An Insider’s Guide to Tulip Season in the Netherlands
As the Vice President and Luxury Travel Advisor of WhirlAway, Sara Samuel has been known to plan some special travel experiences. Yet her recent trip to the Netherlands with her father and sister might just top her list.
If you want to experience millions of blooming tulips in a park setting…
“The famous Keukenhof lives up to the hype! Known as the Garden of the World, it’s a massive park that is absolutely worth visiting. Very different from visiting farmed tulip fields, Keukenhof feels like a giant art exhibit. It’s completely different every year because at the end of the season, they dig up and replant the bulbs in different designs across the 80 acres of gardens. More than seven million bulbs were planted this year. It's only open eight weeks a year and about 26,000 people visit it every day during that time, so you really want to get there early or late in the day.”
If you’re a gardener who loves unusual tulips and is curious about their history…
“Take a private tour of the Hortus Bulborum. While everyone knows Keukenhof, Hortus feels like a secret gem—and it’s only a 35-minute drive from Keukenhof. Hortus is home to a historical collection of rare tulip varieties that you probably can’t see anywhere else in the world. It's a volunteer organization, and they're preserving the history of these bulbs—some of them from the 1500s. It’s a vast garden of spring-flowering bulbs—tulips, as well as daffodils, hyacinths, fritillaries, and more.”
If you’ve ever wondered where the tulips you buy at your grocery store are grown…
“You absolutely should meet with a grower. Our entire visit was inside a family’s giant warehouse of a greenhouse, where bulbs and cut flowers are grown. We got to see the whole process. This was not at all touristy—it was just us and the grower. If you just want to see pretty flowers, this isn’t for you, but anyone interested in the tulip growing process will find it fascinating.”
If you want to capture that perfect shot amongst the beautiful blooms…
“Be sure to visit the Tulip Experience Amsterdam. On your trip, you’ll drive through fields and fields of blooming flowers, but growers, understandably, don’t allow you to walk in their fields for photos or picking. But here, there are big expansive fields of flowering tulips with wide rows that are meant to be walked through so you can get the perfect photo. Yes, it feels a little touristy, but it serves a great purpose. And with your admission, you can pick a few tulips on your way out.”
If you’re ready to be wowed by the magnitude of the fresh flower industry…
“The flower auction in Aalsmeer is astounding. It’s the largest in the world, where they move 40-some million flowers a day to florists and stores all over the world. You're watching it all from above—hundreds of people riding around on these little scooters that are zipping through all these traffic lanes, pulling carts and coming in and pulling massive trains of flowers behind them. It’s hard to grasp how massive it is—the size of 250 football fields, and that's not even the shipping part of it. We arranged a visit with a guide who was a retired rose grower and used to be on the board of the organization, so he took us behind the scenes and we were given private access to the live auction board. I absolutely recommend this experience for anyone, whether they’re in the business or not. You’ll never look at a bunch of flowers the same way!”
