What’s a good thing to do in Europe at the end of April? One popular option is to view the tulips in Holland, which typically bloom sometime between mid-April and the first weeks of May. These can be seen to best advantage at Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden (32 hectares, or 79 acres), which is located near the city of Lisse in the southern part of the country,
For Bina and myself, in 2023, this entailed a three-and-a-half hour flight from Faro to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, followed by a 20 minute train ride to Leiden, where we stayed in the aptly named “Golden Tulip Hotel.” Why Leiden, rather than Amsterdam, since it’s only a 40-minute bus ride from the capital to Keukenhof?
We had already visited Amsterdam, although that was a while back. As a general rule, we prefer to base ourselves in smaller cities; they’re just more low-key and “manageable.” Leiden is also closer to Keukenhof, a 20 minute drive, and has its own share of sites worth visiting. So, we allotted ourselves one full day for the tulip fields and one to poke around Leiden.
Two Clines Traveling 