Tulip Time Festival Office — Attraction in Holland

I took my dear lab with me for a near two hour road trip to Holland for the Tulip Festival. The experience would have been a disappointment had I not been prepared by reading a few reviews ahead of time. There were a sparse number of blooms offered, many already past their peak but we did find a small lovely section of red in Centennial Park. This is a wonderful space with lush green grass and plenty of shade along with sunny areas. Dogs are allowed here. There are also public restrooms and a drinking fountain/water station available.

Holland was very busy but I didn’t have any difficulty finding free parking within a fairly short walking distance. There were also many food trucks in the center of town and some restaurants that looked to be nice but I knew that dogs aren’t allowed.

I did try to visit the trail for Windows on the Waterfront to see more tulips but there is just a very small space for parking and little room to turn around. I only suggest this if you have a tiny car.

I highly recommend calling the Tulip Festival office before your trip and to look on the website for the location of tulips. Since I was bringing my dog, preparation for allowed spaces was also necessary. I found the person answering the phone to be very helpful.

We went Monday, May 6, 2024, just three days into the festival time period. I felt badly for those on tour buses coming from quite a distance as the tulips weren’t magnificent. Windmill Island is where most of the tour buses were snd the lots were full. But from pictures I’d seen - most tulips here were past their peak so I’d already intended to skip the expense of admission.

I understand that the weather leading up to the festival can be unpredictable which influences the tulip blooming timeframe, however, much more staggering in bulb planting along with many more tulips are needed. Perhaps the festival should be no later than the last week of April with warmer weather coming earlier.

This was only my second time to attend the festival, the first decades ago as a child with my grandmother on a tour bus. It may have been my childhood enthusiasm but I remembered the tulips being much more plentiful. If businesses including factories and the more industrial sections were more engaged in planting tulips at their locations along with more sites in general throughout Holland where there was a plethora of colorful tulips it could be an amazing experience.

We had an enjoyable day, going onto Holland State Park to see the beautiful beach and then to Saugatuck which is charming town about 25 minutes away for an outdoor meal at one of their many dog friendly restaurants. So my recommendation if you’re planning to go yet this week is to head to the center of town, make a brief visit which is free other than offering some business to the food vendors. Then...

We are a 55-year-old married couple from Holland. I worked ahead and gave my husband tickets to "Vocal Trash" and the "Killer B's" for Christmas gifts. Enjoyed both of them immensely. Very fair value we thought for the $$. Vocal Trash was advertised for people in their 20's, 30's and 40's. But they did lots of 70's music and we totally appreciated it as well! As a pianist myself, I was surprised that the gentleman doing piano for "Killer B's" didn't leave that beautiful Yamaha piano in l000 pieces on stage when he left! Talented beyond talented!!!

Then as a Mother's Day gift I took my Mom to the Saturday noon "America's Flower Man" presentation at 14th Street Church. Again, wonderful bang for my buck. Very informative, funny, and great Mother's Day gift. You should really try to market it as such!

Also, when you have all of your entertainment groups lined up before Christmas and advertise it that early, it makes it easy to use tickets as Christmas gifts - another marketing ploy to consider.

We know an enormous amount of time, thought, and energy goes into the making of an annual Tulip Time Festival. Just wanted you to know this year's was wonderful. Keep up...

Tulip Time seems like a reputable company but the immersion garden is awful.

Calling something that small with tulips in pots an immersion garden is very misleading. Photos on the website were also misleading since you just see the base of the tulips and not the beds that they’re sitting in. If you’re going to advertise an immersive experience, the photos should at least be partially representative of what you get. $17 for four small sections of tulips is crazy given the windmill area has four fields of tulips for $12 and it made my group leave feeling scammed. I don’t know if the event is run by tulip time or just listed prominently on their website but I hope they look into this and do better due diligence on the event listings.

They did give me a refund when I expressed these sentiments but I want other people to also know there are so many better places to visit the tulips and everyone I talked to felt misled by the online presence of the...