In most years, the vast majority of Dutch tulip fields bloom in mid April and are cut by farmers after two of three weeks. However, there hundreds of varieties of tulips and some bloom early and some late. In all years we’ve been able to find an early field of tulips in bloom by April 8, and a late field still in bloom on May 13 (and many years, even a day or two later).
If you have the ability to plan, then the week beginning April 20 is the best: In a typical year, this week will have the most amount of fields in bloom. And if there is a particularly early or late bloom then this week is still very safe to have some fields in bloom.
Please note: April 27 is King’s Day. Amsterdam turns into a giant street party and it’s impossible to do anything else that day in the capital. It is fun but you need to be expecting it.
For people who come in late March or early April, then we need to draw your attention to the big secret of Dutch flower field season: Hyacinths.
The Netherlands also produces hyacinths. These fields bloom a couple of weeks earlier than tulip fields and they are genuinely as spectacular. They also have an advantage over tulips: they smell delicious, whereas tulips barely have any scent at all.
If you visit a field of hyacinths it’s like standing in an outdoor aromatherapy bath!
Hyacinths bloom in late March and early April. The first week of April is much more certain, but in most years we can find a field of hyacinths in bloom during the last week of March. If you plan a tour with us in this week you have to be okay with the greater uncertainty around finding a field in bloom.
The world famous Keukenhof Gardens are open for about seven to eight weeks, starting in late March and going to mid May. The exact dates for 2026 are March 19 to May 10.
It is important to be aware that Keukenhof is a tourist attraction -as opposed to the tulip and hyacinth fields, which are belong to actual farms and produce crops.
Keukenhof always make sure that they have some tulips in bloom at the very start and very end of this window. However, Keukenhof will be nowhere near its peak at either end of this window.
Should you visit at the very start or end of Keukenhof’s season? It varies from person to person. Some will be disappointed, and some won’t. But at the very least you need to be aware that Keukenhof will not be at its best in these periods.
The big caveat regarding timing that always applies is the the bloom each year is dependent on the weather that precedes it in previous months. Thus, you can have an early bloom or a late bloom. For the most, the variance is not that extreme and it might be a bit early or a bit late. However, once in a blue moon it can be quite dramatic.
No.
Luckily, the Netherlands is a very small country so you are not actually that far away from tulip fields, but won’t see any in the Amsterdam itself. However, if you’re intent on seeing them on your own you will need a car. The one exception to that is if you’re already on a bus tour to Keukenhof, you can rent bikes there and explore the nearby roads. However, this will only get you to just one or two busy fields that everyone else is going to!
Here are the main tulip field areas:
Also, no.
Many people assume that Keukenhof has tulip fields, but it doesn’t. It’s a set of beautifully manicured gardens, but no tulip fields. The gardens do look out onto one flower field, but you are at quite a remove from it and you have to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other visitors.
However, the area surrounding Keukenhof is full of tulip and hyacinth farms. It’s incredibly picturesque in Spring, however these are not accessible by foot. Neither are they sign-posted. If you’re the type who doesn’t mind venturing down a little backroad, and you have a car, then you’ll almost certainly happen upon some.
Yes (or take one of our tours!).
You can’t walk to any from Keukenhof itself. You can bike to one or two, but they will be packed with other tourists. The big bus tours will drive you past some tulip fields as you approach Keukenhof and if you’re lucky you might get to stop and take a photo outside one of them.
There are a few small independent operators like ourselves which specialise in tulip field tours, where this is the focus of the tour and everything is planned around it. Of course, we’d love you to book one of our tours, but if you do go with another small tour company please book with them directly. The likes of Get Your Guide and Viator take quite large commissions. So, always do a quick Google search to find the same company’s website.
The area around Keukenhof is blanketed in tulip and hyacinth fields. If you simply put Keukenhof into your GPS, all you have to do once you reach it is start driving the small roads.
For clarity sake: if you’re driving from Amsterdam you’ll first be on a freeway. Once you exit this you’ll be on a main road which leads you to Keukenhof. But once you see Keukenhof there are much small roads nearby. Simply start driving some of these.
That might feel like a terrible plan and one ripe for an argument in the car, but it’s the only way to do it. The specific fields rotate from one year to the next so it’s impossible to tell you the exact location from past experience.
However, the area is so dense with flower fields in April that if you veer down backroads you will stumble upon some. We do recommend staying west of the N208 as the concentration is higher on that side of the road.
For instance, if you’re at Keukenhof, input the nearby town of Hillegom into your navigator. Opt for the backroads instead of the N208 (the yellow road in the picture, the main connector). This is safer for stops, as backroads are more conducive than main roads.
Apply a similar approach for the neighboring towns of De Zilk, Vogelenzang, and Noordwijkerhout. Enjoy your scenic drive!
Also: don’t worry about getting lost when you travel down backroads! It’s a very small country, and you’re never too far from a bigger road. As long as you have GPS you’ll be fine.
Travel north to the Beemster!
This where our Off-The-Beaten-Track Tour goes to. We can’t give you that route as it’s too much off the beaten track and you’d get lost! So simply, enter Middenbeemster into your navigator and take the main freeway.
Once you reach Middenbeemster, you should then enter the nearby towns of Noordbeemster and Westbeemster into your navigator (the Dutch aren’t overly exuberant with place names!) and then travel the backroads in between.
This roads of this region are actually laid out in a grid formation (it used be a lake and was drained by windmills in the 1600s), so the backroads are all straight.
You will find tulip fields along these roads.
There is also a nearby windmill which is open to the public so that is nice to add as a sightseeing stop: Noordervaart 2, 1636 VL Schermerhorn. Museummolen.
35km from Amsterdam to Beemster
Yes, but it’s a bit more complicated!
Just like the area around Keukenhof, the area to the tulip fields area to the north of Amsterdam is (much) more extensive than the above text details. We mainly go to the Beemster and Keukenhof / Lisse, so we’re not as intimately familiar with how to find the flower fields in the following areas or towns. But in case you feel like Googling a bit more, the following can be good places to start: Anna Paulowna, Alkmaar, Zwaagdijk West and Zwaagdijk Oost.
Sure, but it’s not our forte so we won’t give specifics about how to find tulip fields there.
However, Flevoland is a new region -it was literally created in the 1950s and 60s. At the risk of offending its good citizens, in general we find it less interesting and historic than the Beemster and the region around Keukenhof. So, we’ve never been tempted to bring guests there. However, we imagine that its tulip fields (like the Beemster’s) are generally free of visitors.
A little bit.
You can rent bikes in the Keukenhof parking area to explore the surrounding area (you can’t actually bring them in to the Gardens). They will give a little map too with some routes plotted. These will get you to tulip and hyacinth fields. The one problem is that these are the fields closest to Keukenhof and everyone gets the same map.
If you manage to make your own way to a field of tulips – congratulations!
However, you are very much about to enter private property.
They’re real working farms with an actual (and FYI – the crop is the tulip bulb, not the flower) agricultural product. Most farmers don’t mind visitors to their fields – they understand the attraction. However, some farmers in the Keukenhof region, put a barrier, fence, or gate up around their fields. This means you’re not welcome.
Please exercise common sense when entering a flower field. And if you don’t have common sense, then the following applies:
The easiest way to visit Keukenhof is by car. It’s about 35km away and it’s simply a case of going from A to B. It’s best to arrive a bit early, so that you avoid traffic. This is especially the case in peak season. You don’t have to get there bang on 8.30am when the park opens – anytime before 10am will give you a headstart on the crowds that start amassing about 11am.
The Netherlands has an excellent public transport network but unfortunately Keukenhof doesn’t fit into it all that well. This is because Keukenhof is on the outskirts of a town called Lisse, which does not have a train station. You can get the bus to Lisse, but Keukenhof is actually too far away to walk to.
Keukenhof itself organises a direct bus (Bus 852) from Amsterdam (and Haarlem, Leiden, and Schiphol) for tulip season. We’ll give you details on that below. However: it gets very busy and crowded, and buses are often delayed substantially. They will get you there but it won’t be relaxing.
The train station closest to Keukenhof is Hillegom, 6.3km away. It costs €7.10 each way and will take circa 30 minutes from Amsterdam Centraal. You will have to change stations at Heemstede-Aerdenhout. Both Hillegom and Heemstede-Aerdenhout are small regional stations. The Dutch are very laid back and will happily give directions.
All train times can be found on www.ns.nl/en
Once you reach Hillegom, you still have six kilometres to reach Keukenhof. You could try a taxi or an Uber, though we’re not sure how well served the smaller towns are by Uber. The following is a local taxi service. We’ve never used them so we can’t vouch for them personally:
This a special bus put on for tulip season and it drops you at the front entrance of Keukenhof. It goes eight times an hour. However, expect the one you’re on to be packed and if you get there close to departure time you might have to stand. Also, they don’t always depart on time.
The bus departs from RAI – this is the very well-known (by locals) convention centre which is on the southern side of Amsterdam. It’s well served by tram and Metro. The simplest way to get there from Amsterdam Centraal is to take Metro 52. This will get you there in eight minutes. The name of your stop is Europaplein.
You have to book tickets ahead of time. However, the service is organised in conjunction with Keukenhof itself, so you can buy admission and bus tickets at www.keukenhof.nl and simply navigate to the correct page.
There are plenty of private big bus tours to be had. They’re the complete opposite of what we do, and we really have no idea if one is any better than the others – we doubt it. They simply ship you down to Keukenhof (and back) in a big bus and that’s that!
Some claim that they drive through scenic tulip fields areas. Technically this is true, but be aware that if you’re on a big bus that your experience of such fields will be very perfunctory – you’ll zip by on a large road and be at quite a distance from the tulips.
A taxi from Amsterdam to Keukenhof will cost between €140 – €180 each way.
From mid April to late April Keukenhof gets vastly busy, and the crowds really start amassing around mid morning, say 11am. If you get there by 9am, or 9.30am (it actually opens at 8am), you’ll have a good hour and a half where it’s not crazy busy. Likewise, the numbers start to thin out after about 3pm, so you could arrive down then too.
Earlier and later in the season, this is not such a big deal.
If you like over-priced, mediocre food then Keukenhof will not disappoint! In this sense it’s a typical tourist attraction. However – and this shocks many of our American guests – you can actually bring in your own food and drinks and. There are outdoor terraces where you can stage your own little impromptu picnic.
It’s incredibly easy to compile your own little picnic. Amsterdam, like all Dutch cities, has plenty of grocery or delicatessen store options. If you don’t know where to start simply ask for the nearest Albert Heijn. This is the name of the largest Dutch grocery store chain, and they’re everywhere!
There’s always an in-store bakery so pick up fresh bread there. Head over to cheese aisle and pick up some of the good stuff (ie, gouda). Don’t worry too much about brands and whatnot, the general standard is quite high. The word bio on Dutch food denotes organic and it generally means the quality is good, so that can be your guide. You can also pick up some meats (pro tip: buy some aioli to spread on your cheese sandwich. It’s delicious!). Sliced cheese is perfectly acceptable.
Finally, buy some beer or a bottle of wine. You can of course buy plastic glasses there too, but they generally also sell cheap (like, one euro apiece) picardi wine glasses. And you can easily recycle these afterwards: There are recycling stations throughout the city, including often in front of larger Albert Heijn stores.
And hey presto, you’re all set for an idyllic picnic amongst the tulips.