The Best Places to See Tulips in the Netherlands

Visiting Keukenhof gardens during tulip season is a staple of Dutch springtime. More than 6m tulip bulbs are planted in this expansive park every year, and the English-style landscape gardens are breath-taking. Keukenhof also holds events throughout the season, including a huge flower parade that attracts thousands of visitors.

Yes, this is an entire city, but finding tulips in Amsterdam is never difficult, thanks to the many springtime events and activities that take place here. In addition to the floating flower market and other horticulturally orientated attractions, Amsterdam hosts a massive tulip festival. Many of the city’s cultural institutions take part in this event and plant tulips around their headquarters, creating colourful oases throughout.

Like the rest of the Flevoland province, the municipality of Noordoostpolder was submerged beneath the sea until relatively recently and was reclaimed from the Zuiderzee bay in the mid-20th century. Today, this large landmass is covered in flower fields and is among the best places in the Netherlands to experience tulip season. Many farms in Noordoostpolder offer guided tours of their fields, and the whole area is exceptionally bike-friendly.

Although the town of Lisse is usually associated with Keukenhof, it is actually surrounded by hundreds of tulip fields that mainly produce flowers for the international market. These long, multicoloured strips of land are astoundingly beautiful and easily accessible by bike. In fact, Lisse has deep historical ties with floriculture and is home to the Museum de Zwarte Tulp, dedicated to the Dutch tulip industry.

The small tract of fertile coastal land between the cities of Leiden and Haarlem is famed for its expansive tulip fields and is colloquially known as de Duin- en Bollenstreek (the dune and bulb region). This beautiful landscape trails through a small Dutch town called Noordwijkerhout, which is particularly well known for having excellent tulip bulbs. Exploring this region by bike is rewarding and allows you to discover the rural hinterland, rugged dunes and beautiful shoreline of North Holland.