Trip Advice

[Luke Nukem]

Hi

Anyone done a France + Germany trip?

Original plan was to fly to Baden-Baden, hire a car and do Holiday Park, Tripsdrill, Todtnau mountain coaster and Europa Park before flying home but car hire prices are ridiculous at the moment.

So, I'm thinking of using the tunnel and driving myself, having a day at Parc Asterix on the way then head to Germany to do the above parks.

Would like to get some advice from experienced folk before booking the trip:

Is this logistically a good idea?
Are there any other parks worth visiting I can do on the way to Germany or on the way back to the tunnel to break up the driving?
Any accommodation recommendations?

Parks I have visited which I probably wouldn't go back on this trip, however, Untamed and Phantasialand do tempt me:
Phantasialand
Plopsaland
Walibi Belgium
Walibi Holland
Toverland
Efteling
Energylandia

I would like to do Heide Park and Hansa Park but I think they are too far out to be included in the trip. Not interested in DLP.

 

[John_P]

That's some drive from both the tunnel and Parc Asterix.

Between Asterix and Europa Park I'd definitely reccomend Nigloland, lovely park and some good coasters including Alpina Blitz.

You've also got Walygator on the French/German border, not been there myself (hopefully this year) and they've got a clone of Raptor from Cedar Point.

Parc St Paul on the outskirts of Paris as well, got a great Gravity Group wooden coaster in Wood Express. Could be good for a few hours before heading to the channel tunnel.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Yes I've done a similar trip, taking my car from Bristol to Europa Park via Holiday Park on the way down and Parc Asterix on the return leg. It worked pretty well - although the first day was a very long drive and we only got as far as Metz before stopping for the night. We drove right past Walygator Grand-Est but didn't bother with it as it's a lower-tier park and one of our group had been already. About 2 hours from Metz to Holiday-Park, but it's not a huge park so you don't really need a long day there. We headed to Strasbourg for a day between HP and Europa Park but you could head straight to Rust if you preferred. I would have liked to add in Tripsdrill if we had had more time. Parc Asterix was a surprisingly easy drive from EP; we'd allowed a full day but made good progress and got there late afternoon.

I wouldn't suggest adding in anything in the Netherlands or northern Germany, but you could certainly squeeze in a couple of the Belgian parks without building in a massive detour - obviously Plopsaland at the start/end especially if you are going via Calais.

Eurotunnel worked pretty well but you could consider ferries as well. Driving in France and Germany is easy.

 

[IDB]

Original plan was to fly to Baden-Baden, hire a car and do Holiday Park, Tripsdrill, Todtnau mountain coaster and Europa Park before flying home but car hire prices are ridiculous at the moment.

I did exactly the above this year. You’ll find my trip report on the forum if interested. We paid £291.25 for car hire from Sat to Fri through Budget.