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Tulip Festival Fun
We went to the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley…
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Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
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20 reviews for Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
The "festival" is actually a conglomeration of events and attractions spread over a 15-mile area that includes the towns of Mount Vernon, La Conner, Conway, Bow, Avon, Edison and Burlington, as well as large unincorporated areas.
It's really great if the tulips are blooming, otherwise it's just like any other agricultural valley, except this one has plethora of restaurants, cafes and tourist stops. Plus the occasional wine tasting room. If the weather's good, definitely worth the trip. And if the tulips are blooming, they provide some incredible eye candy.
Tip: the festival website has a page with regular updates on the bloom status.
The festival is beyond beautiful. There is nothing better to get you in the springtime mood than a trip up to see all the fields. My recommendation is to skip the other fields and head right for Roozengaarde. It is the best, reasonably priced, and let's face it, how many tulips fields do you need to see anyway? It is also fun to go when they have the street fair so you can get your fill of elephant ears and corn dogs :)
One word:
Breathtaking!!
I've never seen anything like this in my life. I could have spent all day here! Definitely worth the drive. I plan on coming back year after year!
The tulips just go on and on and on.
I took an HDR pic last year of the tulips which made my eyes bleed. Standard pics from now on.
$4 to park?! I'm pretty sure I parked for free last year at 2 farms at least. I suspect the locals have figured out that us city folk will gladly pay to leave the car in the lawn. I can't blame them, I guess.
We spent the day at the tulip festival and surrounding environs and it was pretty fun. Kind of touristy, but it's also a foodie area so you can get away from the central area and check out some of the local farms, etc.
It's really something to see fields full of daffodils and tulips. The gardens are cool, too, just go early, like at opening time. The whole area is beautiful, with farmland surrounded by mountains and water. It's kind of a no-brainer.
This is a tale of two reviews. If I could, I would do a separate review for the flowers and a separate review for the experience.
If I could I would give five stars for the tulips. The flowers were gorgeous, we managed to come on a sunny day and all the flowers were in bloom. That part was wonderful.
The one star is for my fellow man. Humanity can be at it's worst when it comes to touristy things. We stopped at two farms, one called Roozengaarde and one called Tulip Town. Roozengaarde was $4 to get in and had a lovely manicured garden with a very large variety of tulips to view. There were lots of crowds but everyone was respectful and stayed out of the tulips. One thing to keep in mind is Roozengaarde is more of a garden than field, think Victoria BC Butchart Gardens.
The worst was Tulip Town, it was $5 to get in. First they funnel you through a large barn full of crippity crap to buy. Once you leave the barn and walk out to the field you see very large signs that say "stay out of tulip rows and do not pick flowers" What was every person doing? Smashing the flowers in the rows to get their pictures. They were stepping on what they came to take pictures of. Parents letting their kids run into the fields and letting them pick flowers. Every where I went flowers were being ruined. It was horrible to see.
So if you do dare to brave the crowds go to Roozengaarde and take lots of lovely pictures with mature acting families. If you do decide to go to Tulip town, think of it more as the Wal-Mart version of viewing flowers.
If you prefer civilized people vs. mouth breathing morons go to Roozengaarde.
P.S. Skagit Brewery is a great place to enjoy a beer and the food is excellent.
First, this beats my prior experience with the "tulip festival" hands down. For years, I have been telling people "I have already been to the tulip festival" with the disdain of a teenager asked if she wants to help her parents clean out their closet or go see a movie with her friends, because, like, duh, I was there once and why would I go again?
Well, because, like, duh, the last time I went, I apparently didn't. go. to. the. real. tulip. festival.
We stopped, that time, at some patch of tulips, admired them, and were then on our way.
Although T and I were hitting the tail end (actually, the slipstream end, because the official end was a couple days before but unless you live in a windowless box, you are probably aware that this year's weather was a bit, shall we say, funky), but good lord there were a lot of brightly colored tulips. From miles away, you could see these bright ribbons of color against the horizon, that just looked - fake. Like Disney fake. Or all those hideous similar-looking houses fake. I had no idea nature could generate so much color.
We went to Tulip Town, worth the $5 admission price to get in, since tulip-eye-hammering down the road was $4/car, and saw too much color to shake a stick at. The whole tulips + horses + Mt. Baker in the warm sunshine was almost too much for me to bear.
This is absolutely worth going to, and going back again if you're passing by or have friends in town. This is an absolutely perfect example of the benefits of humans messing with selection (also producing some of the veggies I enjoy on a daily basis) although a bit mind-boggling what it led to back in the day - a house for a tulip bulb, my lord?
The flowers here are GORGEOUS... I spent my early days in Washington... prior to moving down to sunny California.... but my heart will always belong to the Pacific Northwest. As a toddler, my parents would make the annual trek with me up to Skagit Valley to check out the colors galore of all the different varieties. Over the years, whenever we find ourselves back up in the Seattle area, along with checking out the cherry blossoms on the U-Dub campus, we'd drive out to Skagit just to reminscence.
Rows upon rows of colors exploding as far as your eye can see... definitely worth a photography trip up here. We were unfortunately unable to visit this year... but it's already on the calendars for 2009!!
If fields of tulips for as long as your eyes can see isn't good enough for you, I have only one word:
Cowtown.
Seriously. I make the trip to the festival multiple times every year in large part just to Cowtown. It's my dream, to love on cows and run around in tulip fields. I can't wait until April.
This was a pretty fun day. The tulips are beautiful, and they're EVERYWHERE. It was such a gorgeous place to drive around in, looking at all the flowers. The street festival was pretty cool, lots of arts and crafts and food and other fun stuff. We had a good time, and will probably be back next year!
If you live in the area, it's something you should definitely do every other year or so. I mean, where else are you gonna go to see fields and fields of tulips?
Yes, it's crowded and there are tons of babies everywhere and tourists and traffic and whatnot, but sometimes you have to put up with the shit to get to the sugar.
http://www.flickr.com/...
We went out this year after a friend mentioned how it might be a fun trip. We figured why not, I mean you need to see that many tulips at least once in your life.
The weather cleared up and we made the trek all the way up past Everett and followed the hilarious "tulip route" signs on exit 212.
There were plenty of tulips, daffodils, and people. While some of the fields were off-limits, others let you wander about through the main field paths. I loved how the odd color tulips ended up in the beds of tulips. I didn't see anywhere that you could pick your own, which was sort of sad, but fresh bunches were for sale everywhere. Tons of fruit and veggie stands too.
We went into town for a nice lunch but expect a long wait and crowded conditions on weekends but it's totally worth the experience.
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is one of the most fantastic events in the state of Washington. It runs from April 1 to April 30 every single year.
The amount of tulips is absolutely stunning. As tulips are my favorite flower, it is an amazing spectacle to be able to see so many beautiful ones in fields all along the area.
Go on a beautiful sunny day and you will have a wonderful time. The ability to take pictures there is great!
Yeah, the flowers are pretty. Big whoop.
We drove up without much of a plan, much less a map or an idea of where we were going. We stumbled upon the "tulip route," which is a huge mess. Traffic is clogged if you go on a weekend (our mistake.)
The field we stumbled upon was trying to charge $3 to park; don't waste your money unless you absolutely have to park close to the fields. Call me cheap, but we just parked on the side of the road and walked along the ditch (along with tons of other folks) The flowers were beautiful, but what got me was that farms and other stands were selling flowers from boxes, all wrapped up nicely in plastic. If I wanted mass-produced flowers of questionable origin, why wouldn't I just go down to Pike Place Market and get them?
Bottom line: it was nice to see them once, but I doubt I'd go again.
Anyone who knocks the Tulip Festival due to traffic, needs to realize that when going to such a place, of course there is gonna be traffic! What are you thinking? And yes, a whole $3.00 DOLLARS for parking. I know it's really pinching the pocketbook, but realize that it goes to the people who plant the tulips.
Damn dude.
So anyways, we went and my goodness, how gorgeous everything was! Plenty of room to walk around and take breathtaking photos. It was also great to get out of the city for a bit and take in the country-ness of it.
The real stars of the Skagit Valley Tulip Fesitval are best seen outside of the actual festival days. We ventured up to this on the art show part of the festival, and it was, like everyone is saying gridlock. The flowers, however, do not disappoint.
If you love street festivals, crowds, and kitschy art walks, then this is the place for you. If you love to just be alone with your thoughts when in the presence of great beauty, take a Monday off of work and drive up when the crowds are not there. It is truly an amazing experience, and the fields of tulips are breathtaking. Even the most macho boyfriend can't deny the sight.
In either case, they always make a great event poster by a local artist.
This is an amazing site to see! It runs every year from April 1st to 30th in Skagit Valley. It's well worth the trip out there. You've got to check out my photos to understand, but it's one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. There's a 15 mile radius of tulips and events, so a whole day can easily be made out of this. Now, what do they do with all of those tulips, you ask? They cut them and sell them, and you will see them being harvested even as you visit. So, my suggestion is to get there in the first two weeks of the festival so they're not half gone already!
We went to the tulip festival for the first time this year and really enjoyed it despite our short stay. We went on a cloudy day knowing that this was the only way to have reduced traffic on a weekend. The kids had a great time at tulip town. Send the kids in to the field, starting taking pictures, and you're bound to end up with a few photos you'll keep forever.
And you thought you had to go to Holland to be surrounded by tulips! The festival runs from April 1st to April 30th and is about an hour north of Seattle. Visit and become lost in fields upon fields of multicolored tulips, lined up in dizzyingly straight lines. This is definitely an awe-inspiring spot to visit!
Like clockwork the Tulip Festival runs from April 1 to April 30th, but the tulips themselves have a mind of their own. They arrive whenever they please. The Daffodils on the other hand are usually more eager to make an appearance and arrive early. Or at least they did this year which was nice for me because I went up to the Skagit Valley on the first weekend of the festival; hoping to avoid the crowds I ended up avoiding the tulips as well. That said, I still had a great time because although the tulips are the namesake of the festival there are a lot of other things to see and do, everything from wine tasting to alpaca riding. I may not have ridden any alpacas myself but I smiled at them as we drove to several of the regions' wineries. Then there were the cheese tastings.. my god the cheese! The festival also hosts an abundance of fresh seafood, micro beers, hard ciders, bakeries, helicopter rides, live music, art exhibits.. and of course the eager to please daffodils, fields of them in full bloom. So no matter when you go, or what the weather is like, the Tulip Festival is a great way to take in all the amazing things the Skagit Valley has to offer. But if you really want to see the reluctant tulips, go later in the month and check the Tulip Festival's website, they have a daily updated map listing which flowers are in bloom and where. For the regions non-floral attractions check my other Skagit Valley yelps.