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Landal Het Vennenbos is a very popular choice with Little Clogs families and we (Jane and family) were very excited to spend a last-minute weekend away there during February half term. Suitable for all ages, bustling with activities and fun, we were interested to see how this park would fair for my growing children who are now 11, 14 and 16 years old. The short answer is, it was great!
We felt that Het Vennenbos was perfect for the ages of our children and as much as our eldest needed a little persuasion to get involved in some of the organised activities, that is not a reflection of how much he enjoys taking a weekend away from daily life and enjoying the nature that a Landal holiday provides. And he ALWAYS enjoys a good pool, which was brilliant at Het Vennenbos.
Check in was seamless with the key accessible through the Landal app on our phones. We walked straight into our accommodation, staying in a 6B1 bungalow which was in a super handy location just a short walk from the Park Plaza where most of the main facilities, restaurants, pool and shops can be found. This meant that as our children are a little older they had the freedom to go to and from from organised activities, or to pop back to our bungalow when they needed and we could share the digital key to their phones, which was super handy.
We drove up to our accommodation to unpack and then for the duration of our stay we parked in a larger car park at the main entrance. This keeps the holiday park car free, apart from times of check-in and check-out. It was clear to see from the copious amounts of scooters and balance bikes parked at the Park Plaza, that this car-free space means children have the freedom to roam safely and families can enjoy the woodland surroundings even more.
Our bungalow was over two levels. Upstairs, via an open stairway with a stair-gate at both the top and bottom, were two twin rooms and on the ground level was a large double room, bathroom with walk-in shower and a separate toilet. There was a modern kitchen and dining area which led to a cosy, recessed living area with corner sofa looking out onto the garden and the lake beyond. We had ducks and geese curiously exploring in front of our bungalow throughout our stay.
We don’t know about you, but we always like to settle into our accommodation quickly and immediately go and explore the main building of the places we stay. Het Vennenbos was previously part of European Center Parcs and its main social hub bears similarities to their style with so much under one roof. The large plaza area at Het Vennenbos has a bustling vibe and is a hive of activity. With little boutique shops, a main stage for shows and entertainment, a bowling alley, arcade, indoor play and the subtropical swimming pool. The whole area flows really nicely with tropical theming and plants in the main entrance. And if you look closely, there is a group of turtles basking under a warm lamp amidst the foliage and water.
Throughout our stay there were different shows or live entertainment taking place on the main stage. We joined in with the family bingo evening and what an exciting evening it was. The atmosphere was really enjoyable with lots of audience participation, music and laughter, especially when the number 67 was called out and the audience joined in with a 6 – 7! This trend is still alive and kicking in the Netherlands! All numbers were displayed on a huge screen so anyone can join in. We also spotted that there is a children’s bingo event, with sounds instead of numbers, what a lovely idea.
As a family, we love to do activities together and the pool was a massive hit. The water was lovely and warm and the slides were suitable for us all! We found the pool to be a good size and not too overwhelming which was especially nice for our 14 year old who has additional needs.
The pool have different areas nicely spread throughout the complex. The splash area is in a nice spot away from the main, larger wave pool and offers plenty to keep younger children busy! Amongst the choice of slides in the splash area is The Hurricone which is nice and fast and allows even younger children to have a decent thrilling water slide.
In the main pool area there are a few tube slides and the super fun rapids which we couldn’t get enough of! When the children wanted to go off and do a few more runs on the slides then we enjoyed the jacuzzi and warm water pool areas. You can swim from the indoor pool out to an outdoor pool area which was enjoyable even if being here in February added a bit of extra excitement as we swam in a little drizzle. In the summer months, we can imagine this is a popular feature as it is also surrounded by a grassy area.
The lockers worked with a personally selected code meaning there’s no need to bring money with you and entrance to the pool is with your digital key. There is a snack bar that serves both the pool area and the main plaza building, with a view onto the pool through large glass windows.
Through the Landal app we were able to see all of the activities that were available during our stay and took the opportunity to sign up for some of them before our arrival. Some of them were free activities such as hut building, where only registration was needed and others were payable activities. However, no payments needed to be made until we arrived at each activity. The app was also handy for seeing opening times for the different restaurants, supermarket and shops.
Without a doubt the big hit of the weekend was being able to access the pool early and explore the pool and rapids before opening hours. This activity cost €10 per child and in our opinion was well worth it. (Please note that the activity prices mentioned in this review are correct at the time of our visit but are subject to change). Our children were amongst a group of 12 who were given life jackets, floats and helmets to wear, the speed of the rapids and wave pool were ramped up and off they went exploring as a group with a number of pool staff. One of us was allowed to accompany our children and as I entered the outdoor area where the pool and rapids are 30 degrees, the sun was rising, which, combined with the steam from the water and the woodlands to the rear, was absolutely beautiful.
My children loved this activity and as a parent, I got great enjoyment from being able to watch them too. If only adults were allowed to have a go! As we know, an early rise for a teenager is not much appreciated but the resounding response was that it was well worth it and they would definitely do it again.
We had hoped to also join in the VR snorkelling but we will have to save this for another visit as it was fully booked.
We packed a lot in to our stay as we wanted to experience as much as possible. This started with a game of pool in the main Plaza, some time at Game City, the arcade area and even at my children’s ages, a little exploration of the indoor play forest was good fun for a bit of climbing and getting rid of some energy on the trampoline. There were plenty of activities to choose from that would have interested my children, such as cooking or laser gaming, but simple, free activities such as foot golf were great fun and only required a deposit for the ball borrowed to play and no time limit was given.
We paid a visit to the Atelier where children can choose an item from the display cabinet and then find a table where they can take their time to decorate and paint. The different items varied in price, but of course my children opted for two of the most expensive which were a butterfly and turtle (€12 each). That said, they had a wonderful time and enjoyed the freedom of using the facilities, and as an added bonus, there was free coffee for parents. We spotted that had you just wanted to pop in and do some colouring this was free of charge and there were some nice colouring sheets available. Just next door to the Atelier is a playground too.
They also joined in archery and graffiti art. Both of these activities suited the ages of my children well and my 16 year old particularly liked the archery. I was really impressed with what they produced during the graffiti activity and it was fun to see them trying out new skills. Their pictures will take pride of place on their bedroom walls and rightly so. Again, these activities cost €10 each, however there were other fun things to choose that were priced lower, or free.
On our first night we ate at Pizza Limone where the service was friendly and amazingly quick. We noticed that the family buffet restaurant is very popular where there is a set price for adults and children for a 2 hour sitting. It is worth booking this in advance. We found the park supermarket to have all we needed and cooked breakfast and lunch for ourselves at our accommodation. There is an ice-cream counter which was hard to resist and somehow my children seemed to score themselves a scoop or two each day. It was a holiday after all! The staff were really friendly and even when I popped by to get a take-away coffee early in the morning before they were officially open, they kindly served me with a smile and on I went to join my children at whichever activity they were busy enjoying, coffee in hand.
With just a weekend to enjoy Het Vennenbos we didn’t venture too far from the park, with our focus on enjoying the activities we’d booked onto. However, we did want to see see what a few of the local towns had to offer. Bladel was just 10 minutes away and had a good selection of restaurants, shops and a lovely row of terraces. It was a lovely sunny February day when we popped in for a visit and already families were sitting at some of the terraces enjoying lunch. This, we imagine, is a great spot for the warmer months. A similar distance from Bladel we took a stroll around Reusel. This appeared quieter than Bladel but seemed to be a hotspot for cyclists passing through the town and taking a pit stop at the local cafe for a coffee and cake.
As we drove back to the park we went through Hapert where we discovered a pretty windmill in a residential area. It was surrounded by a lovely large green field with a playground adjacent to it. If you’d like to to see a Dutch windmill up close then this is easy to visit, and a nice little spot to take a short trip away from the park without needing to venture far. Beekse Bergen Safari Park and Efteling theme park are all easy to visit from Het Vennenbos and fabulous days out but for us, we were happy exploring and enjoying Het Vennenbos as a weekend stay.
As a family we had a good old competitive game of bowling which is found in the main Plaza. The QR code available meant we could order drinks to our lane as we played and once we’d finished we could seamlessly join a different area of the Plaza for the evening entertainment and bring our drinks with us.
Our weekend away came to an end with our last free, reserved activity, hut building. This was really well organised with pallets that fit together to make individual modules. Children selected the pieces they needed, were given a tool box and off they went to build. Towards the end of the allotted time, all of the children taking part brought their individual huts together to make one large collaborative hut which was pretty cool and provided some great team work!
There was so much more that we didn’t get to experience at Het Vennenbos including the pedalos, mini golf, sports areas and mini beach to name but a few. We had a wonderful time during our stay and will happily return in the future. This was a press trip and we would like to thank Landal for facilitating our stay!
For more info about Landal Het Vennenbos, or to book, please see below or drop us a line:
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