Flower park Keukenhof 2025

When: Thursday 20 March to Sunday 11 May – from 08.00 to 19.30
Location: Lisse – Stationsweg 166A (Google Maps)
Info: www.keukenhof.nl

Netherlands is renowned for its tulips and there’s no better place to see them than at the Keukenhof flower garden in Lisse! Located in the Duin en Boolenstreek (Dune and Bulb) region of Holland, it may seem logical to find the largest flowergarden in the world (79 acres).

The Keukenhof is over 70 acres and surrounded by many different kinds of flowers. At one end of the garden you can see a large windmill. They have numerous greenhouses as well. Tulips are not the only spring flowers that bloom in Keukenhof garden. You will also see narcissi’s and hyacinths growing everywhere.

If you’re hungry and tired, they have several cafes and snack bars inside, so you can sit and watch the other fantastic flowers around. The Keukenhof is known to be one of the most photographed sites from the Netherlands.

Public transport

-Amsterdam Europaplein (RAI) (Google Maps), Keukenhof Express Bus (bus 852)

-Take bus 854 from Leiden Central station (Google Maps). The journey takes around 25 minutes.

-From Schiphol Airport (Google Maps) take bus 858. The journey to the Keukenhof takes 25 minutes.

By bike
You will experience the typical Dutch transport and the typical landscape at the same time. Bikes can be rented at the back of Leiden Central Station (Google Maps).

For more information visit the I Amsterdam Store (Google Maps) at Amsterdam Central Station.
Or visit the VVV in Leiden at Stationsweg 21 (Google Maps). Near Leiden Central Station.

History of the Keukenhof

The tulip gardens at the Keukenhof were established in 1949, the idea of Mr W J H Lambooy, the then mayor of the nearby town of Lisse. He and a few other local identities thought that an annual open-air flower exhibition would be a good thing – largely for the local growers of bulbs to be able to exhibit and sell their wares.

Throughout the 15th century and before Tulipmania, the Keukenhof was in fact an area of wilderness and formed part of a massive estate where small game was hunted, food was gathered and spices were grown for the residents of the Teylingen Castle.
The garden itself passed through the hands of many wealthy aristocrats and nobility over the centuries, with each progressive owner divvying up and altering the estate grounds.

In 1642, the former captain of the Dutch East India Company and successful businessman Adriaen Maertensz built Keukenhof Castle and spent some time there during his retirement.

However, it was only in 1857 that the Keukenhof began to take on its contemporary form. Through the genius of hired landscape architects Jan David Zocher and his son Louis Paul Zocher of Vondelpark fame, the area around the castle was transformed into an elaborate English landscape garden that still forms the basis of the exhibition today.