Spring in the Netherlands: Tulips, Festivals & Hidden Gems

Spring in the Netherlands is pure magic. Tulip fields in full bloom, windmills turning in the breeze and festivals bringing the country to life. In this episode, we take you through the must-see spring events, including Keukenhof Gardens, King’s Day and the Flower Parade. Plus hidden gems like biking through tulip fields, exploring charming small towns and experiencing unique Dutch traditions. Whether you're planning a trip or just dreaming of Dutch springtime, this episode is packed with travel tips, fun stories and insider recommendations.

Tune in and get ready to fall in love with spring in the Netherlands! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome back. I'm Lisa. And I'm Erin. And this is the Getaways Podcast. It is finally starting to get warm.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Oh, it was so nice yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

It was like 60 degrees. I mean, it's crazy how long it's been since I've been warm outside.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I know. I mean, it's been so cold for so long. It's been so cold, but we were trying to get away. It's ski week right now in the Netherlands. So we were trying to get away for some skiing because it's been so cold. And now it's a warm, warm streak in Austria and all the snow is melting.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yeah. So we uh we were prepared for you know winter wonderland and now we're getting early spring. So uh I'm not gonna complain. Not gonna complain, but not what we were expecting. But speaking of spring, spring is when the Netherlands, I feel like, just comes alive. Like if there's like that's the time everybody should come and visit, don't you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I totally agree. Spring in the Netherlands is it's really special. It's like summer in Italy.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah. Well, and I think it's exactly for us, probably even more so, because it has been cold for so long, so then when spring comes, everybody's out, everything's blooming. Like it's just it it comes alive. It's it's a whole other country practically.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Yeah, it it's beautiful in springtime. There's and there's so much to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah. So I think because we know it the best, we're kind of gonna focus on Holland for the most part today, right? And and yes, for the most part. Yeah. So, you know, obviously there's the picture that everybody comes that everyone gets in their head when they think of the Netherlands or Dutch culture or anything, is tulips, right? And they are there's good reason for that because they are incredible here. And something that well, the first time that we came to the Netherlands was in spring, right? Was April of 2019.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yes, when we came with your sister and your nephew, it was 2019, right before COVID, the spring before COVID.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah. And it was, I mean, that was a fantastic trip, but the thing that, you know, really stuck out to me was going to, I'm gonna say it wrong. Kuchenhof. Kuchenhof, um, which is the big garden where all the not all the tulips, but you know, it's probably the most famous place for going to see the tulips. And I was not prepared at all for the scope of that garden.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah, Kuchenhof, it's not so you see pictures sometimes of tulip fields, which is in itself beautiful. But Kuchenhof is an actual like garden that has all the varieties and and different settings, so and it's huge. It's huge, and it's beautiful, and it you could spend an entire day there and still not see everything.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah. And I mean, if you if I said to you, like make up the craziest, most beautiful tulip you can possibly make up, like I swear it's there and it exists. Like they are every variety, every there's messy ones that have like frayed edges. There's some that are smaller and more normal size, there's some that are the size of like your whole hand wide open. Like it's it's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Uh my favorite is there's the most deep, beautiful black tulip that I've ever like, it is beautiful and just that's nature. And it came out like that. I'm gonna put that on the website because that's my favorite tulip.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Yeah. I mean, I I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite because uh every turn you make, every way that you look, it's just it gets more astonishingly beautiful and breathtaking. And it's just so, you know, I came home. Well, I've now been there three times, and every time I come home, I like open my phone and look, and I've taken so many pictures because it's just like, oh my gosh, that one, I like that one better than the other one. And you know, it's just it's it's almost overwhelming, but in the best possible way.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

And it there's no direct train to it. So it that but there's lots of bus shuttles that go from Amsterdam or Rotterdam or The Hague straight to the park. So you just have to do a little planning. And I would buy your tickets in advance because it does sell out quite often.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, and and I would say if you can do during the week and you can do morning um right kind of in the middle of the season. Now, the tulip season here actually starts in January and goes until the second week of May, but the gardens are only open from like the middle of March to the middle of May. It changes every year depending on the weather. So you have to kind of plan accordingly and then, like Aaron said, buy your tickets early. And there's different things that you can do too. You can rent a bike when you're there and ride. No, okay, first of all, I have to back up and say the Instagram pictures that you see of people like crouching in the fields, you're not supposed to do that. So don't go expecting that. You will not be disappointed, I promise you, but that is not the picture that you're gonna get if you go to the gardens.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I don't think the bike rentals inside Kukenhoff, though. I believe it's the fields right outside. It's right next door.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but you can do that on the website. You can rent your bike there, you can rent it there.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

And they have one of my favorite things. They have a boat. It goes to the canals of the tulip fields. We have not done that yet, but it's I want to do that if I go back.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, and then so you can get your entrance fee or interest ticket, and it's a time, a lot of time, and you go and there's food inside, so you know, you you literally can spend the whole day. There's also a windmill that you can go up in, which gives you sort of an aerial view of the gardens and the tulip fields.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Um, again, going back to planning when you go, the season does go usually from the middle of March to about the middle of May, but the the peak is usually in the middle of that. So just to sort of keep in mind as you're as you're planning and scheduling your trip.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

So definitely if you come to the Nether Netherlands in spring, you have to go to Koekenhof. Also, since we're on the topic of tulips, every year they have a flower parade that goes from Amsterdam to Harlem. Um, this year it's on April 12th. It's kind of like the Rose Parade in California, but it's just all flowers, all Dutch flowers, and it is like spectacular floats. We haven't been there. We're gonna go this year, but um I can't wait to see it.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

So the tulips obviously are the most prominent thing that stick out in people's mind about Holland and the Netherlands, but there is a small little area in the Amsterdam forest that has an area that is for cherry blossoms, and it is I don't even remember what the season is or what the No, it's definitely in spring. But the Amsterdam forest is a great place to like walk around, be in nature. It's beautiful, it's huge. There's you know lots of trails, lots of areas to explore. Um, but this particular area is is for the cherry blossoms, and it's just really beautiful. It's not huge, but it's it's really worth the walk to explore that part of the park. And and something very unexpected, but very special.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Spring in the Netherlands is not just about tulips and flowers. We also have one of the biggest parties, I think, probably in the world. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

So it's King's Day, which is celebrated on April 27th. Um, and it is the biggest, I mean, it is celebrated all across the Netherlands. And it is everybody wears orange because the idea is that the Dutch invented the orange carrot that wasn't orange before. It's a very long story, we will get into later at some point. But everybody wears orange and it is a street party, basically. I mean, there's bands on every corner in every city in the Netherlands. There's um, you know, people have it, there's food, there's street vendors, the canals are full of boats getting through, of everybody sort of partying and and having fun. And when I say full, I mean literally they are it's it's bumper to bumper with boats, especially in Amsterdam. And then usually in the morning on King's Day, the kids will go out to the big park in the city and it's basically a flea market that the kids run, and they'll sell all of their old toys or they will create games for people to play. And there's food trucks. Yeah, but it's it's you know, daytime is very much family, more family-oriented. Um, and then it gets a little crazier at as the day progresses and we you get into the nighttime. It is truly like a party that everybody takes part in, though.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

It's it's really um it's it's Netherlands' biggest national holiday.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Yeah, so anywhere. Oh, and the other thing I should say is if you're in Amsterdam on Kings Day, the entire city is closed to cars. It's everybody's on foot and you cannot get in any other way. The train station, you can come into the main train station in Amsterdam, but then it's it's Lisa, why don't you tell us how the train station is at night leaving Amsterdam? Okay, so last year my friend came in and she was staying in the flower market, in a hotel on the flower market, and um, you know, we're we're not as young as springtime, and so we decided to call it an evening at like around eight, I think, like maybe eight, eight thirty. We'd been going all day, whatever. So I was gonna take the train back to Rotterdam, jumped on the train, and these are trains that go like all the time. I mean, they're like every what 15 or 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah, did you go to Central?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah, okay, and um, and so I get on the train and it is so incredibly packed, you can't move. And I'm not I'm not be exaggerating. I'm not, I mean, literally, I couldn't even have fainted because I wouldn't have had anywhere to go. It was so incredibly packed, and every and it's unpleasantly packed and hot. So the thing that I would recommend the most about King's Day is to be prepared and to make sure that you are in like you have a room in the city for that at least 24 hours so that you don't have to venture out, you don't have to worry about transportation in or out of the city, and that you can just kind of you know open your door and go out and do what you want to do because it gets really complicated if you have to start dealing with transportation and uh it's it's uncomfortable, honestly. And so the other sort of iconic thing about the Netherlands and Holland are the windmills, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

And so there's two sort of main places in this area that are perfect to visit in spring to see your windmills, and they are Kinderdike, which is by Rotterdam, which we've been to a few times.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, it's so magical, and you can rent bikes and you can ride down probably two miles of just this bike path with Dutch windmills on both sides of you. So beautiful. And then they have a little, I'm all about little boats and trains tours. So they have a little, they have a boat that goes up and down the canal by the windmills.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

And you can actually go in two or three, two, two, two of the windmills and see like how people lived in there, which is really kind of fascinating. And the, you know, how they use every bit of space and where the beds are and all that stuff. It's really kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

And then on the other side of the canal, in still in the the Kinderdike area, is that museum that shows how they turn on the windmills and turn them to face the wind and how they have to keep the water moving in the canals, which everybody likes that when we take them there, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Well, yeah, and it's cool because one part of it's interactive where you can kind of like pull things and move things and help direct the water. And then there is also a little movie that's kind of worth seeing. Um, I should also say that the whole thing is dog friendly, including the movie. So if you want to take your dog, um they are welcome everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

So there's one other place which is north of Amsterdam for windmills, and I'm gonna butcher it. It's called Zans Lisa, what do you think it's called?

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Zaans Shans. Okay. At least that's what they say on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

So that's just probably 20 minutes outside of Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah, and it's cool because there's the windmills, but there's also it's a very um agricultural region. So there are farms and there's a place also where they make clogs. And you can go in and watch them as they're making the traditional Dutch clogs and stuff. So it's just sort of a a cute place for the whole family to see different parts of traditional Dutch culture, too.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Other really fun things to do in the spring because the weather is so great, is there's so many cute little towns, all within a train ride from Amsterdam, that are totally worth the visit, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah. I mean, Delft, I think, is probably my well, I don't know, I love Harlem too. But Delft is the cute, it's a really cute little town, and it's known for its blue and white pottery. And there's even a place where you can paint your own tile.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

We take everybody there, and it's so great, and the town is so cute. And then I love Harlem as well. Like Harlem's just like one, what, two train stops outside of Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

And it is the cutest little town, and they have the best Christmas market, and they have great restaurants.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yeah, we were just talking, I was just talking to my niece yesterday. We went with my sister to this really cool wine bar um right in the center of town, and um, and they have events all the time. I mean, it's it's kind of a I don't know, there's sort of like a hipness to to Harlem that I don't feel in that many other Dutch cities.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah, definitely. And then there's this town called Utrecht, which is super cute and it has like um some palaces there.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah. It's also just a cool vibe. It's like I think of that more as being like a little Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Um, but again, really cool restaurants, really cool place to like wander around and just sort of, you know, ex get lock get a little lost and do a little shopping and a little eating. Like it's just it's a very charming town.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah. In 2019, we went to a cheese market in Alkmar. The town is cute, and it was really fun just kind of watching how they used to do cheese markets.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah. Yeah, no, I liked it a lot. That was actually where I had my first hearing.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

And speaking of cheese, I think Howda or Guda is an another interesting place to go. Um, they have a cheese museum experience that um that also teaches you about the markets and how they negotiated the cheese and all of that, and it's just a really cute town. So we actually did the first time when my sisters were here, we did a double ticket off of like Viator or Get Your Guide, I don't remember which one it was. But so we went and did the Stroopwaffle tour, um, which is really, really cool, and then um had lunch and then walked over and did the cheese experience and then walked around the town and headed home. It was like the perfect day, where there wasn't like slammed with activities, but they were all interactive and interesting and taught us something about the culture and the food and how they make it and all that, which I thought was really, really all well done.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

And they do have a cheese market there as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

And so then the other thing is Erin mentioned the palaces in Utrecht, but it's the Castle de Haar, and it is um a little bit outside of the city. It's probably like a 20-minute drive outside of the city, and it has really cool tours. Um, we went with my nephew just to walk around and see it, and the gardens are beautiful, and we didn't spend enough time walking around the gardens because we had tickets to get in and didn't give it to ourselves enough time. But you could spend a good amount of time walking around there. They also have festivals, like they have an Italian festival every year, they do a Christmas event. Um, but the gardens are are not to be missed.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Um, but then the actual castle it's it's so cute because it's like a little compact castle, it's very tall and slender, yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Like like the Dutch people, like I wish I was. Um, but it's um it's really cool, and you you know, you can walk around and and see they had um areas that was a big place for it was September, right, when they had invited guests to come and stay?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

And so there was a lot of Hollywood people, a lot of famous people, so they have like rooms named for people, and they have the whole dining room set up for like if if it was gonna be a big party.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Um because the funny thing about this castle is it looks really old and it feels really regal, but it's a fake castle that a rich family from France made just to have um American royalty like Hollywood stars come over in September and like a month of debauchery, and then they'd go back to France and everybody would go back to Hollywood and wait till next year.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

But how crazy is that that like all of this money was spent for one month of enjoying it. Okay, so the moral of the story is go to the Netherlands in spring, go see the tulips, go see the windmills, go to the parks and walk around and maybe see the cherry blossoms, depending on when you're there. Make sure you eat the cheese because it is delicious. You can even go to a cheese market and always, always, always have dessert and a beer. I think that covers me.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Oh, and wear orange on Kings Day. Be sure to check out our website, www.thegetaways.com with the Z. And like and subscribe if you are enjoying this podcast. Even if you don't, you should still like and subscribe. But I would like to say thank you because we've been getting quite a bit of listens and it's nice.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yes, we appreciate you. Thank you. Catch you next time. Bye. Bye.