Unfortunately, the 2026 Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder has ended. Did you miss it? Or did you love it so much that you want to be there again in 2027? Then keep an eye on this website. The dates of the 2027 edition are expected to be known in early March 2027.
The Noordoostpolder is one of the largest tulip areas in the Netherlands. Every year in April and May, the colourful fields are in bloom again and the annual Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder is organised. The tulip is a special product. On this page, we would like to tell you more about it. Will you come and admire our tulips this year?
PLEASE NOTE: all photos showing people standing among tulips were taken in a tulip picking garden, the tulip species garden or the tulip experience field. All other tulip fields are forbidden to enter. Please respect our growers and admire the tulips from a distance.
Every autumn, tulip bulbs are put into the ground in lots of fields in the Noordoostpolder der. And yes, then it's waiting to see what the weather does and when they will flower in spring. In February or March, a good estimate of that can be made and the start and end dates for the annual Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder are set. This year that will be from Friday 17 April to Sunday 3 May. We are already looking forward to it!
The basis of the Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder are the (free) car and bicycle routes along the flowering tulip fields. By following the signposted routes, you will see the most tulips along the way. The car route of 102 kilometres is the longest continuous route in the Netherlands. This year's cycle route is 33 kilometres long.
You can download the routes to take with you on your mobile, or as a pdf to print, if you prefer. A nice addition to the car route is the Tulip Festival app, which uses video and audio fragments to provide information about the area, tulip cultivation and the history of the Noordoostpolder while driving.
Picking tulips? That's not allowed anywhere, except at the De Tulpenpluktuin in Marknesse. Pick the most beautiful tulips and turn them into a bouquet yourself. In this way, you will create a beautiful and unique souvenir of your visit to the tulip fields of the Noordoostpolder. The Tulip Picking Garden will be open from 8 April to 6 May. Entry to the Tulip Picking Garden costs €2.50 per person. A bucket containing up to 30 self-picked tulips costs €12.50.
Picked out? Then climb the watchtower for the best view of the tulips or enjoy a cup of coffee on the terrace. And if you come by bike, this is a welcome stopover to take a rest while enjoying a drink and the colourful view.
The Tulip Experience Field in Creil is a great location to stretch your legs, have a cup of coffee and take photos amidst the tulips. Yes really, where further along the route you are supposed to admire the tulips from a distance, in the Tulip Experience Field you get to stand right in the middle of them!
At the Tulip Experience Field, you will find a tulip sea of 200 varieties of mixed tulips, which you can stroll between. There is also the tulip show garden with 300 varieties of tulips and a special selfie field for a romantic photo. Photos can also be taken from the walkway. Entrance to the Tulip Experience Field is free.
A stopover that no tulip lover should skip is the Tulip Species Garden, where hundreds of tulip varieties are planted every year by volunteers.The Tulip Species Garden is a unique collection of historical and unusual tulip varieties. This makes it the ideal place to discover the wealth of shapes, colours and stories behind the tulip.
In the Tulip Species Garden, you may enter the tulip field and take photos among the tulips. There is also an information board along the road and guides are available at weekends to tell you all about the tulips. In addition, guided tours are provided to groups by appointment
Besides the Tulip Picking Garden, the Tulip Species Garden and the Tulip Experience Field, there are two more tulip festival locations along the (car) route. Here you can stretch your legs and buy something to eat and/or drink. Bollie the Bear has also organised fun children's activities here.
Renne Streekproducten ' farm shop offers fresh vegetables, delicious fruit and other locally produced foods all year round. With a cosily decorated terrace with food trucks and a beautiful catering location, this is the ideal stopover during the Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder while driving the Tulip Route. Children can have fun on the bouncy castle at Renne Streekproducten and can also playfully discover the different types of soil by feeling them -with bare feet.
Restaurant Bij Ons in de Wellerwaard is located in the nature and recreation area of the same name, De Wellerwaard. The restaurant is on the tulip car route and is just a short detour from the tulip cycle route. You can enjoy all kinds of small dishes both inside and outside on the terrace (by the beach and overlooking the lake). At Ons in de Wellerwaard is also a Bollie the Bear activity location. Here, children learn about the different crops that grow in the Noordoostpolder .
When the Noordoostpolder was drained in 1942, much of the area was set aside for agriculture. The first tulip bulbs went into the ground in the 1960s. The former sea bed proved to be fertile soil and very suitable for growing tulips. This is because the minerals in the soil are used by tulips as nutrients. Since then, many growers have established themselves in the Noordoostpolder and, with some 2,000 hectares of tulip fields, this polder has become one of the largest tulip growing areas in the Netherlands, good for almost 1 billion saleable bulbs!
The tulip is seen as something typically Dutch, but originally the tulip comes from Turkey. The word tulip comes from the Latin word Tulipa: the flower that resembles a turban. In the sixteenth century, the tulip was brought from Turkey to the Netherlands, where it quickly became very popular among the well-to-do. So popular, in fact, that there was a real tulip mania: tulips became worth more and more until eventually the market collapsed completely. The tulip trade was the first economic bubble to burst in the Netherlands...
In general, tulips bloom from mid-April to early May, but exact dates cannot be predicted. This is because the tulip is a natural product, so the flowering of tulips is largely dependent on the weather and, moreover, each variety can flower at a different time.
During the annual Tulip Festival, the flowering percentage of tulips in the fields along the tulip routes is measured daily and updated on the Tulip Festival website. During April/May, you can see there what percentage of the tulips are in bloom at that time.
In spring, the polder is in bloom: a beautiful sight. Watch the tulips from a distance and do not enter the fields. By doing so, you run the risk of damaging the crops, with many consequences for the grower. Also, you are not supposed to park in the growers'/residents' yards. This is their private property and personal living space, which we should respect. Parking along the road and taking photos from the verge is of course allowed. But please be careful when crossing the road.
Did you know that tulip bulbs are grown in the field for the bulb and not for the flower? After selection has taken place and the field has been inspected, the flowers are cut: the flowers come off. A shame, many people think. But this way, all the energy goes to the bulb and no longer to the flower. At the end of June, the bulbs are harvested, aka uprooted. The bulbs that are large enough are sold. To grow beautiful tulip flowers from them, for example. If the bulb is still not big enough, it is replanted in the autumn for a new crop.
So before the tulips bloom in spring, the bulbs have to be planted in autumn. Want to know how this is done? Then watch this interesting and informative video by farmer Jesse.
