Mineralparken — Attraction in Evje og Hornnes

We booked a 3-day camping at Mineralparken during low season despite reading lot of negative reviews about the place on internet regarding lack of maintenance, worn out amenities and a park that desperately need an upgrade, thinking that it would not be that bad at all. We arrived on the camping site and the first thing we needed to do was clean the spot for debris and waste before we set up our tent. First night we survived even if there was lot of noise from school classes renting the lavvo’s, but this is understandable since it’s not the park fault, this is the teachers not doing their job. Some of the issues was: That the school class left their garbage around the area they stayed, instead of walking apprx 10 meters to put it in the trash container and left the toilets in a horrible condition. Sanitation was very very bad and awful. Several toilets were not flushed down after use. They cannot be cleaned 4 times a day as the park responded on a review where this was mentioned. Our child refused to use the toilets since it was so dirty. We always needed to bring our own cleaning equipment to clean the toilet before use. (Hope that Mineralparken will take serious action about sanitation instead of just write it as a respond.) -According to the internet site, during low season, the Rock Cafe will be closed, but Ralleren Bistro would be open and so would the reception. Since the door was open at Ralleren Bistro, we went in and was told by an employee that they were closed, so we had to go out again, (Despite it says on their internet site that they are open in low season.) The Bistro was open saturday (luckily) and we ordered some snacks and was sitting on some of the tables inside the bistro, and the dirt was all over the place, from the hanging lamps, floor and the ventilation cover was falling. This was disgusting, since some of the dirt was falling from the overhead lamps. There was no note or anything on display about opening hours. On Saturday we were told that e.g. reception would be open between 10 – 16hrs, but when we was at reception at 1530 it was already closed. The playground was well used and desperately need an upgrade, this also goes for the whole park. On the camping site, when we arrived there was a waste plastic container (apprx 600ltrs), which was almost full when we arrived. When we checked out, still no one from the park checked or changed the container, the garbage was overflowing. This was also mentioned in reviews on TripAdvisor. Other camping sites we have been on, has 15cbm closed containers with doors for waste, it cannot be difficult to arrange the same for Mineralparken. There is a big chance that Mineralparken can compete with other parks since it is in a very nice area with fantastic view, mineral exhibition, waterpark, climbing forest. And those are the best assets of the park. The park is also close to Evje city center, 7 min by car. For us is not worth the money to pay because of the issues. For now, we will not recommend this park due to the condition of the park. Sorry to say, but we are agreeing with most of the negative reviews that is writing...

We are interested by minerals, and naively we visited this place. The first (bad) surprise is that you have to pay the parking in addition to the visit fee. The second surprise is the price: very expensive, I do not remember exactly but something like 650 NOK (approx 65 euros) for 2 adults. Wow. But hey, now we are there, let pay and see those minerals. There is an exposition of minerals. It is not huge, it it is more or less interesting but anyway it does not worth the visit at this price. In addition, there are a lot of exposed stones in the obscurity because here the people apparently do not replace the bulbs that do no longer work. Are bulbs too expensive for them? In fact we discovered that this "Mineralparken" is also a place with games and toboggans in the water and a kind of lake with a beach for swimming etc. We did not care but we pay for that. We felt like abused by the misleading /unfair marketing about this park. We are interested in minerals, not in toboggan and water games. Very disappointed. Keep your money and spend...

Mineralutstillingen var helt fantastisk, selv om det var litt rot som sto i veien for enkelte montere, noen mineraler manglet informasjon, noen manglet lys. Deler av utstillingen virket uorganisert, med utenlandske og norske mineraler vilkårlig plassert omhverandre. QR-kodene på monterne virker kun om du husker å koble deg til museets wifi FØR du går inn i hulen, for der inne er det ingen dekning. Likte godt de små ekstra infodelene, med en smie, litt om tenner (her burde også Setesdalsbanen vært nevnt, for de spilte en stor rolle i frakt av feltspat fra gruvene, ble kalt "tanntog"). Jeg ble litt inspirert til å stille ut min egen, relativt store mineralsamling, men det ligger nok langt frem i tid. Det som trakk kraftig ned i mine øyne er den stive prisen på inngangsbiletten. 399 kr!!! for EN voksen (359 kr dersom du forhåndsbestiller, men det er fortsatt altfor dyrt). Jeg klarte å tyne to timer ut av den delen av parken jeg var interessert i, men hadde jeg visst denne prisen på forhånd (det sto 265 på nettet...) så hadde jeg ikke giddet å ta turen. I tillegg kommer 65 kr for parkering på toppe av dette. Greit nok at man da også har tilgang til badelandet, men det er ikke jeg som steingal interessert i. Burde vært delt opp i flere typer biletter: en for klatrepark, en for badeland, en for mineralpark og en kombibilett for de som ønsker det. De fleste aktiviteter i parken koster ekstra... så det er ingenting inkludert i den sinnsyke bilettprisen heller. De få gratisaktivitetene som er, var ganske slitt og uinteressante. Lazer tag, dino show etc. er sikkert vel og bra, men jeg og flere med meg bryr oss ikke om det. Da hadde det vært bedre med lavere pris på inngangsbiletten og at man heller måtte betale ekstra for disse tingene. Jeg satt igjen med en kjip følelse av å ha blitt ranet. Maten på Rallaren Bistro var god til en snill pris og de ansatte er kjempehyggelige. Mye rart å få kjøpt i museumsbutikken også, men det var skuffende utvalg av norske mineralstuffer. Mange av dem var også kun merket "utenlandsk mineral" uten noe mer kontekst. Det var en flott utstilling, men bilettprisen er for høy til at jeg vil forsvare å ta turen dit med familien om dere ikke har tenkt å bade eller...