Flaggy's Amsterdam - Visit of Keukenhof

KEUKENHOF
The world's most colored spring awakening

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Intro \| Location \| Access \| Opening \| Information \| Pictures

Introduction. The Keukenhof, in English the kitchen garden, becomes every year in spring-time the worlwide largest garden displaying more than seven million bulb flowers such as tulips, narcissuses, hyacinths as well as lilies, gerbera and orchids. In the large park of 32 hectares the blossoms can be admired in multicoloured flowerbeds below centuries-old trees as well as along ponds and small canals, which are populated with swans and ducks. The park is laid out in the style of an English garden, in which small channels and 15 km of curved footpaths lead through a slightly hilly landscape and the seven theme gardens. An every year changing planting scheme ensures that there is always something new to discover and therefore the annually stream of about 900'000 visitors never ceases. The flowerbeds are planted in tiers, whereby the bulbs are put into the ground in three layers

one above the other, to guarantee that the splendour of blooming flowers remains through-out the whole two months of the Keukenhof's season.
The name of the park goes back on Jacoba van Beieren, Countess of Holland, who was from 1401 to 1436 the owner of a manor on whose grounds the area of todays Keukenhof lies. She had a kitchen garden established on a part of the land in order to have always fresh herbs available for her kitchen, thus the name Keukenhof. The well-known garden and land-scape architects Zocher & Son, who also designed the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, got the task to plan a park in the year 1840 and then developed the base layout of what is Keuken-hof today. The majestic trees and the large pond date back to that time. On initiative of the then mayor of Lisse, W.J.H. Lambooy, a group of leading dutch bulb growers and exporters decided in 1949 to hold an anually open air flower exhibition in order to present the bulb flowers abloom in their full splendour and in a spring garden setting to interested parties. The park of the manor Keukenhof proved as a perfect place to implement this idea.
In three out of four royal pavilions ever changing "flower parades" (exhibitions) are held throughout the whole season. In the Queen Beatrix Pavilion is a permanent display of various orchids located. More than 50 pieces of art work are on display in the park, which may be admired by strolling along the so called sculpture route.

Lage. The Keukenhof is located in the province of North-Holland, ca 35 km southwest of Amsterdam, half-way between Haarlem and Leiden in the village of Lisse at the Stations-weg, which connects the two main roads N206 and 208.

The address is as follows: Keukenhof Stationsweg 166a PO Box 66 2160 AB Lisse Holland
Tel: Fax: Email:	+31 (0)252 46 5555 +31 (0)252 46 5565 info@keukenhof.nl

Accessibility. The Keukenhof can be reached by public transport without any problem, since a bus stops directly in front of the entrance. Also those who travel by individual transport will find a large number of parking lots for cars and the like.

Public Transport. During its season (second half of March until middle of May) the Keukenhof is directly connected by a special bus service (line 54) to the railway main station at Leiden (Keukenhof Express, travel time: 25 minutes). Starting from 08:47am the busses normally run every 30 minutes to the Keukenhof and back, stopping directly in front of the entrance Narcis (timetable: weekdays, saturdays, sundays).
It is also possible to take a bus of the lines 50 or 51 connecting Haarlem and Leiden to the busstop Sportlaan in Lisse (timetable: weekdays, saturdays, sundays). From here a special bus service (line 58) runs directly to Keukenhof during it's season (timetable: weekdays, saturdays, sundays).

To plan the individual journey by public transport to Haarlem or Leiden the Dutch Travel Planner for public transport may be used (only available in Dutch).

Individual Transport. The approach to Keukenhof by car usually takes the motorway A4 (Amsterdam / The Hague) up to the exit 4 continuing on the main road N207 in a north-western direction until the main road N208 is reached. Turning left onto N208 and drive southwards to Lisse, following the sign-posts Lisse and Keukenhof. A lot of parking space is available at the entrances. The parking fee is € 4.00, which has to be paid at the cash desk where you buy the entrance tickets. The Keukenhof has got its own traffic wardens, who will direct you to the car park.

Opening. In the table below some opening hours are given as the author found them in spring 2003.

Opening Dates
March 21^st, 2003 until May 18^th, 2003	March 25^th, 2003 until May 20^th, 2003

Opening Hours The Keukenhof is open daily on all seven days of the week!
	Keukenhof Park	08:00 am to 07:30 pm
	Keukenhof Cash Desks	08:00 am to 06:00 pm
	Restaurant/Souvenirshop Tulp	10:00 am to 05:30 pm
	Restaurant/Souvenirshop Oranje Nasssau	09:30 am to 06:30 pm
	Restaurant/Souvenirshop Atrium	10:00 am to 05:30 pm
	Restaurant/Souvenirshop Hyancint	08:00 am to 07:30 pm
	Restaurant/Souvenirshop Atrium	10:00 am to 05:30 pm
	Snackbar Narcis (weekdays)	12:00 am to 07:00 pm
	Snackbar Narcis (weekends)	11:00 am to 07:30 pm
	Souvenirshop Narcis	10:00 am to 05:00 pm

Information. If you find some of the below informations as incorrect, please email your suggestions to: webmaster@flaggy.ch. Thank you for your cooperation.

Entrance Fees. The entrance fee is: adults € 12.--, children € 5.50 (4 to 11 years) and senior citizens € 11.-- (above 65 years of age).
Cars do need a parking ticket at € 4.00, which is available at the cash desk and has to be handed over to the traffic warden at leaveing the car park.
All major credit cards (such as MasterCard, Visa, and so on) are accepted at the entrance cash desks.

At the selling points of the bus company Connexxion in Haarlem (bus terminal) and Leiden (station square), combined tickets to Keukenhof (bus ride and entrance fee) are available at profitable prices: adults € 16.20, children € 8.50 (4 to 11 years) and senior citizens € 13.50 (above 65 years of age).

Internet. Keukenhof has got its own webpage giving information about current events, spe-cial exhibitions and visiting the place (opening times, entrance fees and so on) in Dutch at http://www.keukenhof.nl and also in English among other languages.
On the homepage of the bus company Connexxion, a special site is found giving all the necessary information about the connection of Keukenhof to the public bus network: "Met Connexxion naar Keukenhof" (unfortunately in Dutch only).

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last modified
18-Apr-2004