How to Visit Tulip Fields near Amsterdam (+2025 Dates!)
With spring on the horizon, it is time to plan your visit to the tulip fields in Amsterdam! If you ask me, there is no better period to visit Amsterdam (and Netherlands) than during the tulip season. In this travel guide I am going to share how to visit tulip fields near Amsterdam, what is the best time to visit and what experiences you can have.
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Short on time? Here are my top recommendations:
How to get there:
Tulip Tickets:
How to Get to Amsterdam
If you’re planning a trip to Amsterdam, here are a few travel options, depending on where you’re coming from:
Option A: Fly directly to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, which is one of Europe’s busiest hubs, offering flights from major airlines as well as budget carriers. If you’re travelling from the US or other non-EU locations, this will be the airport where you’d land.
From Schiphol Airport, you can get to the city centre by train, bus, private transfer or Uber. I chose the bus and it was super convenient and easy!
Option B: For a low-budget option within Europe, consider flying to Eindhoven Airport which is served by many budget airlines (i.e Ryanair, WizzAir). From there, you can easily reach Amsterdam by train or bus in about 1.5 hours. I recommend taking the shuttle bus because it will transfer you directly to Amsterdam city centre unlike the train where you need to get from Eindhoven Airport to Eindhoven Railway Station and then take a bus.
Option C: Many European cities offer direct connections to Amsterdam via high-speed rail, making it a comfortable alternative to flying.
Where to Stay in Amsterdam
If there is one advice I can give you for Amsterdam, that would be: book your hotel way IN ADVANCE!! Hotels in Amsterdam are insanely expensive! And closer to your date, the prices will just be up and up and up.
I stayed in the Bilderberg Garden Hotel. It was a 15 min walk from Rijksmuseum & Van Gogh Museum, and some 25 min walk from the main city centre.The area was very nice, residential. It was so peaceful that we even heard birds singing in the morning. Highly recommend it!
Other great options:
- Anantara Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky Amsterdam – the best and most luxurious hotel in Amsterdam
- Motel One Amsterdam-Waterlooplein – great location & value for price
- Pestana Amsterdam Riverside – luxury hotel in a historic building for great price
📖 Planning a trip to Amsterdam? Then check my Perfect 4 Days Amsterdam Itinerary for Culture and Fun blog post.
When is Tulip Season in Amsterdam (+2025 Dates!)
The tulip season in Amsterdam runs from the end of March till early May.
💡In 2025 the tulip season starts on March 20 and runs until May 11 when they are in peak bloom.
Post this date, it will be highly unlikely to see any tulips, so if you want to go and want to find the best flights/hotel/tours deals, you need to book this trip ASAP.
How to Visit Tulip Fields near Amsterdam
The closest tulip fields near Amsterdam are in the Lisse region. To get to them from Amsterdam you have 4 different options.
Rent a Car
If you know a thing or two about me, then you know I simply LOVE road trips! They are fun, easy to do and they totally fit with your pace and schedule!
We rented a car for just 1 day. We picked it up at Schiphol Airport and returned there too because it’s very easy to travel to the airport from the city centre. It’s also better to pick up your car at the airport because it’s anyway on the way to tulip fields.
Rent a Bike
And if there’s a thing or two you know about the Dutch, you know they love their bikes! Trust me when I say that you don’t need to watch out for cars in Amsterdam, but bikes! They ride like craazyy! 😅
You will find the best guided bike tours on GetYourGuide.
📖 Read my Travel in Amsterdam Post-Cruise Ban: From Cruises to Bikes blog post.
Take a Public Transportation
Now, this comes with additional tips & tricks as it may seem easy and simple, but is actually the most complicated option.
If you’re looking to see tulips, most likely you’d have famous Keukenhof Gardens on your mind.
Since you’ll anyway need an entry ticket, the best is to then combine a shuttle bus with Keukenhof Tulip Gardens entrance ticket. This is also the easiest way to reach Lisse semi self-independently (if not renting a car).
Once you visit the Keukenhof Gardens, you can rent a bike to cycle around the area and chase the most beautiful flower fields.
However, if you fancy a different and unique experience, why not try out GPS Audio Tour once you’re in Keukenhof? It’s a fun activity of exploring Dutch tulip fields on your own!
If you don’t want to visit Keukenhof Gardens, but you still want to explore Lisse tulip fields and chase them on your own, then take a public train from Amsterdam to Nieuw-Vennep Train Station.
If you’re taking a train, the best is to rent a bike in Amsterdam and get it with you to cycle around the area in the search for some tulip fields.
Take a Guided Tour
Probably the easiest way because your tickets, transport and sightseeing activities would be organised by a tour company.
There are many great tours on GetYourGuide, so I would look for some options there if this is your preferred choice!
Where to Find Tulip Fields near Amsterdam
Tulip fields near Amsterdam are in the Lisse region which is southwest of Amsterdam. It is a 20 minute drive from the airport and 35 minute drive from the city centre which makes it a perfect day trip. Here’s where you’ll find tulip fields near Amsterdam.
Keukenhof Gardens
They are open from March 20th to May 11th 2025.
Please bear in mind that while really beautiful, Keukenhof Gardens is just a park!
So you can ask me, okay Megi, why did you list them here then? Well, mainly because I want to debunk a common myth about them. And also because they’re still beautiful to visit, especially because they’re only open during this period, it’s not like you can go there whenever you’d like!
If you’re not spending some time researching where to find tulip fields in Amsterdam, and especially if you’re only scrolling through Instagram and TikTok, you may be in an illusion that Keukenhof Gardens are those wonderful fields of tulips you see all over social media. They are NOT!
I was thinking that exact same thing because not every travel influencer and travel blogger is transparent, especially if they want to create a wow effect just to increase their reach and follower rate.
While you will find many, many tulips in Keukenhof Gardens, you WON’T find tulip fields, so don’t get disappointed! Think of Keukenhof Gardens as Hyde Park in London or Central Park in New York, but with tulip displays.
Are they still worth visiting? Absolutely! But remember, it is a park. 🙂
Tulip Experience Amsterdam
The most famous tulip farm near Amsterdam is open from March 20 to May 11 2025.
What I loved about this tulip experience is that you’re supporting a family owned business and that you get to learn so much about tulips – from origin, history, cultivation to fun facts.
💡Here are some fun facts about tulips that I really loved:
- Tulips originate from the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
- They were first cultivated in Persia around 1050.
- In the 14th and 15th centuries the tulip was culturally adopted by the Ottoman Empire. Turban was shaped as a tulip which represented their royal status.
- The first tulips arrived in 1562 in the Southern Netherlands, now Flanders.
I bought tickets in advance, and while the experience was nice, I was left a tiny bit disappointed with their tulip fields. Supposedly, you can expect to see around a million tulips, walk in the fields and later do some flower picking.
However, when we were there in April 2023, the flowers were not in full bloom yet and the overall impression was: meh. Perhaps because spring of 2023 was quite rainy, cold and miserable, the weather conditions impacted the tulip bloom. Or maybe we came too early or too late. I am not 100% sure why they didn’t bloom as much. 🥹
So, my honest advice would be to leave your car/bike in the free parking space. From the parking lot you can actually sneak peek and see if the flowers are in bloom or not. If they are, go ahead and buy tickets on the spot. If they’re not, well, you can still go to learn about tulips, cultivation and have a coffee next to the fields. Or you can walk away.
The only risk here is that if the tulips are in full bloom and you don’t have your tickets already, they may be sold out and you’d miss to see it after all. I’ll leave this decision to you.
So, for buying tickets in advance, you have 2 options (depending on if you’re doing this day trip independently or as a guided tour):
Random Tulip Field
Honestly, the best way to see these beautiful tulip fields in the Lisse area is to just wander around. That’s why it’s important you either rent a car or a bike.
While visiting Keukenhof Gardens and Tulip Experience Amsterdam is great, visiting a random tulip field is a million times better!
When you see those vast fields in red, yellow, pink, get ready to be blown away! 😍
Tulips are my favourite flower and seeing them was such a bucket list experience!
💡Here are some very important things to bear in mind when visiting random tulip fields:
Don’t forget that these random fields are someone’s private property!
Never ever pick the flower and be mindful and respectable when walking around! The farmers’ livelihoods depend on that!
Is it Worth Visiting Tulip Fields near Amsterdam
Springtime in the Netherlands is when the weather finally starts getting enjoyable. Everything is in full bloom, including tulip fields. And tulip fields near Amsterdam surely don’t disappoint with their beauty. If you love flowers, colours and spring, it is definitely worth visiting tulip fields near Amsterdam!
Read my other Amsterdam blog posts:
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