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Phantasy land
September 29, 2003
Yet one of Europe’s biggest parks is situated between Cologne and Bonn in the north of the country.
Until now it’s never attracted huge numbers of British tourists but all that is about to change.
In July this year Phantasialand opened its first hotel allowing British holidaymakers the chance to stay in the park in style and giving them the time to justify travelling to Germany to visit a theme park.
The hotel had only been open for a couple of weeks when my husband and I and our three young children made the crossing from Dover to Calais on the highspeed Seacat fast ferry.
Leaving every hour during the peak seasons it’s a great way to cross the Channel when you want to take your car with you.
In just under an hour from leaving Dover you’re in France Once you reach Hotel Phantasialand you’ll do a double take, for in keeping with Phantasialand’s international theme, the 166-bedroom hotel looks like something straight out of a Chinese picture book.
Pagodas, Chinese dragons, bamboo trees and staff dressed in traditional Chinese dress ensure the theme is continued inside the hotel as well as out.
Even in the bedrooms, the children’s bunk beds were in the shape and style of a Chinese junk and the beautifully carved headboard had a very distinct Oriental character.
Every room is en suite and furnished for up to four people. Cots are available and the beds were so large our two younger children were able to sleep head to toe in one of them.
The beds were a source of huge delight and we were barely in our room before the children had “set sail” in their Chinese fishing boat.
The water theme is continued outside with a magnificent indoor and outdoor swimming pool complex, complemented by a sauna and fitness area.
It’s a wonderful way to relax after an exhausting day in the theme park which, as we had to remind ourselves, was the main reason we were here.
We’d arrived in the evening so the following morning, the children were
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