Do you have spring fever?

If I had to pick the one thing I loved the most about spring, it would, of course, have to be all the pretty flowers that come with the season – packing up my winter coats would be a sure close second. Even though they have a short blooming season, tulips are, no doubt, arguably one of the most cheerful flowers to see growing in fields.

Lucky for me, I live just a short drive from Holland Ridge Farms in Cream Ridge, NJ, home to one of the youngest tulip festivals in the United States. Who knew you could find a sea of millions of tulips just an hour south of New York City in New Jersey? Thanks to the Jansen family in New Jersey, and their 100 year-long multigenerational history of growing tulips in Holland, you can now get up close and personal with some of the prettiest blooms in the Northeast at Holland Ridge Farms. It’s not just for NJ locals – over one hundred thousand visitors from across the United States have come to the Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms since they opened in 2018! If you have room on your spring travel bucket list, you're going to want to add a visit to this beautiful tulip farm ASAP. Don’t forget to bookmark this blog post for future visits to the Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms!

2021 Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms + COVID

Of course, 2021 brought some unique challenges to visiting the Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms. I’ve been taking my kids to this tulip festival since it opened in 2018, and this year, because of COVID, everything really was more challenging, from getting there and parking to navigating the fields. Here are my best tips for making your visit this year in 2021 (as well as in future years) to the Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms seamless.

Know Before You Go

Tip 1: Tickets must be pre-purchased online.
You can buy tickets at their website and they are timed entry. This year there are no walk-up tickets available at the farm. You select a date and 3-hour time slot, and it’s rain or shine. There are no refunds or exchanges because of Mother Nature.

Tip 2: Subscribe to the email list for early access to tickets.

The Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms is already happening now (opened April 13 this year) and is expected to last 2-3 weeks depending on Mother Nature. Because you must pre-purchase your tickets online this year, there is a limited capacity sold to maintain COVID restrictions. This means tickets sell out fast, especially for weekends and a late afternoon time slot. You can subscribe to their email list and get early access to tickets before it’s released to the public.

Tip 3: Plan to visit early.

Go early — I can’t emphasize this enough. If you book an early time slot, you should not have too much trouble getting into the farm since you are the first group. This year, ticket holders on opening weekend experienced massive traffic delays — as documented on social media — heading into the farm from as little as just a half mile away. We’re talking 1.5/2 hours! It was so discouraging that many people didn’t even make it into the farm before they closed, or they gave up and turned around. The problems seemed to result from a combination of factors: bottleneck from the parking lot, being fully sold out, and people overstaying their assigned time slots. That said, by Sunday, the farm had quickly mobilized with local police to coordinate the shut down of one local road to minimize excess traffic flow.

Even if you don’t have morning tickets, be aware that the later you go, the more people and cars that will be at the farm from earlier times. So make sure you allow for plentiful travel time before your time slot — I recommend planning your commute to arrive about 45 minutes prior. Pro tip: they will let you in early!

Parking at the Farm/Entering

After you are directed to a parking spot and you have parked, start making your way to the farm. Don’t forget to make note of which row you are parked in – there are numbers marking the front of each row.

There are lots of porta potties lined up next to the parking lot (by the farm exit). If you’re visiting with kids, I recommend that you make sure everyone uses it once before heading into the farm. There’s only a few other porta potties located once you’re inside, and because the farm is so sprawling, you don’t want to spend your time herding kids back and forth to the toilets.

Inside the Festival

Congrats! You’ve made it into the festival. Make sure you grab a free festival map right after you enter. There are lots of things to do! Besides tulip picking, of course, there is a free hay wagon ride, a Dutch souvenir shop, petting zoo, kids maze, pony rides, Bakery Barn, and food trucks.

First things first: there are lines everywhere! Food truck lines, lines to take photos at props, and a very long line to pay for your flowers. Fortunately, it moves along at a decent pace, but just be prepared with this in mind when visiting.

If you’re going with kids, I recommend doing the hay wagon ride first before exploring the flower fields. After you enter the farm, make a left and head past the food trucks. The wagon ride pickup location is just beyond the food trucks, near the farm exit. Then you can get this out of the way so your kids will stop begging you for a wagon ride, and you can admire and pick flowers in peace. The wagon will take you around the farm and make one stop on the far right side. You can choose to get off at this point and explore the flower fields here which are less crowded, and then wait for another wagon to come around to bring you back to the main wagon pickup location.

The food truck lines are often long and slow moving on weekends. If you’re visiting with young kids, I recommend you pack lunch and water bottles to avoid the food lines, and bring a blanket to picnic on the grass. Although there are picnic tables, weekends are crowded and it can be difficult to find an empty table.

Exploring the U-pick Tulip Fields

For only a few brief weeks (usually in April), the tulips at Holland Ridge Farms in Cream Ridge, New Jersey transform over 60 acres of farmland into a colorful patchwork quilt. During the annual Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms, you can wander along millions of unfurling tulips. And of course, what would a visit to a tulip field be without lots of photo opps? There are colorful Dutch bicycles, cardboard tulips and signs, and butterflies, but you can also bring your own props (and an outfit change!) for your dream photo shoot. I’ve seen countless wedding and portrait photo shoots happening during the Tulip Festival, including brides in wedding gowns and mothers-to-be doing maternity shoots.

The farm is stroller-friendly, but make sure to wear comfortable walking shoes. There are grass rows between flower beds to make it easier to navigate with a stroller.

When you’re ready to pick tulips, just grab a flower bucket from the farm tent near the middle of the fields. You don’t need any cutting tools – just get low to the ground, grab the stem from the bottom, pull and twist! Easy peasy. Pick as many stems as you like for just $1 per stem, plus tax. After you pick your tulips, take your flowers to the Holland Shop barn. Cash, credit and contactless payment is accepted. They will wrap up your flowers for you to bring home.

I hope you found this guide helpful for planning your visit to the Tulip Festival at Holland Ridge Farms. While COVID has changed some of the festival operations this year, these tips will still work for you for years to come, including when it’s time to go to the Sunflower Festival at Holland Ridge Farms in the fall.