loosely themed around a performance of the music piece Danse Macabre. The ride uses a new Intamin ride system called a “dynamic motion stage.” The simple description is a very complex spinning flat ride with multiple axes of spin and the ability to lift and tilt. But as with all of Efteling’s best rides, what makes it so good is the artisrty and design around it.

The ride is filled with impressive special effects, including some of the “wait how does work?” variety. It’s especially disorienting as the ride vehicle spins and turns under and around these effects, all sync’d beautifully to the music. It that made me sit there with my mouth open like an idiot as I tried to take in everything happening around me. A spooky magical dance that I wish I’d been able to ride at least a few more times.

I’m really glad I went in knowing nothing about it, but Efteling has an awesome multi-part series on the “making of Danse Macabre” on their YouTube channel that I highly recommend if you want to know more.

Honorable Mentions, and Other Tips

There are plenty of other notable attractions that didn’t quite make my list. Their family powered coaster, Max & Moritz was fun and delightfully themed (to 19th century German book), and was just outside my list. And I think the walk around (or drive around?) Max & Moritz characters might have been my favorite park entertainment.

Their family friendly Small World-ish dark ride, Carnaval Festival, is very weird, funny and only mildly racist, definitely worth riding. And Pagode is a very cool version of an observation tower, worth it if you’re an observation tower fan.

 

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Sadly, we didn’t have time to hit every ride and show we wanted to. We had to skip Gondoletta, their scenic boat ride that looks delightfully chill, and their antique car ride that I know is full of fun scenes. We also missed their 4D theater show, Fabula, that was updated in 2019. The last thing that was high on my list but we sadly couldn’t get to was their fountain show, Aquanura. Although, because summer in the Netherlands means it stays light late, it probably wouldn’t have been dark enough to have the full effect.

Missing some rides brings me to my main tip for visiting Efteling: Plan for at least a day and a half. There are so many attractions worth doing, and its worth having time to spend in the Fairytale Forest, that you’ll wish you had the extra time. The park is also pretty spread out, beaufitul, and has a bunch of little details to look at, so it’s not a place you want to rush.

If I were doing it again I’d give myself the extra time, and I’d probably try to stay on (or close to) property so I didn’t have to worry about catching a train home.

The next main tip I’d give, and I mentioned it earlier, is use the app! I mentioned earlier the subtitles it gives for some pre-shows. You can also set alerts for ride wait times or for when they reopen if they’re down. For example Danse Macabre was down most of the afternoon, but thanks to the notification from the app we saw it reopened late in the day.

Lastly, there’s basically a fast-pass like system for Droomvlucht and Danse Macabre! And not modern stupid Lighting Lane, but like old, good, Disneyland FastPass. Those two rides have both their normal standby queue, but also a virtual queue. You join the virtual queue through the app, but can only join when you’re close to the ride. Once you join you’ll get an estimated return time window, and once your time comes you can basically skip the line. And once you’ve done so, you can join another virtual queue. It seems like they’ve been trying it out, but hopefully they can tweak some queues to add it to more rides!

I highly recommend checking out the Efteling Youtube page for a bunch of awesome content about all of their attractions. And check out our almost 10 year old(!) interview with Efteling’s COO in 2016 for some throwback Coaster101 content! Finally, if you’ve been to Efteling, tell us what your favorite ride or attraction is down in the comments!