Visit Keukenhof 2018

Assalamualaikum..

Bismillahirrohmaanirrohiim..

Last year my family and I visited Keukenhof in the Netherlands. This visit was not our first. My husband and I had once visited together with a group from Hannover in 2013. My mother had visited the beautiful park two times. However, visiting Keukenhof in 2018 was actually my mother bucket list because she wanted to come there again with her grandson.

My mother always traveled to Europe with Indonesia’s flag carrier which landed in Schipol-Amsterdam. For making our trip efficient, we traveled from Hannover the same day as my mom came. The plan was picking up my mother first, after that dropping our baggage in the baggage depot in Schipol, then taking bus to Keukenhof, at the end of the day checked-in in our hostel.

We took morning train from Hannover Hauptbahnhof at 8.40. The ticket costed 56.80 euro (we bought it with 25% discounts). The Inter City (IC) train was a direct train from Hannover to Amsterdam Centraal. Since we wanted to go to Schipol plus I wanted to have longer transfer time, we changed to local train in Hilversum and waited about 15 minutes. We arrived in Schipol at 13.23.

Tips: Schipol Train Station is located right one floor under the Airport itself. There are a big elevator and escalator which help the passenger taking their luggage upstairs. Once you are upstairs, you are now in a big hall full of shops and restaurants and in front of arrival gates.

What I love about Schipol was the airport provided a very good wifi connection. It was not that easy finding my mother in the middle of crowds in an airport. So, we met her and then as we planned, we took the luggage to the baggage depot which was located in basement area between arrivals gate 1 and 2. While waiting the line, my husband and I took turns to eat Nasi Padang and Gorengan which my mother brought along from Indonesia :D.

Tips: The baggage depot opens 24 hours. For the complete price, you can access here.

We preferred to drop our luggage in Schipol because we went to Keukenhof with bus directly from here and we avoided the possibility of not getting luggage storage in Keukenhof.

If you want to use public transport to get to the Tulip Park, you can choose the bus departure points as shown in the Keukenhof official website. For example, Schipol, Europlaplein Metro Station, and Station hoofddorp. In this case, we departed from Schipol. I bought the combi ticket (bus ticket return and park ticket) online to avoid the waiting line in the ticket offices. According to the website, there are 4 sales points in Schipol. Adult ticket is 25 euro each. Since my son was three years old, he was free of charge. So, we had tickets and went to exit at arrival 4. Bus 858 left Schipol to Keukenhof 8 times per hour. In 30 minutes we arrived near the entrance gate.

Lots of people were there as we arrived. It was a very nice day, warm, and fresh. The park was as beautiful as I visited in 2013. We were lucky because in late April the flowers still bloomed everywhere beautifully. Information on the website said that millions of flowers of hundred varieties bloomed.

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There was also some kind of exhibition in the great hall (I forgot the hall’s name).

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Not only for us, but D was also happy playing in the petting zoo, playground, and windmill.

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There was also an exhibition of orchids.

Everywhere was just beautiful…

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Please be aware of the bus schedule which brings you back to the departure point especially if you stay in the park until last minute like us hehehe.. So we were back to Schipol, picking up our luggage, and took train to our hostel.

Accommodation price during our stay was so expensive. We could not afford hotel, hostel, and even apartment through Air BnB. We finally stayed in Via Amsterdam. I got it from bookings.com. The hostel was located not in the center of Amsterdam but in Diemen. It could be reached directly with train from Schipol or Amsterdam Centraal about 20 minutes. It also located between two Metro stations, Venserpolder and Diemen Zuid.

I booked a family room with 4 bunk beds and private bathroom. The room was so huge and clean. My husband and I preferred to stay in a hotel or hostel which provided public kitchen. It was simple so that we can cook rice, noodle or any other meals, put our foods and drinks in the refrigerator, using their kitchen utensil, and even plates and glass. My mother is a traveler. Staying in a dormitory (especially when she traveled alone in Amsterdam) was not something new. I was worry with my son because it was his first experience. It turned out he was happy picking his bed himself and sleeping alone on his bed.

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So, what do you think about Keukenhof?

-ameliasusilo-