De Hooge Veluwe

We had originally booked a Forest Lodge with air conditioning. A few days before departure, it turned out there was a technical malfunction and we had to stay in a different cabin. Although we had specifically requested a cottage with air conditioning, the solution provided was a portable air conditioner that was very noisy and had little effect. We were also right next to a busy road, which was quite noisy in its own right.
Upon arrival, the cottage turned out to be quite dirty: the couch was so worn out that the fabric was peeling off, there was dust under the beds, years’ worth of dust on top of the kitchen cabinets, and cobwebs on the light fixtures and in the corners of the bathroom. I also discovered a dirty snail in a dark corner of the bathroom; so the bathroom is never thoroughly cleaned either. There was a decent but poorly maintained vacuum cleaner available, whose bag needed to be replaced urgently (no bag to be found in the cabinets). When we wiped up a spilled drink from the floor, our cleaning cloth turned pitch black. You have to wonder if the floors are ever thoroughly mopped… With small children, I found this unacceptable in terms of hygiene.
The quality and maintenance of the cottages depend heavily on the owners, because EuroParcs itself doesn’t invest much in proper cleaning (the cleaning staff ride around on bicycles with a single mop strapped to the back). Perhaps our experience would have been different if we’d been given the Forest Lodge we originally booked, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The alternative we were given was disappointing.
The park offers free access to unguarded indoor and outdoor pools. With better maintenance, this would be quite nice, but once again, there was no attention to hygiene: bird droppings between the outdoor pools and on the steps of the children’s slide, ice-cold water, debris from the trees in the water that wasn’t cleaned up. There was, however, one person strolling around at a leisurely pace, checking the water’s pH level, but he paid no attention to the maintenance of the pool or its surroundings.

The park has its own restaurant and a modest but neat little playground, a tiny shop selling food and drinks, and you can rent bikes there. The receptionists were friendly and professional. We rented an electric cargo bike and a single-seater bike, and they were in perfect condition. By bike, it’s a half-hour ride to downtown Arnhem and Burger’s Zoo. The Hooge Veluwe National Park is also nearby and worth a visit. EuroParcs’ location is excellent, but the park itself fell short of expectations.

Trevlig stugby i fin omgivning. Finns många aktiviteter för barn.

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We rented a tiny house. It was really nice, though there were a few things missing here and there. But we had a great week on vacation. The location is fantastic.

Rate: Rather average—not bad, but not great either. The lobby is a bit dated; it’s not a big deal, but it’s a little dingy. The apartments themselves are clean. Personally, I missed amenities like salt, pepper, and hand soap. The rooms are sparsely furnished but adequate—a towel rack and maybe a mirror in the bathroom would be nice. The outdoor area was so-so, and there were a lot of ants. Tolerable.

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