The Ultimate DIY Tulip Day Trip From Amsterdam🌷

Are you planning a trip to Amsterdam during spring and wanting to see the famous tulip fields?

While there are no tulip fields in the city of Amsterdam, the magic happens just 45 minutes away in the nearby town of Lisse. And it’s super easy to take a day trip there to see them!

Tulips were the whole reason I wanted to visit Amsterdam in April, so I did a ton of research on the best ways to see them and what our options were.

In this guide, I’m breaking down our exact day trip itinerary to see the tulips from Amsterdam, which includes a stop at the famous Keukenhof Gardens, riding bikes along the real tulip fields, and a photo stop at the Tulip Barn so you can actually walk through the tulips (more on the later!).

Fair warning: this is a long day, so plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to enjoy the tulips!

Getting to the Tulip Fields

As mentioned above, the main tulip fields outside of Amsterdam are located in the town of Lisse, which is around 45 minutes away by car.

We personally spent 3 full days in Amsterdam and then on our last (4th) day – because it was the best weather day – we did a day trip to Lisse!

Now, I don’t know about you, but I rarely want to rent a car in foreign countries, so I immediately looked for other options for getting to Lisse.

Luckily, there are a few to choose from!

Our start and end point for this itinerary is the Keukenhof Gardens, so in the next few sections, I’ll cover your options for getting there specifically (not just Lisse in general).

Organized Bus Tour Transfer

We personally chose to book this bus transfer ticket that also includes entry to the Keukenhof Gardens (which is normally around 21 euros)!

I’ll explain more about Keukenhof Gardens in the next section, but for now know that it’s the first stop on this itinerary! It’s also where you’ll pick up your bikes for the rest of the day, so it’s important to start here.

Now, I’m not normally one for those giant tourist bus tours, but this is different. This is basically just a bus transfer to get you to and from Lisse/Keukenhof so you don’t have to navigate public transportation.

And what I love about this specific option is the flexible return. When booking your ticket, you will choose a time slot for leaving Amsterdam (I recommend first thing in the morning), but you don’t need a time slot for returning.

This allows you to keep your day flexible! They have huge buses leaving Keukenhof to return to Amsterdam every 30 minutes until 6:30pm. To me, this sounded much better than having to worry about catching a bus and train back to Amsterdam and potentially being stranded in Lisse if we missed it, haha!

Prices for the bus + garden ticket combo range from $30 – $60, depending on the time of day and week that you are booking for. I highly recommend booking the first available option, which is usually 8:00am.

This will put you in Lisse just before 9am and help you avoid a lot of the crowds in Keukenhof (and trust me, there are crowds).

We booked the 8:00am option but ended up getting to the ticket booth (where you’ll exchange your voucher for your actual garden and bus tickets) just after 8:00am.

Unfortunately, due to the long line at the ticket booth, we ended up on the 8:30am bus. But I was grateful they just moved us with no issues!

So, learn from my mistake and arrive at the ticket booth at least 15 minutes before your planned departure time ⚠️

The bus is double-decker, air-conditioned and very comfortable, and they’ll drop you off inside the Keukenhof Garden grounds, so it really does make your life easy!

The bus departs from the This is Holland tour building, which is across the river from Centraal station. To get here, hop on the free ferry that departs every few minutes from Amsterdam Centraal to Amsterdam Noord. It only takes 5 minutes!

Book your early morning Keukenhof bus transfer + ticket in advance here! 🚌

Public Transportation to Lisse

If you don’t want to book the above option for this itinerary, you can also get to Lisse & Keukenhof via public transportation from Amsterdam.

Keukenhof makes it easy by providing a bus transfer called KeukenhofBuzz that departs from several cities around Lisse (including Amsterdam) and goes directly to the gardens (see graphic below!).

Since you are departing from the Amsterdam city center, I recommend taking the M52 metro line to Europaplein (RAI) station (shown in blue above). From there, you can hop on the KeukenhofBuzz bus straight to Keukenhof (shown in red above).

You can see on the map where the M52 line departs from in Amsterdam: Noorderpark, Amsterdam Centraal station (likely the best option), Vijzelgracht, and De Pijp!

The other option from Amsterdam requires two different buses and a transfer at the airport (shown in dark blue) before reaching Station Hoofddorp (shown in light blue), where you will board the KeukenhofBuzz bus.

If you do decide to use one of these public transportation routes, you should buy a Combiticket directly from the Keukenhof website that will include your entrance to the gardens + your ride on the KeukenhofBuzz bus from RAI station. The ticket cost is around 39 euros.

However, this ticket does not include the metro or bus ride to get to the KeukenhofBuzz bus pickup location, so those will need to be purchased separately. (For the metro and buses in Amsterdam, you can just tap in and out using your smartphone – check out my guide to Navigating around Amsterdam for more details (coming soon!!)).

Early Morning: Exploring Keukenhof Gardens

Alright, now that you know HOW you’re getting to Keukenhof to start this incredible tulip day trip, let’s get into the fun!

If you took my advice, you should arrive at the Keukenhof Gardens no later than 9:00am. This will help you beat the worst of the crowds at Keukenhof, which tend to start getting bad around 11:00am.

Now, what the heck is Keukenhof exactly? Before my trip, I read that it was like the Disney World of tulips in Amsterdam..

After visiting Keukenhof myself, I can understand the comparison. It’s touristy and crowded like Disney, but also (like Disney), I think it’s 100% worth it, especially if you love flowers!

Keukenhof is literally a giant botanical garden. Open only from late March to early May, this giant garden showcases not just tulips but a number of beautiful spring flowers, including daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses, fittalaria, and more!

The gardens are dreamy, with sprawling green lawns, fountains, and flower-lined paths. There’s even a windmill that you can go up inside to see the garden from above!

Below is a map of Keukenhof so you can get a feel for the layout and all it has to offer.

I recommend around 1-3 hours exploring Keukenhof (we stayed for right around 2). Most of your time will be spent looking at flowers and enjoying the beautiful scenery! Of course, they also have a flower bulb shop where you can purchase bulbs and even have them mailed to you at home.

There’s also several food options inside the gardens. While a few stalls didn’t open til 11am for lunch, we did get some fresh strawberries covered in the most delicious, thick cream I’ve ever had!

And while we didn’t do this option, you can also join a boat cruise that leaves from Keukenhof (right side of the map) and takes you along some of the blooming flower fields right outside the park.

This is a good option if you are only visiting Keukenhof and skipping the rest of this itinerary. However, if you are following this guide, I’d skip the boat cruise in favor of biking along the fields!

Overall, I loved exploring Keukenhof because I am a sucker for beautiful flowers. I had no idea how many different types of tulips there are! Despite the crowds, it’s a wonderful place to explore for a few hours.

Late Morning: Biking Along the Tulip Fields

Once you’ve had your fill of Keukenhof (which will likely be when the gardens start to feel very crowded), it’s time to head outside the park entrance and pick up your bikes to explore the real tulip fields.

The bike area is just outside and a little to the left of the entrance (when exiting), marked by an orange building (it’s impossible to miss).

I recommend reserving your bikes in advance here! This will allow you to skip the ticket window line when you arrive at the bike shop! We picked ours up at 11:30am, and I wouldn’t recommend much later than that (to give yourself plenty of time for the rest of the day).

The cost of a regular bike is €12.50 for 3 hours or €17.50 for the full day! We opted to rent for the whole day so we didn’t have to rush back (and I recommend you do the same!).

You can also choose to add on a phone holder (highly recommend) and get a bike with a basket (also recommend), as the standard bikes do not come with them.

Right next to the ticket window, you’ll find the below sign with the recommended routes to take (view the full PDF version of the map here). The routes are color-coded, and which you take may vary depending on your plans for the day, and the time of year you are visiting.

The guides at the bike shop will be able to tell you which flower fields are in bloom right now and therefore which route they recommend!

We personally rode the green loop, as our main priority was visiting the Tulip Barn, which I will cover in more detail below.

However, if you have more time (maybe you are skipping the gardens or aren’t stopping anywhere along the way), I would do the red loop, which goes all the way to the coast!

🚲 Note: If you are not comfortable riding a bike and/or do not know standard bike rules, please do some prep work before tackling this itinerary. In general, the route is easy to follow and relatively flat, but the Dutch take biking very seriously, as you will see in Amsterdam as well! For everyone’s safety, you should follow the rules of the road and be a good tourist!

An Important Note on the Tulip Fields

Before you depart on your bikes from Keukenhof, I wanted to set expectations for the rest of this itinerary.

For the remainder of the day, you will be riding bikes beside the gorgeous flower fields (both tulips and others!) of the Netherlands. However, social media has made it seem like you can just frolic through these fields like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

This, however, is not the case. In fact, most of these fields have barriers up (like tape) to try to keep you out of the fields, as well as signs stating the same – do not cross the flower line.

Why? Because walking through these tulip fields can bring damage and disease that can kill the whole crop. These tulip fields aren’t (just) for beauty. Dutch farmers grow them to sell the bulbs.

Did you know The Netherlands is the world’s largest exporter of flowers and plants? In 2022, they exported €82 million worth of flower bulbs!!

So yeah, the flower fields are the livelihood of these farmers, so it makes sense they want to protect them!

With all that said, please respect this when you visit the tulip fields and don’t traipse through them when you are not supposed to.

Instead, there are several places in the area with flower fields you can actually walk through, one of which is the next stop on this itinerary!

P.S. For more details on other places you can visit in the area, check out my full guide to Tulip Season in the Netherlands here (Coming Soon!).

Early Afternoon: Lunch and Photos at the Tulip Barn

Okay, you have your bikes and you know the rules of the road AND the rules of the tulip fields!!

It’s time to head to the Tulip Barn, one of the few places in Lisse where you can actually walk through fields of tulips without worrying about harming a farmer’s crop.

There are a few places like this in the area: private establishments that have rows of tulip fields to walk through, often with fun photo ops and other activities too! The other two most popular are the Tulip Experience and De Tulperij – you’ll actually pass the Tulip Experience on your route today too.

We chose to visit the Tulip Barn because it was closest to Keukenhof and looked to have the most variety, but after passing by the Tulip Experience, I think they are pretty similar (the Tulip Experience might even be a bit bigger!).

Anyways, to get to the Tulip Barn from Keukenhof, you’ll make a left outside of the entrance to Keukenhof, then follow the road before making a left at the 2nd round-about, and then a right on Loosterweg Noord.

Honestly, all you have to do is pop the Tulip Barn into your Google Maps, set it to Bike mode, and you’ll be on your way. I just put the volume up and stuck my phone in my pocket, but it would’ve been even better to have the little phone holder they offer.

After a 10-minute bike ride, you’ll arrive at the Tulip Barn!

We booked our tickets to the Tulip Barn in advance, which I highly recommend, as you’ll have to select a timed-entry slot (ours was noon). Tickets are only 10 euros!

We were starving when we arrived so decided to eat at their on-site cafe first before entering the Tulip Fields (where you’ll scan your ticket to get in).

It was mostly coffee, alcohol (including tulip beer!!), and sweets like waffles, pies, cakes, etc. However, they did have these amazing sausage rolls (a pastry filled with ground sausage) that were SO good, we ended up going back for a second one after we finished taking photos haha.

Then, it was time to enter the tulip fields!! As mentioned, the sole purpose of these fields are for tourists to take photos, so as you can imagine, it gets pretty busy.

As we were visiting earlier in the season (first week of April), a lot of their tulip fields on one side weren’t blooming yet, so the side that was blooming was packed!

This was to be expected, so just be prepared to be creative when taking photos, and accept that you will most likely have people in the background.

Within the tulip fields, they have fun photo props like mirrors, couches, scooters, and more you can take photos with (we skipped most of them since there were lines lol). They also have a giant windmill that was a great backdrop for photos!

Just outside the fields, there’s a whole kid area with bounce houses and stuff like that, so it’s very kid-friendly here.

Overall, we spent around 2 hours taking photos here – you may need more or less time, depending on how much you care about getting that perfect shot!

But we wanted to leave time to bike around the real tulip fields and enjoy being away from people, and I recommend you do the same!

Late Afternoon: More Biking through the Fields

Around 2:30pm, we left the Tulip Barn and headed out to explore the real tulip fields! We immediately hit an insane traffic jam after turning left out of the Tulip Barn to continue along the green route.

Turns out, these tiny Dutch towns are not built to handle all of the tourism the tulips bring. This is another reason to please be a good tourist and respect that these are people’s homes and livelihood, not just a photo op.

After walking our bikes for a bit to get through the traffic, we made our way further west along the green route. From this road, we could see tons of blooming fields in the distance, so we let that be our guide. Different areas may be blooming when you visit, so just follow your senses!

We ended up turning left down Zilkerbinnenweg (again following the green route) and stopping in front of a gorgeous field around half way down so I could fly my drone. It was so beautiful!!!!

From there, we continued down Zilkerbinnenweg, turned left on Delfweg (passing by the Tulip Experience), and then turning left on Leidsevaart (the dotted line on the provided map).

This road might have been my favorite of the day, as there was an adorable river running on the other side of the road opposite the fields. People were biking up and down the road, boating down the river, and enjoying the beauty of the fields.

We biked about halfway down this road and stopped to fly the drone and enjoy the fields again. So gorgeous!

It was around 4:30pm by this point, so we decided to make our way back to Keukenhof. However, if we had more time, I would’ve continued the other direction (southwest) down Leidsevaart, as there were even more tulip fields and lots of people biking that way too!

Evening: Return to Keukenhof & Amsterdam

We ended up arriving back at Keukenhof around 5:00pm! We dropped our bikes off at the same place we picked them up and then walked over to the bus meeting point (the same place they drop you off in the morning).

Remember, if you booked the flexible return bus option I recommended, the last bus departs at 6:30pm, but I don’t recommend waiting for the last one in case there are a ton of people.

Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long for the bus depart (only around 15 minutes), and we were back in Amsterdam by 6:00pm!

Final Thoughts

And that’s a wrap on this epic DIY day trip to see the tulips from Amsterdam! I hope this post helped you plan your own adventure to the tulip fields.

As you can tell by the photos, this is absolutely worth a day trip from Amsterdam if you are visiting in the spring time!

If you want to tweak this itinerary a bit, feel free! And make sure to check out my full guide to the tulips in The Netherlands, which covers other places to visit, tours to consider, and more (Coming Soon)!

And of course, don’t miss my 3 Day Amsterdam Itinerary to plan the rest of your trip with ease!