Visit Keukenhof during a stay in Amsterdam: how to explore the world’s largest floral park for tulip lovers?
During your stay at Amsterdam Don't miss visiting Keukenhof, this huge 32-hectare park located in Lisse, 30 kilometres from the Dutch capital. Open every year mid-March to mid-May , this floral park – described as the most beautiful garden in the world – attracts more than one million tourists in less than two months. It consists of more than seven million bulbs! It is the international emblem of bulb flowers, flowers and plants.
visit of Keukenhof , represents all the charm of the Netherlands in the same park: in the spring, large multicolored tulip fields sublimate Holland, offering visitors an enchanting decor. It is the immanquable of romantic stays a few steps from Amsterdam, in the Bollenstreek triangle, between Haarlem and Leiden. You are told how to visit Keukenhof.
Presentation and brief history of Keukenhof
Keukenhof was created in the 15th century, while it was attached to the estate of the Château de Teylingen. It was initially used as a hunting ground, as well as a vegetable garden. This is where Jacqueline de Bavière (1401-1436) collected vegetables and herbs to flavor his kitchen. Keukenhof literally means “the garden of the kitchen”.
Photo credit: Flickr – dvidal.lorente
The love of the Netherlands for tulip is, however, not endemic: it is a Frenchman, Charles de L’Écluse – or Carolus Clusius – (1526-1609) who imports from the Turkish Ottoman Empire to Holland this flower with bright colours. Very quickly, the tulip trade became flourishing and the bulbs suffered a limitless speculation: in the 17th century, the tulips were so caught that they served as a currency of exchange until the first financial bubble of the modern era was created!
It was only in 1949 that the park was transformed, redesigned to host the exhibition of bulb flowers at the instigation of the mayor of Leisse of the time.
The massifs of this sandstone and clay floor are designed by the architects up to one year before the opening of the park. The particularity of the Keukenhof bulbs is that they are planted by hand between October and December. Imagine: 7 million bulbs planted manually in three months! For gardeners, this represents a titanic preparation work.
When to visit Keukenhof and its tulip fields?
The tulips are at their peak from 15 April . We can already contemplate the crocus from the end of March, then the narciss, jacinths, roses, orchids, lys and jonquils in mid-April, to treat the marvelous look of a million visitors who, the time of a walk, are invited to a poetic journey at the first lodges of a flamboyant floral show. The comb of aesthetics!
To make the most of Keukenhof, visit the park before 10:30 or after 16:00. The light that the morning and evening sun offers, allows you to make great pictures. In addition, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are quieter days than the other days of the week.
Photo credit: Flickr – Jayjay P
What to see in Keukenhof's floral park?
In the park, four exhibition pavilions present floral shows during the season, a unique opportunity to contemplate the artist’s work by the few 90 Dutch horticulators at work.
These pavilions, in addition to the 800 different kinds of tulips, display sublime gardens where jacinths, jonquilles, carnations, iris, orchids, whose humid flavors awaken the sensation of pleasure.
When you come to visit Keukenhof and its tulip fields, you will dive into an enchanting universe for a grandiose show, but unfortunately, ephemeral.
And who knows? You may also be contaminated with the Tulipomania virus, and so you will be eager to flood your garden with a thousand and a flowers on your way home. You can also place an order from the farmers.
Keukenhof's visit can be done independently, but guided tours – mainly in English, few are in French – are also organized. Ideal if you want to be taken care of A to Z, for half a day's visit.
Photo credit: Flickr – Carlos Perez
Keukenhof: schedules, rates, how to go...
How to get to Keukenhof?
To find the park and visit Keukenhof, it’s very easy. The address is: Keukenhof Flower Garden, 2161 AM, Amsterdam, Netherlands .
The train from Amsterdam Central Station takes you to the Schiphol airport for about 4 €. From there, a bus every fifteen minutes goes to Keukenhof Park.
By bus, from Amsterdam: take line 197 of Leidseplein/Museumplein Square to Schipol, then go up to Keukenhof Express (bus 858), Leiden (854) or Haarlem (850).
Opening dates and times
The Keukenhof Park will be open from March 21 to May 10, 2020 inclusive , daily from 8am to 7.30pm (ticketing hours: from 8am to 6pm).
People with reduced mobility can access the site, which has health facilities for persons with disabilities. You can rent a wheelchair for free (think to book the day before the visit, before 5pm). Dogs are allowed in the park, only if kept on a leash.
The pavilions are equipped with free WiFi terminals. At the caisses, the information desk and the park entrance, a park plan to visit Keukenhof is available free of charge.
Admission ticket rates to visit Keukenhof
- Children up to 3 years: free
- From 4 to 11 years old : 8 €
- Adults: 16 €
- Groups from 20 to 200 people : 13,50 €
- A/R bus ticket from Schipol, Leiden or Haarlem : 24 €
- A/R bus ticket from Amsterdam : 29 €
- Ticket bus children from 4 to 11 years old, departure from Amsterdam, Schipol, Leiden or Haarlem : 12,50 €
- Guide : 5 €
- Car parking : 6 €
Due to the high affluence it causes, we recommend you buy your online ticket for Keukenhof in advance. Via the button above, you can book a cut-file ticket, with or without transport from Amsterdam, guided tours from Amsterdam, and even a visit from Keukenhof with a guide coupled to a cruise for only 55€.
Otherwise, lovers and tulip lovers will have to arm themselves with patience to visit Keukenhof, because long queues can be created at the entrance of the park. In order to save time, choose a skip-line ticket in advance that will make you enter the park like a V.I.P member and enjoy this unique setting.
Note that there are also guided tours of Keukenhof from The Hague and Rotterdam .
Where to stay near Keukenhof?
You can quite accommodation in Amsterdam , the capital being close to the park. However... imagine cycling around the flower fields when most tourists have returned to Amsterdam or arrive early in Keukenhof to make pictures of the world desert garden. This is possible if you stay in one of the hotels near Keukenhof in the Bollenstreek region.
Loading comments ...