Located at the beloved fairytale theme park Efteling, just outside of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the Efteling Loonsche Land hotel in one of now four themed accommodations at the Resort. At its essence, Loonsche Land aims to surround guests in nature, and promises stays overlooking the "forest, heathlands, and dunes" where guests can "climb and scramble on the various playgrounds, meet and greet the Forest Gnomes, and admire the animals at the Hooijmijt animal shelter."
Like its sister hotel just across the road, the Bosrijk, Loonsche Land consists of two sections: the antler-adorned brick tower hotel and then a Centre Parcs style nature reserve populated with cozy holiday homes, that Efteling boasts are made of natural materials where guests may retreat for a calm, relaxing stay surrounded by nature after a whimsical day exploring the magic of the theme park. I have stayed in the hotel previously but this post will be a review of the holiday homes only from our most recent stay in January 2025.
I don't think I've ever done a hotel review here on the blog before but as I tend to stay at a fair few I thought I'd look at making it a regular feature, and for that we need some consistent criteria to review against. For these I thought I'd take a leaf out of Four In A Bed's book and mark my stays against the following:
- Facilities
- Theming
- How Did I Sleep?
- Would I Stay Here Again?
So without further ado, my review of the Efteling Loonsche Land holiday home cabins.
Facilities
I'll start of this review by mentioning the very important fact that these cabins, unlike the central hotel block, are self-catering, and therefore you are expected to do a lot of bits yourself. You won't find daily housekeeping or a turn-down service etc, but honestly for a 2 or 3 night stay I think that's absolutely fine. The rooms come with a small selection of basic cleaning products and a fridge and cooking equipment so you can look after yourself.
The cabins themselves are very spacious and comfortable, your typical holiday home with nothing really to shout about with regard to theming. They remind me a little of the old Girl Guide huts we would stay in at camp when I was a kid, which I'm sure are really exciting if you've got kids with you but a little more basic than what I was expecting honestly. We visited in January and I was worried about the cabins being cold, but the rooms are all temperature controlled and very quickly warmed up so 10/10 on that front.
Weirdly, during booking the website gave us the option to look at the map and select which cabin we would like to stay in. As Sam and I like to enjoy a hotel bar and wanted to be as close to the park as possible, we chose a cabin up front, right by the main hotel building. When we arrived, we found that our assigned cabin was actually one right at the back of the holiday park, meaning a further 5-7 minute walk on top of the walk from the hotel to the park. Mildly annoying, but we probably wouldn't have thought anything of it if we hadn't been given the option to choose in the first place, so not entirely sure what the point of that was!
The beds are the typical European setup where a 'double' is actually two single mattresses pushed together with two separate duvets - I'm all for the separate duvets however the gap in the mattress is a bit annoying, but I know to expect it now when staying on the mainland!
The bathroom was a real let down. There are no bath facilities, only a shower where the drainage hasn't been thought out too well so you're provided with a squeegee to keep the water spilling out the bottom of the shower door under control (side note: do not leave your clothes on the floor when showering because they will get wet!) There is also no hairdryer provided, something I discovered when I miraculously made the decision to wash my hair the night before rather than in the morning before heading into the park, which could have been catastrophic if that were not the case.
Food-wise, breakfast is not included, but you can order a breakfast service to be delivered to your cabin for a small extra fee. I thought this was a bit odd considering breakfast is included with the hotel just a short walk away and the price is not all that different. The dining room there is small though, so I understand it wouldn't be able to accommodate everybody staying both in the hotel and in the cabins too.
I will say that, during booking online, it was not made crystal clear to us that the cabins were self-catering and that breakfast was not included - we only found that out through watching vlogs and doing our own research so definitely something to be aware of when booking these and also something I have fed back to Efteling.
Being self-catering, I would highly recommend stopping off at a nearby supermarket and stocking up on essentials before you arrive. Sam and I planned to do this but forgot in our excitement to get to the park, and were surprised later on to find that Loonsche Land does not have a shop to buy groceries. Instead your only option is to go across the road to Bosrijk instead which, without a car or bike, is about a 15-20 minute walk depending on the location of your cabin. Not the end of the world, but again slightly frustrating when you've had a long day at the park and even stranger that the Loonsche Land itself doesn't have this service on location.
Something we absolutely love that is available for all Resort guests staying at the Efteling is the take-away delivery service. Through the Efteling app, guests may order a take-away to be delivered to the door of your accommodation until 9PM and includes everything from pizza and garlic bread to chicken and salad - it's a great option for if you find yourself stuck and hungry and not bad at all for the price. You can find a full menu for what is available here if you want to take a look before you visit.
The hotel also offers a shuttle bus service to the park which appears every 20 minutes or so and is on loop all day which is really handy if you want to pop back to your cabin to refresh (or warm up a bit as was the case with us!) You can also hire a bike for a small fee for your stay if that's more your style, but personally the bikes were way too big for me to even approach being able to ride it properly so wasn't an option for us but a good service nonetheless.
Not sure if this technically counts as a facility but something I adore about Loonsche Land is the little farm section next to some cool play equipment that goes across the pond. Very cute, and so lovely and chill to hang out with some chickens and goats as part of your stay - there's even a climbing frame and slide that is built around their enclosure!
Theming
Compared to the Bosrijk, I wouldn't say anything at Loonsche Land is really 'themed', it's more styled to feel like a nature reserve you can live in. The central hotel tower does have the antlers on the exterior which fit the bill, and there's a farmhouse style cottage at the centre of the holiday park that you can actually stay in, but that's kind of the extent of it.
The cabins are pretty, and feature grassy rooftops and lots of oak furniture and exposed beams but there's nothing that has that whimsical Efteling flair that you get in abundance in the park. Which I guess is nice if you're looking for a break from the intense immersion of the theme park itself, but something I always found a little odd given this is a theme park hotel. Compared with the likes of Gold River at PortAventure or the Phantasialand hotels if you go to Loonsche Land expecting a rich, themed experience you're going to come away disappointed.
How Did I Sleep?
Honestly, after intense days of travel straight into traipsing around a theme park I usually find it very easy to crash out but I will say we slept very comfortably. Our cabin was located right at the back of the park and we went during a quiet period anyway so it was extremely peaceful and private. The curtains all did a great job of blocking out any light and as previously mentioned it was lovely and warm in our room which helped too.
Would I Stay Here Again?
Honestly, no. I would absolutely stay in the Loonsche Land hotel itself again, but not the cabins. I personally am not a huge fan of the self-catering style of stay and though incredibly practical and I'm sure perfect for larger groups or families, I would have much preferred a hotel room. I just didn't get the sense of whimsy I've come to expect from a stay at Efteling and the little things like how far away the cabin was, the lack of hairdryer, the wet bathroom floor and the lack of shop close by to purchase supplies were all just too annoying for me to want to stay there again.
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What do you think? Have you staying in self-catering accommodation at Efteling before? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to have a chat!
Talk later xoxo,
