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Hello everyone!
Last Easter we decided to take a small roadtrip to Holland and visit the Keukenhof! So, today, I’m going to share somethings about the ride with you!
1) What is it?
The Keukenhof is a botanical garden, also known as Garden of Europe or Dutch Tulip Park. It is located south of Amsterdam, between the cities of Hillegom and Lisse. It has two service buildings and four flowered ones, plus several picnic areas.
At the main entrance you will find lockers, where you can leave your personal belonging if you feel like it, and also, an information centre where you can get a map like this:
The buildings named Wilhelmina and Irene have restaurants and toilets, but you can find typical Dutch food kiosks scattered all over. You are also allowed to bring your own snack and drinks. I believe that access with alcoholic beverages is restricted, but I’m not sure.
The whole garden is accessible for wheelchairs and baby strollers. Pets are also allowed but must be kept on a leash! There’s also free Wi-Fi connection throughout the perimeter.
You can purchase tickets online, we paid €8.50 each!
2) How to get there?
If you are in Amsterdam, it is possible to take a bus from Schiphol airport straight to Keukenhof. There’s even a combined ticket option (entry+transfer) that saves you a few bucks.
But in our case, we were spending the Easter holiday in Holland, visiting some friends. Which means that we rented a car. If you are also driving there, beware that you have to pay for parking at the Keukenhof, ok? Save €6 of your budget for it.
3) When to visit?
The Keukenhof only opens during the European spring. The dates vary a little from one year to the next, depending on the beginning of the season. In 2018, it was opened from March 22nd to May 13th, from 8AM to 7:30PM.
Because of this short opening period, it opens on weekends and holidays too, but these are the busiest days. The garden is very large too, so make sure you have at least 4 hours to visit everything and enjoy it.
That’s why it’s important to plan your day well: check how long it will take to get there and buy ticket in advance. We bought the tickets three days before the trip, which took us about 4 hours. Since we left home early, everything worked out pretty well!
The best time to visit the park is in the middle of April, when all the flowers have blossomed. We visited the Keukenhof On March 30th and in some parts of the garden, the flowers were still a little shy, as you can see in the photo:
My suggestion is to check the hashtag #Keukenhof on Instagram, a few days before buying the ticket. That way, you can have a nice idea of what the garden is looking like in recent posts.
Despite this, even if the gardens outside are not at its best, the inside ones will be! They are adorned by different exhibitors, in different ways and themes every year. In 2018 the theme was wedding cerimonies, which made the Beatrix building look like this:
4) How to visit the tulip fields around the Keukenhof?
Aside from Keukenhof, there are several other tulip gardens around it, which you can visit on foot, by boat or by bicycle. The boat ride costs €8 and lasts about 40 minutes. You can learn about it in the Windmill region, near the Willem-Alexander building. Bikes can be rented at the main entrance!
The thing is, these properties are private so, not all of them are accessible! When you book your boat ride or rent the bike, Keukenhof’s employees will tell you where it’s possible to go and which paths to follow using your phone’s GPS.
This tour is suited for people of all ages and specially families! The experience is wonderful, but it’s only worth it if the weather is cloudy or sunny, since the fun relies on enjoying these views:
If you are planning your tour for 2019, the theme will be Flower Power. I wonder if there’s a feminist exhibit in the making! Guess we’ll have to wait and see! You can keep up to date on the upcoming schedule through the official website of Keukenhof.
If you already know or would like to know the Keukenhof, share in the comment session!
Thank you for reading and hope to see you on my next post!
♦ The pictured used as cover for this post was taken by myself 😋
