Euro Roadtrip 2026 Days 6-9: Duinrell with Kids – Theme Parks, Tiki Pools, Beaches & an Eclipse Birthday!
After five days of driving through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands, exploring cities, war museums, caves, castles, waterfalls and forests, we were ready for the final proper stop of our European road trip. And this one was going to be rather different!
We were heading to Duinrell Holiday Park in Wassenaar, on the west coast of the Netherlands, for four nights of rollercoasters, water parks, beaches and considerably less sightseeing.
But first, we had a birthday to celebrate. And not just any birthday!
“I’m having an eclipse for my birthday!”
Whenever anyone had asked Willow what she was doing for her fifth birthday, she had proudly replied:
“I’m having an eclipse for my birthday!”
Which, admittedly, is a fairly difficult birthday party to top.
We packed up our wonderful little chalet at De Ullingse Bergen near Sint Anthonis, close to the German border, and set off right across the Netherlands towards the coast.
The journey itself was lovely. The Dutch countryside was almost comically flat, with fields of sunflowers stretching alongside the road and traditional windmills sharing the landscape with their enormous modern wind-turbine cousins.
Our destination was Duinrell, a holiday park I'd been particularly excited about because it's a rather bonkers combination of campsite/holiday village, theme park and enormous water park complex.
We checked into our Eurocamp accommodation, unpacked and celebrated the birthday girl with a homemade pizza buffet and birthday cake.
Then we grabbed our eclipse glasses and headed for the beach.
This part of the road trip had actually come about in a rather lovely way.
I'd originally been dreaming about making this our first proper family jaunt into the Balkans. But around Christmas I realised that there was going to be a solar eclipse on Willow's actual birthday. Obviously this required investigation!
Spain would have offered the full 100% total-eclipse experience, but hotel-accommodation prices for a family of five during eclipse week were coming in at an utterly hilarious £6,000–£8,000, and there are no Eurocamps on the southern coast where we were interested in staying.
Nope – that’s more than we spent in 3x months in Southeast Asia and almost as much as 2 months in Central America.
The eclipse would also be visible from the Netherlands, however, so suddenly the second half of our road trip began to take shape.
So, eclipse glasses in hand (ordered months ago, thank you very much!), we drove down to the enormous sandy beach at Wassenaar and joined a few hundred other people scattered along the coastline.
And there we stood, barefoot on a Dutch beach, watching the Moon slowly move across the Sun on Willow's fifth birthday. Just Mum, Dad, Max, Quinn and Willow standing on a beach in Holland wearing ridiculous glasses and staring at the sky together.
We travel with the kids because we want to fill their childhood and our old age with memories. Hopefully “the birthday when I had an eclipse” is one that sticks around forever!
Duinrell Holiday Park
Birthday celebrations complete, we had three full days to explore Duinrell. And what a place!
We've stayed at several Eurocamp-style holiday parks around Europe now, but Duinrell is fairly unique because an entire theme park is included with your stay.
Not a little campsite fairground with three rides and a merry-go-round; an actual theme park. There are rollercoasters, thrill rides, water rides, children's rides, playgrounds, arcades, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars and all sorts of other random contraptions, alongside the two enormous Tiki Pool complexes.
Then you've got the more familiar holiday-park facilities: restaurants, sports areas, play spaces and accommodation, all surrounded by woodland.
And somehow, despite visiting in the middle of August...
THERE WERE BASICALLY NO QUEUES?!
Coming from the UK, where we've spent an alarming proportion of our lives standing in theme-park queues, this was astonishing. It completely changed how we used the park.
We were visiting during the seemingly endless European heatwaves of 2026, and temperatures climbed as high as 38°C, and I was a bit concerned about a need to march around a theme park from opening until closing trying to extract maximum value from expensive tickets – thankfully we didn’t have to!
Instead, we could wander in after breakfast, ride whatever we fancied until it became unbearably hot and then simply leave.
We'd come back tomorrow.
Or later.
Or both.
Having a theme park essentially functioning as your campsite playground never really stopped being a novelty.
The Duinrell rides
Our favourite big ride was probably “Falcon”, a proper rollercoaster with a vertical drop, loop-the-loop and corkscrews. Max and Quinn loved it, as did the adults.
“Wild Wings” reminded us of Samurai at Chessington, while “Waterspin” brought back fond memories of the dearly departed Rameses Revenge/Ripsaw.
Then there was “Splash”. It looks like a fairly conventional log flume, except the boats are enormous and hold around 12 people.
I have been on a LOT of water rides; I have never, ever got as wet as I did on Splash.
We emerged absolutely drenched from head to toe (like, wringing out your clothes wet), which would ordinarily have been uncomfortable, but in 38°C heat was frankly delightful. We took a hilarious slow-motion video of Max and a little girl running out of the way of the onslaught of water onto the viewing platform; a favourite memory.
Willow was obviously too small for several of the bigger attractions, but Duinrell did a really good job of having rides for younger children too.
Her absolute favourite was “Dragonfly”, a smaller rollercoaster that's still fast and twisty enough to be genuinely fun for everyone.
She rode it nine times. Apparently, it was the BEST RIDE EVER.
“Kikkerachtbaan” was another family rollercoaster, made considerably more entertaining by hurtling around to Nirvana, Status Quo, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes and AC/DC.
Excellent work, Duinrell.
Then there was “Mad Mill”, similar to Vortex at Thorpe Park (but on steroids) and responsible for something I don't think I've ever witnessed in our entire relationship:
Andrew couldn't eat his lunch.
He got off looking so utterly dreadful that he had to sit quietly for about half an hour, claiming he felt horrendously hungover.
This is a man who can usually demolish food under virtually any circumstances, so naturally we were all extremely sympathetic. By which I mean we found it hilarious.
Over the next few days we gradually worked our way through almost everything else, visiting the park for 2-3 hours. Other highlights included:
“Katerpult”: involves sitting in a tiny single-person boat which is quite literally catapulted down a ramp into a lake before being hauled back out again.
“The Candle”: reminded us of Fire & Ice at Legoland, except you have to physically hoist yourself up the tower.
“Schip Ahoi”: a classic pirate ship which caused some outrage because the height restriction was 1.2m rather than the 1.1m Willow is accustomed to at UK theme parks.
“Tobberdanser”: the obligatory teacups
“Aqua Swing”: a traditional chain swing with the added jeopardy of water fountains (again, aqua swing had a higher height restriction than necessary in my opinion, and Willow missed out again).
We raided our foreign-change jar before leaving home and had brought around €15 in coins specifically for things like arcades. This paid off at the shooting gallery, where hitting certain targets causes them to retaliate by firing water back at you.
The kids had also recently watched a Mark Rober programme about how apparently impossible fairground games work, so Max and Quinn were determined to take on the Climbing Chain. To our considerable surprise, both actually made it to the top and rang the bell!
We explored the House of Mirrors and House of Shadows, rode the Ferris wheel for views across the park and climbed aboard the bizarre Duinrell Express, which trundles through a cave populated by singing trolls, as well as the self-cycle monorail (a bit much in the heat to be honest!).
There were also bumper cars, a trampoline park, merry-go-rounds and numerous smaller rides, parks, sandpits and climbing areas. At Wauwels Nest, Max even discovered what appeared to be a slight design flaw in one of the rope areas and somehow managed to climb out of it and onto the roof.
Obviously.
Top Tip: Download the Duinrell app. While it doesn’t display live queue times like theme park Apps in the UK, it does provide a day-planner so you can tick rides off your list as you go, and display height restrictions and directions. You can also use this to book pool slots…
The Tiki Pool – brilliant, but beware the extra cost
This is one of only two areas of improvement I would suggest for the Duinrell Eurocamp stay.
The Tiki Pool complexes are fantastic. But they aren’t included. And I don't think this was made remotely clear enough when we booked.
We only discovered from our check-in information that Eurocamp guests receive discounted access but still have to pay and pre-book the pools. Across our stay we ultimately spent more than £100 on swimming.
That's not an insignificant extra cost for a family holiday, and had we known about it at the point of booking I would have simply included it in the budget. Finding out afterwards was rather annoying.
Outdoor Tiki Pool
With the temperature approaching 38°C on our first full day, we headed for the outdoor pool. Unsurprisingly, so had everybody else. It was RAMMED.
Standing still in the main pool without acquiring somebody else's child in your face, being hit by an inflatable or randomly splashed was essentially impossible. But honestly, that's life in a water park during a heatwave and we rolled with it.
There were loads of outdoor slides and splash areas, including enormous tipping buckets, and somehow, we managed to secure actual sun loungers.
This led to another unprecedented event in Mudie family holiday history.
I READ MY BOOK WHILE THE CHILDREN WERE AWAKE.
I demolished several chapters of Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, which was absolutely perfect reading for this particular trip (although his chapter on Aachen irritated me slightly given that we'd managed to postpone and then completely miss Aachen ourselves!).
The Indoor Tiki Pool
We deliberately saved the enormous indoor complex for Saturday morning, when the forecast was cooler and cloudier.
This was where the Tiki Pool really came into its own.
There were flumes absolutely everywhere, along with splash zones, hot tubs, steam rooms, a wave pool and an (amazing) lazy river.
Importantly for us, there were also four substantial slides specifically for children under 120cm, so Willow didn't have to spend the entire session watching her siblings disappear onto things she couldn't ride.
The lazy river was probably Max and Quinn's favourite. You could queue for a rubber ring or just wing it without one, floating through sprays, coloured lights and a dark section complete with bats hanging from the ceiling.
Some of the larger slides were completely bonkers.
Typhoon was probably the fastest water slides I've ever encountered, while two involved vertical drops:
On Splash X you stand upright inside a capsule.
The door closes.
It counts down.
And then the floor disappears from underneath you.
Who invents these things?!
The entire complex was exceptionally clean and warm, and the water itself was noticeably warmer than equivalent water parks we've visited at home.
Our tickets gave us a two-hour session, which I'd assumed would be plenty.
It wasn't.
Time completely got away from us, and we were charged another €18 on exit for overstaying (our bad, just FYI). This is both good and bad: you're not physically thrown out after two hours and can stay longer if you're having fun, but you will pay for the privilege.
Sadly, booking the pools was unnecessarily stressful
Our discounted indoor session was still around €75 for our family of five, and the online booking system repeatedly refused my Monzo card – the same card we've successfully used all over the world.
More annoyingly, every failed transaction then froze our Eurocamp discount code for an hour.
I specifically wanted the Saturday morning slot because the weather forecast made it perfect for an indoor activity, so watching availability while repeatedly locking myself out of the booking system was rather stressful.
Eventually I called Eurocamp reception and explained what was happening. They told me this was a known issue with Monzo bank, and that they would issue a new voucher for collection from reception, so I could make the booking asap. Then out of the blue, they turned up at our chalet 5-mins later, just as I was about to leave to collect it, placing it straight in my hand.
Credit where it's due: that was excellent service.
But the whole situation could have been avoided if the additional pool charges and booking requirements had been made much clearer before we booked the holiday and the website informed anyone that Monzo cards are not accepted.
Our Eurocamp Chalet
For details of costs and eating, see our summary blog here.
In terms of our accommodation at Duinrell, it was a bit of a mixed bag.
On the important stuff, it was great. It felt modern, was spotlessly clean and well maintained, had plenty of space for us, including a large and pleasant balcony and – praise be – another dishwasher!
But compared with the wonderful chalet we'd just left in Sint Anthonis, it was noticeably less well appointed.
There was no oven, no air conditioning and not even a fan.
No fan during a 38°C heatwave felt particularly brutal, although thankfully we'd brought our own from home.
Wi-Fi was another frustration. It wasn't included either, which again hadn't been particularly obvious during booking (to be fair, I don’t believe I even checked Wi-Fi was included because it’s 2026!). The paid packages were apparently only for one device, but when we eventually resigned ourselves to buying one so I could keep up with some work and blog writing, we discovered the signal didn't reach our accommodation anyway, so that was a hard no.
Perhaps most bizarrely, we were also told at check in that we needed hard-copy passport photographs for check-in.
This hadn't been communicated to us in advance – I have checked and rechecked and this instruction was never provided, so after a long drive we were directed to a passport-photo booth 15 minutes’ walk away to obtain them.
Nobody ever asked to see them again. Not once. I still have no idea what that was about, but I was very cross – it was so hot and we had made such good time during the journey so we could eat dinner at a reasonable time – walking and mucking about to pay for pointless photos instead of cooking and relaxing was not a great first impression.
So, accommodation verdict: exceptionally clean and perfectly functional, but Eurocamp could be much clearer about what is – and isn't – included.
Wassenaar Beach
One of the other reasons I'd liked the idea of Duinrell was its proximity to the coast.
The beach was slightly further away than I'd imagined – definitely not something we'd have wanted to walk with three children and all our beach stuff, but sadly we had little choice during our first visit, which was timed 1-2 hours before the solar eclipse and everyone else within miles and miles had the same plan. The usually ample car parking facilities were full, and some kind of parking official prevented anyone driving up the road to the beach. We therefore parked in a residential side street and walked the 1.5 miles (40 minutes) with all our stuff in the burning heat. Thankfully we made it in good time for the eclipse in the evening. After the eclipse visit on Willow's birthday, we returned on Friday and made a proper afternoon of it.
On the second visit, we were able to park as standard, right next to the beach, which cost us €10 for the day. Beyond that our afternoon cost absolutely nothing.
The beach is enormous and absolutely beautiful: a huge expanse of soft white sand stretching seemingly forever in both directions. It runs on as far as the eye could see, with The Hauge and its giant Ferris Wheel visible on one side. We also spotted a few jellyfish!
The kids dug enormous holes, built sandcastles, chased/spotted jellyfish and generally entertained themselves. And, for the second day running, I read my book while they were awake. This was becoming ridiculous!
But it was also another fairly painful reminder of something we'd started noticing at Sint Anthonis; The kids are growing up.
We've given them noticeably more independence on this trip, and while that certainly comes with pros and cons, being able to sit on a beach and read occasionally while they happily disappear off to build things in the sand is a rather lovely new phase of family travel I wasn’t expecting!
Eating at Duinrell
We'd planned our meals before leaving the UK and done the big shop in Bastogne, so despite being surrounded by theme-park food and restaurants, we continued self-catering, saving hundreds (see the summary blog here for the meal plan and shopping list).
Friday brought the exciting discovery that our chalet had the first toaster of the entire trip, facilitating a disproportionately exciting scrambled eggs on toast breakfast.
I know mainland Europe doesn't really seem to do sliced bread, but still.
When the temperature once again climbed above 32°C for approximately the ten-billionth day in succession, we retreated to the chalet for a BBQ.
The accommodation came with a gas BBQ and we'd prepared rather well: burgers, halloumi, salad, new potatoes and various luxury items transported from home, including crispy onions, mayonnaise and BBQ sauce. Other highlights included schnitzel, vegetables and sauerkraut. Just be mindful of the lack of guaranteed oven at this resort – our plan for oven-pizzas on our first night was nearly totally ruined by this.
That being said, there is something particularly satisfying about feeding five people well at a theme park without handing over €100 at a restaurant.
In Summary
The actual park is brilliant. The novelty of waking up with an entire (seemingly empty) theme park on our doorstep never wore off. The rides were excellent, there was loads for all three ages, queues were virtually non-existent during our stay, the Tiki Pools were some of the best water parks we've visited anywhere, and Wassenaar beach was gorgeous. I still cannot believe it was the North Sea!
For children, it was an absolutely fantastic few days.
And after the castles, museums, caves, hiking, driving and sightseeing of the first half of our road trip, it was exactly what we needed.
But I'd go back with my eyes rather more open about the costs.
The theme park being included makes Duinrell feel like extraordinary value, but the water parks are a substantial additional and unexpected expense, and not in keeping with the usual MO of Eurocamp bookings. On top of the costs, having to book a slot for the pools when we would normally expect to just go with the flow and swim whenever we wanted was a bit of a shock. Wi-Fi costs extra. Our chalet had no AC, fan or oven. And several of these things weren't made as clear during the Eurocamp booking process as I think they should have been.
Would that have stopped us booking?
Absolutely not. I'd just have liked to know!
Because despite those irritations, these were some of the kids' favourite days of the entire trip.
We rode rollercoasters every morning, escaped to swimming pools and beaches when the heat became ridiculous, cooked our own dinners, spent remarkably little beyond the pool tickets and beach parking, and – after a week of travelling – didn't have to get back in the car unless we wanted to.
And right in the middle of it all, our now-five-year-old got to stand on a Dutch beach and watch an eclipse on her birthday.
That's going to be a difficult birthday to beat.
After four nights, though, it was time to pack the Alhambra one final time and begin the long journey home.
Except obviously we weren't going straight home.
There was still one more stop and – as it turned out – a very, very long wait at Calais to come...
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