Tulip Time

Yeas ago my hubby and I took a trip through Bike Barge Holland (www.bikebarge.com). You bike through the Netherlands in the day, while the barge moves to a new location. You sleep on the barge at night. There are several itineraries possible, a couple of which go through the tulip region at peak bloom time. You self select daily which of three options you want —staying on the barge, going slower and shorted distances or going faster and farther. Each group is escorted by a Dutch guide. The company has a US office in the Seattle area. They supply the bikes. We enjoyed it very much.

Although there is no guarantee they will be flowering when you are here, you can have a nice bike ride through the tulip fields from Haarlem. As a bonus you'll also have some canals on your route and the unique mid-19th-century pumping station »Cruquius«. There are two renting places at and near the railway station.
Haarlem is a good place for accommodation. Very Dutch, two excellent museums (the Frans Hals and the Teylers), not so crowded and expensive as Amsterdam, and only 15 mins away from the big city on very frequent trains.

Keukenhof https://keukenhof.nl/en/ is open the end of March through the middle of May.

You don't say the dates of your trip.

If you are there in the middle of April you will have good viewing possibilities.

If you stay in Haarlem you can easily ride down through beautiful woods (pancake house in the park) and through the tulip and other bulb areas of Lisse and nearby towns. You can even take the bike on the train for a fee. No need whatsoever for a car. There is also another area where bulbs are grown to the north of Amsterdam towards Hoorn. Again, train and bike work well.

We rented a bike at the Keukenhof Gardens from https://www.rentabikevandam.nl/en/ Prices were reasonable. We biked past some beautiful tulip/daffodil/hyacinth fields. We were there Apr 13 and the fields and tulips at the gardens were - I'd say - 90% in bloom. We were staying in Amsterdam. Took the bus from the airport. Arrived around lunch but after hearing how crowded the gardens could be (even heard a guy who said they went early to avoid the crowds, but everyone else had the same idea), we opted to take the bike ride first and when we got back around 4pm or so people were few and far between and the pavilions were almost empty.

You do not need a car to enjoy tulips, canals, museums, food, or bike riding in the Netherlands. And these things are all available over the country - not just in Amsterdam. Between trains and buses, you can get just about anywhere in the country easily.

However, you do need to make hotel reservations early. Tulip season (mid-March to mid-May) is a peak time, precisely because of the tulips. And, hotels in general in Amsterdam are not great value for money (high demand compared to the supply means high rates). Be prepared to spend more, or get less, than you had hoped.

For the Keukenhof (HUGE flower display), you can take a combination of trains and buses from various Dutch cities. As other posters have said, you can also rent bikes to see other tulip areas.

As for other aspects of planning, the first thing to figure out is what you want to see in the country - just Amsterdam and Keukenhof, or other places too? Rick's Netherlands book is a good start. He has a variety of cities, small towns, and rural areas, as well as idiot-proof directions for getting to these from Amsterdam, and how several of them can be combined to make day or overnight trips from Amsterdam.

I enjoyed my time in Leiden, Utrecht and Rotterdam more than my time in the Hague and Delft. I wasn't as interested in more rural destinations. But do some research, and see what interests you.

THANKS so much for all your comments! We are picking dates. Should we arrive around April 13th or 20th or May 10th?
We are also considering staying in Haarlem as our base. Thoughts?

If you want to be sure of a good flower show go in April.

There is a reason that Keukenhof closes by the second week of May.

The farmers will have cut down most of the bulb fields by the end of April or very early May, most years.

Some of the fields we biked by Apr 13 we already being turned under - tho they may have been daffodil or hyacinth or maybe crocus. So I'd say anywhere from Apr 10-25, you'll hit the sweet spot.

My only thing - I wish I had packed some light gloves and a few warmer shirts - I only took a 3/4 sleeve light sweater, a spring jacket which had a little lining and a fleece pullover (and t-shirts) - most days I had 3 layers on. Our Keukenhof day wasn't bad...actually, our arrival day was gorgeous, then the weather turned and tho it was still sunny, it was rather cool (10-12C) and very breezy - there were a few days gloves would have been handy.

That being said, by the time we got to Paris a week and a half later, I was wishing for a lighter jacket and sandals!

I had a similar experience to Nicole, weather-wise. I was there in mid-April, and while it wasn't too cold by the thermometer (mid-50's F), there was 1000% humidity, so I was FREEZING unless I wore lots of layers. But, I had brought a cashmere sweater and couldn't use it, since it wasn't really that cold - it just felt like it. So, I wore my cotton sweater and coat with liner every day, and used my gloves and scarf much of the time.