3 surprisingly cool things you need to know before you visit Dinoland Zwolle

Her eyes were saucers and her grin stretched from ear to ear as we stepped into the courtyard of Dinoland Zwolle. Both grew when we saw the first of nine (!) playgrounds.

So many choices. For once our LDA was speechless. But not for long.

“I want to look at the dinosaurs and play on that playground and climb to the top of the mountain and drive the carts and… what’s in there?”

This was our second trip to this Dutch dinosaur park, but our LDA did not remember much of our first, pre-pandemic, pre-dinosaur blog trip. She was only 3 y.o. at the time.

Dinoland in Zwolle in the Netherlands has so much for little dinosaur fans to do that it’s definitely worth a visit. But you should know some things before you go to make the most of your time there. Because it’s not your typical dinosaur park.

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This Dutch dinosaur park is difficult to classify

I struggle with this one.

It’s not a dinosaur museum. It calls itself a park and does not masquerade as a museum.

However, it’s also light on dinosaur education, even for a traditional dinosaur park. This is perhaps my biggest criticism of Dinoland Zwolle: real dinosaur fans know more about the dinosaurs than what is written on the information board. Of course, the information is provided in Dutch, German and English, so space is premium. However, real fans quickly lose interest in the most educational part of the park.

To blur the lines a little: the T-Rexpedition has a T-Rex skeleton (cast) and some more detailed information put together by the team at Naturalis (the Dutch Natural History Museum in Leiden). It was where we first learned about Trix.

It’s not a traditional dinosaur park. Hundred of dinosaurs, classified by time period, are not hiding in the woods. It has some dinosaurs, but not nearly as many as self-proclaimed dinosaur parks have in our experience.

It is not a dinosaur-themed amusement park. There are no rides, no roller coasters.

The best description? Dinoland Zwolle is a dinosaur-themed fun park. It has more dinosaurs than just a fun park with a dinosaur area. The prehistoric beasts are spread throughout the park.

It’s all about the dinosaurs – with no wandering into ice age creatures and only a few Jurassic insects. There are no other characters either.

Instead, wonderful activities to help entertain and tire little dinosaur fans – and isn’t that what every Mamasaura and D-Rex wants?

Dinosaur “decorations” are everywhere. A good example: Min(m)i Mini Golf. Eighteen holes, each named after a dinosaur with a dinosaur skull, figure or similar integrated into the hole. Dinosaurs adorn the playgrounds and the Dino Cars have an”the dinosaurs attacked” vibe. And numerous photo ops.

Dinoland Zwolle caters to various age groups

How often do you go to a dinosaur park and find it’s great for 3 to 8-year-olds, school groups and hard-core dinosaur fans, but that is about it?

The huge benefit of being a dinosaur fun park is it caters to various age groups.

Even older kids will love:

• Rock climbing
• An aerial obstacle course (both of which are for children who are at least 8 years old and fulfil the height requirements)
• Cart track
• Acrobatic trampolines (the ones where you are attached to cables to let you do various tricks, for a small price)
• Virtual reality games (part of the T-Rexpedition)
• Laser tag
• Mini golf
• Tapping open a geode (for an additional price, depending on the size of the geode)
• Clay modelling and
• Video games (part of the indoor playground/play centre).

Younger kids are not neglected at this Dutch dinosaur park, either. Some playgrounds are reserved for those under 4 y.o. (including one indoor playground), palaeontology work (uncovering a T-Rex fossil from sand using a paintbrush), cart track (younger children can ride with an adult), dinosaur shows, clay modelling, dinosaur painting and gemstone searches (and they can take their finds and creations home).

And there are many more activities for those in between.

Few parks can boast a mix that satisfies a range of kids and still manages to be so well integrated. And dinosaur themed.

Dinoland Zwolle is worth a visit when it’s raining

Traffic delayed our arrival on the first day. Rain forecasts forced us to rearrange our plans for our second day in Zwolle. Our LDA still had much she wanted to do at the park after day one, so we decided to see how Dinoland Zwolle fared in the rain – for this review, of course.

Surprisingly: Dinoland Zwolle is also good on a wet day.

The undercover activities are varied:

• T-Rexpedition with activities. LDA loved the dinosaur colouring in (which you then scan so they appeared animated on the screen for all to see). We had fun with the fuse bead dinosaurs and the
• An indoor playground (with an area for toddlers and PlayStation games for tweens)
• Raptor transport boxes (with a playground inside)
• A restaurant – with information about the bone wars
• The Paleo Lab. You can search for gems and shark teeth fossils, or model something out of clay for free. For a small fee, you can buy a mould to paint or purchase a geode to open.
• Laser tag
• Unearth a dinosaur (with a shade cover)
• Theatre shows. These are in Dutch but are still easy to understand if you speak English or German.

Our day was much nicer than the forecast. We remained under cover and dry until just before the park closed and we had to race back to the car in the rain. We spent the whole day and only played “computer games” for less than 15 minutes.

However, I wouldn’t recommend two days at this Dutch dinosaur park if your child is not a hardcore dinosaur fan.

(The plans for a neighbouring hotel have not advanced since our last visit, pre-COVID.)

Make your little dinosaur fan speechless

If you’re going to be in the Netherlands, visit Dinoland Zwolle with your little dinosaur fan and watch them scramble to try everything in the park. Their eyes will turn into saucers. Their smile will stretch from ear to ear. They will be speechless in awe at all the options. And it doesn’t even matter if rain is forecast.

But where will your little dinosaur fan want to start?

Do you have any unusual dinosaur parks to recommend?

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