Keukenhof Tickets

There's quite a line when you get there if you don't already have a ticket. I went last April and had purchased a combi-ticket and took the Airport Express bus to Schiphol, then onto the Keukenhof bus (as you face the airport it's off to the left, plenty of signage). I went around 12 noon and waited perhaps 5 minutes for a bus, same for the return trip around 4 pm. The buses roll in every 3 minutes or so. The ticket can be used any day, which helps as the weather is unpredictable.

And if you are coming from Amsterdam, Discover Holland has a special, for 35 euro they sell the bus+garden ticket AND round trip train from Amsterdam to Schiphol. We did this today, a real time saver although their web site is not as simple to use as it should be.

Is it really very impressive/gorgeous? I am wondering if there are other places for tulips that are less crowded and commercial??
Thanks

I was there yesterday. It’s fabulous!

Yes Tashi , it really is fabulous ! Nowhere else will you see this many flowers , perfectly groomed flower beds , quiet places if you leave the large paths and venture out to the little winding paths . Unexpected color combinations and designs will surprise you and you go home wondering if you should try this in your own yard ( if you have a yard of course ) . The commercial flower bulb fields are no comparison as the flowers have to be cut off to keep the bulb itself from being depleted from flowering . After all , those bulbs are grown for selling them .

We were there last year and it is beautiful - the pavilions with all the roses and tulips - breathtaking - I took so many photos.

I'd also recommend renting a bike and biking around to see the tulip fields - it was so gorgeous. (Caveat - there was one field we went by that you could go into, most were off limits and to look at from the road) There is a bike rental right in the parking lot - https://www.rentabikevandam.nl/en/ I'm not the best on a bike (I managed to fly over the handlebars when we rented one in Switzerland) but it was so flat and pretty easy going (except for the wind!). I wish we could share photos on here - but to see the fields of daffodils, hyacinths and tulips stretched to the horizon - it was a bucket list trip for me and it was amazing. We didn't get to Keu until noon-ish and it looked very busy, so we rented the bikes first. Out for 2-3 hrs, then back to Keu and the pavilions were almost empty.

We just got a combi ticket at the airport. The bus line was about 45-60 min long. There were some 'enterprising' guys there offering rides out for about 3 times what the bus cost, and saying it was a few hours wait for the bus.

We’ve been 4 times ( mid April through mid May ) and will happily return. It’s popluar for sure, but I don’t ever remember feeling “crowds” and truly have never felt it was in the least bit commercial. We've spent many hours each time we visited over the years and it was always, yes, gorgeous. Bulb fields are adjacent to the gardens and you can see what they might look like...no guarantee as noted above. I’d certainly go to Keukenhof at least if it’s your first trip. You might catch some fields if blooming on a train ride in the region where cultivation is concentrated; I can’t recall for sure where we were day tripping to but it might have been Amsterdam to Haarlem. We’ve taken a few different combi ticket options over the years and all were fine. Safe travels.

An advantage of buying tickets in advance is you bypass the ticket window lines. I found the combi-ticket worth it.