Granted, I haven't played this game more than 5 times, and admittedly it does seem awfully simple at first, but when you play to win, it isn't simple.
There are 20 cities your elf boot has to visit. These are spread throughout the board. You travel to these cities by going over desert, fields, forest, water or mountain segments. One per city. In order to travel from city to city, you need to have the matching card in your hand, i.e. one pig card to travel across a field, AND you also have to have a matching travel tile placed on the board between the two cities. A pig tile. Each player places these little square tiles on the board in turn, in hopes of creating 'stepping stones' for their token. You can use a stepping stone tile that your opponent placed, but you have to remember you can't use those stepping stones if you don't have the cards in your hand to match them. The trick is trying to use as many stepping stones and cards as you possibly can, because as you visit each city you pick up a token that matchings your player color. At the end of three rounds, whoever has the most city tokens wins.
NO, it doesn't take a genius to play the game, and yes, some people could take forever to try and figure out their route. I believe the rules even suggest using a timer if people take too long. But if people can play reasonably quickly, it is a fun and quick game. The few times I have played I have lost because I realized I made a mistake in my 'travel plans', and didn't get to visit as many cities as I could have.
The game is a bit pricey, especially here, but if you are ready to venture beyond Stratego, Clue, Monopoly, then try it.

My family enjoy playing this game. We have played this game with children 5 years old and up.
Adults you can use additional tiles to block each other trying to be the first one to collect the most pegs and return home. However for young children we just keep it simple collect the pegs. A whole family can sit down play this have fun and learn something. Older children have to think of how they are going to get back to their starting place while younger children you can work on counting skills and math. Another fun thing is everyone has a different start and end spot so children have to figure out how to get there by riding different creatures through different enviroments such as a boar is good in the forest but does not work in the mountain. Younger children will need help with this one however my eight year old have beaten his father so it is not too tough.
This game is as fun as you make it. This is not a small group game anything less then 4 people and you don't have a game.
I will say this is a family game that will not collect dust.

Elfenland is a staple for my friends who enjoy games but aren't hardcore gamers. The rules are very logical and, once grasped, easy to remember. This is not a game where you'll find yourself going back to the instructions. It does take a while to get the rules explained to newcomers, though. Your best bet is to go through the set up and do a practice round, rather than explain them all at once.

The enjoyment of the game greatly depends on the number of people playing. As a two player-game, it's weak; you can both go off in different directions and have little-to-no impact on each other. At 5-6 players, you're far too much in each other's way to be able to plan well (but the chaos can be fun).

There's a subtle point to recommend about Elfenland. Yes, it has a lot of pieces, phases, and appears more complex than it is. However, once you've gotten some casual gamers comfortable with it, it makes it easier to get them to try other, more complex, games with lots of pieces, etc. Call it a gateway game...

There is an expansion available, called Elfengold (not available on Amazon), which greatly increases the complexity and challenge. I'd highly recommend finding it.

I bought this game because it looks great, but when I start playing it I regretted the buy. It mostly takes too long before you can do something, this takes away one's focus. The game itself is also a little bit too simple and requires not much thinking, this improves when you have more then 3 players, preferably 6 (but then it takes even longer before you can do something). Another problem is that it takes relatively long to explain this game to others.
Though there is some hope, you can buy elfish gold, an extension set, which may stir things up.

Nice design but can be boring watching other players figure and refigure their routes/methods for travelling. Even so, a little dull as the game is repetitious.