We love tulips so a trip to Keukenhof was a must for us. Some places don´t live up to their expectations and hype, but Keukenhof excels in every way. If you love tulips, you will be over the moon in this place. The gardens open annually from mid March to mid May, the exact dates varying according to the weather. We visited in mid April and all the flowers were in full bloom then. People travel from all over the world just to visit these gardens, so our advice is to book as far in advance as possible to avoid disappointment. We booked nearly a year in advance and still found places already fully booked and not available. You will need to make a choice. You will either need to base yourself in Amsterdam and take a day trip, this being your best bet if you are relying on public transport or organized tours; or you will have a car and base yourself in the Keukenhof area. Whatever you choose, bear in mind that the weather in Holland is incredibly changeable - one moment it can be sunny, the next raining, the next cold and windy, and the next fine again. You need to come equipped for all evantualities and also book two or three days of visits to the gardens to ensure that you will maximize your chances of getting some good weather there, and so you can enjoy the flower displays without rushing. The first thing to sort out is your accommodation as this is in short supply in Holland, - as we said above, the secret is to book early to avoid disappointment. You can always book freely changeable, cancellable, no payment up front deals to ensure you are not penalized if your plans change. We give you three options to consider, all of which we thoroughly recommend - it just depends what works best for you. Only about 4 kilometres away from Keukenhof is a charming small typical Dutch town called Noordwijkerhout full of shops and restaurants. At the heart of this town is a boutique hotel called Hat Wapen - its comfortable and has excellent food, with dinner aswell as breakfast as an option. Here´s a link for you to take a look: https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/uWzhQzUM Whether you stay here or not, the town is worth visiting while you are in the area and so too is this hotel´s restaurant. A bit further away is Noordwijk which is on the coast - we love to go walking on the beach there, lapping up the fresh sea air. There´s a great hotel there called the Van de Valk Palace; they give you a wonderful buffet breakfast, serve superb fish dishes for dinner in their restaurant and are in walking distance of the beach and the town centre. We travelled with our samoyed dog called Coco and this hotel gives great treatment to dogs, making them really welcome. Here´s a link for you to take a look and book if you like; https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/4zbQBadl Our favourite hotel in Amsterdam is the Monet Garden. They have a superb breakfast buffet, nice comfortable rooms and are right in the heart of the city so most attractions are within walking distance or a short taxi or metro ride away. We recommend booking a room with a canal view as this is much quieter than those rooms overlooking the main road. Here´s a link for you to look and book if you like: https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/tr4HFPzq Below is a picture from our own visit to Keukenhof gardens.
Having sorted your accommodation, let´s consider viewing the tulips. If you are based in Amsterdam, we recommend a private tour to give you a good introduction and birds eye view. We are not keen on being bussed around with a big crowd, constantly watching the clock and being under stress to meet up at the correct time and place. Likewise the minivan tours tend to be not very comfortable and inflexible. One tour we can recommend where, parking permitted, you should be picked up in a nice comfortable Mercedes with driver and guide, at or near your hotel. Take a look at this link: https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/qKVhjBVF Then, in addition to that, you can go back to Keukenhof for a second day - try and leave early in the morning so you get there before the crowds. This time you may want to book a private car with driver and expedited entrance into the gardens. You may like to take the cruise around the tulip fields - we particularly enjoyed that. Also, on some days, there are tulip parades around the village - we don´t like the crowds for that, but if looking at flower decorated floats is your thing, then make sure you go on a day when they have a parade. For your second day, we recommend this other private tour - very flexible and focused on tulips, - here´s the link for you to take a look and book: https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/6puFMCpj If you still have more time in Amsterdam, you may want to take some other day trips. What we recommend, is that you check out these cheap tour options https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/djzpB7dB and make notes of what you would really like to see. Then craft your itinerary and ask the above mentioned private tour operators to Keukenhof gardens to give you a quote for the places you want to see - then you will be able to really enjoy your days out, knowing that you will travel in comfort stress free and at your own pace. So go to this link https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/6puFMCpj scroll down to the bottom of the page to help, and then click on chat, and say you want to do a customized tour to visit say Brussels, Brugges, and the windmills of Holland.
If you are with a car and are staying in one of the towns near Keukenhof gardens, then we suggest you book on your own directly with their website as far in advance as possible, - here´s the link: https://keukenhof.nl/en/ For your second day, outside the gardens, we suggest you go to the tulip museum and farm at De Tulperij, Oude Herenweg 16B You can drive into the street. Parking free., 2215 RZ Voorhout The Netherlands, where you see the history of the tulip in Holland, their private garden and where you get to pick a bunch to take home with you. Here´s the link for you to look and book: https://tripadvisor.tpk.mx/RLEcBjFp Also in Lisse, you may want to visit the Keukenhof Castle Gardens which are open daily from 08.00 to 19.30.For eating, Lean and I like good wholesome quality food, made from natural fresh ingredients, rather than cheap junk food. We found three nice places we can recommend ner Keukenhof. First of all, a delicious steak restaurant, with a good varied menu and a heavily discounted dish of the day. Restaurant Den Ouden Heere lisse Heereweg 207A, 2161 BE Lisse. Second, a great Italian restaurant serving a wide variety of starters, main courses and desserts, including some really delicious tender veal with mozzarella cheese. Ristorante Il Mulino Heereweg 194 2161 BP Lisse Third is Funky Moose which is a little gem - its basically a simple hamburger and sandwich joint, but they have a good choice of beautifully prepared tasty homemade dishes. If you just want a light informal meal or have children, this is the place to go. Funky Moose, Kanaalstraat 22, 2161 JL Lisse
Finally, here are some photos from our own visit to Keukenhof Gardens.
You can see Lean above, admiring this beautiful bed of red tulips.
We hope you have enjoyed this blog. The links in it recommending places can benefit us financially - we humbly ask you to make your bookings through these links as that helps us to keep this site up and running - and it won´t cost you any more than if you were to book directly on the provider`s own website. Also, in the event of a problem, it makes it easier for us to resolve it. Happy Travels! And we would very much appreciate it if you could forward this to those of your friends who love flowers and travelling. Thank you, and may God bless you. Lean and Anthony, the travelling donkeys.
