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Is Edenland Park (Bucharest, Romania) Worth Visiting? Our Experience

Edenland Park, a themed adventure park near Bucharest, Romania, offers a wide range of activities for kids (and adults) of all ages.

The most notable feature of Edenland is that it is located within a forest. Perhaps the largest part of its charm is that every attraction and activity takes place under the shade of mature, branching trees.

Entering Edenland, you feel transported to another, almost fairytale, world.

When we were visiting Romania, our oldest turned 10, and my sister-in-law suggested we take a family outing to Edenland Park to celebrate her birthday. It was the perfect way to spend time with cousins having some adventures together.

With just one day (and not even a full day) to spend there, we couldn’t possibly do everything there is to do at Edenland, so we had to pick just a few of the things that the birthday girl most wanted to do.

Sadly, there was one that she wanted to do, but as it turned out, we were not able to try. But I’ll get to that.

Attractions we enjoyed

With limited time and many fun activities available, we were forced to choose just a few things to try. Here’s what we picked.

Zooland

As you enter the Edenland grounds, the first thing to greet you is an area filled with pens for different types of animals, some familiar and domestic, others a little more exotic.

We stopped to see rabbits, donkeys, sheep, pigeons, and guinea pigs. We also enjoyed seeing the ostriches and camels. Cats were around aplenty, but I don’t think they were part of the exhibit.

I think the kids, especially the little ones, would have enjoyed even more time to admire the animals, but we hurried through a little bit to get on to the other things.

Pony rides

Our main destination was the horse barn to see if we would be able to make a pony ride happen. The website states that reservations need to be made at least a day in advance for horse rides, and our trip was a last-minute decision, so no reservation had been made.

We found an old cowboy (I found it rather incongruous to see a cowboy in a forest in Romania, but he seems to take himself seriously) at the stable who said we could have a pony ride that day but would have to wait about an hour for the horses to finish their feed time.

We waited (and had our own lunch – see below), and then the kids were over the moon to get a real-live pony ride!

They even had a shetland pony for the 3-year-old and the most adorable ponies for everyone else. They took three kids out at a time, with the ponies going along in a line. They took about a 10-minute walk along a trail through the forest, and back to the other waiting kids in our group.

For more advanced equestrians, you can reserve 45-minute riding lessons ahead of time. The minimum age for riding lessons is seven years old.

Lunch

While waiting for the horses to finish their lunch, we figured we might as well have ours. We made our way to the charming row of eateries sheltered under towering trees. After a bit of back and forth comparing all the options, we finally settled on hamburgers.

Other hamburgers I had in Romania before this left me less than impressed, so my expectations were pretty low. But I was blown away by those Edenland burgers. Juicy, flavorful, soft buns – pretty much perfect burgers by anyone’s standards.

The other food options, especially the pasta station, looked pretty tempting as well. We’ll have to try that one next time.

Painting Workshop

Near the incredibly whimsical outdoor food court is a booth where you can choose a plaster figurine to paint. The price varies depending on the size of the figurine you choose.

The attendant gives a palette of colors of tempera paints, a cup, and a paintbrush. To the side of the stand is what looks like a picnic area with tables and chairs, but it’s not for picnicking but for painting.

Our kids and the cousins loved this activity, and the freedom to paint without worrying too much about making a mess. They spent about an hour working on their paintings, and they would have spent longer if we hadn’t been pushing them to get on to the next thing.

The cleanup was painless, with a sink right nearby, and plenty of paper towels.

Archery

While the girls were doing some painting, our boy went off with his uncle to try some archery. Real bows and arrows of various sizes are available to try out, but the four-year-old tried the smallest ones. He did pretty well, too!

The attendant was a helpful teacher and instructor, and since we were there in the off-season with no one else in line, he took plenty of time to show us what to do. He even allowed a few extra shots after the allotted number.

I tried out the larger bows and decided this is definitely a hobby I could get into. My technique needed tweaking, as I kept pinching my fingers somehow, but I can easily see how you can get hooked on target shooting.

Attractions we wanted to enjoy but didn’t try

We had only about a half-day available to spend at Edenland, not nearly long enough to try all there is to do. One of the big disappointments of the day however, was that we were not able to do one of the biggest attractions there.

Tree courses

We went to Edenland with great excitement and anticipation to try out the ropes course and ziplines, something our kids have wanted to try for a long time.

However, when we arrived at the station to get in line, we were told that everyone had the wrong footwear and wouldn’t be able to go up. Two of the kids had on crocs, and the rest were wearing sandals. I understand not wanting the risk of shoes falling off or causing slips, etc., but skipping the shoes altogether and going barefoot was also not permissible.

I was frustrated that we hadn’t seen any information on the website warning about proper attire, specifically the required footwear. It would have been helpful to learn that ahead of time and dress accordingly.

Paintball

The paintball course looked like tons of fun but way above the age range for our young set. The course is very well designed, looking rugged and military as you would hope and expect for an exciting game of paintball.

Maybe we’ll try it out if we get back to Romania when our kids are teenagers.

Playground

We checked out the playground area for the littlest ones but decided it wasn’t worth the fee to get in.

It is a fun-looking playground, but nothing extraordinary, and not that much beyond what you expect from public playgrounds. So we decided this wasn’t where we wanted to spend our time or money that day.

Perusing the website will reveal even more activities available, and if you were to stay over (in a treehouse!) for several days, I’m sure you’d want to try all of them.

What we did right and what we would do differently

Our visit to Edenland happened to be on a weekday in September after all the local kids started back to school. This meant that the weather was still warm but not blazing hot. But more importantly, it meant that the place was practically empty.

No waiting lines, no crowds to maneuver, just those magical woods and all kinds of fun waiting to be had. The one downside of the lack of people at the park was that the food options were not in full gear. But our burgers were still awesome.

If you want to experience Edenland while rubbing shoulders with lots of other adventure seekers, you’ll be better off going in the summer season or on a weekend or holiday. For my part, I loved the quieter version.

The biggest change I would make to that day would be to bring sneakers for everyone. My kids hate wearing shoes (sandals or bare feet any day!), but at least have them in the backpack to be able to go on the ropes course.

Doing it over again, the other thing I would do differently is to spend more time ahead of time planning which activities we wanted to prioritize.

We wasted time walking around to see what there was to do and then discussing what everyone in the group wanted to do. The day would have gone more smoothly if we had a better idea of what there was to do and what everyone wanted to do ahead of time.

But let’s be honest, that’s not how this family dynamic was going to operate anyway, and that’s okay. Sometimes, you can’t plan it all out in advance. You just need to get there and make it up as you go along.