Germany theme parks using public transport for a 1 week holiday, advice wanted.

[Lornaindie]

Hi I’m wondering if anyone can help me? I am wanting to visit Germany for a theme park holiday with my teenage children. I was wanting to visit a few parks over a week. I don’t drive and would be using public transportation. Has anyone done this also? What parks would you recommend for thrill rides? Much appreciated

 

[Poisson]

Europa Park would be the obvious choice. Do 3 days there, 1 day in the water park. Not sure about how accessible Plopsa Deutschland/Schwaben Park/Tripsdrill/Steinwasen/Hasenhorn are from the park by public transport.

 

[Maelstrom]

I did a 15 night trip in August 2023 via public transport that inc Germany
- flight to Brussels
-3 nights Brussels (Belgium)- visited Walibi Belgium.
-Train to Efteling (plus short bus ride from train station to the park).
- 3 nights stopping onsite at Efteling.
-Train to phantasialand German.
-3 nights onsite at Phantasialand
-Train to Europa park
-5 nights onsite at Europa park
-Train to Basil (overnight stop as early flight home)

All really easy and i don’t speak any of the languages.

 

[IDB]

I’ve done a Efteling, Toverland and Phantasialand trip via public transport fairly easily. Fly to Eindhoven, then fly back from Cologne (from Stanstead)

 

[RicketyCricket]

Phantasialand down to Europa Park is quite a nice route by train. Takes a couple of hours from Cologne down to Rimgsheim and it's about €30.

Can stop over in Mannheim on this route, where you can get to Plopsa/Holiday Park on another train which takes around 30 mins.

 

[OtherBen]

I’ve done a Efteling, Toverland and Phantasialand trip via public transport fairly easily. Fly to Eindhoven, then fly back from Cologne (from Stanstead)

have also done this trip using only public transport (except in reverse) and also included walibi holland. flew to cologne travelled to all parks and amsterdam and then flew out of amsterdam. all relatively easy.

 

[Rowe]

Movie Park Germany and Tripsdrill are accessible by public transport.

For Movie Park Germany, you can take the RE14 from Essen to BOT Feldhausen, which takes 25 minutes then a 10 minute walk to the entrance.

For Tripsdrill from Stuttgart, you take the S5 to Bietigheim-Bissingen then the 567 Bus outside the station to Tripsdrill. This overall trip takes 1 hour.

 

[Ted]

I've done all 6 theme parks I've been to in Germany (Europa, Phantasia, Heide, Hansa, Tripsdrill and Holiday Park) by public transport

They're all easy to get to. If you started in South West Germany, you could do Europa, train to Stuttgart for Tripsdrill, train to Mannheim for Holiday Park and then train to Cologne for Phantasialand. You'd have to get local trains/trams/buses to get from the city centre to the parks, but it's no harder than say going from Central London to Thorpe

You could also do Hamburg with Heide and Hansa by train easily. Heide requires two trains and the local station (Wolterdingen I think it is?), Hansa also requires two, but some are direct and it's a 10 minute walk to the park. Both take about an hour on the train

 

[golgactic]

I’ve done all the major ones bar Tripsdrill/Holiday Park (and I’m currently doing Movie Park Germany/Phantasialand).

Rather than repeat what others have said, if you are doing multiple parks your best option for tickets is likely to be a Deutschland ticket. It’s €58 for a month per person and covers all regional public transport. You buy it before the 10th of the month you intend to use it and then immediately cancel it as otherwise it’s a recurring subscription. The only things it hasn’t covered would be IC trains (such as between Phantasialand and Europa Park) and the Europa Park and Phantasialand shuttle buses from the station (which are cash only).

Your other option is to look at group tickets - most travel companies will have an option for a group ticket either for a single journey or for a day ticket.

 

[Coaster Fiend]

I don't drive or fly & only visit parks using public transport. This can get interesting at times. They can all be reached by public transport but some are easier to reach than others.

Phantasia, Europa & Holiday Park are the easiest with a direct shuttle bus from station to park.

Heide, Hansa, Skyline & Movie park have a decent walk from the station to the parks. Heide took me 30 mins to walk from Wolterdingen to the holiday camp & I walk very fast. Could easily be an hour walk with young kids & luggage etc. I've never managed to get a taxi or uber from that station.

Skyline is about 1km & Hansa & Movie Park are about half a km from station.

There are public buses that go to the entrance of Movie Park & Skyline but I found it easier to get the train to them.

Tripsdrill is a faff to get to involving a train & local bus to reach.

Only thing I'd add is that deutsche bahn is atrocious currently. Add extra time for train changes & where you can take an earlier train especially if on a small local trainline like the one to Heide Park.

 

[Manchester1894]

Hi I’m wondering if anyone can help me? I am wanting to visit Germany for a theme park holiday with my teenage children. I was wanting to visit a few parks over a week. I don’t drive and would be using public transportation. Has anyone done this also? What parks would you recommend for thrill rides? Much appreciated

I'm doing EXACTLY this for the first time this year. My two lads are 10 & 14 (over the 1.4m thankfully). Our itinery for August looks like this:

Saturday - Travel Day - Fly Manchester to Koln, train to Phantasialand, check-in at Ling Bao
Sunday - Theme Park day in PL
Monday - Theme Park day in PL
Tues - Travel day, train back to Koln, catch high speed train to Offenburg, then onward train to Ringsheim, then the Europa Park bus. Check in at Bell Rock.
Weds - Theme Park day in EP
Thurs - Theme Park day in EP
Fri - Water Park day in Rulantica (at EP)
Sat - Theme Park day in EP
Sun - Theme Park day in EP
Mon - Travel Day - Train from Ringsheim to Basel. Fly back to Manchester.

A good balance of plenty of time in two of the most highly rated German parks, broken up by a travel and water park day. If you need any advice please shout.