Tulip Garden Keukenhof Food – Located in Lisse, Keukenhof is a seasonal garden that is home to millions of the most quintessential Dutch flower: the tulip. Beautifully landscaped, it’s a sight to behold, and just 40 km from Amsterdam, it makes for an easy day trip from the city. During a recent trip to the Netherlands, my husband and I had the opportunity to visit Keukenhof, and what follows is an overview of our time in the gardens, including how we got there and what we did while there.
After a hasty breakfast of instant oatmeal in our hotel room, we set off later than planned at 10:15am for Keukenhof. We had booked timed tickets with entry between 11:30am and 12:00pm, so we knew we would have to hurry if we wanted to book. With this in mind, we chose to take the metro to Central Station rather than walk, which was our original plan. Once at Centraal, we bought a round train ticket to Schiphol Airport from one of the self-service kiosks located near the station entrance.
Tulip Garden Keukenhof Food
Unfortunately, Lady Luck was not looking down on us, because when we arrived at the train platform, we saw that we had just missed the train to Schiphol and would have to wait 20 minutes for the next one. This delay meant that by the time we arrived at Schiphol, we only had just over 30 minutes to get to Keukenhof before we missed our booking. We had planned to buy tickets at the airport for the 858 bus to Keukenhof, but with a little time to spare, this was no longer an option. So, we pitifully hailed an Uber and paid €38 for the 20 minute ride to Keukenhof. We arrived at the gardens with a whopping four minutes to spare.
Vegan Travel To Keukenhof Tulip Park, Van Gogh, And Vegan Dining
If you’re reading this post and planning a trip to Keukenhof, learn from our mistake and allow yourself more travel time to the gardens. I would also recommend looking into the combi ticket; it includes entry to Keukenhof and transport to and from the gardens by bus.
Entering Keukenhof, we were immediately greeted by a colorful display of tulips, and as magnificent as it was, it was only a prelude to what was to come. We made our way through several beautiful gardens replete with fountains, statues, and artfully arranged flowers before reaching the first visitor center, the so-called Juliana/Tulpomania building. There, we grabbed a couple of much needed coffees, as well as blueberry muffins to hold us over until lunch.
We spent the next hour exploring garden after stunning garden (and taking an obscene amount of photos) as we made our way to the Wilhelmina building for lunch. Used to the somewhat bland nature of visitor centers in America, I was taken aback by how nice this one was. It was clean, spacious, and had a variety of food options, including several vegetarian ones. I settled on a quinoa salad and found it to be quite good.
Saddened, we resumed exploring the gardens. It had started to rain while we were having our lunch, but luckily, we had checked the forecast that morning and brought our umbrella. Under his shadow, we continued to meander through the gardens for the next few hours.
Keukenhof Park: Tickets, Timetables And Useful Information For The Visit
Eventually, it stopped raining, and we had a mid-afternoon snack of hand-cut Belgian fries from a food truck. The chips were as tasty as they looked, and it didn’t take long for us to scarf them down.
We saw several other gardens, as well as nearby commercial tulip fields, before leaving Keukenhof. We also went to one of the gift shops to buy several souvenirs to take home to our families.
Since we weren’t racing against the clock like we had been that morning, we were able to take the bus back to Amsterdam, which saved us a bit of money. Given that we had bought return tickets to Amsterdam Centraal from Schiphol Airport earlier that day, we took bus 858 to Schiphol. We arrived at Schiphol about 30 minutes after leaving Keukenhof.
Useful tidbit – The bus stop at Keukenhof is located to the right of the main entrance (exit via the main entrance, turn right, and walk until you see queues of people and signs for the various buses). If you don’t already have a bus ticket (ie, you didn’t buy a combi ticket), you can buy a ticket at the bus stop via a QR code, which is what we had to do.
Keukenhof Gardens: 10 Practical Tips For The Tulip Fields » Maps & Bags
Once at Schiphol, we entered and made our way to the train platforms. There, we took our train to Centraal Station, and from Centraal, we hopped on the subway for one stop to get to our hotel.
By the time we returned to our hotel, it was just after 5:00pm; almost seven hours had passed since we started our day of seeing tulips. Despite the crowds at Keukenhof, I still really enjoyed my time there and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the Netherlands during the spring.
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This guide to Keukenhof Gardens was originally written in 2019 and updated again following my visit in 2023. It is updated annually to reflect new dates, prices, etc. but please let me know in the comments if have I missed anything!
Your Guide To Keukenhof Gardens
The world-famous Keukenhof Gardens are known as one of the best Spring destinations in Europe, and they’re an attraction I’ve always been a bit in awe of.
BUT, over the years, the most beautiful pictures of Keukenhof kept popping up to taunt me. I mean, 32 acres of perfectly sculpted gardens, a sea of over 7 million vibrant flowers, and a relentless onslaught of photos from corner to corner? How could I not be tempted?
So 2019 was the year. I did it! I finally visited Holland’s crowning attraction, the Keukenhof Gardens… and surprisingly, I loved it. So much so that I go back in 2023.
Sure, it’s a little pricey, and yes, it gets hysterically crowded, but if you plan properly, go in with the right expectations and use a few of the tricks I revealed below, I promise you’ll have a really good time (and return home with unrealistic expectations of gardening grandeur).
Keukenhof Flower Gardens Near Amsterdam: The Complete Guide
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll spill the beans on everything you need to know for your visit to Keukenhof Gardens, from mistakes to avoid, the best way to buy tickets, how to get to the gardens and more.
Hope you enjoy it, and let me know in the comments if you have any more questions!
Every year, it opens for just 8 short weeks to over 1.4 million visitors, making it one of the most popular attractions in the Netherlands.
These gardens offer over 7 million flowers arranged in picture-perfect displays, creating 32 hectares worth of ahh-worthy landscapes.
Visit The Keukenhof Tulips
Imagine the fanatical hysteria of a Backstreet Boys concert, except with tulips instead of sweet musical nostalgia 😉
It is a busy, but beautiful place to visit. My best tip? Click here to get your tickets online in advance to save yourself a lot of valuable time and money.
… but there wasn’t a clear theme for 2023, and none was announced for this year, so it’s possible they don’t make them anymore (womp womp).
One of the positive by-products of Keukenhof’s popularity is that it is extremely accessible. There are many different options depending on whether your priority is convenience, price or speed.
Photos: Keukenhof Gardens Hosts Virtual Tours Amid Covid 19
On my first visit, I decided to spend a little extra and stay the night at Lisse’s lovely Bed and Breakfast (click here for the link!). This way, I could comfortably walk to Keukenhof in the morning in about 15 minutes.
On my second visit, I stayed at this lovely hotel in Hillegom and had a 10 minute taxi ride to Keukenhof. I can definitely recommend this too!
That said, you can easily reach Keukenhof from a variety of major Dutch cities. As I mentioned in my Dutch travel tips post, 9292 is a great free website for planning trips within the Netherlands, but here’s how to get to Keukenhof from Amsterdam, Schipol Airport and Leiden.
There are many different tours you can book that will take you from Amsterdam to Keukenhof quickly and easily. This option will take you from the center of Amsterdam to Keukenhof directly in less than an hour.
Add The Netherlands’ Keukenhof Tulip Gardens To Your Spring Bucket List
Depending on the tour, this can (for some reason) be even cheaper than an official combi ticket from the Keukenhof website (which is 36.50 for the 2024 season) so definitely check out tours and compare prices carefully!
If you’re short on time, booking a combo tour might be the best way to make the most of your trip
