Keukenhof Gardens transportation to/from & tickets

There is no reason whatsoever to buy your tickets for the Keukenhof this far in advance. You can comfortably wait until well in 2026.

I would carefully read the reviews for these boat tours. As the water level is lower than the flower fields, these boat tours generally don’t offer the best views of the fields. In addition to that, you don’t mention your exact dates, but you may already be too late to see the flowers in the flower fields in bloom.

The Keukenhof (gardens is not part of the name) is only open through May 10th next year.

At some point before the finish the boat tours (not really a tour, and not inside the complex) finish for the year. The farms around the area will have cut their tulips by around the third week in April so the boats won't have much to show you.

Nigel, I’m afraid your statement that the flowers in the fields will be have been cut by the third week of April might needlessly confuse and perhaps even upset people. The flowers in the tulip fields are cut off, yes that’s true. But this is usually done in the first week of May. In case of an early spring, the dead heading can start at the end of April, but not earlier.
Of course, climate change can bring the blooming and thus the dead heading forward in the next decades. Right now however, there should still be flowers in bloom in the flower fields in the third week of April.

sorry if I have faulty memory - I bow to a local always. My trip is almost always around the 21st of April and I remember seeing many sandy fields. And, true, some still in colour. I was there at the start of May this year for the second time (start of April for the first time) and whilst the Keukenhof was still in good shape there really wasn't much nearby that I saw.

Maybe I was not in the right place.

When the tulips are headed, they only cut off the flower not the entire plant. The green part of the tulip still remains in tact, so the plant can produce and grow a healthy tulip bulb. After the heading or topping, the flower fields therefore look green, not sandy.
See here for a video of how the topping is done and how the fields look after the heading; https://tulipsinholland.com/2014/12/topping-tulips/
In June and July the bulbs are harvested and only then do the tulip fields look sandy.

The sandy fields that you saw in April were therefore not tulip fields that were just topped. It could have been fields that were left empty that year. They do rotate the fields in order to prevent exhausting the soil. Or the fields you saw were used to grow the crocus. Crocusses are one of the first bulb flowers to bloom and they bloom as early as February. The fields with crocusses are therefore long gone by the time the tulips start to bloom in April.

We will be visiting the gardens on Saturday, May 2 or Sunday, May 3 at the earliest time I can book. I realize that the weekend is not the best time due to crowds, but we're hoping to see the flowers in bloom before they are cut. After doing much research, I was planning on waiting until mid-December to buy our combi tickets which include the bus to/from the gardens. Then I can book the boat tour on-line instead of waiting until we get there. If the boat tour isn't worth it, should I just order Tulip Festival cards now which include a canal boat ride in Amsterdam which we have already done on our last visit to Amsterdam? How much time should we allow to visit the gardens, not counting the boat tour?

I’m not sure how to answer your question as a boat tour near the Keukenhof is nothing like a canal cruise in Amsterdam. If you’ve already done a canal cruise last year, why do you want to do one again? For the sake of going on a boat tour?
I would do the math to see if the Tulip festival card is really worth it. The entry+bus combo deal offered by the Keukenhof is a pretty good deal already.

I also can’t help but feel that you’re overthinking this. Yes, the Keukenhof is popular and open for 2 months only. But it’s also very large and can host a huge number of visitors. It rarely sells out, and when it does it’s usually only on the date the Flower Parade is held in mid April. If you feel better buying your tickets months in advance that’s fine of course, but I don’t want anyone reading this to get the idea that the Keukenhof is something that needs to be booked this far in advance. Unlike the Anne Frank house for instance. If you want to visit that in April, you’ll need to set your alarm so you can buy the tickets as soon as they become available 6 weeks in advance.

just a couple of data points

• this year for my early April visit I booked 2 days with parking for my car the previous Thursday - plenty of choice.

• this year about 3 weeks later we decided to go one more time in May and planned the ferry and the Keukenhof 3 days in advance. Again plenty of choice.