Holland is famous for its tulips. In fact, our most popular Boat and Bike Tour routes are the springtime ones that center around seeing the tulips. So where are the best tulip fields in Holland? Here are our recommendations:
Plan your tripKeukenhof
Certainly Keukenhof is the most famous place to see tulips. Claiming to contain about 7 million (!) tulips, it has grown from a castle garden to become an exhibition park: a place for bulb growers to display their wares. The grounds are carefully landscaped to show off the amazingly wide variety of colors and shapes of tulips as well as other spring-blooming bulb plants. Themed shows inside exhibition halls as well as themed “inspirational gardens” can keep visitors enthralled for hours.
The bollenstreek (tulip fields)
The area right outside Keukenhof around the town of Lisse is the place most visitors to Keukenhof explore next, and it is stunning, with fields striped with brilliant colors. But these tulip fields cover a much larger area, a long strip of farmland along the coast from The Hague all the way up to Alkmaar. And all of it is perfectly bikeable!
Noordoostpolder
Noordoostpolder is an area in the province of Flevoland – a province built out of land reclaimed from the sea in the 1950s and 1960s. The Noordoostpolder flower fields are just as stunning as the ones along the coast in the west, and just as bicycle-friendly, but without the busloads of tourists. You’ll have the place pretty much to yourself!
FloraHolland
Tulips aren’t just a bunch of pretty flowers; they’re big business! As a matter of fact, bulbs and flowers are Holland’s biggest export. FloraHolland is the place to get a sense of how this economic sector operates. Located in Aalsmeer, it is the world’s largest flower auction house. You’ll be bowled over at the sheer number of flowers and bulbs moving through the auction house.
Enkhuizen
People usually go to Enkhuizen to visit the charming Zuiderzee Museum. It’s an open-air museum that recreates the days when the IJsselmeer was the Southern Sea and this was a humble fishing village. But in the springtime, the area around Enkhuizen blazes with the many colors of tulips. On our Sail and Bike Tulip Tour, you get both: the museum and the tulip fields!
We’re happy to help!
If you have any questions about our offerings, mail or call us at +31 (0) 2072 35 400 in the Netherlands or +1 203 814 1249 in the US. We’re happy to help you choose which boating and biking vacation would suit you best. No obligations!
Our tulip tours