Our time at The Efteling and in the Netherlands had reached an end as we drove to Cologne, Germany for a brief night’s stay and a morning touring the city including the Cologne Cathedral, which prior to the completion of the Eiffel Tower, was the tallest building in the world.
The beauty and majesty of the city (and splendid weather) caused us to linger longer in the city that we had anticipated, which consequently caused us to arrive a bit later than planned to the most unique hotel we would stay at on our trip, and quite possibly one of the most highly themed commercial hotels in the world, the Hotel Charles Lindbergh at Phantasialand.
Hotels and vacation homes have started picking up on the desire of guests to be fully immersed in themed environments. Disney, Universal, and other theme park companies have invested massive resources into creating resorts, hotels, and individual rooms that are highly themed. However, most themed resorts and individually themed rooms are usually a standard size and utilize a pretty standard hotel layout. Theme park hotels can take it a step further with exclusive park access and other features that link the theme of the hotel or resort to the park. However, it’s pretty rare to find a theme park hotel where guest rooms are physically inside of the park and are also a direct extension of the park’s theming. The only examples that I’ve ever personally experienced are Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and the now-closed Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser, but while those resorts are/were extensions of the theming of their respective parks, they were not physically inside the park boundaries.
In that respect, the Hotel Charles Lindbergh is a completely unique experience, though like both of those Disney hotels, it can seem like an expensive proposition. The hotel is located completely inside the Rookburg District of Phantasialand, and guests who book a stay here become Aeronauts as they sleep mere feet from F.L.Y., which is the Vekoma dual launch flying roller coaster that forms the centerpiece of Rookburg.
Guests arriving at the Hotel Charles Lindbergh are directed to park at an exclusive parking lot across the park’s main entrance road. The front entrance to the hotel is a bit subdued to reinforce the exclusivity as guests announce their arrival through an intercom system (a bit like Club 33).
Unlike most hotels, the entrance is not a grand atrium or a massive lobby bustling with activity, it’s instead a hallway with a suitcase conveyor and a sign directing guests to the left to check in and to the right to Rookburg.
The check-in area is cozy with two check-in windows where guests can interface with staff and some small sitting areas grouped around the comparatively small lobby.
Upon checking in, guests are given a welcome folio, which furthers the aeronaut theme. As an aside, when reserving the Hotel Charles Lindbergh, guests are sent emails welcoming them to the Explorers’ Society, and providing links where you can discover the land of Rookburg, building the excitement and anticipation for your upcoming stay. The welcome folio includes your room keys, a letter from Gustav Meyerhopper, the Honorary Chairman of the Explorers’ Society, 4 collectible post cards, a map of the hotel and the surrounding land of Rookburg, and a logbook containing typical information about the hotel (how to operate the HVAC, use the phone, housekeeping details, and other pertinent details regarding your stay). As part of your stay, guests also receive complimentary theme park admission on the day you check in and the day you check out (along with any days in between), as well as a Quick Pass for each person in the room for each of your theme park days to skip the line on F.L.Y. I believe when the hotel first opened in 2023, the Quick Passes were dated, so you had to use one on your arrival day and one on your departure day, but we had no issue using both sets of Quick Passes on our departure day since we arrived a bit later in the day.
At check in, guests also make reservations for dinner and breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant Uhrwerk, which is where our arrival later in the day was a big detriment. Since the restaurant is exclusive to hotel guests for breakfast and dinner (park guests can eat lunch here), those who check in first get to pick the most convenient dining times, meaning that as one of the last guests to arrive for the day (though still before 5 PM), we were relegated to a dinner reservation that was while Phantasialand was still open at 6:15 pm (the park closed at 7 PM). That meant we had a very limited time to tour Phantasialand before we needed to make our way back to Rookburg for dinner, and when we finished our dinner, the park would be closed. Lesson learned, I suppose, but it was disappointing that we lost some theme park time because of an inconvenient dinner time. Luckily, we received an early breakfast time that allowed us to eat, check out, and be ready to enter the theme park once it opened early for on-site hotel guests the next morning.
The complementary meals are really worth making time for, but it just would have been better if we could have eaten after 7 PM so we could have experienced a few more rides on our arrival day. For dinner, Urhwerk serves a 3-course pre-fixe menu with a decidedly gastropub flair. Staying on theme, menus are provided in a newspaper (in German, but guests can scan a QR code to view an English menu) and detail the different options for each course as well as the drink options, which can be ordered at an additional charge (including soda and water).
For appetizers, my wife and I ordered salads (she chose a chicken salad, while I selected a tuna poke salad), while Zach ordered a tartare sampler. Both salads were excellent with plenty of protein and crispy greens that were well dressed without being drenched.
The tartare sampler was reportedly very good, but I cannot confirm the assessment since it disappeared before I had an opportunity to taste it.
For our main courses, my wife ordered The Captain, a steak burger with cheddar, ham, tomatoes, and a fried egg along with a side of fries. The burger was massive and needed every bit of the soft brioche bun to contain it.
I ordered the Lucky Lindy, which is a dish of linguini with a cream sauce topped with asparagus, ham, and cashews. I thought the pasta was well done, but I did feel it was lacking some more protein (perhaps some sliced chicken or pork), and while the cashews seemed like an odd choice, they actually worked well to add some texture to the dish.
Zach ended up ordering truffle parmesan fries, which come with a pair of beef sliders served with a variety of toppings.
For dessert, I ordered a warm bread pudding laced with sliced almonds, cinnamon and vanilla cream sauce.
The bread pudding was a bit dry on its own, but when mixed with the sauce, the texture was much improved, though some additional sauce would have been appreciated. Stefany ordered a nougat cream tartlet that had the visual “wow” factor plated like a Napoleon with oodles of caramel sauce.
Zach selected Elly’s Iced Dream, which combined macchiato ice cream, berries, crispy chocolate, and vanilla cream. I don’t think Zach read the item description very carefully, because he’s not a fan of coffee, so he ended up not really liking his dessert. I thought it was good but was a bit of a mess from a plating standpoint, as all of the ingredients quickly coalesced in the bowl as the ice cream melted.
Overall, our dinner was very good and was definitely not worth missing, it just would have been better if we could have gotten a slightly later reservation.
Breakfast was just as good as dinner with plenty of options to satisfy varying tastes and appetites. The buffet included mini pancakes, French toast, cured meats and cheeses, scrambled eggs with bacon and sausage, fresh fruit, fruit salad, yogurt, and various breads and spreads.
Unlike dinner, drinks, including coffee, juices, and water, are included with breakfast, which makes you wonder why non-alcoholic and non-specialty drinks could not be included with dinner.
In addition to dinner and breakfast at Uhrwerk, hotel guests also have exclusive access to Bar 1919, a pub/distillery adjacent to Uhrwerk with an outdoor patio beneath one of the sections of F.L.Y.’s track. This is where having a slightly earlier dinner reservation was an advantage because we were able to eat dinner, explore the hotel and Rookburg after the park closed, and then spend some time at Bar 1919 before retiring for the evening. The bar features a menu of specialty cocktails (both potent and non-alcoholic) and a pretty expansive draft beer list. Given that hotel guests walk through Bar 1919 to reach Uhrwerk, I’m not sure why only a limited selection of bottled beer is served in the restaurant, but it was nice to have a much broader choice including the ability to create your own beer tasting flight.
The one downside of Bar 1919 is that it was quite hot inside (I’m not sure if there was A/C in this space or if it just wasn’t turned on), and the outdoor patio is where guests are permitted to smoke. The inside portion of the bar is well-appointed with rich leather chairs, a raised pool table at the center of the room, and a couple of dart boards.
The food and drinks are great, but what guests staying at the Hotel Charles Lindbergh are really paying for is for an extension of the Rookburg theming into every part of their experience. That brings me to our rooms, which are straight out of a movie.
I thought the rooms on Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser were heavily themed, but these rooms are even better. Yes, they’re cozy (which is to say they’re really small by even European hotel standards), but they only accommodate 2 guests, meaning that we needed to book 2 rooms – though you can get adjoining rooms, and the hotel staff can unlock the interior connecting door upon request. Given this pretty significant limitation, I was pretty surprised how many larger parties I noticed during both dinner and breakfast, so we weren’t the only ones spread across multiple rooms. Phantasialand has other on-site hotels that feature larger rooms, so it’s a testament to how well themed the Hotel Charles Lindbergh to see how many larger groups were still choosing to stay here.
Each room is shaped like a long tube with a circular door.
Single beds flank the aisle leading towards the back of the cabin. There is storage under each bed, but unless you’re willing to unpack your suitcase into these drawers, these spaces are just places for things to get lost or left behind.
Near the back of the room, there is a rolltop closet and small desk/shelf with a stool and trash can. This space is where we stashed our small suitcase and bags (we knew the rooms would be small, so we left our full-size suitcases in the car), but if you’re traveling with a lot of bags, it might be a tight fit.
The bathroom is also a bit of a tight fit with minimal shelf space, but it’s smartly and efficiently designed.
Despite how small the rooms are, designers have packed them to the gills with theming.
There is a scarf and goggles tied to one of the rails above a bed, and small antique photos adorn the limited wall space to further relay the theme.
It really felt like you were walking into Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (for those that have seen the 2004 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Angelina Jolie). While an aisle divides the single beds, the mattresses are extremely comfortable, and the room is perfectly appointed for a 1 night stay. I’m not sure about staying here multiple nights, particularly as part of a group of 3 or more people, but I think impeccable theming is worth trading for a smaller space.
The other part of the Hotel Charles Lindbergh that can’t be replicated by any other theme park hotel in the world is the ability of guests to roam around Rookburg after the park closes. It is a bit of a bummer that hotel guests can’t take a spin on F.L.Y. after hours, but it’s probably every theme park fan’s dream to be able to walk around an empty theme park, and that’s what guests can do here. Since we hadn’t been able to ride F.L.Y. our first day, it was awesome to be able to walk around Rookburg to try to figure out what it would be like to ride the coaster the next day. The twisted steel track loops and curves around every square foot of the land, and the theming elements are more appreciated when you can spend some time to take it all in.
All of these perks for Hotel Charles Lindbergh guests don’t come cheap, particularly if you’re traveling with more than one additional guest. Our single night was 694 Euros, which is about $775 for our 2 adjoining rooms. However, that rate included dinner and breakfast (@$160 of value by my calculation), 6 Quick Passes for F.L.Y. (you can’t even buy these), free parking (@$7/day), early entry to the theme park (though most of the big rides don’t start running until the posted opening time), and 2 days of theme park admission (@$450 total without using any special offers or advanced purchase discounts). So, when you discount the value of the perks guests receive when staying at the Hotel Charles Lindbergh, our 2 exceptionally themed rooms cost us @$150, which is actually an exceptional value. Now, we failed to maximize the value by arriving later in the day, but we were still able to experience most of what Phantasialand has to offer during our visit.
Phantasialand’s Hotel Charles Lindbergh is quite possible one of the most intricately theme hotels in the world, and it should be on every theme park fan’s bucket list.
Next up - Phantasialand
Previously - Liseberg, Legoland Billund, Efteling's thrill rides, and Efteling's family attractions
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I'm really enjoying these trip reports with photos!
Thanks for the excellent work shared here.
What an amazing trip! The perks for staying at this hotel are spectacular!!
Wow looks amazing and price wise that's not bad at all!
Yeah, we had a little bit of sticker shock when we first started looking at booking here, especially since we needed to reserve 2 rooms. We also didn't maximize the value of the room since we arrived to so late on our check-in day - when we were checking out at 8:30 AM, there were guests already checking in for the next day, and while they couldn't physically get into their rooms, they could still get their park tickets and Quick Passes for F.L.Y. It's very much like maximizing your Unlimited Universal Express benefit when staying at Royal Pacific, Portofino Bay, and Hard Rock Hotel.
2 full days in this park is probably optimal, so if you can check-in early on your arrival day (either before or within an hour or 2 of park opening), you should be able to experience everything and get multiple rides on all of the headliners.
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come for the great theme park report, stay for a reference to sky captain and the world of tomorrow.