Visiting Keukenhof: How to Avoid the Crowds

Alright, so right off the bat I’ll admit that there is no way to completely avoid the swarms of people who come to enjoy the Netherland’s most popular tulip gardens, but we can share how we were able to briefly enjoy the park and take photos without having other visitors in the way.

We were nervous when planning our trip to Keukenhof as we had a friend mention that the garden was akin to Disneyland due to the overwhelming crowds. Cats and crowds don’t often mix well, and so we had to think about how we could make our visit to the garden less stressful. Thankfully, it’s not too difficult to do as long as you don’t mind waking up a bit earlier!

Pre-purchase tickets for the first time slot of the day

The time in which you visit Keukenhof will also largely determine how you get to experience the tulip gardens. Ideally, we like to visit major tourist destinations at sunrise when most people are still sleeping. Unfortunately, Keukenhof is only accessible during set hours, and so the next best thing is to purchase tickets for the first entry at 8:00AM.

We always recommend pre-purchasing or making a reservation since it allows you to skip lengthy ticket lines, but do be mindful that the tickets for Keukenhof are non-refundable. We purchased our tickets about a week in advance and there were still plenty left, but you may be out of luck if you leave it to the last minute.

Arrive slightly before 8:00AM

The option to pre-purchase tickets is obviously not a luxury that only you get to enjoy, and so it’s likely that a hundred other people will also be up early and ready to admire the flowers. To ensure that you are one of the first people into the gardens, you should try to arrive at least five minutes before opening or even earlier on weekends. The added bonus to getting there first is that you’ll be sure to get one of the good parking spots closer to the entrance!

Make sure to also have your ticket ready as they will scan the code before letting you into the garden. There were only two people scanning tickets when we arrived, and we watched quite a few people hold up the lines while fumbling to find their tickets. If you plan to exit and re-enter the park on the same day, you can also ask for a stamp which will allow you to come and go as necessary.

Be strategic and ignore the first flowers

Upon entering the gardens, you’ll be greeted by a wide array of vibrant flowers. Ignore the urge to stop and take photos of these beautiful displays and keep walking!

Your goal here is to get as far away from the entrance, and thus other people, as fast as possible. If you have specific photo spots in mind, such as the famous windmill, then it would be best to grab a map and immediately head to that section of the garden before others start getting similar ideas.

Most tourists will start at the entrance and then wander around to the back sections of the gardens which means that if you start at the back and work your way to the front, you’ll get to enjoy moments where you’re entirely alone or only have to deal with a few other people. There are actually multiple entrances to the gardens, so there’s isn’t truly a back session, but we ended up starting in the centre and worked our way around the various trails before finishing by the entrance.

Like I said, you can’t fully avoid the crowds, but we were able to enjoy half an hour at Keukenhof where it felt like there was almost no one else there. After about 45 minutes it was guaranteed that at least two or three other people were in each section, and then after an hour we were constantly dodging large tour groups. We explored the gardens for about two hours before we started to feel a bit overwhelmed as people kept stopping us to ask for cat photos or to try and sneak in a pet. We knew we’d spent enough time in the gardens after one tourist tried to pick up Reinhardt for a photo, and so we started navigating back to the park entrance.

When we returned to the entrance, we were greeted by a completely different scene from when we arrived; instead of tulips extending as far as the eye could see, all I could see were hordes of other visitors. It truly felt like we could have been at Disneyland if not for the fact that there were no Mickey ears adorning the heads of the park visitors.