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Trip Planning: Information, advice and questions!

Craig said:
Personally, 3 on park plus a day at Rulantica would be ideal. Break the park days up with a day at Rulantica :)
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Oh right. See we've become a 2 day at AT kinda family. Used to do the day trips but now the kids want to get on everything (twice haha), and did 5 nights at DLP which was spot on too. If that helps with context?
 
For me the perfect length is 3 days, though I live in Germany, so travel is a little easier and I don't need to do longer trips to make the transit feel worth it.

The first day at Europa Park, the middle day relaxing (or not!) at Rulantica, and the third day back at Europa Park. I've only gone on off-peak times, so this is more than enough time to do every ride multiple times, see several shows, and still have time to simply hang out if you feel like it, for example at the wonderful Biergarten in EP. By the end of the third day I'm pretty exhausted and ready to return to reality.
 
Manchester1894 said:
Oh right. See we've become a 2 day at AT kinda family. Used to do the day trips but now the kids want to get on everything (twice haha), and did 5 nights at DLP which was spot on too. If that helps with context?
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Oh it's more than enough time to cover everything with 3 days on park. Remember the opening hours are much longer (park hours today are 9am-7pm) and the queues are much more free flowing in comparison to Alton Towers. There's a lot of attractions there, but there's a relatively low number of them that get the larger queues (and by larger only 30-45 minutes).

If you want to do a 4th day, then by all means go for it. Just if you're wanting to watch the budget a little bit, especially when you're forking out for a full family - stick to 3 :)
Llama said:
For me the perfect length is 3 days, though I live in Germany, so travel is a little easier and I don't need to do longer trips to make the transit feel worth it.

The first day at Europa Park, the middle day relaxing (or not!) at Rulantica, and the third day back at Europa Park. I've only gone on off-peak times, so this is more than enough time to do every ride multiple times, see several shows, and still have time to simply hang out if you feel like it, for example at the wonderful Biergarten in EP. By the end of the third day I'm pretty exhausted and ready to return to reality.
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I agree for regular visitors, I did precisely that this year. But, for a first time visitor I think the extra day is pretty essential to explore a new park and get used to the place.
 
I can’t agree that 3 days would feel adequate for a first time visitor if you’re regularly wanting to do 2 days at Towers.

If budget is an issue and you’d want to stretch your stay I’d suggest looking at apartments in Rust as an alternative to onsite. I understand why staying onsite is attractive, but you can access most of the hotel’s amenities as a day guest (the pools/spa are the only real miss), and therefore enjoy the hotels’ atmosphere, themeing, bars and restaurants. Alternatively, you could probably save a little money by considering the other slightly cheaper hotels (we like El Andaluz and it’s closest to the park).

If you’re going to spend the money getting there, then adding an extra day is ultimately going to reduce your per day cost. Europa is a park that rewards slowing down to smell the roses.
 
venny said:
I can’t agree that 3 days would feel adequate for a first time visitor if you’re regularly wanting to do 2 days at Towers.

If budget is an issue and you’d want to stretch your stay I’d suggest looking at apartments in Rust as an alternative to onsite. I understand why staying onsite is attractive, but you can access most of the hotel’s amenities as a day guest (the pools/spa are the only real miss), and therefore enjoy the hotels’ atmosphere, themeing, bars and restaurants. Alternatively, you could probably save a little money by considering the other slightly cheaper hotels (we like El Andaluz and it’s closest to the park).

If you’re going to spend the money getting there, then adding an extra day is ultimately going to reduce your per day cost. Europa is a park that rewards slowing down to smell the roses.
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Food for thought really. Appreciate it. Leaning towards 3 days in park/1 day in Rulantica (but maybe doing the water park on day 3 to break it up) - if flights mean I have to come back a day earlier, then 3 full days in park and leaving the waterpark as it's more of a treat and water parks aren't exactly as unique as theme parks really are they?
 
In waterpark terms, Rulantica is pretty unique, although the slides are most unremarkable. What makes it unique is more the themeing, swim-up bars etc.

It obviously depends on how much of a waterpark fan you are as to whether Rulantica would merit sacrificing a park day if the circumstances arise. Personally I’d go for a third park day rather than Rulantica, but I know other people who would do the opposite. Remember of course that Rulantica does open until 10pm which in most circumstances would allow you a visit of some length, even if it were of an evening.
 
Rulantica is beyond the scale of any other waterpark in Europe with exception presumably to Siam Park.

I'd consider it essential. Treat yourselves with a cabana style private space.

Consider fleshing your trip out with a day out in Freiburg or Strasbourg. Transport is cheap and easy. Both cities are beautiful. EP is also on the edge of the Black Forest.

A perfect trip would be

Travel day
EP
EP
Rulantica
EP
Travel day

With a Freiburg/Strasbourg/Black Forest day squeezed in if you fancy it.
 
AstroDan said:
Rulantica is beyond the scale of any other waterpark in Europe with exception presumably to Siam Park.

I'd consider it essential. Treat yourselves with a cabana style private space.

Consider fleshing your trip out with a day out in Freiburg or Strasbourg. Transport is cheap and easy. Both cities are beautiful. EP is also on the edge of the Black Forest.

A perfect trip would be

Travel day
EP
EP
Rulantica
EP
Travel day

With a Freiburg/Strasbourg/Black Forest day squeezed in if you fancy it.
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Noticed a lot of the towns that have the airports are beautiful.

My wife isn't keen on doing Phantasialand in the same week but I'm working on that 😂
 
AstroDan said:
Phantasialand is a 1 day park unless you're really into reriding. Movie Park is crap by comparison with Phl/EP.
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Makes a trip though. Splitting it up makes 2 good trips. I'd argue Phantasia is more than a days worth, especially staying on resort.
 
My first visit was three full days, it felt about right. I missed out on a few shows but only because I prioritised many many many rerides.
 
AstroDan said:
Rulantica is beyond the scale of any other waterpark in Europe with exception presumably to Siam Park.

I'd consider it essential. Treat yourselves with a cabana style private space.

Consider fleshing your trip out with a day out in Freiburg or Strasbourg. Transport is cheap and easy. Both cities are beautiful. EP is also on the edge of the Black Forest.

A perfect trip would be

Travel day
EP
EP
Rulantica
EP
Travel day

With a Freiburg/Strasbourg/Black Forest day squeezed in if you fancy it.
Click to expand...
Those Rulantica TripAdvisor reviews about queues though. 🙁 Do you know if we opted for the evening one, we could do all big slides alone comfortably?
 
If you’re looking to tag another park onto the trip, I’d personally opt for Tripsdrill over Phantasialand. Phantasialand is the better park, of course - but Tripsdrill is much closer, very charming and one day would be plenty there. It just feels like a more appropriate excursion from a huge resort than Phantasia, which really merits a separate trip entirely.
 
Charlie N said:
If you’re looking to tag another park onto the trip, I’d personally opt for Tripsdrill over Phantasialand. Phantasialand is the better park, of course - but Tripsdrill is much closer, very charming and one day would be plenty there. It just feels like a more appropriate excursion from a huge resort than Phantasia, which really merits a separate trip entirely.
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I know but that's another 800-1000 in flights if we do Phantasialand another summer. So we think when in Rome do both. And maybe take in a town or two over say an 8 day period. 2 in PL 4 in EL the other 2 exploring days.
 
Manchester1894 said:
Those Rulantica TripAdvisor reviews about queues though. 🙁 Do you know if we opted for the evening one, we could do all big slides alone comfortably?
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Rulantica can get busy, especially in the summer. It’s also not unusual for slide queues to remain pretty long until closing (or close thereto). If you go for the afternoon ticket, you’ll probably squeeze everything in, but it would be a real push to do so with the twilight ticket.

As I said before, the slides themselves are nothing to really write home about, the magic of Rulantica is the wider experience of the swim-up bars, pools and general theming. You’d struggle to properly enjoy that aspect in just 3 hours.
 
I’ve never been Rulantica during peak times, but when I have been I’ve found the slides are always much quieter in the evening than during the day, and I’ll always make sure I stay right until closing as it’s so nice in there in the evening.
 
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