Situated in the Belgium town of De Panne Plopsaland is one of the various Plopsa parks located across Europe and one of the largest. The opening of The Ride to Happiness, a Mack extreme-spinning coaster, in 2021 really put this park on the map but, can you do a day trip to Plopsa de Panne from the UK? And should you?
With rides such as Anubis (a bizarrely smooth Gerstlauer launch coaster), the Ride to Happiness, Heide the Ride (a wooden coaster) and a variety of other attractions Plopsa de Panne is a great park to visit for a day and, at just 40 minutes drive from the Port of Calais it’s within easy reach of the UK.
On top of that, the park offers a complete offering of their rides over Christmas which means if you want to get in your winter adrenaline rush whilst the UK parks close then Plopsa is the perfect choice!
I recently did this day trip and thought I’d share everything you need to know about making this trip from the UK.
Taking your own car to Europe is relatively easy and driving in Europe is far more relaxing than in the UK, drivers pull over to let cars in from a slip lane, cars overtake and then return to the outside line (no middle-lane lurkers) and generally I’ve found very little tailgating! (Why people in the UK can’t drive is beyond me!)
However, there are a few things to keep in mind and I recommend this guide from the RAC. As a brief summary though you’ll want to make sure you have insurance that covers you for EU driving, a UK sticker or icon on your numberplate (thanks to Brexit the GB sticker is no longer legal), some hi-vis vests, warning triangle, spare bulbs and some headlight deflectors. This EU driving kit is perfect for starting!
It’s also recommended that you take your V5 car document and printed copies of your insurance and breakdown cover.
The key thing is prep, the actual driving is relaxing, speed-limits are labelled as you enter the country and on roads and even roundabouts the wrong-way-round feel natural because you approach from that side!
I live in Essex which is around 2 hours drive from Dover (if the M25 behaves) and so 2 hours drive to Dover and then 45 minutes drive from Calais to Plopsa de Panne isn’t much driving at all. For my recent day trip this was my itinerary.
The day we went (yesterday, 30th December 2024) the park was actually open 10am until 7pm but having been once before and, expecting a quiet day I decided 5pm would give enough time and, the next ferry after the 7pm one was 10:30pm which would have made the day crazy!
Having done this trip and done all the driving I’d recommend having 2 drivers, not because the drive is taxing but just because it’s a long day (and I failed to sleep on the ferry because some parents decided the quiet lounge was the perfect place for children!)
This trip could be done quicker via LeShuttle which only takes 30 minutes but this was more expensive by about £60 or you could have even less driving on the Europe side by sailing into Dunkirk which is a longer crossing (2 hours) but only 30 minutes drive from Plopsa (this was also more expensive).
The total cost for the day was £190.50. The breakdown for this is as follows:
This makes it quite an expensive day trip but around the same price as a day ticket to a music festival and does include everything part from food…food in Plopsaland is quite expensive so you might want to take a packed lunch!
The same goes for ferry food and I took breakfast with me!
Having done this trip to largely get back on The Ride to Happiness again (full blog on my controversial opinion of that ride arriving tomorrow!) I’d say it was totally worth it.
Plopsaland is such a lovely, well-looked after park and we enjoyed the winter fires, Christmas lights and a lot of the smaller rides alongside doing the major roller coasters.
For families (who Plopsaland is largely geared towards) you’ll have an incredible day and there is so much just for children to do…it might even be a 2 day park with small children but I don’t have kids so can’t really comment.
In summary, a day trip to Plopsa de Panne is totally do-able and actually not too expensive. It’s such a nice park to visit and walk around and there was plenty to do. It’s just worth keeping in mind if you go during the winter that The Ride to Happiness can’t operate in extreme winds or below 5 degrees and Anubis can’t operate below 6 degrees…we lucked out because after 3 days of closures both were open for the toasty 7 degree weather!
Keep an eye on the blog for my hot-take on The Ride to Happiness tomorrow!
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