Cycling to the Tulip Fields at Keukenhof

The Netherlands in April is an argument that the world has a setting called 'too beautiful.' The tulip fields around Lisse, Hillegom, and Noordwijkerhout bloom in stripes of red, yellow, violet, and white so vivid they look digitally enhanced. Keukenhof Gardens, with its seven million bulbs across 79 acres, is the formal show — spectacular, rightly famous, and worth the entrance fee. But the real experience is cycling through the surrounding bulb fields on a rented bicycle at ten in the morning with no particular destination.

The Dutch cycling infrastructure is so good it feels engineered by people who actually want you to enjoy cycling. Dedicated bike paths run through the flower regions, flat as paper, well-signed, with nothing to worry about except the geese. Pick up a bike in Amsterdam, take the train to Haarlem with the bike, and ride south from there through the Bollenstreek — the bulb district — on a route that takes you through working farms, small village cafes, and the kind of pastoral landscape that Dutch Golden Age painters spent their careers trying to capture.

The window is narrow: the tulips bloom roughly from late March through mid-May, peaking around the third week of April. The exact timing varies year to year with the weather. Check the Keukenhof website in February for the predicted bloom schedule, and book accommodation in Haarlem or Amsterdam at least six weeks in advance. Millions of people come for this, but the bike paths are wide enough that it never feels crowded.