It is probably only in Belgium that one of the favourite children's characters can be called without the slightest trace of irony "Plop", but such is his success here that there are three theme parks for children, under the brand Plopsaland. The one we visited to round off the summer holidays ... Read review
Advantages: Good range of rides, beautiful setting, cheap all-in ticket Disadvantages: Horrendous food prices, frustration for children shorter than 1m tall
...==== WHAT IS THERE AT PLOPSA COO? ====
There are various rides, although if you have small children, you need to be aware of the height restrictions. Our 3 year old is still under 1m tall, which limited him to 6 rides, causing him great frustration. The main rides there:
Chairlift - this goes across the river, up to the top of the hill opposite, giving a fabulous view of the reservoir, river, valley and theme park
...of sharp corners, giving a good adrenaline rush. Children don't sit beside you, but in front of you in the carriage, which was a bit uncomfortable for my daughter having my weight pressing her against the bar
Log flume - only one descent, but pretty large, and the rest you are carried along on a fast-flowing current.
Toboggan (luge) - children under 1.40m must be accompanied by an adult. You are dragged up to the top ... more
It is probably only in Belgium that one of the favourite children's characters can be called without the slightest trace of irony "Plop", but such is his success here that there are three theme parks for children, under the brand Plopsaland. The one we visited to round off the summer holidays before the return to school was in the almost equally quaintly named village of Coo, which is in the Ardennes, 12 km from Spa-Francorchamps, venues of the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix. The theme park is situated right by the Cascades de Coo, a twin waterfall on the Amblève river, which is one of the best known beauty spots in the Hautes Fagnes region of the Ardennes in south-eastern Belgium.
= WHAT IS THERE AT PLOPSA COO?
= There are various rides, although if you have small children, you need to be aware of the height restrictions. Our 3 year old is still under 1m tall, which limited him to 6 rides, causing him great frustration. The main rides there:Chairlift - this goes across the river, up to the top of the hill opposite, giving a fabulous view of the reservoir, river, valley and theme park
Roller-coaster - only 90 seconds, but fast and lots of sharp corners, giving a good adrenaline rush. Children don't sit beside you, but in front of you in the carriage, which was a bit uncomfortable for my daughter having my weight pressing her against the bar
Log flume - only one descent, but pretty large, and the rest you are carried along on a fast-flowing current.
Toboggan (luge) - children under 1.40m must be accompanied by an adult. You are dragged up to the top of a hill by a device that looks like a chair lift. You then physically lift the tray-like toboggan onto the chute, before descending 850m. There are separate pistes for 1 and 2 person toboggans. My children thought this was the best ride.
Waltzers - two rides that go round and round a lot, definitely not for me, but my 6 year old sat on it for 5 successive goes.
Go-karts - the petrol carts are more cars than racing carts, and adults can take children between 1m and 1.4m tall as passengers. Up to 6 carts trace each other at a time over 3 laps.
Old timer cars - very gentle and the children can pretend to drive with the steering wheels while the adult sits in the back. (To give an idea of how gentle this is, there were 21 flags along the wall and I had time to work out the missing 6 EU member states (Sad, I know!)
Electric cars for children - these are like small, safe electric go-karts for small children, again over 1m tall.
In addition there is a couple of large outdoor play areas with climbing frames for smaller children, mini-golf and a few fairground booth games, like shooting ducks. There are also fountains where the children can stand and splash and get soaked, which our girls thought was great fun.
= FOOD AND DRINK
== There is a cafeteria with standard Belgian fare as half a chicken, turkey vol-au-vents, meat balls, spaghetti, and of course chips. There is also a fast food outlet with chips, burgers, sausages etc. However, and this is a huge but, we were stunned by how expensive the food and drink were. The cheapest drink - ie a can of fruit juice or a bottle of mineral water - was €2.75, and we ended up paying €50 for 2 adult main courses, a child's main course, 2 portions of chips and three bottles of water, which is at least 30% more than would normally be expected at similar parks in Belgium. However, there are plenty of places to picnic, even tables and chairs on the river bank opposite the waterfalls. My advice therefore would be to take a packed lunch or be prepared for the high prices. There were various ice-cream carts dotted around the grounds, as well as a couple of sweet stalls, popcorn and candy floss outlets.
= COST
= An all-in ticket costs €20 and gives unlimited access to all the attractions, except for the go-karts, where it entitles you to one 3-lap race. If you buy one of these, you get a fluorescent yellow bracelet, which only the staff of the park can attach, so make sure you have your children with you when you pay (guess who didn't!)
Alternatively you can buy tickets for the various rides, the cost of each attraction is clearly marked, each ride priced in €1 tickets which must be bought in advance. To give an indication, for people over 1.4m tall, the chairlift costs 6 tickets, 3 laps on the go-karts 5, the toboggan 3, roller coaster or log flume 2. For children, the same rides cost 4, 2 ,2 and 2 respectively. Other rides are 1 ticket each. In the course of an afternoon, you can easily get through 20 tickets, and once you have the bracelet, you don't need to worry about getting more tickets. €20 doesn't strike me as a lot to pay for 6 hours at a theme park.
Equally, if you are in the area, you do not need to pay for anything and can walk by the river, your children can play in the playgrounds and you can walk round the grounds.
One other thing, although I have mentioned the frustration for a child under 1m tall, the flipside is that he was not charged at all, so any ride that he could go on accompanied by one of us, he was able to go on free of charge. Consequently, he went on the toboggan with me, the old cars and some of the waltzers with his sisters.
= OTHER ASPECTS
= There is only one shop, so you are not swamped with merchandising. The shop is very well stocked with a good range of merchandising related to the Plop franchise, not excessively priced. In this franchise, the main figure is Kabouter Plop, a Santa Claus type gnome, who is surrounded by five other gnome characters who get up to all sorts of pranks. They appear in 5 minute TV shows, each with a moral suitable for young children. The organisation behind Kabouter Plop also promote K3, a Flemish girl band particular popular with 6-12 year old girls. Our house has a lot of items with K3, and the shop here had books, CDs, stationery, dolls, cuddly toys, cup and so on - everything your daughters could possibly want.The river is very pretty here, with the cascades rumbling away noisily the whole time. A number of organisations organise kayaking trips from this point, so if the theme park is not your cup of tea, you can split your party, some for the theme park and others for more active pursuits on the river.
= OVERALL ASSESSMENT
= We visited here on the lat Saturday before the children went back to school (September 1st), in order to round of their holiday. We had good weather, dry, moderately sunny, and low 20 degrees. There were very few queues, and we did not have to wait longer than 10 minutes for any ride, which made it very enjoyable for all concerned. For us adults, the big gripe was the cost of the food, drink and ice cream, and next time we will take a picnic. For the children, the big frustration was for our 3-year old who at less than 1m in height was too small to go on many of the rides, especially the go-karts. When he is over 1m, we shall definitely return. In fairness, when friends went in June, the queues were much longer, but when we went they were too short to notice. Overall though, we had a fabulous day, which our children really enjoyed.
= PRACTICAL INFORMATION
= You definitely need a car to get there. It is 15 minutes off the E42 motorway at junction 11, south of Spa-Francorchamps Formula One circuit. Parking costs €3 per car. On certain days, SNCB (Belgian railways) offer combined train/park tickets to Stavelot stationOpening hours: May-early July - 10.30-17.00, High season (mid-July, August) - 10.30-18.30, September and October - weekends 10.30-18.00
