A Day Trip to Keukenhof Tulip Gardens

Welcome to your guide for a visit to one of the most beautiful places on earth, Keukenhof! Keukenhof being the largest flower garden in the world, with its millions of flower bulbs, is indeed a sight for the sore eyes. Known as the “Garden of Europe”, Keukenhof covers hectares of cultivated gardens that showcase varieties of tulips and other flowers. I instantly fell in love with the beautiful tulips, second only to roses! Tulips symbolize paradise on earth in Turkish culture, and that was exactly what I experienced here. If you too are someone who loves tulips, or flowers and gardens in general, you must visit Keukenhof.

Where exactly is this Keukenhof and How do you get there?

Keukenhof is located near Lisse in the northwestern country of Europe, the Netherlands. It is an easy day trip from Amsterdam. It is mostly travelers visiting Amsterdam or the locals that day-trip to Keukenhof. So, like most visitors, if you are staying anywhere near Central Amsterdam, all you have to do is get to the Schipol Airport.

We stayed at a hotel at about 10 minutes from the airport, so it was offering the shuttle service for us to the airport. So, all we had to do was to get on that shuttle and reach the airport. Even if you are not living in the area, it should still be an easy Uber drive to the airport.

Do you have bags to store?

Since we had our flight scheduled for our next European destination, Prague, on the same day after this trip to Keukenhof, we had to check out from our hotel before getting to the airport. So, this meant we had our baggage with us when we got to the airport. If you are reading this post, you must be a traveler too and might be wondering if there is any storage space for your bags. But fret not, there is good news on that!

You get to store your luggage near Arrival Hall 4 of the Airport Arrivals Lounge for a minimal fee. You can then catch Bus 858( Keukenhof Express) from the Schipol Plaza Arrival Hall 4 to Keukenhof Gardens. It takes about half hour to reach. It is very easy to spot this bus covered with pictures of tulips all over it. So, it is almost impossible to miss it.

Tickets Purchase Information

If you don’t want to lose time waiting in lines for the tickets, or avoid any other unforeseen event, I highly recommend you to buy tickets online through their site in advance like we did. Even if not, there is the combo ticket option for the bus and the Gardens admission available at the Schipol Airport too.

Best time to visit Keukenhof Gardens

In case you are wondering when is the best time to visit Keukenhof, it is from mid-April to early May. More precisely, the last 2 weeks of April and the first week of May. However, they are open from about the third week of March until about mid-May. So, it is only open in Spring. During this period, the Gardens are open daily between 8 AM and 7.30 PM. However, the ticket counters are open only till 6 PM.

We visited the Keukenhof Flower Exhibit in the third week of April of 2018. As sad as it might sound, it is a no-go in 2020 as part of the responsible measures placed by the Dutch government to help stop the spread of the global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus.

Nonetheless, are you ready for a virtual tour right here right now with me on this blog post as I share with you the many different colors that there are of the beautiful tulips? I bet you are! So, stay tuned and enjoy your tour while you’re here. 🙂

Plan on spending a good 4-5 hours there specially if you are a flower-lover like me, or at least a minimum of 2 hours if you are short on time. If you want to take pictures without any people in them, plan on getting there at 8 AM and do your rounds fast.

Things and Activities to do when in Keukenhof

Keukenhof is a beautiful flower garden like one would expect, and by far one of the most rejuvenating experiences that one could imagine. Walk around like you would in a typical park, see the flowers and capture its glory in your pictures. The best areas are around the ponds and the windmill, so you might want to head there first.

There are also areas with rows of tulips, specially during the peak season, and this was where I got some of my best pictures.

Visiting Keukenhof is like experiencing the essence of Holland. You get to see so many Dutch details all over the park, be it their traditional wooden clogs, or the cow with Dutch cheese stacked around it. You could even try those wooden clogs out!

These can be found near the most prominent attraction in the park, the giant Dutch windmill overlooking the tulip fields. Climb the windmill to experience beautiful views of the tulip fields stretching as far as your eyes can see. There are also boat tours from this point taking you into the landscape of the tulip fields. Although, the fee for this is not covered in your park entrance.

Now and then, you could also be in for some pleasant surprises like this one…

Places to eat in Keukenhof

Wrapping up with some Pro Tips

• The tulips are grown for their bulbs that are shipped around the world. For this reason, the flowers are plucked off from the plant that strengthens the bulbs for the next year. They usually do this on or shortly after April 30th. So, if you want to catch the flowers in their glory, it is best to visit Keukenhof around the third week of April, before the 30th. We visited on the 25th of April of 2018 and the garden was in full bloom, so there you have it! 😉
• There are people flocking from all over the globe for the tulip festival here, so you can expect some crowds at the park. The thing to note though is that it gets unbearably crowded during weekends to an extent that you might see more heads than flowers. So, be extremely mindful about this and try your best to avoid visiting on weekends!
• Skip the lines and book your tickets online in advance. It could save you some time, specially if you can’t avoid going there on a weekend.
• There is a baggage locker space available at the Garden too, but it is not as spacious as the one at the airport. There could be just enough room in it to hold your purse and possibly another carry-on bag, but not your checked baggage. So, you’ve been warned about that too!
  

A Visit to Keukenhof Gardens – Conclusion

If you are thinking whether a trip to Keukenhof Gardens would be worth it, I would say, yes, absolutely! We planned our entire Europe vacation around the tulip season in Keukenhof, and it turned out to be the highlight of our entire trip. So, you know that’s a big thing! But yes, if you are not catching the tulips during their peak season, and you have traveled from somewhere far off, it could turn out to be rather disappointing.

If you are planning for a Keukenhof visit, you might be having images of rows upon rows of tulips stretching far into the distance in your mind. In that case, Keukenhof Gardens as such is not the place where you can find it. You might want to explore the tulip fields around by renting a bike or a car like many people do. You might even want to head north and check out Kop van Noord-Holland. We could not do any of that as we were running short on time.

We spent about 4 to 5 hours at the Garden alone and would have loved spending a lot more time, but since we had our flight in the evening, we had to get going. Nonetheless, the time that we got to spend was to my heart’s content, so I can pretty much guarantee that it will fill your heart too! 🙂