The Netherlands in April
Tulips at their peak and King's Day in the same fortnight. Book early or pay dearly.
The month everything happens at once. Temperatures reach the mid teens on average, the evenings run to half past eight, and the entire country appears to move outdoors within the same seven days. Blossom in the city parks, colour in the bulb belt, terraces full by lunchtime. It is also the month with the widest gap between the brochure and the experience: the same afternoon can hold brilliant sun, a cold squall and the kind of wind that removes a hat. Nothing here is subtle, including the number of people who have had the identical idea.
April at a glance
- Average high and low
- 14.3°C / 5.2°C
- Schiphol long-run normals
- Sunshine
- 198 hours across the month
- Daylight
- 06:41 to 20:39, 13h 58m
- Amsterdam, on the fifteenth
- Crowds
- Peak
- Prices
- Priciest
- Season
- Spring
TulipsFestivalsPhotographyFirst trips
How busy, and what it costs
The two things that change most across the Dutch year, and the two most people plan around.
Crowds: Peak
The busiest window of the Dutch year, and it is not close. Tulip season and the national holiday land in the same few weeks, which stacks flower traffic on top of party traffic on top of Easter school holidays. The gardens themselves have no empty day in April, only better hours — before half ten and after four, Monday to Wednesday. Everything else follows the same logic.
Prices: Priciest
The most expensive weeks of the year in Amsterdam, and the ones that book out furthest ahead. Hotels and canal boats go months in advance, Easter weekends spike separately, and the nights either side of the twenty-seventh are the single worst value in the calendar. Basing in Haarlem or Leiden instead of the capital is the standard way to blunt this without giving up access.
What is on in April
Dates that move year to year are marked as such. Check the organiser before you book flights around one.
King's Day
27 AprilNationwide, most intensely in Amsterdam
A national holiday, an orange city and an enormous street market where anyone may sell anything without a licence. Wonderful if it is why you came. If it is not, treat it as a day to plan around rather than a day to sightsee in.
Peak tulip bloom
Mid-April to early MayKeukenhof and the surrounding Bollenstreek
Mid-April is the consensus sweet spot for the fields, because growers behead the field tulips once they have bloomed and the stripes fade fast afterwards. The park itself still looks full into early May.
Bloemencorso Bollenstreek
One Saturday, mid to late April; 18 April 2026, 17 April 2027A parade of enormous floats built entirely from flower heads, running past Keukenhof on its way north. Free to watch from the roadside. The date moves every year, so confirm it before you shape a weekend around it.
Terrace and market season starts
From the start of the monthUtrecht, Delft and most canal cities
Utrecht's wharf terraces at water level run April to October, and Delft's Saturday antiques market begins its April to October season. Both are the reason a canal city feels completely different in April than in February.
What to skip in April
Things that are worth the trip in another month and are not worth it in this one.
- Arriving on the twenty-seventh without a booked bed. Rooms sell out months ahead and the ones left are priced accordingly, which is how people end up commuting from another province.
- Walking into commercial bulb fields for a photograph. They are private property, trespassing spreads disease through the crop, and there are farms nearby that actively want paying visitors instead.
- Trying to combine the gardens and a full city day. Between the bus, the crowds and the three to five hours the park deserves, this is a whole day or it is a bad one.
What to pack, and the verdict
Packing
Sun cream and a rain shell in the same bag, without irony. Layers you can shed on a bus and put back on in a headwind. Comfortable shoes for a park you will walk for hours, and something orange if your dates include the holiday — it is not compulsory, but standing out in a sea of it is its own experience.
Should you come in April?
April is worth the money exactly once, and only if the flowers or the holiday are the reason you are coming. It is the busiest and priciest month, it books out furthest ahead, and nothing about the crowd management is clever — the advice is simply to go early, go midweek and go deeper into the park than everyone else. But there is no substitute. No other month has the bulb fields, and no other day in the Dutch year is like the twenty-seventh. Come knowing what you have bought.
Frequently asked questions
+Which week of April is best for tulips?
+Should I avoid King's Day or aim for it?
+Where should I stay if Amsterdam is full?
Next steps
You have a month. Now pick a length and who is coming.
Every plan on the site carries a spring version covering what opens, what to wear and what to book differently in April. Start with the twelve day-by-day plans, or compare April against the rest of the year on the month-by-month table.