🚗 UK to Europe Road Trip on a Budget: Our Family Adventure to Efteling Theme Park, Netherlands
Thinking about Driving to Europe?
Go for it!
Holidays are bonkers expensive these days — especially with a tribe of kids in tow. My wife and I wanted to treat the kids to a nice week away during the Easter holidays, ideally somewhere with a theme park. But when we checked the prices for a Monday-to-Friday break (looking at you, Centre Parcs and Bluestone 👀), it felt like we’d need to remortgage the house just for a few nights away.
It was looking like another trip to our local campsite — which we genuinely love (Pembrey Country Park — more on that in another post). But this time, we wanted something different and affordable without breaking the bank.
So, we had an idea 💡.
Something we had talked about for many years, but we felt the kids were too young, and the thought of a long drive with screaming babies and nappy changes at every service stop wasn't exactly appealing. Now they are a bit older (4, 6 and a sleepy teenager).We decided to drive somewhere in Europe.
Disneyland Paris was out of our budget in this particular year, so I spent a few late nights hunting online, looking for cheaper theme park holidays in Europe, and that's when I came across Efteling Theme Park in the Netherlands.
I showed the kids the theme park advert, and as you can imagine, they were instantly sold and wanted to go immediately. My wife gave it the thumbs up, and even our teenager approved — so the decision was made. We were heading on a road trip adventure to Holland for a day at Efteling!
In this post, I’ll share how we planned everything ourselves, and how much we spent by booking everything separately, rather than a package. This saved us a lot of money!
I'll also highlight where we managed to use our military/blue light discount to help save some money.
The Ferry
We had two main options for crossing the channel into France:
Ferry from Dover (the cheapest ferry route for us)
Le Shuttle (Eurotunnel) from Folkestone
The prices were similar, and both ports are about a five-hour drive from our home in South Wales. Our two boys had never been on a ferry before and were desperate to try it, so that settled it — ferry it was!
The Big Decision: When to Travel
We came up with three options:
1. Drive to Dover the day before, stay overnight nearby, and catch an early morning ferry.
2. Drive straight to Dover, catch an evening ferry, and stay the night in Calais. Have breakfast and continue or journey in the morning.
3. The crazy option: put the kids to bed early and pray they go to sleep, grab a few hours’ sleep ourselves, and leave at midnight to catch a 7 a.m. ferry.
Seeing as we were trying to keep this holiday as budget friendly as possible, and the cost of a cheap hotel for 5 around Dover wasn’t very cheap. We obviously decided on option 3 - the mental idea.
Did the kids go to sleep early? No
Did we sleep? No
Did the kids sleep in the car? No
The only one who benefited from this idea was our teenage daughter, who slept before we left, and basically the rest of the entire journey.
To be fair, the boys handled the drive brilliantly considering the excitement. But if you live far from the ferry ports, I wouldn’t recommend this option. Lesson learned — next time, we’ll go for option 1, the relaxed overnight stop and we'll try Le shuttle.
Eurocamp
We stayed at Marvilla Parks Kaatsheuval with Eurocamp. It's in the North-Brabant region of Holland. We stayed in one of their premium 3 bedroom lodges, and it was perfect. Very clean, very tidy, plenty of room, it also had a covered decking area with a patio table and BBQ.
This site is in a perfect location for visiting Efteling theme park, just a few minutes drive away, which is the main reason we chose this site.
The new pool complex was under construction when we arrived so I can’t give a review on that.
The onsite park was perfect to entertain the kids with a very family friendly atmosphere.
There is an onsite restaurant and bar, though we mostly cooked our own food after doing a Lidl shop, saving us a small fortune by using the lodges BBQ and packing lunches for Efteling theme park.
This site is located next to De Loonse en Drunense Duinen National Park, a very unique and beautiful nature reserve. It's filled with huge sand plains, water features, purple heaths, and forests. There are plenty of places to explore along with miles of hiking trails, cycle routes and horse riding trails.
We used our military discount when booking Eurocamp which got us 5% off the total amount. Bonus.
Efteling Theme Park
We all loved this theme park and I would highly recommend it for families with young children.
In our opinion it's as good if not better than DisneyLand Paris. It's more relaxed, less commercial and the themes are incredible.
It combines European folklore, fairytales and myths.
Efteling has a great selection of rides, especially for younger children, which made it perfect for our family with our 2 young boys. It doesn’t have a great selection of thrill seeker rides if that's what you’re after, instead aiming towards family rides and storytelling experiences.
We visited midweek during the Easter holidays, and the queues were surprisingly short, I think the longest we queued was around 30 minutes. This made our day much more enjoyable.
Next time, we’d definitely stay for two days instead of one to explore everything at a more relaxed pace. However, even on a budget, we saw it all and loved every minute.
🎟️ Efteling Tips:
- Buy tickets online in advance to save money
- 2 park days if your budget affords it
- Visit midweek
- Pack your own food and drinks
- Stay nearby (like Eurocamp Kaatsheuvel) for easy access
We highly recommend this theme park, especially for families and young children. It will give parents and children memories that will stay with you forever. My children still talk about Efteling theme park more than Disneyland.
If you're planning your own UK to Europe road trip, make sure you have the right documents and equipment
List of documents we took.
Passport
Drivers license
European car insurance cover
V5
Travel insurance
European breakdown cover
List of equipment we took.
Reflective jackets (for each passenger)
Warning triangle
UK magnet
First aid kit (We always carry one when we go camping, so already had one and is compulsory for France)
Spare headlight (Wasn’t a requirement but we had a spare anyway)
Headlamp beam deflector stickers (Halfords)
Most of these items are inexpensive and reusable for future trips. Our car insurance covered Europe for third-party only, so we upgraded to fully comprehensive for £25 (5 days).
💰 Cost Breakdown (Easter 2024 Prices)
Ferry (Dover–Calais return) £136
Eurocamp (Mon–Fri) £270.40
Efteling park tickets £199.40
Efteling parking £13
European breakdown cover £22.48
Travel insurance £11.34
Car insurance (foreign use upgrade) £25
Diesel (approx. 1,000 miles) £140
Lidl food & snacks £150
UK magnet & beam stickers £9
Total ≈ £976
Under £1,000 for a family of five — during the Easter holidays!
Driving in Europe was surprisingly easy — the roads are smooth, the signs are clear, and you quickly get used to driving on the right.
We’re already planning our next European adventure (and I’ll be sharing our Disneyland Paris road trip soon).
If you’re thinking about a European getaway on a budget — do it! With a bit of planning, it’s more affordable than you might think, and the memories are priceless.