Day Trip to Keukenhof Flower Gardens from Amsterdam: Your Complete Keukenhof Guide
Taking a day trip to the Keukenhof flower gardens is an absolute must-do when visiting Amsterdam in the spring. This massive flower park is located in the town of Lisse and is one of the best tulip fields in the Netherlands. This guide will tell you everything you need to know to get there.
keukenhof day trip from amsterdam: at a glance
- How to get here: By bus, car, or organized tour
- Driving time: 25 minutes each way
- Need to know: Keukenhof is only open 6 weeks a year
- More information: For essential visitor info, visit: keukenhof.nl
What is Keukenhof?
Keukenhof is the largest flower garden in the world. (The word is Dutch for kitchen garden.) It boasts 7 million flowers, 800 varieties of tulips, and one really tiny goat you’ll want to make room for in your suitcase.
There are 9 miles of walking paths through beautiful wooded areas, wild floral arrangements, event pavilions, and even a windmill you can climb. Basically, if you want to see gorgeous flower displays and fields upon fields of colorful tulips while you’re in the Netherlands, this is the place.
Where is Keukenhof?
Keukenhof Flower Gardens is located in the town of Lisse, just 20 minutes southwest of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport (but about 40 minutes southwest of downtown Amsterdam).
How to take a day trip to Keukenhof from Amsterdam
Remember when Dorothy was imagining a place over the rainbow? And how it wasn’t a place you can get to by a boat or a train? She was right. Only a quick bus ride from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport can get you here.
The quickness and ease of taking a day trip to Keukenhof from Amsterdam is what makes this such an ideal way to spend a spring day in Holland. (Even a straw-for-brains scarecrow could do it.) Here’s how you get there:
1. Start at Schiphol airport
From wherever you’re staying in Amsterdam, first get yourself over to Schiphol airport. This is going to be super easy from just about anywhere since all roads lead to Schiphol essentially. (Do I even need to make a Yellow Brick Road reference here?)
There are definitely other ways to take a day trip to Keukenhof, but if you’re staying anywhere near central Amsterdam, this is by far the easiest, fastest, and most direct route. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.
That said, you can certainly drive there if you’re planning a Netherlands road trip, for example. In that case, check out the best rental car options here.
Look for the giant tulip
At Schiphol, look for the giant inflatable tulip. In fact, we told our cab driver we were headed to Keukenhof and he dropped us off right at the giant tulip. This truly is the Merry Old Land of Awes…ome public transportation.
2. Store your luggage if you need to
For my particular day trip to Keukenhof, I visited after checking out of my hotel in Amsterdam and before I would be heading to Belgium afterwards. So, I needed to store my luggage first. (Yes, Keukenhof has bag storage, but it’s too small for a suitcase. I’ll get to that.) If you find yourself in the same situation, here’s what you do:
Schiphol luggage storage
From the inflatable tulip, enter the airport and walk straight to the opposite end. Veer right and follow the yellow signs (of course they’re yellow!) leading downstairs to the luggage storage area.
You can find the official Schiphol luggage storage page here.
3. Purchase bus + Keukenhof entrance tickets
Back out at the inflatable tulip, you’ll see a truck with pictures of flowers all over it. At this truck, you can buy all-in-one round-trip bus tickets for your day to Keukenhof from Amsterdam, plus your Keukenhof entrance ticket. They call this the Combiticket.
Do not lose this ticket. You’ll need it to get on the bus to get there, then into the park, and then for the bus to get back to Amsterdam.
4. Get on the Keukenhof bus
Mere feet away from the ticket truck is the bus to Keukenhof. It, too, is covered in and surrounded by tulips. There are Keukenhof signs, a designated pathway, and for whatever reason, a team of people leading you the five feet to the front of the bus.
Day trip to Keukenhof – Visitors guide
To visit Keukenhof is to experience so much Dutch! Besides all the flowers, there’s also: a windmill and guys in wooden shoes, and traditional Dutch dancers wearing traditional Dutch clothing next to some guys riding traditional Dutch bicycles.
There are traditionally-dressed Dutch beauties greeting you upon arrival, and traditional Dutch herring to eat on traditional Dutch benches next to a traditional Dutch lake.
In short, a day trip from Amsterdam to Keukenhof is the best possible way to absorb historically Dutch culture when you’re strapped for time in the Netherlands and more or less tethered to Amsterdam.
When to take a day trip to Keukenhof?
The thing you must know about taking a day trip to Keukenhof is that, given the nature of this site, it’s only open for a super brief period of time each year.
In 2025, Keukenhof will be open from March 20 to May 11. During this time it’s open every day (including Sundays and holidays) from 8am to 7pm.
As for the best time to visit, the standard rules apply: visiting during the week (vs. the weekend) will mean smaller crowds. As does the earlier you visit and the later in the day you stay.
What flowers to see and when
But even within that brief timeframe you can have different experiences, based on the fact that certain flowers bloom at certain times. For instance, if you visit in:
Additionally, visiting later in the spring you’ll also get the added benefit of fully green trees. I visited on March 31st, and many of the trees throughout the park were still just scraggly and leaf-less.
When to see tulips
So, if it’s long-stemmed colorful tulips you want to see, plan to take your day trip to Keukenhof towards the end of the opening period. However, this applies only to the flower displays within the park.
The tulips in the fields surrounding Keukenhof (which you can see from atop the windmill) are actually grown for their bulbs, not their flowers. Because of this, the flowers are plucked from plants early which strengthens the bulbs for next year.
This typically occurs on or close to April 30th each year. So, if you want to see the tulip fields around Keukenhof in full color, your best chance would be around mid-April, before they get plucked.
Keukenhof theme
Each year, the flower displays at the Keukenhof flower gardens follow an overarching theme. The Keukenhof theme for 2025 has not been announced yet, but here are some of the previous years’ themes to give you an idea:
- 2024: Celebrating Keukenhof’s 75th anniversary
- 2023: Each pavilion honored its own theme
- 2022: “Flower Classics” (As in, roses symbolizing love, tulips symbolizing spring, etc.)
- 2020/2021: “A World of Colours” (…which Keukenhof already is!)
- 2019: “Flower Power” with ’60s and ’70s-inspired floral displays
- 2018: “Romance in Flowers”
- 2017: “Dutch Design” honoring everything from Dutch fashion to art to architecture
What to see on a day trip to Keukenhof
For starters, FLOWERS. At Keukenhof, you can see just about every flower variety you could dream up. All sizes, shapes, and colors, and not at all restricted to tulips.
There are indoor pavilions with flowers, outdoor gardens, incredible floral arrangements all around the entire park, multiple flower shows, and more. You can also visit five themed “Inspirational Gardens,” the themes of which change each year according to the overall theme.
There’s the Tulipomania Exhibition, flower mosaics and walk of fame, and, naturally, a flower bulb shop!
What to do on a day trip to Keukenhof
There are performances and dancing, mazes, huge displays of artwork, and even baby animals. You can take a boat ride through the flower bulb fields, explore them by bike, or take guided tours with a Keukenhof guide. But yeah, definitely stop by the animal pasture.
You can also climb up to the top of a windmill and talk to the caretaker about how windmills work. (This was seriously news to me.) You’ll find great views of the tulip fields from up here. There’s also a playground and treasure hunt activities for kids.
Tips for your day trip to Keukenhof
While this is a pretty self-explanatory day trip, here are a few things you should still know before you go.
Keukenhof is cashless
A big thing to know before your day trip to Keukenhof is that the facility is entirely cashless. This applies to everything: parking, restaurants, shops, tickets, etc. You can only pay at Keukenhof with a debit or credit card.
Don’t bring big items
Like I mentioned earlier, if you’ll be checking out of your hotel and/or on the way to somewhere else afterwards, you’ll want to store your luggage/bigger items at Schiphol.
Keukenhof does have lockers you can rent for a couple of euros (that you get back afterwards) but they are much too small to fit a suitcase. Their locker dimensions are 10” x 21” x 17”. You may be able to fit a small backpack in there, but not much more than that.
Arrive early
There is so much to do and see on a day trip from Amsterdam to Keukenhof! Definitely aim to arrive early in the morning so you can take full advantage of the day without feeling rushed here. Even if you’re a go-go-go traveler like me, you’ll definitely want to slow down and spend more time here. I promise.
Personally, I felt I rushed my time there since I had to get back to Amsterdam to catch my train to Brussels. I spent about 3 hours in the park but I definitely wish I’d had at least another hour.
That being said, Keukenhof themselves say 3 hours is about typical of what people spend here. Maybe you’re like me and will want more time. Maybe you’re more like Dorothy who yearned to visit a beautiful, carefree place, then immediately said, “I’d give anything to get out of here altogether!” as soon as she got there.
How long you will want to spend here may vary. But, it’s always nice to have the option of more time in case you do find yourself totally enthralled or maybe just wanna take a nap in some poppies.
Wear comfortable shoes
Keukenhof is huge; you’re going to be doing a lot of walking here. Most of it will be on paved paths, but some of it may be on grass and some of it might be wet. Sometimes you’ll be hopping over ponds on wooden planks and maybe you’ll even ride a bike.
Be sure to wear comfortable shoes for your day trip to Keukenhof. Despite how much they speak to you, don’t opt for wooden clogs today!
Take note of that small window
By that I mean, don’t forget (or fail to notice at all) that Keukenhof is only open for about six weeks out of the entire year. If Keukenhof (or just seeing tulips in Holland) is high up on your bucket list, do not miss this crucial point!
Keukenhof alone is definitely worth visiting Amsterdam in the spring so you totally won’t regret prioritizing it.
Eat here or bring your own food
Personally, I chose to eat at Keukenhof on my visit because it’s just so much more convenient and I was really amped to try some herring. There are several restaurants here and some mobile food trucks as well.
However, they do allow you to bring your own food if you want to have yourself a little picnic among the flowers. (You just can’t eat it at the restaurants.) If you’ve got time and access to a grocery store in Amsterdam, this might be a delightful (and cheaper) way to go. They have a nice picnic area for you to do this.
Work on your squats
I’m just saying, you’ll be doing a lot of this all day (see below) trying to take photos of alllll the flowers. It wouldn’t hurt to work on building up your quads and glutes ahead of time.
Don’t forget your antihistamines
I don’t think I need to remind you, allergy sufferers, that Keukenhof flower gardens are loaded with flowers, and pollen, and bees, and probably a lot of other things that’ll have you reaching for your antihistamines.
Day trip to Keukenhof by car
Like I mentioned earlier, you can certainly forego the quick Keukenhof bus and drive yourself there if you already have your own rental car. The drive is an easy 25-minutes and there are two spacious parking lots.
Parking costs €9 per car if you book online ahead of time (or €14 per car if you wait until you get here to pay for it). You can pre-book your parking spot here.
In your GPS, look for this address: Keukenhof, Stationsweg 166A, Lisse
Day tours to Keukenhof from Amsterdam
It’s also possible to simply book yourself on an organized tour where the tour providers cover everything for you. And some of these tours even include fun additional stops! Check out some of the popular Keukenhof day trip tours here:
Resources for your day trip to Keukenhof
- Still looking for a hotel? Find great places to stay in Amsterdam here on Booking.com (but Expedia and Hotels.com are worth checking too). You can also find a lot of great places to stay on VRBO.
- Rental cars: Check out the best local rental car deals here.
- Travel planning: Pick up a Netherlands guidebook and this must-have Netherlands customs and culture guide.
- Tours & activities: Check out the great local options here on Viator and Get Your Guide.
Like this post? Have more questions about taking a day trip to Keukenhof? Let me know in the comments below. Have fun in Amsterdam!
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