Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan, is home to over 5 million colorful tulips each year. The tulips bloom between mid-April to mid-May. To promote this color infusion of spring, Holland celebrates the Holland Tulip Festival generally in the first two weeks of May. This year’s floral event will take place from May 2 to May 11.
History of Holland’s Tulip Time Festival
In 1928, the Holland City Council purchased 100,000 tulip bulbs from the Netherlands. These bulbs were planted in city parks and other areas. Tulip bulbs were made available to Dutch residents for a penny apiece. In 1929, with thousands of tulips blooming, Holland invited people to come and visit for a week in May. Tulip Time became an annual event after that, emphasizing Dutch costumes, wooden shoes, and tulips. Due to the festival’s popularity and national attention, the revival of traditional Dutch customs and traditions emerged, making the Holland Tulip Festival a world-renowned cultural celebration.
What You Need to Know about the Holland Tulip Festival
The Holland Tulip Festival lasts eight days, usually at the beginning of May, to coincide with tulip blooming schedules. The festival features numerous activities throughout the week, with the most significant events, such as parades, taking place from Wednesday to Saturday. Most of the larger events, including the fireworks display, are clustered on the final weekend.
Try to get there early in the morning, as parking can be a challenge. It gets extremely busy on the last weekend. Most of the events are easily reachable and within walking distance in the downtown area. Many events are free of charge, but others, such as visiting Windmill Island Gardens, have an entrance fee.
What to Do During the Holland Tulip Festival
Windmill Island Gardens
The Windmill Island Gardens is 36 acres of beautiful gardens, dikes, bridges, windmills, and canals that you can explore. These gardens also boast one of the most extensive collections of tulips in a single location in downtown Holland. There are over 100,000 tulips planted throughout the island, and over 60,000 of them are clustered in rows by the DeZwaan. At 251 years old, the DeZwaan is the only authentic Dutch working windmill in the United States.
Allow at least two hours to wander through the gardens. The cost to explore the grounds and a replica of a Dutch Inn, tour the windmill with costumed guides, listen to a street organ from Amsterdam, and browse the gift shops and cafes is $12 for adults and $6 for ages 3 to 15. If you want to see how they plant all the tulips at Windmill Island Gardens in hours, check out this video.
Centennial Park
Centennial Park was originally designed as the village marketplace. Now, it has a Veterans Memorial, brick pathways, tulip flowerbeds, a gazebo, a traditional Dutch fountain, and a fish pond. Here, you can take tons of selfies around your favorite color of tulips. If you have any questions about the tulips, costumed guides will be around the park during the festival to answer them.
Dutch Marktplaats
The Dutch Marktplaats is where you can find Dutch-themed gifts, such as blue and white Delftware, Dutch Souvenirs, hand-carved wooden shoes, and many more. The photo above shows the wooden shoe-making equipment at Veldheer Tulip Gardens. You can see many of these shoes on the Dutch dancers in the parades during the festival week.
Parades
There are three parades during Tulip Time, and some of Michigan’s longest parade routes. The Muziekparade, on the last Saturday of the festival, is one of the most spectacular three hours of parade watching you can have. You will see Dutch dances by the Klompen Dancers, fire engines, clowns, bands, and floats from every fruit and vegetable festival in Michigan. Make sure you show up early to claim your spot on the sidewalk to get the best views of the parade.
Carnival and Entertainment
During the week of the Holland Tulip Festival, there are many other fun activities for you to partake in. There is a vintage baseball game, animal shows, performance art shows, music concerts, and art and quilt shows. There is a carnival for the younger kids or the young at heart. You can pick up traditional carnival treats before you head off to see more tulips.
Veldheer Tulip Garden
A side trip you must make while in Holland for Tulip Time is stopping at Veldheer Tulip Gardens. Walking around the garden is like stepping into a rainbow of vibrant and fragrant tulips. There are over 6 million tulips and 800 different varieties in this garden. The key to figuring out this garden is to get a map, and then you can match it with the corresponding numbers in the flower beds to help you determine which tulip is your favorite. Then, you can order them for delivery in October for your tulip garden. And don’t forget to stop and see the Buffalo on site.
If you’re unable to attend in person, you can order online.
Nelis’ Dutch Village
You can take another side trip to Nelis’ Dutch Village for family fun. This village is a reproduction of a 1800s Dutch village, featuring a wooden shoe factory, cheese-making, and a petting zoo. The family-owned theme park is a full-day activity, featuring Dutch Dancing, wooden shoe carving, rides, games, friendly farm animals, photo opportunities, and a variety of food and drink options. The admission fee is $15 online for individuals aged three and above, and $17 in person.
How to get around the Holland Tulip Festival
The easiest way to get around the Holland Tulip Festival is to drive your car to each area, whether downtown, Windmill Island Gardens, or Veldheer Tulip Gardens. There is city parking downtown, allowing you to park and walk around the town. A Tulip Trolley can take you through Tulip Lanes, Holland’s Historic District, and the award-winning downtown with a friendly Dutch-costumed guide! Everything is close enough that you can see it all over a weekend.
Is Tulip Time Worth Visiting?
Absolutely! I have visited the Holland Tulip Festival a couple of times, and each time has been wonderful. On my last trip, I flew my niece to Michigan from St. Louis, and we had a great time taking each other’s photos with the tulips. It was a fun weekend, despite the weather not cooperating. But the rain didn’t stop us from seeing and smelling the tulips!
Tulip Tracker
If you are interested in seeing the status of the tulips at the Windmill Island Gardens or other spots around Holland from the comfort of your home, check out their Live Cam. This is a great way to track the tulip’s progress for planning your trip, or you can watch the flowers bloom from your home.
Where to Stay in Holland, Michigan
There are many places to stay when you come to Holland for the Tulip Festival. I have stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, a little out of downtown but close to Veldheer Tulip Gardens and Nelis’ Dutch Village. If you are looking for other places to stay, check out these Booking.com options.
Booking.com
How to Photograph the Tulips
Photographing flowers is one of my passions. Over the years, I have developed various techniques to become more creative while photographing flowers. Here are some tips to help you capture amazing photos of tulips and other flowers.
- Photograph flowers on an overcast day
- The backlight will make your flowers glow.
- Watch out for the wind – you can use a piece of cardboard to block the wind
- Get closer – Use a telephoto lens to zoom in, extension tubes, a close-up filter, or a macro lens.
- The shade will make the light softer
- Use a reflector for shade – fills light in the shadows
- Avoid a cluttered background
- Use a shallow depth of field (f/4 or f/2.8)
- Make it sharp – use a tripod
- Change your point of view/perspective – Shoot flowers from underneath or behind.
- Focus through another flower
- Use a fast & close-focusing lens – try a 50mm lens
- Have fun with the sun-sunburst (put a flower between the camera and the sun)
Try one or a couple of these at a time. On the trip I took with my niece, we focused on shooting the flowers from a low angle, looking up. I set my camera down close to the ground and just shot. Not knowing what I took added to the excitement, but we ended up with some amazing tulip photos.
Summary
The Holland Tulip Festival is one of my favorite spring festivals. The last time I visited, I purchased several different types of tulips for my flower garden and gave some to my sister and mom. If you can visit Tulip Time, take some time to smell, photograph, and maybe buy some tulips to plant later.
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Further Reading
If you are coming to Michigan for a visit, check out these posts for further travel inspiration:
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- Tiptoe through the Tulips
- Take a ride on the Alpena Shipwreck Boat Tour
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