Ever since we got rained out in Zaragoza during our visit to the amusement park, Little Monkey had been nagging us to take her to a theme park. Given her love of rollercoasters I thought Phantasialand in Germany would be perfect for our kids who are aged 3 and 5. Phantasialand is conveniently located between Cologne and Bonn and since we were living in a GuestToGuest home in Cologne we decided to rely on public transit to bring us to and from the park. We took a public bus to Brühl train station and then paid an additional 3.00 € per person for a return journey back to the train station. Phantasialand shuttle buses depart from Brühl train station and the Brühl Mitte tram stop which is on the no. 18 line. It took us about three hours for a return journey from but it was definitely worth it as you will see in the video below! A month later the kids are still talking about our visit.
Disclosure : We were guests of Phantasialand but, as always, opinions are TOTALLY ours.
There are a couple entrances into the park and when I found myself in the Asia parts of the park I realized that they have an amazing LING BAO hotel on site! There’s also the African Hotel MATAMBA. Wish I knew that before because I would have loved to spend a night at the park, watch the fireworks (they were happening the day we visited at 11 p.m.!) and explore more of the park than we did during our 5 hour visit. Kids under 4 years of age get in for free as long as you bring some ID for proof. Everyone gets in for free on their birthdays as well! Baby Boy was free and the best bang for the buck was that he was RIGHT at the 100 cm height requirement for most of the rides.
While Little Monkey is a daredevil, I wasn’t sure how Baby Boy would react. His first roller coaster experience was at Phantasialand and I will admit that some of the rides freaked me out but he was having a blast. Certain rides can be scary but my kids did great. Even on the crazy roller coasters such as the Colarado adventure, Baby Boy had fun. RAIK, a fun-filled backward and forward run is the fastest and longest family boomerang in the world and we can now proudly say that all 4 of us have done it!
Services for Families at Phantasialand
When it comes to visiting the Phantasialand park with kids, Phantasialand has done a great job to help families. There’s stroller parking available and you can even rent a stroller or wagon onsite. We had our double stroller which our kids needed towards hour 3 in the park and it was easy enough to navigate most parts of the park (there were a few small steps). The park also offers parents the option to switch easily so just mention “baby switch” to the employees when getting off your ride so that they can save you from having to queue twice. I really like the map of the park which is available at the entrances (ensure you grab it in the language you need) as it enabled us to quickly see which rides we could go on. It lists the height requirements and even has a “family” recommendation section so we knew which ones we could take our kids on. In addition, when kids need a break, you can sit down and catch one of the free shows or help diffuse a tantrum with free face painting or a free balloon animal!
The park is divided into various themes (Asia, Mexico, Africa) and while some had warned us to bring our own food and drink (and it did save us time as we were able to eat while standing in line for the ride), I wish we hadn’t because the food in the Asian section looked really good. We spotted full sit down restaurants and there were various grab and go options throughout the park. Tap water in Germany is very good, even in the bathrooms (unless there’s a sign saying so), so bring a reusable bottle so you can fill it up as needed. We visited on a sunny Saturday in July and line ups for most rides were under 10 minutes. There were about 5 of them where we stood for 20 minutes. There was also one attraction we stood in line for (“Crazy Hotel Tartüff”) but sadly didn’t get in because Little Monkey and I were in flip flops and they required closed toe shoes. If we are back in the area we would definitely return to Phantasialand (and hopefully book ourselves into a night at LING BAO).
If you have more questions about visiting Phantasialand with young children, send us a message and we’ll help answer them!
Calvin
December 12, 2017 at 5:09 pmSo much fun !