Three parks, one road south

Phantasialand, Europa-Park and Legoland on one road down the Rhine, with a river and a castle between them.

A family fun trip through Germany and the Netherlands — 6 days and about 727 km. It is built around 3 places the trip exists to include, all in Germany: Phantasialand, Europa-Park and Legoland Deutschland. Those are kept whatever else you change; the nights, the meals and the stops in between are chosen for the road you actually end up on.

The best theme parks in Europe happen to sit on one road. Phantasialand, outside Cologne, is the compact one with the fastest coasters and the most detail per square metre. Europa-Park, at Rust in the Rhine valley, is the biggest — fifteen countries in miniature, a hundred rides, and hotels built into it so you can walk to the gate before it opens. Legoland, at Günzburg on the Danube, is the one for the under-twelves, built at their scale. Between them is the Rhine, which does the sightseeing for you: the cathedral at Cologne, the castles in the gorge, the ferries, and a river cruise if the children need an hour of sitting down. Nobody has to drive more than three hours in a day, and every stop has somewhere to swim. Book the parks before you go — the two big ones sell out on summer weekends — and put a rest day between them; six days is one park every other day, which is the pace that ends with everybody still speaking. Term time in June or September halves the queues.

The places this trip exists for

Pinned, not suggested — the planner is required to include every one of them.

Phantasialand
🇩🇪 Germany
The compact park outside Cologne, with the fastest coasters and the most detail per square metre.
Europa-Park
🇩🇪 Germany
The biggest park in Germany — fifteen countries in miniature and a hundred rides; book ahead.
Legoland Deutschland
🇩🇪 Germany
The one built at a child's scale, for the under-twelves, on the Danube at Günzburg.

These are kept whatever you change. Everything else the planner picks is chosen for the road you end up on, and can be swapped.

Phantasialand Schmidt-Löffelhardt GmbH & Co. KG · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legoland Deutschland Resort — Stefan Scheer · CC BY-SA 3.0

One way it works out

From Amsterdam · 6 days · about €772

A real plan, priced the way every trip here is: fuel per country you cross, tolls and vignettes from published tariffs, beds and food from derived local rates. It is one example, not an average — from another town it is a different trip, which is the point of the button below.

Get a picture of this trip to share

All 3 pinned places are kept — you set the start, the days and who's coming, and the road and the figures are worked out for your door.

The figures above were measured from Amsterdam — yours will differ.