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Best European parks with out a car

Gavin has produced a pretty epic list there. I can confirm that Asterix also has buses from the airport.

Another one that's easy to do it Phantasialand in Germany. Fly into Cologne Bonn. From there you can get a train to Bruhl (changing at the central station in Cologne). From the train station is a shuttle bus to the park (all clearly marked at the station etc). Sounds fairly complicated but is rather easy.


I can't think of any others atm. Maybe we should make this topic the one stop place for all info on public transport for European parks?


In terms of hotels. I always find it's best to stay in the city or in the village next to the park. Just look on several sites for the best deals. I always check the hotels I'm looking up on tripadvisor and get a good jist of how good/bad the hotel is before I go. Haven't had a bad hotel room since doing that.
 
^^ I was in a hire car with CF for Holiday Park, so I couldn't say. It will be possible though. Probably a bus from Rust to to the train station, then a train to Hassloch (I think from when I looked into it before) and a bus from there to the park.

I've never had an issue with public transport in a foreign country, especially in Europe. It's generally very easy - even when it includes multiple transfers - efficient, on-time and not too expensive. It has meant some early morning starts in some cases, but that's the only negative really.

I say this all the time when people are unsure about trying something.There are so many people on here who just aren't prepared to do anything for themselves and just wait until someone else is going somewhere and blag a car space. Obviously with a car it's easier, but I wouldn't have been to half the parks I've been to without just getting on with it and going.

If I can manage to get to Janfusun Fancy World, seriously in the middle of nowhere, Taiwan, from a city where not even the people in the tourist office spoke any English, then there's no excuse for anyone not to manage a European park.
 
^haha, well said Gavin. It helps that in Europe pretty much all transport signs are also in English. It really couldn't be any easier.
 
Would love to do Phantasialand eventually. Where can you get flights to cologne from? Are there any cheap airlines that fly there
 
I flew into that airport from Gatwick with Easyjet. Pretty sure there are plenty of other options out there. Best to just have a look around and see what works best for you.
 
This has made me seriously think about doing a trip to Phantasialand as it's a park I've wanted to visit for some time.

I've also done Heide Park & Europa Park using public transport and it was pretty simple as well :)
 
Hi Lucy how did you do heide park someone mentioned it was a nightmare. Did you go to Europa via Baden
 
I did Heide a few years ago now but I remember travelling by train from Hamburg :)

Europa I flew to Basel and then a train from there - I think the owner of the guest house my friend and I stayed at picked us up from the nearest station after that but I think a shuttle bus operates too.
 
Ok after reading some of your suggestions and a little research plus being some what encouraged by Gavin's just do it attitude lol. I've made a little hit list of parks I'm going to try and do next year in order of what I'd like to do the most
1.Port Aventura (maybe at the live in November)
2.Europa park and holiday park together
3.Miribalandia
4.Heide park and Phantasialand together
5.liseberg
And possibly Walabi holland aint really looked into this yet. Maybe on a trip including Eftiling toverland or plopsland. Most of the 5 trips seem reasonably easy by public transport. With just Heide and Phantasia land being the only one that could be a bit of a mare.
 
I've found that the best way to find out which airlines use an airport, and where you can fly from/to from there, is actually wikipedia. It's always my first port of call.

Example: Lets see which, if any, UK airports have flights to Cologne Bonn Airport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Bonn_Airport

Every airport entry on wiki has an 'Airlines and Destinations' section. Go to that.

As you can see, the flight peep used (London Gatwick with Easyjet) is on there. Also, it appears Germanwings fly there from Manchester, Heathrow and Stansted. However, these might not be as cheap as the Easyjet flight. It's obviously up to you to then go to each Airline's individual website and search for prices, but I find Wiki is a good place to start as you know all the different options straight away.
 
EP is pretty easy to get to - fly to Basel or Strasbourg (never used Baden so can't comment). Hotels in Strasbourg are around €40-45 per night if you look in the suburbs, Train fare to Ringsheim from Freiburg is currently €15 return, plus the bus shuttle at about €4 return. From Strasbourg it's slightly cheaper - not gone that way for a couple of years but it's about €12 or so for a 24-hour ticket which will cover local travel in Strasbourg, travel by train across the border and down to Ringsheim, and the bus to EP.

Efteling is also quite easy, with a shuttle bus from Tilburg. About €4 for a return IIRC.

Drayton Manor is a looong walk from the nearest bus stops, regular buses from Birmingham and Tamworth though.
 
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