Tulip fields
 

My wife and I will be in Amsterdam next Spring. We have no problem traveling by bus/rail but may not be up to extensive biking. Given that, what would be the best way to tour the tulip fields in late April / early May? It seems to me that the options are:
- rent a car,
- hire a driver, or
- find an organized tour.
Your thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you - and have a great weekend.

Until you get more detailed info, here for starters the most "obvious" destination ;-)

http://www.keukenhof.nl/nm/english.html

pro: easy access by public transportation and private vehicle
con: crowded on weekends/holidays, mostly by tour buses from Germany ;-)

Thank you. We are planning at least one trip to Keukenhof. Certainly one option would be to limit it to this, but I got the impression that touring the surrounding fields was also worth while.

Take a bus from Centraal Station towards Haarlem, and ask the driver to put you off at "Hout Rusthoek", which will put you outside the Frans Roozen nurseries. Fantastic.

Hi jmf--we will be doing the same beginning May 9. We are basing in Haarlem at Stempel's Hotel. I have been practicing my bicycle skills for this trip and hope DW will start soon. Who knows, we may (literally) run into you.

If you are prepared to hire a car then the best place to see fields is up towards Alkmaar, or even around Emmeloord further east,in the Noord-Oost Polder, which is where most tulips are now actually grown. They have a tourist route signposted at tulip time.
Organised tours are available from Amsterdam, to the traditional bulb fields, but of course they don't give you the chance to just stand and stare.
How are you at bike riding? You can hire a bike at Keukenhof and follow a planned route through the bulb fields from there, as long or as short as you want. I think they range from 9km (about 5 miles)upwards. More info is available on the Keukonhof site under FAQ.
Also worth looking at is www.hollandrijnland.nl. Tis is the site for the tourist information for the area around Keukenhof.

I tiptoed thru the tulip and other flower fields:

took train Amsterdam-Haarlem-Hillegom

Hillegom station is surrounded by flower fields

then i walked about two miles thru the fields (actually on small roads as i think it's Verboten to actually enter the fields)

a lovely lovely walk thru pulchritudinous seas of undulated blooms right to the

to Keukenhof

then took bus to Leiden train station to return to amsterdam.

Bus 100 (i believe 100) also runs from Haarlem train station thru the fields to Keukenhof and on to Leiden

We will be staying in an Untours apartment in Leiden during that same time, and plan on using the bus to Keukenhof. Once in Keukenhof we will bike it.

you could bike to Haarlem and then return to Leiden in a few minutes by train.

don't know if buses take bikes

I was in Amsterdam for tulip season (mid-April this year). I thought I'd want to get out and see more of the fields either on foot or by bike, but honestly between all that we saw on the train to Leiden, and then the lookout points at Keukenhof that are over the fields themselves, in addition to the total overload (in a good way!) of tulips at the Keukenhof, we were quite satisfied with what we saw that way.

Buses don't take bikes.
It is VerboDen. Verboten is German :)

Keukenhof is not "tulip fields," it is a collection of manicured gardens. A pretty place, but not as impressive as the rows of uniformly colored tulips reaching into the distance.

To see the fields, you should rent a car, get the Michelin Green Guide to the Netherlands and note the tulip icons, and hit the road. We have had a lot of luck in the areas west of Leiden, east of Alkmaar, and east of Leeuwarden.

The Keukenhof does have a viewing platform from which you can see miles of flower fields that abut it. Or you can go out the gate, turn right and be in the midst of them.

smueller, there are at least 3 (that I can remember) spots on the map at the Keukenhof that are marked as spots to see the fields nearby. One of which was at the windmill. You get to see them from various distances and can do everything but actually walk in them, which as PalQ says, you can do outside the gardens.

going there in April/May 2008 also. This is good info.

Thanks, Julie

I would like to contribute my trip report (starting at page three) of our visit to Holland's Keukenhof Gardens with lots of photos. Enjoy.

http://www.travelswithdiane.homestea...7Holland3.html

Thank you for your replies.

The consensus seems to be that Keukenhof makes touring the tulip fields unnecessary. Does anyone have anything further response to the opening post? Thanks again ...

I've been to Keukenhof a number of times over the years. Biked or drove from Haarlem (where I lived) and bussed from Leiden.

Since you are not into a long bike ride I think your best plan is to do what PalenQ did. Take the train to Hillegom and return via bus to Leiden and train to Amsterdam, assuming that is where you are camped.

I see that a couple of people are staying in Haarlem or Leiden, certainly good choices for seeing Keukenhof and expeiencing a more rational Holland than Amsterdam offers.

Be flexible in scheduling and choose a bright sunny day for your trip.

and IME avoid weekends, especially Sundays at the Keukenhof as the Sunday i was there was super super crowded with Dutch visitors

there will lines to get in the several hothouses, the premier attraction it seemed

a weekday would be much better i thinnk

On weekends also many tourists from Belgium, Germany etc. come over, so better be there on a weekday.

We will be in Amsterdam from April 26th through May 11th, so much of our 'touring' will be on weekdays.

The hostess where we'll be staying informs me that Avis is not far away and that there is a parking facility nearby - one that apparently charges around 35 Euros per day. So getting a car for a few days is clearly viable. It's hard for me to estimate how much more efficient this would be as compared to public transportation.

Thanks for all your input ...

Hiring a car will give you the opportunity to go and see more of the Nehterlands than you can by public transport. The bulk of the commercial tulip fields are actually away from the Keukenhof area, around the Noordoostpolder in Flevoland. If you go there to see the bulbs you can also visit Blokzijl- a lovely old village, Schokland- a Unesco world heritage site, Staphorst-(though not on a Sunday!) to see local costumes still worn, or Urk- a former island where the local costume is also still occasionally worn. Again I don't recommend Urk on a Sunday. Also in that area is the Weerribben national park.
Or you can drive up to the Alkmaar area for bulbfields, and maybe go across the Afsluitdijk to Friesland for a day.
You will be in the Netherlands for Koniginnedag (Queen's day) and for Hemelvaartsdag (ascension Day). Are you planning on being in Amsterdam for those? I would avoid Keukenhof on Ascension Day.

Thank you. Yes, we'll be staying near Nieuwe Kerkstraat and Weesperstraat, and will most likely spend April 30th walking the streets, hunting for orange things to wear, and gawking like your typical tourist.

The Flevoland-Blokzijl-Schokland-Staphorst trip sounds wonderful ... and aggressive. How much of that is doable in a single day? Or might it make sense to stay over one night and, if so, where?

It is absolutely doable in a day - it will take about an hour to get there from Amsterdam if you go directly. You take the A1 and then the A6 through Flevoland. Once across the Ketelbrug into the Noordoostpolder you will see signs for Urk, then with the help of a good map you can find your way to Schokland, through the bulbfields, to Blokzijl for lunch, try a piece of Blokzijlerbrok (a sort of cake), then on to Staphorst via Meppel.
Staphorst and Urk are both deeply religious villages, and do not like outsiders gawking on Sundays. Also please ask before taking any photos of the ladies in their costumes. From Staphorst you can get on the A28 back towards Amsterdam.
If you have time and the inclination Giethoorn is also well worth a visit while you are in the area - it has no streets, just footpaths and canals through the old part of the village.

I suggest not driving around on Queen's Day. We took a tour & even the Dutch born tour guide & the bus driver could barely find their way around all of the road blockades. I guess many of the main access roads to the small towns are closed on Queen's Day.

Julie

If you have been to the midwest in the US, you will see the "tulip fields" while traveling by train, just like you would see the "corn/bean fields" here. I highly recommend going to Keukenhof. It was fantastic, very beautiful with lots of trails around ponds, etc, and a pretty view of the fields from a windmill. I would not hire a driver or take an organized tour to see the fields, unless you wanted a tour to learn about their planting and harvesting techniques.

Thanks.

Again, we have no intention of driving around on Queen's Day except, perhaps, by public transportation - and that only to get a better appreciation for the day.

As for Keukenhof, one of the things we most enjoy doing at home is walking around the Chicago Botanic Garden, particularly in the Spring when the bulbs are in bloom, so I suspect we'll get to Keukenhof at least twice during our vacation.

Public transportation in central Amsterdam is pretty much shut down on Queen's day due to crowding in the streets

and the past few years Amsterdam Centraal Station has also closed during the day due to horrendous overcrowding

so to travel around by public transit means going to the more subdued Station Zuid-WTC or some such outlying station to gain access to the intercity rail network