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springdreams

shrewdmum wrote: »

Ermmm......Just checked my booking from last July and it was 18th July - if its same time this year that's when we're away on our sun holiday at Duinrell so won't have internet access most likely.....Grrrrrr

I've just returned from a week at Duinrell. You can buy daily internet access. Was around EUR7.95 per day or a few cents shy of EUR18 for 4 days. However, reviews on Tripadvisor say that the internet signal is extremely weak, so not worth the money. I therefore didn't buy any despite much nagging from DS.

Another person on Tripadvisor suggested taking a tablet that you can insert a sim card into as there is a local phone shop in the nearby "Centrum" that you can buy a local data sim card from for around EUR10.

Other tips I picked up were:

Use of the Tiki Pool is EUR3.50 per person for a 2 hour session. However, you can buy an unlimited access pass for the day for EUR6.00 per person so can stay in the pool area for longer than 2 hours. The downside of this is that it only permits one entry per ticket, so if you leave the pool area for any reason on this (and any other) ticket you will not be allowed back in unless you pay again. My DS should have been born a fish as he loves the water so much, so I bought the EUR6.00 pass for 3 of the days that we were at the park.

The 2 hour time limit includes changing and showering time. You need to keep your ticket to show what time you entered the pool in order to also get out, because if you stay past the 2 hours you paid for you will get charged for the additional time.

It is also possible to pay for a 3 hour session or a 4 hour session (EUR 4.50 and EUR5.50 respectively).

If you hire a bike or go-kart from 1pm onwards you have up until 3pm the next day to return it, so get 2 extra hours for a daily hire rate. Bicycle hire is EUR9.00 for a day, but is cheaper if you take it for longer. No deposit is payable for bikes. Go-kart hire is EUR17.50 per day, but EUR5 of that is the deposit. Again, it is cheaper if you take it for longer. My DS wanted to try both, so I only hired them for a day at a time, which was more than enough considering you actually had the item over 2 half days.

The town center (called the "centrum") can be found by walking straight across the road when you go out of the park. Follow the road around past a plant nursery and you will be in the town - literally a 5 minute walk away!

Off site shops are not open on a Sunday, and open very late in the morning on a Monday. They close at 6pm Monday to Friday and 5pm on Saturday.

The C1000 shop in town is much much cheaper than the on site supermarket. You can find this by following the road mentioned above into town, keep straight on the road and walk through the bollards, follow the next road that you can go down on your left hand side, go past Luciano's ice cream shop (this is where scoops of delicious ice cream can be bought for EUR1 per scoop) then at the next corner by the florist shop turn left again - you will see C1000 a short distance on your left.

The phone shop mentioned above is on the right hand side just after you walk past the bollards.

A basic medium sized Hawaiian pizza from the on site take-away is EUR9.99 and a hamburger and chips is around EUR6.50. You have to pay 50 cents for ketchup to go with your chips. The restaurant is very pricey - the buffet for one adult is EUR22.50.

There is a caravan just across the road from the park that sells Greek style kebabs which cost EUR6.00 each. The meat options are pork or chicken. It closes at 10pm.

We didn't try the pancake place also across the road from the park, however, there are rave reviews for it on Tripadvisor, so could be worth a try.

There are no toasters or televisions in the caravans. However, there is an iPod dock ... You can use the oven grill if you want toast. We took our laptops and a huge stack of DVDs to keep ourselves busy at night, as there is also no entertainment on the park other than the pool and the theme park. The pool closes at 10pm and the theme park closes at 6pm over the weekend and 5pm during the week.

You are given pillows, duvets and blankets by Eurocamp at no extra charge. You will need to pay extra if you want pillow slips and duvet covers.

The Eurocamp reception is not clearly marked - although it is not hard to find once you know where it is. You need to go past the Duinrell main reception, through the barriers, down to the round about and just on the left side of the round about across the road (and next to the bike hire and go-kart hire shop) is the Eurocamp reception. It is all green and Eurocamp is in very small letters on the window.

You will need a passport photo per person to put on the park pass that Eurocamp issue you with. In order to get the discounted rate for the pool and to get free access to the theme park you need to show this pass.. The normal day entry price for people not staying at Duinrell is EUR27.00 per person, so it is definitely worthwhile having the photo pass from Eurocamp. I just made my own passport photo sized colour photos, which were accepted by Eurocamp. If you forget your photos you will have to pay EUR4 per person at the on site photo booth (near the supermarket) for photos.

shrewdmum

springdreams wrote: »

I've just returned from a week at Duinrell. You can buy daily internet access. Was around EUR7.95 per day or a few cents shy of EUR18 for 4 days. However, reviews on Tripadvisor say that the internet signal is extremely weak, so not worth the money. I therefore didn't buy any despite much nagging from DS.

Another person on Tripadvisor suggested taking a tablet that you can insert a sim card into as there is a local phone shop in the nearby "Centrum" that you can buy a local data sim card from for around EUR10.

Other tips I picked up were:

Wow! Thank you for such useful and comprehensive tips, a really big help to me. I've printed your post and will take it with me! Did you go with the sun too? - and if so which area of the park was your caravan in? (just curious) I hope you had a fab time, we're really looking forward to it as the vast majority of reviews are really positive.


Will definitely look into the sim card as I had already picked up that Duinrell Wi-Fi is a no-no.


The info on the bike hire is great, thanks - will definitely do it that way - we fancy riding to the beach - did you notice if they had bikes with stabilisers for younger kids - I'm worried that as the Dutch are practically born riding bikes they wont have any with stabilisers and am trying to get my youngest off them before we go but she's not getting it! If you hire before 1pm when does the bike have to be returned?


The 2 hours in the pool including changing time sounds challenging with 2 kids so thank you for the tip off and we might go with the more expensive tickets. At UK camps we have gone ready changed with beach robes on and scurried back to our van in them too (in good weather) to dry off there. Would that be feasible or is the camp just too big?


We are very much looking forward to the ice cream from Lucianos and the pancake house so I am sure we will try both. (will probably try the ice cream on a daily basis!) Do you know if either have free Wi-Fi? Wassenaar sounds lovely thanks for the directions.


I must admit that my only real concern is the evenings - our two are only 6 & 7 so its not a massive problem but we really don't know what we'll do without a telly if the weather isn't kind to us so I think we'll take the laptop and lots of DVDs like you suggest, thanks. In good weather they would be happy playing out until bedtime but we need a wet weather option.


Just seen even more useful tips you've added - thank you so much - fortunately we have just had new passport photos all round so will take spares for the ID card.


Thanks for all the tips - a big help with budgeting as I didn't have a clue how many euros we will need. If you think of anything else please let me know.


Just one more thing - we were thinking of getting a pre-paid fairfx card in Euros, if you had something similar did most shops / ATMs take them without problems?

springdreams

I did indeed go with the Sun. I was one of those people that had my holiday cancelled by Eurocamp initially, but was fortunate to get it partially reinstated (Friday to Wednesday instead of Friday to Friday). There were a handful of us that were affected during the January round of bookings.

We were sandwiched between the theme park and the pool - the view from our sitting room area was of the Ferris wheel It was surprisingly quiet. It was called the Middle Veld area. Everything was very accessible from where we were.

They have balance bikes for the little ones. I didn't see any with stabilizers. Not sure what the return time is if the bike is hired before 1pm. Probably 12pm as the bike hire is opened 10am - 12pm and then 1pm - 4pm.

The camp site is very large, but you can certainly scurry around in robes if you like - might get a few strange looks though, as it is extremely busy as it is used by people staying on the park, local schools as well as other members of the public.

The only place giving free wi-fi is McDonalds, but I am not sure where that is. We did not see it in the nearby "centrum".

We had 2 days of downpours and my DS was perfectly happy to ride the bike in it as he said he was going to get wet in the pool anyway ...

The play area within the theme park is still open after the theme park closes, and quite a few of the kids congregated there in the evenings until park security chased them away.

Remember to take European plugs for your laptop ... There are about 3 power points between the kitchen and sitting room area, but these need the European plugs.

I don't know about the fairfax cards as I took cash - sorry. However, there are ATMs in the "centrum" that take cards, just not sure about the fairfax ones. You could always try emailing Eurocamp to ask ...

The souvenir bits are quite expensive both on site and in the "centrum". I ended up buying small plants from the local florist (the one where you turn left to go to the C1000 shop) for family and for myself. They are very reasonably priced. For example I got a fuchsia for EUR1 and a peace lily for EUR2.50.

Oh, and Eurocamp said to buy the pool passes from the main Duinrell reception - this is wrong - you buy them at the pool.

shrewdmum

springdreams wrote: »

I did indeed go with the Sun. I was one of those people that had my holiday cancelled by Eurocamp initially, but was fortunate to get it partially reinstated (Friday to Wednesday instead of Friday to Friday). There were a handful of us that were affected during the January round of bookings.

We were sandwiched between the theme park and the pool - the view from our sitting room area was of the Ferris wheel It was surprisingly quiet. It was called the Middle Veld area. Everything was very accessible from where we were.

They have balance bikes for the little ones. I didn't see any with stabilizers. Not sure what the return time is if the bike is hired before 1pm. Probably 12pm as the bike hire is opened 10am - 12pm and then 1pm - 4pm.

The camp site is very large, but you can certainly scurry around in robes if you like - might get a few strange looks though, as it is extremely busy as it is used by people staying on the park, local schools as well as other members of the public.

The only place giving free wi-fi is McDonalds, but I am not sure where that is. We did not see it in the nearby "centrum".

We had 2 days of downpours and my DS was perfectly happy to ride the bike in it as he said he was going to get wet in the pool anyway ...

The play area within the theme park is still open after the theme park closes, and quite a few of the kids congregated there in the evenings until park security chased them away.

Remember to take European plugs for your laptop ... There are about 3 power points between the kitchen and sitting room area, but these need the European plugs.

I don't know about the fairfax cards as I took cash - sorry. However, there are ATMs in the "centrum" that take cards, just not sure about the fairfax ones. You could always try emailing Eurocamp to ask ...

Sorry you had so much trouble with your original booking but great news you managed to salvage most of it.


Thanks again for so much useful info - sounds like you were in a good spot, that's my kind of view!


Thanks for the reminder about the European plus, have added those to my shopping list. I'm sure we wont be so desperate for Wi-Fi to use McDs, try to avoid the place at home to be honest, the sim card sounds much better.


Thanks again for the brilliant tips - we've not been overseas in 20 years so I like to know I have as much info as possible.

springdreams

shrewdmum wrote: »

Sorry you had so much trouble with your original booking but great news you managed to salvage most of it.


Thanks again for so much useful info - sounds like you were in a good spot, that's my kind of view!


Thanks for the reminder about the European plus, have added those to my shopping list. I'm sure we wont be so desperate for Wi-Fi to use McDs, try to avoid the place at home to be honest, the sim card sounds much better.


Thanks again for the brilliant tips - we've not been overseas in 20 years so I like to know I have as much info as possible.

If you don't have a tablet that takes sim cards, you can buy unlocked mobile wi-fi devices that you can use as a hub from places like Amazon - something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5332-Unlocked-Mobile-Wi-Fi/dp/B00ABFTCMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401884099&sr=8-1&keywords=unlocked+mobile+wifi+device

You can then buy the local data sim and insert it into the hub and connect up to 8 devices to it. I wish I had bought one ... We're going to Venice in August, so I shall be buying one for then!

The local WiFi price from Duinrell is per device by the way.

springdreams

Take your own shopping bags to Duinrell - both the on site shop and those in the "centrum" charge for shopping bags.

shrewdmum

springdreams wrote: »

Take your own shopping bags to Duinrell - both the on site shop and those in the "centrum" charge for shopping bags.

Thanks yet again for even more very useful tips

essex_boy

springdreams wrote: »

Take your own shopping bags to Duinrell - both the on site shop and those in the "centrum" charge for shopping bags.

You are awesome
I help because it's what I do for for a living,I'm learning support for adults with disabilities at my local community college.
When I see your quotas and how much much help you have given people it stands out that this is what you could do for a living.
Maybe be an ambassador for something like Butlins.
With your record I'm sure you would be considered.

springdreams

essex_boy wrote: »

You are awesome
I help because it's what I do for for a living,I'm learning support for adults with disabilities at my local community college.
When I see your quotas and how much much help you have given people it stands out that this is what you could do for a living.
Maybe be an ambassador for something like Butlins.
With your record I'm sure you would be considered.

That is very kind of you to say so.

You have also unstintingly put in a great deal of time and effort in helping people on this forum too, so are equally deserving of appreciation. :beer:

My area of specialisation is actually law - brand protection more particularly. So I will give Butlins a miss job wise - but thanks for the compliment, and thinking that I have the appropriate people skills to be able to work in such a post.