While Europa Park is well known in Europe, I had never heard of it before planning our trip to Alsace, France and looking for kid-friendly things to do while there. Europa Park is actually in Germany, but only an hour from Strasbourg, France where we stayed, 2 hours from Zurich, Switzerland and 2 and a half hours from Frankfurt, Germany, so it's fairly centrally located as a detour on many European vacations.

Going to a big amusement park in Europe might elicits groans from purists, but when you are traveling with kids, a day at an amusement park mixed in with days at museums, churches and other historic sites, can be a vacation-saver. In our case, our day at Europa Park was one of the most purely fun we had in our three weeks in France, even though we also loved many of the more "pure" European destinations as well, and I think it helped us blow off some steam that can build up on long family vacations. I enjoyed it at least as much as the kids did and I certainly enjoyed the improved moods after an awesome day that didn't involve hiking or touring.

Europa Park has themed sections for the countries of Europe. While you won't pretend that you are getting any true cultural experiences of the different countries, it is fun to "travel" to 13 countries in one day. We tried to frame the most authentic photos that we could in each country for a fun album that looks as if we had a grand tour (all curiously in the same clothes!).

But an amusement park can't be great without great rides. The mix of rides at Europa Park is very diverse, making it great for all ages. Many of the rides are typical amusement rides, like spinning tea cups, carousels, small roller coasters and swings, and a variety of water rides. But there are also several modern roller coasters that the most seasoned roller coaster aficionado will love. The Silver Star is one of the best roller coasters I have ever been on.

Add to the rides over a dozen shows, water playgrounds, a children's zone and the wacky FoodLoop restaurant, where food is delivered to your table through a roller coaster like track and you have a world class amusement park that is truly worth a detour.

We spent one long day at the park and felt satisfied, but we skipped the shows and I think we could easily have spent a second day there and had just as much fun experiencing parts of the park we didn't catch. Either way, Europa Park is a strong recommendation for your European family vacation if you love theme parks.

Find current information about Europa Park on their website.