May 2025
Each spring, 79 acres of land is filled with over 7 million blossoms & 1.5 million people come to see it during the 8 weeks of the biggest festival of flowers in the world.
Keukenhof Garden is mostly known for tulips, but there are other flowers, too. In 2025, the festival was held from March 20 to May 11, and we were lucky enough to arrive in the Netherlands on May 10th so that we could get to it on the very last day.
We bought tickets online (20 euros per adult) 2 months in advance, and it was the right move to add the parking pass (9 euros). It was a 1.5 hour drive northwest from Riel, where we were staying, and there were good signs directing us to the Keukenhof parking lot after getting off the freeway. Frankly, I am not sure where else one can go to park if you didn’t have the parking pass.
Tulips. More tulips. And more… Once you walk into the park, you are immediately hit by tulips of all colors/sizes/shapes. You can easily be overwhelmed in the first two minutes.
Every autumn 100+ tulip growers donate 7 million burbs to the growers association which organizes the event so that the burbs can be planted in time for the festival.
We entered the park with a 10:30 AM time stamped tickets, and the park seemed relatively calm. That changed about an hour later. People began pouring in while the early visitors were still lingering. We bought delicious fries from a cart, but it was obvious we had to be far away from the park to have a quiet lunch.
Luckily, there seemed to be the beautiful town of Leiden within a 20 minute drive. Unfortunately, Leiden was jam packed with people when we arrived. That day happened to be the annual marathon day and it felt like all 120,000 people of the town were out and about. Darn!
As we drove well out of the town, we saw a hotel and a restaurant near a freeway entrance. Even that restaurant was full of people, but we did get to eat.
Keukenhof was an experience not to be missed. it’s not everyday that you are overwhelmed by simply beautiful flowers!
A note to self: Leiden looked like a very pretty town. Next time.
Small Wide World 