500px Photo ID: 91627775 - Just a colorful view on the 'Rijksmuseum' with tulips in Amsterdam last summer, typically dutch. Heavily filtered to smoothen the image and bring the colors out... Maybe a bit much, but I like it :)

Dennis van de Water / 500px

Amsterdam Tulip Museum


Allow around half an hour at this diminutive museum, which offers an overview of the history of the country's favourite bloom. Through exhibits, timelines and two short films (in English), you'll learn how Ottoman merchants encountered the flowers in the Himalayan steppes and began commercial production in Turkey, how fortunes were made and lost during Dutch 'Tulipmania' in the 17th century, and how bulbs were used as food during WWII. You'll also discover present-day growing and harvesting techniques.

There's a great collection of tulip vases designed to accommodate separate stems, and a gift shop overflowing with floral souvenirs.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Amsterdam Cheese Museum

0.01 MILES

It's a tourist ploy, but a good-humoured one. The main floor is a cheese shop with abundant free samples. The basement floor contains a small 'museum'…

2. Egelantiersgracht

0.09 MILES

Many parts of the Jordaan are named after trees and flowers, and this canal, lined by lovely houses built for artisans and skilled traders, takes its name…

3. Anne Frank Huis

0.09 MILES

Visiting the Anne Frank Huis is one of Amsterdam's most profound experiences. Tragically, of the 107,000 Jewish adults and children deported from the…

4. KochxBos

0.11 MILES

A converted apartment living room now houses this art gallery displaying contemporary underground (aka North European low-brow or pop surrealism)…

5. Westerkerk

0.13 MILES

The main gathering place for Amsterdam's Dutch Reformed community, this church was built for rich Protestants to a 1620 design by Hendrick de Keyser. The…

6. Westerkerk Bell Tower

0.13 MILES

The bell tower of the Westerkerk is famously topped by the blue imperial crown that Habsburg emperor Maximilian I bestowed on the city for its coat of…

7. Homomonument

0.14 MILES

Behind the Westerkerk, this 1987-installed cluster of three 10m by 10m by 10m granite triangles recalls persecution by the Nazis, who forced gay men to…

8. Electric Ladyland

0.15 MILES

The world's first museum of fluorescent art features owner Nick Padalino's psychedelic sculpture work on one side and cases of naturally luminescent rocks…