EuroParcs Zuiderzee

There’s a big swimming pool with a nice slide, and lots of activities for kids, including a nice soft play area. The place is excellent and a must visit, especially since it’s very close to Walibi adventure park. The beds and mattresses were much too soft, though, and could be better.

We spent three nights in a bungalow, and it was lovely, quiet, and had most of what we needed. I’d stay again despite a few problems. The WiFi was advertised but didn’t work, and asking for help didn’t get it sorted. There was a draught coming through gaps around the patio door, the heating in the main room didn’t work, and the shop on site was poorly stocked.

The house looked good from outside, and the living room furnishings were nice. The kitchen had decent tools, and all five bedrooms were spacious for our extended family of eight. But we would never return. The house was unacceptably dirty, with dead bugs and cobwebs everywhere. The outdoor tables and chairs were filthy, and eggs thrown by a previous resident were still on a bedroom window. It was also hard to use comfortably. None of the bathroom extractor fans worked, and the windows wouldn’t open. Some windows, including the long kitchen one and the tall stairwell one, had no shades, so the house got hot. The heat pump air conditioning didn’t cool the upstairs bedrooms. One bedroom had an oddly shaped window and a ripped, partly duct-taped curtain that didn’t work. Roof lights around the property couldn’t be switched off and shone into a bedroom. Reception seemed shocked when we reported the egged window, the failed AC, and the taped-up curtain. Maintenance came quickly and gave us a Velcro curtain replacement, but couldn’t fix the AC and had no fans to offer. They said they’d send someone to clean the window, but no one came.

We booked a Deluxe package at Europarcs Zuiderzee in October, during school holidays in both Germany and the Netherlands. The L-Cube house was modern and mostly as expected, though one toilet for three bedrooms wasn’t enough. The rest of the stay was a letdown. The facilities area was a big construction site and barely usable, and services advertised on the website often weren’t available. The pool was closed, with a vague possibility it might open in November. Instead, we got dated vouchers for a public pool in Harderwijk, 20 minutes away by car, for one day at a time. To get more, we had to ask reception again. The indoor playground had no airflow and literally stank. Bowling was available, but drinks couldn’t be ordered at the bar there. We had to go outside around the building, through the restaurant, and carry drinks back, which was especially fun in the rain. The restaurant was little more than camping fast food, but charged prices like proper restaurants at Center Parcs or Landal parks. The advertised pizza place was a 24x7 vending machine outside in the rain, with frozen pizzas reheated there. Our Deluxe package items weren’t in the house either, so we had to buy morning coffee from the Spar supermarket in the park because reception didn’t open until 9.00. After we complained, the promised delivery in 10 minutes took an hour and a half and a follow-up call. Definitely not recommended, given the missing services and the plainly false website claims.