Vakantiepark Duinrell — Hotel in Wassenaar

We have just returned from 7 nights at Duinrell holiday park. We booked direct with Duinrell which means you are given 4 free visits to the pools during your stay (the amount of visits depends on length of holiday), I know that Eurocamp bookers have to pay a discounted rate which seems to be a bone of contention here, bear this in mind before booking.||We stayed in 6 person 0'Hara (which I think they now call Comfort plus), these are only 18 months old and feel modern. Loved the huge covered terrace which mean you can sit out and dry your towels even in wet weather. There were only 4 of us, can imagine 6 would be very tight. Well equipped, we cooked dinner a few nights. (The coffee machine and pods from the shop are very weak - bring your own!). ||We loved Holland, the dutch are very relaxed, welcoming people! The area has so much to do! We hired bikes (cycling in Holland is idyllic and safe) and went to the beach (very windy), we visited Amsterdam, Efteling, Corpus Museum, Scheveningen beach and Leiden. We tried to pop to the "theme park" as often as we could and recommend going 10am on changeover days (Friday, Saturday and Mondays) hardly anyone there and no queues. The theme park is not really a whole day's activity (probably because lack of queues mean you can do almost all the rides within an hour or two), |We didn't eat much on site, there are lovely restaurants in Wassenaar and can highly recommend Da Alfio and Broeders (and of course the ice cream shop!)||I have given Duinrell 4 stars because there were a few issues.||- The site just feels too big, chaotic and noisy. We cycled around the site one evening and noticed a few areas had accommodation packed tightly together. Plus the roads on site seem to be very busy with cyclists, cars and eScooters (you have to be vigilant, lots of families quite happily letting their young children run lose but the roads didn't feel safe)|- Recycling! Practically non-existent in Duinrell (I thought the Dutch would be good at this). Only glass can be recycled at the waste points. They had a few plastic and can banks that pay you 25 cents per item however these were nearly always broken and I saw only 2 of them on the entire site.|- Check in chaos! You are meant to park in the theme park car park (parking is free for an hour) and then walk to reception to check-in but this isn't told to anyone before arrival and so you have cars circling around confused right outside the park. Any cars that try to enter the actual holiday park get made to drive in, turn around the tiny roundabout and out again. (This results in a constant stream of traffic including caravans when you have children playing unsupervised!). Duinrell - you need to make it clearer to pre-arrivals what to do, it is bordering on dangerous.||But in summary, I thought it was a great holiday and would recommend. However I have looked at prices for next year and the same holiday now appears to be 1K...

As a family of four with two teenagers, Duinrell was the perfect choice for our summer holiday, offering a fantastic mix of activities and relaxing downtime.||Our journey from Calais was straightforward (though 4 hours). Check-in was quick and easy, and our Duingalow was clean, spacious and very comfortable. With brilliant weather throughout our stay, we made good use of the south-facing patio...though we learned quickly not to eat outside as the seagulls and wasps were quite persistent!||The park itself is a great size. We loved how compact and easy it was to navigate, with everything just a short walk away. The amusement park was a huge hit, catering perfectly to both the thrill-seekers and the scaredy cat members of our family. Our thrill-seekers rated the Mad Mill, Dragonfly and Falcon rides as being on par with those in Florida, but with the huge advantage of almost no queues. We particularly enjoyed the freedom of popping in and out of the park for quick rides before lunch or dinner.||The Tiki Pool was a little more challenging due to its booking system, which meant you had to stick to your time slot. Once inside, it was incredibly noisy and very hot, but this was a welcome when waiting in line for the slides. The rides were excellent and varied, and the lazy river was a fun way to relax. Despite feeling crowded on each visit, the variety of slides made it worth it. The Turbo Slides were hailed by the thrill-seekers as some of the fastest they've ever been on||While the park got a huge thumbs up from us all, our trip was made better by Duinrell's perfect location. The town of Wassenaar is on the doorstep, with lots of lovely restaurants and pretty streets to explore. We rented bikes from Duinrell and had our favourite day riding 8km along a spectacular sand dune bike path to the beach. It was amazing to have a car-free route just for cyclists. The beach itself was stunning, with miles of golden-white sand and lots of beach cafes. It’s an absolute must-do.||We also found it very easy to explore the surrounding area using public transport. A 25-minute bus ride took us directly from Duinrell to The Hague, which we enjoyed exploring one evening. We also took the bus to The Hague to catch a train to Amsterdam for a day trip. The train journey was about 50 minutes, and while the €120 return ticket for our family of four was a bit of a shock (note: under 12s travel for free), the canal boat ride was a real highlight, and we were glad we spent the money.||Overall, Duinrell and its location provided us with everything we needed for a brilliant and memorable...

We have been coming to Duinrell since 2010 and we've seen a lot of changes but alot of static elements. I think we have probably reached our limit with some of the negative parts of the park and we will probably go elsewhere in future.

Positives

Being on site at a theme park is great. Kids can go in early and leave to relax in accommodation at will. The availability of various pedal driven hire bicycles, go karts and others is great (although a little expensive)

The shop is fairly well stocked and local supermarkets are not too far to cycle to.

There's lots of variety for small children. The trampoline area and dancing water have had an update as has the arcade.

The newer two storey accomodation seems to be well liked

Negatives

The site access roads are incredibly busy, narrow and overgrown. The mix of cycles, go karts, cars, trucks, people and animals is sure to cause a lethal accident some day. It seems to work but no idea how.

The camping is jammed together with oddly poor facilities for accessing water, disposing of waste water and chemical toilets. The shower blocks are mostly well looked after but really busy. Getting your trailer or caravan to pitch can be a torturous affair with lots of motor mover action necessary.

It's noisy until very late. Probably not great with very small kids who are light sleepers. You kind of expect this with the international clientele but the park staff don't appear to enforce any quiet time

The park attracts lots of (unsupervised) groups of teenagers. The rides are plastered with chewing gum and graffiti (from several years) and queue jumping is a regular thing. Smoking is also rife without much enforcement although cigarettes aren't actually sold in the park.

The park is built on sand so a gritty mess gets in everything.

The swimming pool is miserable when it's busy - book for the middle of the day and don't try to leave when it's just after the hour or half hour as the changing rooms are really packed. Long queues and packed wave pool make for an unpleasant time. The changing rooms are crammed and the new access with scandals QR codes is awkward. Thankfully the lockers no longer need cards to access.

Some of parts of the park need some updating. The play kwek show needs a clean and repair.

Cobclusion

We used to love the park. However, the lack of progress with the camping side (water access, cramming, access roads) and the way it seems to be going with the types of people coming (large groups of teenagers) means this will be...