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    Efteling
    Rémih / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

    Netherlands

    Efteling

    Village

    Efteling in Kaatsheuvel is the largest theme park in the Netherlands, located in the province of Noord-Brabant in the south of the country, near Tilburg.

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    9. Efteling
    Efteling in Kaatsheuvel is the largest theme park in the Netherlands, located in the province of Noord-Brabant in the south of the country, near Tilburg. You come for the 1952 Fairytale Forest, designed by artist Anton Pieck, and for roller coasters and themed rides in the 72-hectare park.
    Efteling is located in Kaatsheuvel, within the municipality of Loon op Zand, near Tilburg in the province of Noord-Brabant. What began as a sports and hiking park established in 1935 evolved into a theme park: The official founding date is considered to be the opening of the Fairytale Forest on May 31, 1952. Today, the park spans 72 hectares with 36 attractions and recorded approximately 5.78 million visits in 2025. It is open every day of the year. Those staying longer can overnight at the Efteling Hotel or in the holiday parks Bosrijk and Loonsche Land.

    Sights in Efteling

    Discover the most important sights and attractions

    Sprookjesbos (Fairy Forest)
    Attraction

    Sprookjesbos (Fairy Forest)

    The Fairytale Forest is the heart of the park: With its opening on May 31, 1952, Efteling's story began. The artist Anton Pieck designed it.
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    Baron 1898
    Attraction

    Baron 1898

    Dive Coaster by Bolliger & Mabillard, opened on July 1, 2015. The mining-themed coaster plunges 37.5 meters deep at an 87-degree angle into a tunnel.
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    Sights in Efteling

    Discover the most important sights and attractions

    Sprookjesbos (Fairy Forest)
    Attraction

    1Sprookjesbos (Fairy Forest)

    The Fairytale Forest is the heart of the park: With its opening on May 31, 1952, Efteling's story began. The artist Anton Pieck designed it.
    Open in Google Maps
    Baron 1898
    Attraction

    2Baron 1898

    Dive Coaster by Bolliger & Mabillard, opened on July 1, 2015. The mining-themed coaster plunges 37.5 meters deep at an 87-degree angle into a tunnel.
    Open in Google Maps

    Restaurants in Efteling

    The thematic fields

    The park is divided into four main realms. In **Marerijk** in the northwest are the Fairytale Forest, the themed ride Droomvlucht (1993), and the Mad House Villa Volta (1996). **Reizenrijk** in the northeast houses the indoor roller coaster Vogel Rok (1998) and Carnaval Festival. In **Anderrijk** in the southwest, you'll find the rafting ride Piraña (1983) and the dark ride Fata Morgana (1986). Most roller coasters are in **Ruigrijk** in the southeast, including the looping roller coaster Python (1981), the wooden roller coaster Joris en de Draak (2010), and the Dive Coaster Baron 1898 (2015).Newer attractions include the dark ride Symbolica (2017), the roller coaster Max & Moritz (2020), and Danse Macabre (2024), which has replaced the former show Spookslot. The park's appearance was shaped by illustrator Anton Pieck until 1975, and thereafter by Ton van de Ven.

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    Noord-Brabant

    Noord-Brabant

    Noord-Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands, is home to Efteling theme park and is largely Catholic – Carnival is celebrated here every year. Its capital is ’s-Hertogenbosch, largest city Eindhoven; Tilburg and Breda also feature.Worth seeing are the old towns of ’s-Hertogenbosch and Breda. De Biesbosch National Park is one of Europe's last great wetlands.
    's-Hertogenbosch

    's-Hertogenbosch

    ’s-Hertogenbosch, briefly Den Bosch, is the capital of the province of Noord-Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, about 80 kilometers southeast of Amsterdam. You’ll come for the Gothic Sint-Janskathedraal, for a boat trip on the partly underground Binnendieze and for the traces of the painter Hieronymus Bosch, who lived here.
    Kinderdijk

    Kinderdijk

    In Kinderdijk, about 15 kilometres east of Rotterdam, 19 18th-century windmills stand along the canals – an ensemble that has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997. They were built around 1740 to drain the Alblasserwaard polder.Today, two diesel pumping stations handle most of the work, but some windmills are still operational. The name means “Children's Dike” and refers to a legend from the St. Elizabeth's Flood of 1421: A cradle with a sleeping child is said to have been washed ashore here, kept balanced by a cat.
    Gouda

    Gouda

    Gouda gave its name to the Netherlands' most famous cheese: it is produced in the surrounding area and has been traded here for centuries – every Thursday morning from April to August at the cheese market. This city in Zuid-Holland is also the home of the Stroopwafel and was long known for candles and clay pipes.In the middle of the market square stands one of the country's oldest Gothic town halls, built between 1448 and 1450. The Sint-Janskerk, at 123 meters, is the longest cruciform church in the Netherlands and famous for its 70 stained-glass windows. Gouda has around 76,000 inhabitants and is located at the confluence of the Gouwe and Hollandse IJssel.
    Province Utrecht

    Province Utrecht

    The Province of Utrecht is located in the center of the Netherlands and is the country's smallest. Its center is the eponymous university city of Utrecht, and the province's second-largest city is Amersfoort.The west consists of polderland. In the northeast, the Utrechtse Heuvelrug stretches through the province, a wooded sandy area with hills up to nearly 70 meters high.