🌹 Keukenhof Tulip Festival 2026: Complete Travel Guide – Everything You Need to Know Before You Go (Amsterdam) 🌹

This is the Keukenhof, the world famous tulip festival in the Netherlands and I'll show you everything from how to buy tickets to how to get there, what to see, where to get the best pictures, how to cycle through the tulip fields and everything else you need to know before you go to the most spectacular flower garden in the world. Let's get started. Every spring, Keukenhof bursts into life with over 7 million flowers in bloom. If your idea of a holiday is walking through perfectly manicured green spaces, being surrounded by millions of colourful flowers and enjoying the warm sunshine whilst looking at miles and miles of tulips, then Keukenhof is the place for you. It is stunning, but what's it actually like to visit? Well when you arrive in Amsterdam, Keukenhof is just a short trip away. There are buses that will get you there from the city centre, or even if you're flying in from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. To buy tickets for both the Keukenhof and the bus, the easiest way is to go on the website and buy a Kombi ticket that includes both your entry and transport. This will save you a lot of time and hassle trying to figure it out for yourself. If you want just the ticket to the park and drive yourself there, that is an option. If you're coming in from the city centre, look out for signs directing you to the correct bus stop, and if you have an entrance ticket but not a transport ticket, you can pay for it separately here. After a short bus ride, where you'll drive past some very colourful fields, you'll arrive at the Keukenhof in less than 40 minutes. Once you arrive, you'll step into a world of colour. Keukenhof is not just a flower garden, it's an amazing experience. Be sure to pick up a free paper map as you'll need it, because this place is massive. Now before I carry on with the video, apologies if my footage is greyed and washed out. I somehow managed to book the Keukenhof for the only day where it was overcast and rainy. The rest of my trip was incredibly sunny, which is just my unfortunate luck. If you are visiting Amsterdam over several days, play it by eye and if it is sunny outside and it's sunny on the weather reports, go on that day. Speaking of which, the best time to visit is mid-April when the tulips are in full bloom. But the festival does run from mid-March to mid-May. If you do come here when the festival opens, like I did, you run the risk of the tulips not being in bloom, which is exactly what's happening here. Due to the cold weather and the cold spring Europe had this year, quite a lot of tulips haven't fully bloomed yet. But that doesn't mean that there's nothing to see of course. The staff here have done an amazing job planting tulips that have bloomed all around the park for you to see. Inside you'll find a series of beautifully designed gardens, each with their own unique theme. The English Landscape Gardens feature winding paths and romantic water features and I have to admit, it's very reminiscent of the Royal Formal Gardens that I generally frequent here in England when it's summertime. A nice, tranquil green space full of colour. So if you like this sort of thing, this is only a mere fraction of the park. They've got various Asian and Japanese themed gardens, which forms a quiet and peaceful escape, inspired by traditional Zen design. There are various historical Dutch gardens that take you through the history of Dutch tulip cultivation, featuring heritage varieties dating back centuries. They even have a fully working windmill, surrounded by flowers. So you can learn how a windmill works, get some amazing views from the top of it, and there are some incredible photo opportunities, though these can get quite busy, and you'll be in long queues for the most impressive photo spots. Oh, and by the way, if you see a variety of tulip or flower that you like, most likely there will be a nearby gift shop so that you can buy the bulbs or seeds, so that you can take them home and plant them in your very own garden. Throughout the park, you'll see plenty of buildings that will highlight the immense royal history of this world famous festival, and everywhere around the park there are displays that will simply make you go, wow. And here's the thing, it's totally different every year. You won't find the same thing twice, and the footage you see now, I guarantee that the flowers and layouts will be different next year. So it's not a once you've seen it, you've seen it kind of destination. Throughout the park, you'll find pavilions showcasing incredible floral displays. The Oranje Nassau pavilion is home to displays of different flowers that change every single week, including this interesting mouth of roses. While the largest pavilion in the centre of the park, the Wilhelm Alexander pavilion features thousands of tulips in every imaginable colour, style and shape. So even if it is terrible weather outside, you can still enjoy the colourful flowers indoors. This is a great spot for people who want to buy flowers, or smell flowers, or take professional photos of flowers, there are a lot of people doing this. Overall, the most impressive displays of flowers are in here. You can even find love in here, well, sort of. And if you love orchids, you absolutely must check out the Beatrix pavilion. It's a paradise of exotic flowers, rare orchids and there's some amazing and unusual photo opportunities in here. If you get hungry or thirsty, there are plenty of places that you can eat and drink. I highly recommend that you at least try the Dutch apple pie with whipped cream. It was delicious. But Nin, what about the miles of colourful tulip fields that you promised me? Well believe it or not, those flower fields aren't actually part of the Kirkenhof itself. They are located outside the north entrance of the park, as they are privately owned tulip fields. If you're here for the ultimate photo opportunities, these endless rows of vibrant tulips are the perfect backdrop for some stunning pictures. And because they're not part of the Kirkenhof, it doesn't actually cost anything to explore them. Previously, you could walk amongst the tulip fields for photos and videos like this. However, due to a small number of tourists ruining it for everybody else, they now seem to be heavily guarded by these guys. That said, you can still see them by hiring a bicycle and riding around the paths and roads that surround it. Or do what I did and take a boat tour through the surrounding tulip fields whilst still inside the Kirkenhof. Now obviously it looks a bit bleak today due to the overcast clouds and the lack of growing, but it was still a decent boat ride with running commentary from an audio guide and it was still a pleasant way to spend an hour of my time. Hopefully when you come here, it'll look more like this. For kids, sometimes there's a petting zoo, a maze and a treasure hunt, making this a great day out for families as well. Overall, whilst my trip to the Kirkenhof wasn't exactly perfect in terms of weather or bloomage – thanks Mother Nature – I still had an amazing time here at the Kirkenhof. And if you followed the advice I've given you, hopefully you'll have an even more amazing time than I did. Okay Nin, I'm sold. What do I need to do? Well you need to come here to Kirkenhof, located in the town of Lise, about 40 minutes outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. To buy tickets, go to the official website www.kirkenhof.nl A standard adult ticket costs around €20, and as I mentioned earlier, you can get a combo ticket that includes return public transportation for around €37. The easiest way to get here is by taking the special Kirkenhof Express bus from either Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam Rijsstation, which is exactly what I did, or Leiden Central Station. It takes the guesswork out of travelling here yourself. If you're driving, there's plenty of parking available for around €14. Is there anything else I need to know? Yes. The park is open daily from mid-March to mid-May only, and from 8am to 7pm, but this varies year by year, so do check the websites for more details. In my opinion, from mid-April onwards is probably the best time, as if you come during March like I did, you run the risk of the flowers not being in full bloom. The best time to visit is early in the morning, or later in the afternoon to avoid the peak crowds and to catch the golden hour for photos and videos. The earlier you get here, the fewer crowds you'll face, so if you can start your day early, I recommend that you get here for opening time, and plan on spending all day here, because you easily can. It can get horribly crowded, with hundreds of annoying tourists or obnoxious wannabe influencers. But trust me, it's worth it. This is one of the most breathtaking places you'll ever see in your life, and it's a must-do for anyone visiting the Netherlands in the springtime. And finally, if you are coming to Amsterdam, check out my complete travel guide right here. This is the most helpful travel guide video on YouTube and I'm sure it will help you plan your own bucket list adventure here. If you found this video helpful, be sure to like share and subscribe. Drop a comment below if you have any other travel ideas you'd like me to cover, if I get enough suggestions, I'll make it happen. Thanks very much for watching and I'll see you in the next episode.