Keukenhof Gardens

King's Day is like NYE in Times Square to the nth power no matter what town you are in. But, I've read that seeing Keukenhof on King's Day is actually a good plan.
When you say book through a tour company, do you mean someone would escort you through the park, because that would be totally unnecessary. Don't miss Keukenhof. It's spectacular!

Hopefully dutch_traveler will join this conversation with loads of helpful info for you.

by the time that it is KIngs Day right at the end of April, depending on weather, many (most?) of the bulb fields in the vicinity of the Keukenhof will have been cut. While they are beautiful when in bloom the fields are not for harvested blooms but rather to grow the bulbs under the ground. When they are mature the tops are cut off and the bulbs harvested a little later. They want the energy to go into the bulb, not the flower.

So the fields will likely not be the show you hoped for...

The Keukenhof on the other hand will be in top gear.

You really don't need a tour to take you around. I have been frequently over the years and the map that is provided both on line in in printed form as you go in has pretty much everything you would need. It is worth studying, and understanding the food options, and the general shape of the 4 quarters of the garden, before hand - especially if there will be 5 of you. You will be wanting to move around, not deciding in a meeting every time you get to a corner which way to go.

It will be crowded so stopping to decide a lot will be difficult.

This year we went twice - the first time on the 14th of April and again on May 8, 2 days before the annual shut down in the last week.

Both times, a bit early and quite late, Keukenhof was on top form and did not disappoint.

So what I am saying is, on Kings Day, enjoy the Keukenhof but do not get your hopes up about surrounding bulb fields.

What were you hoping to see in what you describe as "quaint towns"? What would make that for you?

To Nigel’s point, I won’t call Lisse, Hillegom nor Noordwijk quaint picturesque villages. Do realize King’s day will be celebrated there as well and getting around to and from the Keukenhof without your own transportation most likely will be tough. Of course, you can rent bikes at various locations or take public transport, but expect taxis or Ubers hard to find. Sure, you can go to Leiden or Haarlem which may be interesting options if you want to experience King’s Day in a setting less crazy than Amsterdam.

Thank you all for your replies. To clarify the statement about taking a tour to Keukenhof, we would only go with a tour company for the transportation to the gardens and do not want a guide inside the park. We like to wander as we see fit. If we did go with a tour company, like Viator, we would want to see other towns the same day. We don’t know how crazy it would be on King’s Day to use to shuttle bus to the gardens or if they run on that day. We are unsure of which towns to visit yet until we do more research.
Hope that clarifies my questions.

You don’t need a tour company to get to the Keukenhof. Not on Kingsday and not on any other day. You can simply buy a public transport/ entry combo ticket from the official Keukenhof website and you’re good to go. It’s way to early for next years combo ticket information to be available. You can start checking the website of the Keukenhof towards the end of the year https://keukenhof.nl/en/

Also don’t worry about the tulips in the field no longer being in bloom on Kingsday. The flowers in the fields do get cut, but not until the first week of May.
Another important thing to note is that Viator is not a tour company. They resell tours of other companies and don’t operate any tours of their own.

I visited Keukenhof Gardens in April with the entry/bus ticket and it was very easy. You get the bus from the train station and it drops you right near the entrance to the gardens. The return bus is also close by the entrance and easy to find. No need to book a tour.