Keukenhof – Scratch it from the Bucket List

One of the items on my wife’s bucket list was visiting Keukenhof Gardens. We have been to Amsterdam many times but always during the summer when the gardens were already closed. This year we built the trip around the Keukenhof visit and it was so worth it.

If there is ever a reason to spend points it is to scratch off a bucket list item. Keeping points does not create memories using them does. This trip is a great example of the meaning of points.

In 2018 Keukenhof will be open from March 22 until May 13. We visited the last week of April. It is somewhat of a gamble to pick when to visit but I had read that end of April is usually a good time so that is when we scheduled our visit. It was a great time to visit as you can see from the pictures. It was a bit chilly and misty but the gardens were incredible.

Keukenhof is a park and you stroll through the gardens and there are some indoor pavilions, a shop and several places you can get food. It is a place that you would spend most of a day. Everyone is different but I think if you came mid-morning you would enjoy spending most of the day at the gardens.

While planning my trip I found this site that good information. https://tulipsinholland.com/

As the season got closer they sent out a weekly update that I found very useful.

They also have good information about getting to Keukenhof. We bought our tickets on the Keukenhof website that included a short bus transfer from the Amsterdam airport.

If I offer you any advice on your visit it is to NOT go on the weekend. It is too crowded and we heard that they cut off the bus service early last year as the park was so full. It isn’t worth the trouble, just go during the week.

We had an evening flight from Amsterdam to Florence. So we left Amsterdam in the morning and took the train to Schiphol. At the airport we stored our luggage in large lockers they have and then made our way to the Keukenhof line. There is a long line but it is well organized and it didn’t take long and we were on our way to the park.

The ticket is round trip and they brought us back to the airport and we gathered our luggage, grabbed inner as Schiphol has great dining choices and then boarded our evening flight for Florence. I will discuss that trip in another post.

Traveling to Amsterdam on points is usually pretty easy. Schiphol is one of the biggest and busiest airports in Europe with many non-stops from US daily. Most major hubs fly to Schiphol at least once daily. We traveled from Houston where both United and KLM have a daily non-stop.

We were able to travel on United for only 30,000 points. I always enjoy a flight to Europe for 30,000 points when you consider sometimes traveling across Texas can be 25,000 points. If you have Flying Blue points, as well as Delta you have the KLM option. American Express Membership Rewards also transfer to Flying Blue. I think with all of the daily flights from the US to Amsterdam you can usually find a lot of reward availability.

Amsterdam like most major cities in Europe have both familiar hotel chains as well as European chains and a lot of small boutique hotels. We have stayed at several of the hotels in Amsterdam and always enjoyed them. This trip we were traveling with a group and didn’t use points and a major conference was in town so rooms were very expensive. We stayed for the first time at the Hampton Centre East, and even though not on the main canal rings area we enjoyed the stay and the complimentary breakfast.

I will post more about the Amsterdam city portion of our trip soon.