Europe - advice please!

[pluk]

I find myself with a couple of free weeks where other plans have died, the best way I can see to fill them is with theme parks!

Basically, I would like to travel around Europe a bit, taking in parks I've never visited before. I have a fairly willing wife, but she would appreciate a couple of city/beach days thrown in along the way. My top targets would be Disney Paris, Astrix, Europa Park and Phantasialand.

Any help with the following from you well travelled lot would be massively appreciated.

1- Travelling about. This is the main one. I can't make head or tale of my train options; how to book multi destination tickets, how close to the actual parks do the trains take you (and how best do you complete your journey if the answer is 'not very'), how flexible are tickets if you want to stay on or move on sooner from one of them, how much should the tickets cost and what ways to get discounts (or just not ripped off!)? Would love to know how others have planned trips without cars and the problems they have faced, although all I hear is good things about European rail. Is it easier and cheaper just to drive? And then should I drive my car or fly over and hire one? I have never driven on the wrong side of the road before, but how hard can it be?!

2- My fantasy park selection (Disney Paris, Astrix, Europa Park, Phantasialand). Is it a good selection and is it doable with the distances involved? Am I better off doing one area/country properly and then saving other areas for another time? If I did do those parks would I be travelling right by some other gems that I really should stop and do on the way?

3- How much have trips like cost those of you who have done them before? Tbh money is not that much of a problem, but I don't want it to end up being a stupid amount.

4- Is it always best to stay in the parks own accommodation? What are the options, especially if you don't have a car with you and how far away from the parks are the alternatives? Will I have trouble just turning up and hoping to be able to find a room?

5- Am I being stupid trying to do this with such short (about a weeks) notice? Am I better off waiting until another time when I can plan for months in advance, or is it simple enough to get sorted this quickly?

I know this is as wide as hell and apologies for the massive amounts of questions, but I don't know where to start, especially as I'm looking at doing it with such short notice (I would be wanting to leave somewhere between 5th and 8th Sept). I really would appreciate any advice you can throw at me, especially from your personal experiences. Thanks!

 

[DiogoJ42]

Well I've been to three of those four parks, and would recomend them, so good choices. Sadly I'm the most disorganised person on earth when it comes to arranging travel stuff, so you are better waiting for someone else to help, I'm afraid.
But a week does seem rather short notice. I know Europa's hotels tend to be booked up months in advance! Not impossible, but it'll be a scramble.

If if you can do it, you won't regret it.

 

[Tim]

Same as Diogo from me but I'll try and add a little bit of info.

Disney Paris and Astrix are right next to each other and as both Disney and Paris (where I believe you can get a bus to Astrix?) is on the Eurostar route they should be very easy to reach. Europa Park and Phantasialand will pose more of a problem. Europa is in the south of Germany and doesn't have a direct train from any major city. But I believe others on the forum know more about that train route than me as I’ve always flown. Phantasialand is in the north. It’s very easy to access from Cologne as it's within their localised transport network however it’s a long way off the other parks.

Using my modified version of Google Earth (It has lots of Theme Parks flagged on it) I can't see any other major parks between these 4. Toverland and Movie Park Germany aren't too far from Cologne and you can do Tripsdrill (Trip Report soon) or Holiday park from Europa but all of these have at least a 2 hour journey between them.

I hope this helps.

 

[Pedro]

You have definitly chosen 4 amazing park.
Parc astérix may be the less interesting one, but it is still an amazing park. I love it.

To answer your question :

1 Transport :
- To go to disney there is direct Trains from Paris, you'll find lots of information here. (See in public Transport)
- Parc astérix is not far from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, it is easy to go there from the city. And you have buses from the airport to the park. Info here
- Getting to Europa Park might not be the easiest one, but you'll find all the infos in Astrodan Topic here
- I don't know much about how to get to Phantasialand with public transport. Apparently you need to go to Brühl, and there is the shuttle from the train station. Infos here

2 Other Parks?
There is many smaller park on the way, I don't know what you are looking for but Tripsdrill, Holiday Park, Nigloland, Fraispertuis City are parks you could visit but that aren't has great as the 4 others.
Just avoid Walygator Parc, even if they have an amazing B&M inverted, it is not worth paying 30€

3 Costs
Can't tell you about the costs, I think you need a English point of view, because I wouldn't do such a trip, but only visiting the parcs on the weekends

4 Accomodations
For Parc astérix, you can easily find an hotel at Charles De Gaulle Airport, it the cheapiest way to sleep next to the parc.
For disney, just look at hotel like Kyriad or Mercure, that aren't far from the parc, with free shuttle, and it is less expensive than Disney hotels.
For EP, The resort is amazing, you have to spent some time there. But if you are searching to save money, they are many great hotel in Rust that are less expensive. They are all from 5 to 10 min walk from park entrance.
I don't know about phantasialand, try to get an hotel in Cologne and find a way to travel. The resort is nice there, but there is nothing to do in the evening.

5
You can find cheap hotel and entrance, even if you plan to go just a week before. you'll just need to search.
For example, Parc Astérix has a offer at the moment : 25€ entrance every weekends in september and october for everybody aged from 12 to 25 years old. But you need to buy your ticket on the internet at least 3 days before.

Hope that helped!

 

[DiogoJ42]

Europa is actually pretty easy to get to by train, though it takes the best part of a day from London. I found Phantasia harder... thankfully Duckman was in charge of navigation when we went Disney, you can actually get a direct Eurostar to, though I think there's only one a day? Probably better off changing in Paris tbh.

 

[pluk]

Many thanks for your replies, really is a great help. I think I'm going to go for it.

It is the trains and linking them together I can't get my head around, so my current plan is to
-drive to Paris for Disney, Astrix and the city staying in a hotel for a few nights there.
-drive across France to Germany, camping where we fancy it along the way for a couple of nights.
-stay in a hotel at or near Europa for a few nights, possibly taking in Tripsdrill as it does look quite close by.
-drive back across France, again camping where we fancy.

That means Phantasialand won't happen, it's just too far out if I drive. But as has been pointed out there are other parks near by that might justify a Cologne based trip in the future.

This will probably all change again! Especially if I manage to work out the trains. Any further advice greatly received!!

 

[Pedro]

From EP, Tripsdrill is about 1h45.
It is a wonderfull small park, no world class attraction, but a wonderfull atmosphere. Half a day there is enough,even if it is busy.
Be sure to have a GPS, because the park is really lost in the middle of nowhere, and it is impossible to find without a GPS.

You can also take the TGV to Paris, there is direct Eurostar to disney. Then a train from Paris to Strasbourg, it is 2h20 and not so expensive if you book early. Then you can rent a car here. It might be less expensive, don't forget there are tolls on french motorways. For example it is about 50€ from Paris to strasbourg by the motorway.

 

[pluk]

Re: Europe

My plans were scaled back for various reasons to Asterix and Disney only.

Today was Asterix, I'll do a proper little report when I get home but in summery - a couple of amazing rides and a couple of horrors in a park that mostly looks nice and could easily be good but is run so ineptly that it is a truly hellish place to be. In fact, to say that it is actually 'run' in any meaningful sense of the word would be overstating the effort they put in, they seem to simply open the gates and hope for the best.

It is saying something that I have no desire to go back to the place ever again even though it has two of the very best rides I have ever been on.

 

[AstroDan]

Asterix is hell when busy. I presume it was?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[pluk]

It was. Very.

 

[pluk]

Seems like forever ago now, here's a needlessly long trip report for anyone with too much time on their hands.....

http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/9801-parks-of-paris/
(linked rather than copy and pasting the whole damn thing, hope that's OK)

To answer some of my own questions in case anyone ends up here looking for the same stuff...

1- Driving is easy as peas as long as you are confident, the tolls are not that expensive - about £20 on our whole trip. Boats are cheap, eurotunnel not much more if you book in advance but less flexible at low prices. I have a lot of confidence in the train system after my usage, which was prompt, regular, good value and well policed so safe. I'd be happy to use the trains just turning up, without actual plans beyond eurostar.

2- Detail in trip report but the biggest thing would be to try and hit Asterix when it is quiet. It might be a decent park then

3- Asterix is 40euros on the day, we had some 8euro off vouchers from the hotel. It is much cheaper to book in advance if you can. At Disney we paid £650 for 2 people 3 night 4 days including basic half board, I think that is pretty damn good really.

4- We stayed here for Asterix
http://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/la-nonette.en-gb.html?label=gog235jc-landmark-en-fr-parcNasterix-unspec-gb-com;sid=2527c0faf06629a319f2f342e4842d8b;dcid=1
which was great, about 10min drive if you don't get lost, and is on top of a direct train to Paris. Would recommend if you don't want to stay in a party town. For Disney we found the Disney hotels cheaper than the others, and are much more convenient too.

5- There is no need for masively detailed planning if your happy to go with the flow and not one for stressing out. Quite a lot of things are cheaper when you book well in advance though so it is probably better to.

Overall though I'd say if you are thinking of doing it, then do. It's nothing to be scared of! And if you are going all that way take the time to go to actual Paris as well as the parks, it is a beautiful place.