Where to See Spring Tulips in Amsterdam & The Netherlands in 2023

Tulips are deemed as Dutch as Gouda cheese and wood footwear. The intricate flora proved a success with the Netherlands’ higher crust, who’d shell out huge sums of guilders (the forex on the time) to put on them as corsages throughout balls or to brighten their canal-side properties. On the top of their reputation within the 1630s, a bona fide tulip mania swept by means of the nation and single bulbs of probably the most colourful species have been price greater than their weight in gold.

In the present day, although, the tulip is the everybody’s flower, brightening public parks and backyards throughout the nation throughout spring. Amsterdam rings within the begin of tulip season on National Tulip Day, an annual occasion on the third Saturday of January. The town’s Museum Sq. turns into an enormous tulip backyard the place all people—together with vacationers—is free to choose their very own bunch.

To see the nation in full bloom, time your go to between late March and early Might, when its flower fields are carpeted in eye-popping streaks of pink, orange, and yellow, and tulip festivals in Amsterdam and the encircling countryside put the beloved flowers within the highlight.

Right here’s the place to search out the Netherlands’ most awe-inspiring tulip shows in 2023.

Amsterdam Tulip Pageant

• The place: Amsterdam
• When to go to: April 1 – April 30, 2023

Amsterdam’s annual Tulip Festival brings a kaleidoscope of colours to all corners of the town. From the Vondelpark and central Dam sq. to the swirling streets of the Museum Quarter, greater than 880,000 tulips—one for each Amsterdammer—will bloom in 75 public places round city. The 2023 version will happen all through April and embody new places such because the Plantage Middenlaan close to the historic Artis zoo and NDSM Wharf, a former shipyard, throughout the IJ river. An online map (additionally accessible as a print booklet round the primary competition places) helps you define your personal tulip tour and provides extra details about the varieties on show at every web site.

Amsterdam Tulip Museum

The Amsterdam Tulip Museum is one other colourful nook to go to year-round. This small museum alongside the Prinsengracht canal delivers a deep dive into the Himalayan origins of the bulb and the fascinating tulip mania craze that swept by means of the nation within the seventeenth century. Different exhibitions function tulip-themed Ottoman ceramics and trade artifacts, and the reward store sells licensed baggage of bulbs from a variety of species.

Keukenhof

The Keukenhof, a 40-minute drive from downtown Amsterdam, hosts a number of the Netherlands’ most dazzling flower arrangements. With 79 acres bedecked in additional than 7 million bulbs (together with greater than 800 completely different tulip species), it’s the biggest flower backyard on the planet. No marvel it attracts nicely over one million guests in the course of the eight weeks it’s open every year.

In 2023, the walkable gardens will open from March 23 to Might 14. Whereas this 12 months’s version will skip the annual themed exhibitions to give attention to its seventy fifth anniversary in 2024, its floral designs can be no much less engaging. To extend your probabilities of seeing probably the most tulips in full bloom, plan your go to towards the tip of the season.

Museum de Zwarte Tulp

Past the Keukenhof, the city of Lisse has loads of different jumping-off factors for explorations round this tulip-growing area (often known as the Bulb District, or Bollenstreek). For a lay of the land, cease by the close by Museum de Zwarte Tulp in Lisse, the place rotating exhibitions give attention to every part from tulips in Twentieth-century artwork to the historical past of the Bollenstreek.

From right here, embark on walking or cycling routes across the tulip fields (or €159-a-person helicopter tours, US$173, on choose Saturdays and Sundays all through April). And should you’re nonetheless not tulip-ed out, the family-run Tulip Experience Amsterdam, launched in 2019 simply down the street from the Keukenhof Gardens, has tulips fields with greater than one million blooms by means of which visitors are allowed to stroll for €9.50 (US$10).

Bloemencorso Bollenstreek

• The place: Noordwijk, Lisse, and Haarlem
• When to go to: April 19 – April 23, 2023

The Bulb District’s floral frenzy is at its highest on April 22, when an annual flower parade often known as the Bloemencorso Bollenstreek will journey the 26-mile stretch between Noordwijk to Haarlem in a procession of colourful floats tufted with tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, and different bulb flowers. The parade passes by means of villages and cities alongside the route and makes a brief cease on the Keukenhof entrance round 3 p.m.

From April 19 to 21, visitors can take a peek behind the scenes on the Klinkenberg tennis corridor in Sassenheim, the place dozens of volunteers will beautify the flower floats earlier than they embark on an after-dark parade by means of Noordwijkerhout on the night of April 21. Should you miss the parade, the floats can be on show in Haarlem’s historic metropolis middle on April 23.

Tulip Pageant Noordoostpolder

• The place: Emmeloord
• When to go to: April 21 – Might 7, 2023

Whereas the Bulb District round Amsterdam welcomes the lion’s share of tulip vacationers each spring, most tulips are literally grown within the Noordoostpolder, a low-lying municipality of reclaimed land about an hour north of Amsterdam. Throughout the blooming season from late April to early Might, the realm turns right into a Technicolor patchwork of flower fields, which is well known from April 21 to Might 7, 2023, in the course of the area’s annual Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder.

Throughout this time, a signposted automobile and biking route guides guests previous the realm’s most lovely tulip fields (there’s a similar route in close by Flevoland). Route maps can be found without spending a dime at a number of competition places, together with Van der Valk Hotel Emmeloord.

Low season tulip scorching spots

Whereas the Netherlands, and Amsterdam specifically, are at their most colourful in spring, you possibly can nonetheless get your flower repair should you go to throughout summer season, autumn, or winter. The floating flower market (or Bloemenmarkt within the native lingo) on Amsterdam’s Singel canal has been round since 1862 and is a good spot to choose up tulip bulbs to convey again residence all year long. Remember, although, that solely sure varieties are authorised by U.S. Customs and require a phytosanitary certificates hooked up to their packaging—most distributors will be capable to advise.

This text initially appeared on-line in April 2016. It was up to date on January 25, 2023, to incorporate present data.