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Dutch Tulips Small Group Tour
Spend 6 nights in The Netherlands on this specialist small group Dutch tulip tour. Our trip provides us with a taste of the country’s many delights, with special focus on the world-famous Keukenhof Flower Garden.
The Keukenhof garden has some 7 million bulbs planted each year to present a truly spectacular festival of colour every year at tulip time. This blend of varieties of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths fills over 32 hectares of flower gardens with colour and fragrance on an almost unimaginable scale.
The Dutch Tulip tour also views the main sights of old Amsterdam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, first on a walking tour with local guides, followed by a barge tour along its 17th-century canals. We also make sure to visit the iconic Zaanse Schans Windmills.
Dutch Tulips Tour Itinerary
Our exploration of Dutch gardens includes the Hortus Botanicus, an impressive university garden. Founded in 1594, this is the oldest botanic garden in the Netherlands and one of Europe’s oldest as well. It was here that botanist Carolus Clusius planted the first tulip bulbs. This planting eventually led to ‘Tulip Mania’ that gripped the country in the 1600s.
Travelling onto Utrecht we join a boat cruise through the city’s medieval heart. We visit the ancient wharves, warehouses, bridges and historical buildings. This lesser-known city is regarded by some as Europe’s most beautiful city – a hidden gem.
Our guided tour continues on to De Hoge Veluwe National Park. The park houses a highly unusual landscape of woodlands and heaths with a fascinating natural history that we explore. Located within the park is the Rijksmuseum’s Kröller-Müller Museum housing the world’s second-largest Van Gogh collection of 90 paintings and 180 drawings. Here we will also find paintings by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso. Walking in the garden, we will see over 160 sculptures by iconic artists, such as Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore.
This trip also explores, with our local tour guide, the Het Loo Palace (Paleis Het Loo) built by the House of Orange-Nassau. Its first inhabitants were King William III and his wife Queen Mary II. The palace now serves as a museum, and is surrounded by fountains and Baroque-style gardens with its perfect symmetry, axial layout and radiating gravel walks, parterres, fountains, basins and statues. The palace is closed until 2021 for renovations, but the Stable Square, museum restaurants, palace roof, and gardens remain open until 29th September.
The Dutch Tulip small group tour also visits the village of Nunspeet where we explore Kijktuinen Garden. This is not one garden but many and is well worth a visit. It includes borders in striking colour combinations, as well as classic rose gardens, pergolas, arbours, water and herb gardens. Our Netherlands tours also make time to enjoy breakfast, lunch, or dinner at a local restaurant each day, so that you can have an authentic experience of the local food culture.
There is plenty to do on this tour of the Netherlands during tulip time. To learn more, check out Odyssey's blog about about the history and culture of tulips in The Netherlands, or these external articles on the history and the meaning of tulips in the Netherlands. Should you wish to learn more about the Netherlands itself, visit our country page where all the other tour departures are listed as well.
For more details, click the ‘Top 5’ or ‘Itinerary’ buttons above! If you’re keen to experience this tour, please call or send an email. Or, to book, simply fill in the form on the right hand side of this page.
Other Garden Tours offered by Odyssey Traveller
This is a fully escorted 7 day program for a small group and appeals to a couple or single traveller with a particular interest in gardens. The Dutch Tulip Tour allows travellers to join the Chelsea Flower show that immediately follows the conclusion of this program. Odyssey has a collection of small group garden tours offered each year. Our garden tours seek to educate travellers and provide them with opportunities to explore some of the truly great gardens of Europe. Odyssey seeks to pick the best time to examine each garden and often the associated houses.