Day trip from Amsterdam: Visiting the tulip fields in and around Lisse

The flower fields attract many people to the Netherlands every year during Spring. The Keukenhof is the main attraction, but if you want to enjoy the fields without the crowds, you have to get to the small towns.

You can find these iconic fields everywhere in the Netherlands. We drove to the northern part of the South-Holland province to explore the area for pretty fields. The first town we drove to was Lisse, which is where the Keukenhof is located.

Lisse

As we didn’t know if we could easily park the car next to the fields, we decided to park the car in a nearby neighbourhood and walked to the bulb fields. The fields near Lisse often have ditches around them, which makes it impossible to enter them. The few fields without surrounding ditches in this area all have very explicit signs stating that it’s not allowed to enter the fields. Moreover, because of the proximity of the Keukenhof it was pretty crowded in the area. We did find a beautiful red tulip field surrounded by a ditch. Click here for the location of this field.

Noordwijkerhout

After exploring the area of Lisse, we decided to drive a bit further. In the town of Noordwijkerhout we found a few very beautiful uncrowded fields. We found a field filled with yellow and white daffodils. We could conveniently park the car right next to the field. As there was no one around, we also decided to fly the drone for a bit. The location of the field is here.

On our way back home, we found a colorful tulip field right next to the highway. This one was a bit more crowded as the one we found before as many people drove past it and stopped for a photo, just like we did. We could park the car right next to field here as well. This field is located here.

Tulip field in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands

Best time to see the tulip fields

In general, the bulbs bloom from approximately mid-April until mid-May. Daffodils are the first bulbs that bloom from the end of March until mid-April. Hyacinths follow, from the beginning of April until the end of April. Tulips are the last bulbs to bloom and do so from mid-April until the beginning of May. However, the exact blooming periods vary each year depending on the temperatures. We went on April 26 (in 2018) and, even though we should have been too late for the daffodils, we still found a field full of them, blooming beautifully. The majority of the fields we came across were tulip fields though. We didn’t come across any hyacinths, but maybe we just didn’t go to the right places.

How to get to Lisse from Amsterdam

Lisse and Noordwijkerhout are around 40 minutes by car from Amsterdam. Renting a car is an option which gives you lots of flexibility to drive around and find the perfect field. If you don’t want to rent a car you can also use public transportation to, for instance, Leiden and rent a bike there to cycle around the area. Getting from Amsterdam to Leiden is very convenient: less than 30 minutes by train. Lisse and Noordwijkerhout are both a 45-minute bike ride from Leiden. You can ask the Tourist Information Center in Leiden for bike routes along the bulb fields in the area. There are biking lanes everywhere which makes it safe and easy to ride around.