The Northeast Polder is one of the largest tulip areas in the Netherlands. Every year in April and May, the colourful fields 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?
Every autumn, tulip bulbs are put in the ground in lots of fields in the Northeast Polder. And yes, it is then a matter of 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 Saturdayday 13 April to Sunday 5 May. We are so excited!
Every spring, the Northeast Polder transforms into a colourful landscape. And every year the Tulip Festival takes place in the period April-May. Both residents and visitors to the Northeast Polder can then enjoy all the splashes of colour in the fields, as well as fun activities organised at various locations along the tulip car route, which is set out year after year.
Besides the car route of no less than 114 kilometres, each year there is also a signposted tulip cycle route, which this year is 24 kilometres long and takes in Emmeloord, Bant and Luttelgeest. A complete and up-to-date overview of Tulip Festival routes and activities can be found on the Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder website.
The basis of the Tulip Festival are the (free) car and bike routes. By following the signposted routes, you will pass the many tulip fields in the Northeast Polder. The car route of 114 kilometres is the longest continuous route in the Netherlands. The cycling route is 24 kilometres long this year.
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 give you information about the area, tulip cultivation and the history of the Northeast Polder while driving.
The Tulip Experience Field in Creil has been a regular part of the Tulip Festival for many years. It is a great location to stretch your legs, have a cup of coffee and take photos in the middle of the tulips. Yes really, where further along the route you are expected to admire the tulips from a distance, in the Tulip Experience Field you get to stand right in the middle of them!
In the show garden, you walk past the various and very different varieties of tulips, among which you can take selfies to your heart's content. For a snack and drink, visit the Pop-up Grand Tulip Café. Right next to the Tulip Experience Field, a helicopter regularly takes off for a tour over the tulip fields. Watch it fly! Admission to the Tulip Field is free of charge, so be sure to drop by and enjoy the colours as well as the fun!
Picking tulips? That is not allowed anywhere, except at 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 Northeast Polder. The Tulip Picking Garden is open from 11 April to 6 May.
Finished picking? Then climb the watchtower for the best view of the tulips or enjoy a cup of coffee on the terrace. The Tulip Picking Garden in Marknesse is not part of the Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder, but it is definitely worth a visit during the tulip season. And if you come by bike, this is a welcome stopover to take a break while enjoying a drink and the colourful view.
You can stop wherever you like while driving the tulip car or bike route to enjoy the fields of colourful tulips from the road. For catering and fun activities along the way, you can visit four tulip festival locations. The first is the Tulip Experience Field mentioned above. The newest tulip festival location is Holiday Park Eigen Wijze, where you can have a delicious lunch at the brand new restaurant FENN's next door. In addition, you can eat on the spot or order a Lunch To Go at Bij Ons in the Wellerwaard in Emmeloord (on the car and cycle route). At Renne Streekproducten in Nagele (on the car route), you can stop by a foodtruck for a bite to eat and a drink and children will have endless fun with a maze and a bouncy castle. A stopover no tulip lover should skip is the Tulip Species Garden, where hundreds of tulip varieties are planted every year by volunteers. Here, you can enter the field and take photos among the tulips. There is also an information board by the road and guides are on hand at weekends to tell you all about the tulips.
More about the tulip species garden
A maze, a bouncy castle, a puzzle and much more. And: you can earn fun prizes!
The best vantage point to see our vast tulip fields? From above, of course!
A 114 km long car route and a 24 km bicycle route take you past our spectacular tulip fields.
After the land that is now the Noordoostpolder had been reclaimed from the sea in 1942, a large part of the area was dedicated to agriculture. The first tulip bulbs were planten in the sixties. The erstwhile sea bed proved to be furtile ground and very suitable for cultivating tulips. The tulips grow very well because of the minerals in the soil. Many agriculturists have settled in the Noordoostpolder and with around 2000 hectares of tulip fields this polder has become one of the largest tulip areas in the Netherlands, with a production of almost one billion marketable bulbs each year!
The tulip is generally considered to be a typically Dutch flower, but it actually has its origin in Turkey. The word tulip stems from the Latin word Tulipa: the flower that looks like a turban. Sailors brought the tulip to the Netherlands in the sixteenth century, where it quickly became a popular flower among the affluent part of the population. So popular, in fact, that a veritable tulip mania arose: the tulips became increasingly valuable until eventually the entire bulb market collapsed. The tulip trade had become the first economic soap bubble to burst in the Netherlands...
Tulips usually flower from mid-April to early May, but exact dates are hard to predict. This stems from the tulip's growth and flowering reacting to weather conditions such as temperature and amount of rain. Also, different tulip species may flower at slightly different times.
Do you want to know when the best time to visit the tulips fields is? Then check out the 'bloomometer' of the Tulip Festival. The flowering percentage is updated daily, but only during the annual tulip festival. It shows you which percentage of the tulips is flowering that day.
“ ALL THOSE COLOURS... ”
The entire Noordoostpolder is a feast of colour in spring. Such a beautiful sight! But please enjoy our tulips from a distance and don't enter the fields. If you do enter the fields, you may damage or bring diseases to the tulips, with great consequences for the farmer. You are also not supposed to park your car on the farmers' grounds. This is their private property and their personal living space, which we must respect. Parking alongside the road and taking picures from the road's shoulder is perfectly fine, though. Just make sure to check both ways before crossing the road...
If you are intent on taking photos or selfies while surrouned by tulips (and who can blame you?!), then there are two excellent opportunies along the tulip route you can choose from: the Tulpenbelevingsveld (tulip experience field) in Creil and the Tulpenpluktuin (tulip picking garden) in Marknesse. In both you can walk around the fields to your heart's content and take all the photographs you want. Both also feature a sitting area where you can buy a cup of coffee. As the name indicates, the tulip picking garden also allows you to handpick your own bunch of tulips. For a set amount of money you can buy a set amount of tulips, no matter how you mix and match them. What a lovely way to continue enjoying tulips days after your visit to the fields!
Did you know that the tulip bulbs in the fields are actually cultivated for the bulbs, not for the flowers? After a thorough selection and a field inspection, the flowers are topped, or deadheaded: the flowers are removed from the stems. Such a waste, you might think. But this way all the plant's energy goes into the bulb instead of to the flower and it's the bulbs that are sold afterwards.
The bulbs are unearthed and harvested in late June. The bulbs that are big enough will be sold, mostly to growers who grow them into flowers for both national and international florist shops. If the bulb is not yet big enough, it will be planted again in the fall for a new round of growing, flowering en topping. See you again next year!
Enjoy an atmospheric impression of our tulip fields here.
