King's Day Trip 2025 Part 5 - Tulips and Zandvoort

While King's Day was the main reason for our trip to Amsterdam in spring 2025, tulip season was a close second. The weather was gorgeous when we made our trek to Keukenhof. There's only two months out of the year when you can enjoy this attraction, and now that I've been there, I agree with the hype. It is breathtaking. I know my pictures don't do it justice, so you'll just have to go see them in person! 

Keukenhof is humongous, and you can definitely spend a whole day there. Over 7 million flower bulbs are planted each year, with 800 different varieties of tulips. I was in awe at the colors of tulips I had never seen before. We grabbed lunch there and took a million photos, and then rented bikes (in true Dutch fashion) to head to our next destination. 

After a bit of a detour because we got lost, we ended up at the Tulip Experience. Compared to Keukenhof, this was a much smaller quantity of tulips, but it was cool because you could walk between all the rows of tulips and get a more up-close experience. We definitely got some amazing photo ops there.

Because this was our last day in the Netherlands, we didn't just want to go back to our hotel for the night. I mentioned to my sister that the city of Zandvoort, where an F1 track is, was somewhat on the way back to Amsterdam, so she was game with checking it out. With my husband being a huge F1 fan, I knew a race would be happening there later in the year, but thought it might be deserted in the spring. I wasn't sure how close we'd be able to get to the track, but I figured it was worth a shot. We parked nearby and started walking, looking for some kind of viewpoint. We walked for a while and thought we might have to give up, when we spotted a fence with an open gate. I didn't know what the sign said, but the gate was open, so to me that meant "welcome!" To our amusement, there was actually a motorcycle race going on! We had a pretty great vantage point. We watched some of the action and I sent pics back to my husband.  

It was time for dinner, so we decided to eat in Zandvoort before our final drive back to Amsterdam. The timing could not have been more perfect. We found a restaurant facing the North Sea and got to enjoy our Mexican food as the sun set over the water. What a picturesque ending to our magical trip!