Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan

A guide to Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan. 

Every May, you'll find millions of tulips bloomed in Holland, Michigan. Tulips are located throughout the city parks, public attractions and lined up along the city streets. Tulip Time just received USA Today's 2016 Best Flower Festival and Tulip Time has been named the "Best Small Town Festival" by Readers Digest. The 8 day festival celebrates Holland’s Dutch heritage with special events, attractions and parade.

Holland is only about 30 miles from Grand Rapids, so we decided to take a day trip out there to see all the gorgeous tulips. Tulip Time doesn't start until later this week, but the tulips started to bloom a little earlier this year. We had a stretch of warm days, which made the tulips start to bloom a little earlier.

I also vlogged our trip to the tulip gardens. I am hoping to start incorporating more vlogs and travel videos!

We started our day out at Windmill Island Gardens. We arrived a little after 10 AM to the gardens. Admission to the gardens is $9 a person. The weather was very chilly, but luckily the rain held off until later that evening. We explored the gardens before heading to the DeZwaan windmill for the 11 AM tour.

Thea was our guide and explained the history behind the windmill. DeZwaan is a working windmill and mills local corn and wheat into cornmeal, grits and flour, which you can purchase. This is the last windmill to come to from the Netherlands to the United States. It has 5 floors and it is the only working Authentic Dutch Windmill operating today in the United States. The windmill overlooks acres of perfectly manicured gardens.

The miller, Alisa Crawford, is the only Dutch certified miller in the United States. While we were on the tour, Alisa was sifting corn. It was exciting to see the mill in action!

After learning about the history of DeZwaan, we sauntered our way through the rows of tulips. The range of variety of tulips was just breathtaking. My favorite tulip of El Nino; I just adored the orange and pink color combination.

Windmill Island Gardens offers something for the whole family. Child can play and ride the carousel and the adults can do a little shopping in the gift shop.

After we toured the gardens, we were starving. We headed  to downtown Holland for some lunch. We decided to grab a drink and food at the New Holland Pub on 8th. I got the Black Bean Spelt Burger and the Incorrigible Reserve to drink. After refueling our bodies, we took a leisurely stroll through downtown. The streets were lined with a colorful array of tulips. There are so many cute shops in Holland.

If you are planning a trip to Holland, check out these resources:
For more information about the festival, check out the festival's website.
Check out all the shops and restaurants from Downtown Holland.
Learn more about Holland and information on where to stay and area attractions.

XO Jeni