Few images are as indelible as the sight of new tulips bursting through the dark winter ground. In the Netherlands – the world’s largest exporter of the magical bloom – venerating tulips is a way of life. In the weeks leading from icy winter to spring, rows of flowers cover the country’s landscape in technicolour streaks, most famously in the Bollenstreek “Bulb Region”, stretching between the towns of Haarlem and Leiden, and arching towards the North Sea. And, with tulips, come tourists, eager to experience the blooms for themselves.
Nienke Panis-Ringersma is the owner of the photography and Dutch culture blog Tulips in Holland, which now also shares its tulip photos and weekly flower updates via X, Instagram and most recently TikTok. She is a licensed national tour guide, and her husband says she eats, sleeps and dreams tulips. “People in the Netherlands are very down to earth,” says Panis-Ringersma, whose images and tulip facts receive thousands of likes per month on Facebook. “They are quite used to the flower fields, and they know when it’s tourist season, because the roads are clogged with people on bikes who aren’t used to riding bikes.” Sounds lethal to me!
Here are Nienke Panis-Ringersma’s favourite ways to experience tulip season in the Netherlands.
1. Best overall: Keukenhof:
Established in 1949, Keukenhof Gardens is undoubtedly the most popular tulip experience in the Netherlands. Its lushly landscaped “inspirational” tulip gardens and windmills draw over a million visitors each year during its eight-week season. “Around 7 million bulbs are planted by hand, not by machine, every year,” says Panis-Ringersma.
Tourists, take note; in the Netherlands, it’s illegal to park near or walk through tulip fields. “Flower fields are commercial fields and laws protect them from invasive tourists,” says Panis-Ringersma.
Keukenhof is open for just two months, usually from the first day of Spring to the first week of May, depending on the weather (in 2025, 20 March to 11 May). “The best time to go is the million-dollar question,” says Panis-Ringersma. “It’s different every year… right now we have an extremely warm winter. I think the best time to visit for this year will be around the middle of April.”
2. Best cultural experience: Catching the Bloemencorso Flower Parade:
“A flower parade is a very festive,” says Panis-Ringersma. “There are about 20 different floats, marching bands, cars lavishly decorated with all kinds of flowers, people enjoying themselves, street entertainment… every town has a very festive atmosphere.”
The Bloemencorso parade takes place each year on the third Saturday of April, marching along the road from Noordwijk to Haarlem, through the Bollenstreek and past Keukenhof. “It’s a full day,” says Panis-Ringersma. “People line up at least three four lines deep. Some people get their seats ready at least three hours before the parade to make sure… it’s like a Disney parade. People are sitting down on the streets waiting for the parade to pass by.”
3. Best interactive experience: Visiting a tulip farm:
The family-run Tulip Experience in Noordwijkerhout is Panis-Ringersma’s first pick; home to nearly 1 million tulips. “You can go to the field where you can see at least 700 different types of tulips,” says Panis-Ringersma. “You can visit the tulip market with all kinds of products made of tulips or with tulips on it. You can pick your own tulips. It’s a very fun experience.” What sort of tulip products? “Beer with tulips, tulip vodka, tulip Aperol Spritz, soap smelling of tulips, vases, napkins with tulips, wallets with tulips,” she says. Beer with tulips??
Alternatively, visit Tulip Barn in Hillegom, just 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam, where visitors can immerse themselves in the 750,000 tulips sprawling across the farm’s gardens and production field. “They are more focused on making Instagrammable photos,” says Panis-Ringersma. “So, it’s for a bit younger target audience.”
Heading further south, Panis-Ringersma also likes De Tulperij in Voorhout. “You can go together with the bulb grower,” she says. “You’re walking into the fields. He will dig up some tulip bulbs and will show you how they are growing, and what they are doing each year to make them grow. It’s a very interesting environment.”
4. Best for tulip aficionados: Hortus Bulborum:
For Panis-Ringersma, whose passion for tulip photography led her to become an expert in tulip horticulture, the Hortus Bulborum historical bulb garden in Limmen is a sacred institute of learning.
“An interesting fact about tulips,” says Panis-Ringersma. “The flower is not native to the Netherlands. Tulips are, in fact, native to the Himalayas, where they flourished as a small red mountain flower before being brought to Turkey in the 1400s. People from Turkey went to the Himalayas and took this magical flower. They thought, ‘Oh, it’s very interesting. Let’s see if we can make it taller or in different colours.”
Tulips entered the Netherlands around the 16th Century. The place where you can visit and find the oldest bulbs of the Netherlands still blooming is The Hortus Bulborum, which houses more than 4,500 varieties of historical spring bulbous plants, from tulips to daffodils to hyacinths, which are rarely cultivated today. The garden’s star bulbs include a specimen of Fritillaria Persica, dating back to 1557, and the ancient 16th-Century tulip Duc van Tol Red and Yellow.
“It’s a very small garden,” says Panis-Ringersma. “They have great apple pie! So you should absolutely visit and drink some coffee with apple pie and have a look at all the different kinds of flowers.”
Definitely a “Bucket list” trip, which I have yet to make, unfortunately. Some day!
