Traveling with a baby requires a lot more thought than just hopping into a car (even more thought than with two high maintenance dogs!). We’ve always been an adventurous family, and have committed to keep it that way with our new addition. The Skagit Valley Tulips in Washington were the perfect first outing with our five week old infant, Noel!

Baby Noel!
This is my third year attending a local tulip festival. Flowers are my favorite part of Spring, and walking amongst the fields has become somewhat of a tradition. This year we knew it would be different, with a teeny tiny baby coming along for the adventure. Thinking ahead proved key in our first big outing with a baby, and we successfully enjoyed our time visiting the multi-colored fields!
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About Skagit Valley Tulips
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is a month-long tulip festival in Washington State. The festival usually aligns with the month of April, but can be open earlier or later depending on the tulip bloom. Located about an hour and a half North of Seattle, this farm valley has two main gardens: RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town. RoozenGaarde has more tulips to offer: they have a 5 acre display garden and over 25 acres of tulip fields. Although Tulip Town is smaller, there seem to be more varieties of tulips and they have an indoor display for rainy days!
The easiest way to reach the festival is by car, but there are also tours that take you there. Although we arrived by car, tours may be easier for families, to eliminate the hassle of parking and/or traveling from one field to another.

Beautiful photo opportunities from the far side of the field!
Rates to enjoy the fields vary on the time of week. On weekdays the cost is $7 USD/ pp and on weekends you will pay $10 USD/ pp. Children aged 5 and under are free! This is for each of the fields, so if you want to visit both in one day I assume you would pay for both. The hours for each field vary slightly. At RoozenGaarde they are open from 9 AM- 7 PM, whereas Tulip Town is open from 9 AM- 5 PM.

The red tulips are so vibrant they look fake!
Truthful Travel Tips for Families
Plan Parking Ahead!
Planning ahead starts with planning how you’ll get to the Skagit Valley Tulips. If you are going to drive to the tulip festival, you should think of where you will park beforehand! The tulip festival sees upwards of 1 million visitors each year, and that can create some long parking lines and some serious traffic!
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If you have a baby, toddler or young child, you will want to park as close as possible to minimize walking distance to the fields. The festival website offers interactive and printable maps of the entire festival, in which you can see the official parking lots and their proximity to each garden. In my experience, Tulip Town has parking that is closer to the tulip field. We went during a weekday, before full bloom, and there was still a busy parking lot. When we visited RoozenGaarde a different year, we struggled to find parking at the official lot on a weekend day. The lot was located across the street from the field.
My tip? Arrive early or on a quieter day (before full bloom) to try and snag free parking outside of either of the two main flower fields. Other, non-official lots, often require payment and are not right near the entrance of the fields. You can check out the bloom status of RoozenGaarde to see when full bloom will be!

A sea of red!
Wear Your Baby!
The tulip fields, although they can look pretty uniform, are still located in nature. The bulbs are planted throughout a field of dirt, and you can imagine how muddy it gets when it rains.
To find advice on proper footwear to bring to a tulip festival, check out last year’s Chilliwack Tulip Fest post!

Baby wearing made the day easy!
This creates an environment not really conducive to strollers. On a sunny day this may not be an issue but the mud can get pretty sticky and could potentially create problems. Although we did see families with strollers while we were there, there were many more parents carrying their infants.
We carried Noel in our Lillebaby All Seasons carrier. The carrier is quite sturdy, and has many different options to fit babies from newborn all the way up to toddler age. Walking through the Skagit Valley Tulips hassle-free made our experience much better, and it was easy to get him in and out of the carrier for pictures.

Baby wearing also allows Noel to have a nice nap while we’re out!
Stray Away From The Crowd!
As noted above, the tulip fields can get quite busy. Although it is tempting to start taking pictures as soon as you enter the fields, it is a great idea to walk to the very edge of the tulip fields and start there.
In our experience, we did not find that the tulips had completely bloomed at the edge of the fields. However, we were able to find some areas further from the crowds that were filled with beautiful pink tulips, and the vibrant red ones were in the distance. From some angles you can get some pretty cool shots on a sunny day: mountains, barns and even the flying kites.

The far end of the field allowed for great photos, even though not all the flowers were in bloom
It is much easier to take your time getting an infant or a young child set up from a photo when there are less people around. You can feel rushed if people are waiting to get their perfect shot as well.
Note: You can damage the bulbs and the Skagit Valley Tulips if you walk in between the rows. There are signs everywhere, but people still seem to do it. You can get beautiful shots without breaking the rules, you just need to get creative!

Far from the crowds!
Explore beyond the fields!
Although the main attraction is the fields of tulips, there is much more to explore. Tulips are pretty, but there are only so many pictures you can take with them before you (and your infant/child!) have had enough.
Each of the fields has something to offer. At RoozenGaarde there is a huge display garden with many different varieties of flowers. It is located at the entrance to their tulip field area, and everything is nice and well kept. Tulip Town is definitely the winner for family-friendly activities. Before you even get out to the fields there is a tented area, in which you can purchase food, gifts, or walk around the indoor tulip garden. For older kids there is face painting. Outside of the tent, there are display gardens and kite flyers. The kites are cool animals such as octopus and pterodactyls that fly high in the sky, and little fish closer to the ground.

Display garden near the entrance
One thing we did not get a chance to do, but looked like fun, was taking the blue trolley around the field. It would be a cool idea to see the fields from another perspective. This might also be a good way to take a break during what may be a long day out with your infant/child. There is so much to do at each location, you could easily spend hours there after touring the fields!

Some of the kites being flown!
Other Tulip Festivals
If you’re not close enough to Seattle to make it a worthwhile trip with your infant/child, there are other festivals in the Pacific Northwest.
North of the border (Canada) there are two big tulip festivals:
Tulips of The Valley is located in the Fraser Valley, in Chilliwack (East of Vancouver). It is the largest of its kind in Western Canada! It seems like this year they have added an Instagram-worthy swing with a backdrop of tulips!
The Bloom Tulip Festival is located in Abbotsford, a neighboring city to Chilliwack. Looking at their tagged photos on their Instagram page, it seems like they have really cute props such as a bench and some chairs set up along the perimeter of the fields!
South of Seattle there is another big festival:
Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest is located about an hour South of Portland, OR. These fields probably have the best backdrop, with one of Oregon’s biggest mountains, Mt. Hood in the distance.
Visiting a tulip festival is a Spring tradition, and as we found out this year, that does not need to change once a baby comes along. With a few adjustments and more planning ahead, a day out at the tulip festival can be a positive one, and one that can fill photograph albums (or, let’s be real, more likely Instagram squares) to look back on and enjoy!
Happy Spring!
Samantha (Adrian & Noel),
Truthful Travelers
I really wanted to go here this year. I was just in Anacortes in February and was excited about hopefully going back to check this out. I guess I’ll have to wait until next year. Great pics though!
Those tulip flower beds are so beautifully aligned and layed out. Skagit Valley Tulips festival is a very pleasant way to spend a day out in Washington. Thanks for all the tips and information. Hope to visit it soon.
I think the growers work very hard to make the tulip fields aesthetically pleasing! Thanks for reading- I hope you get to visit!!!
It’s so pretty out there with mountains at the background! Your tip to go all the way to the far end is smart since most people would stop in the front for pictures. I really enjoyed your pictures. And baby Noel is so cute!
It is a beautiful sight, it is even prettier at the Wooden Shoe Festival in Oregon-there is a hugeee mountain in the backdrop. I love venturing as far away from crowds as possible 🙂 And thankyou, we think he is pretty cute too!
Wow those tulip fields are so beautiful! Gorgeous photos and it looks like a great afternoon trip. I didn’t realize Washington has huge tulip fields.
Thank you! It is easier to take pictures when the subjects are so beautiful! Washington and most of the Pacific Northwest have tulip fields, I guess we have a good climate to grow them in!
Wow I have never visited any tulip festival and would really love to do so. I am sure my 3year old will be excited as well thanks for sharing. Pictures look awesome
Kids love tulips! We saw so many other families visiting the tulips, it helps that there are so many activities for kids to do!
How special that you were able to experience this with your new baby! What a perfect family day out and a great idea for a family tradition. I would have loved frolicking in those fields as a kid!
It was a special experience! I am hoping we visit with him for many years to come!
These are some amazing captures of the gorgeous tulip gardens. I am definitely saving this and going to plan a trip to one of these festivals next season. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you for reading! I hope that you get to experience one of the festivals next year!
I love that you’ve visted the Skagit Valley tulips so often and now you got to visit with your baby boy! Your photos are absolutely gorgeous and I’ve had the Tulip festival on my list of things/places to visit for a little while now. Can’t wait!
Thanks! I am also so happy that we got to visit with him- it was such a fun day! I hope you get to see the tulips next year!!!
Those tulip fields look so beautiful. I had never even heard about them. Thank you for talking about the signs and protection of the flowers. I went to a flower farm in San Diego and it’s crazy to see people just jumping over the barriers and disregarding the signs. Your shoes are lovely, proof that you can respect nature while you shoot.
I have seen so many people not following rules all over the place, so I always like to remind people to respect the areas they’re in. Were you at the poppies? Or Carlsbad flower fields? You’re right- you can get beautiful shots while observing the rules. Thanks for your comment!
I love the photos! Absolutely breath taking. I’m saving this post for when I finally get the chance to see these beauties myself 🙂 Thanks for the info!
Thanks for reading! The tulip fields are a sight to see!
How beautiful! I’d love to check this out one year!
I hope you get a chance to- they’re worth the travel!
So beautiful! Wish I could be there!
Kasey Ma
http://www.TheStyleWright.com
Thanks! It is a spectacular place to see, especially in the nice Spring weather!
This place is absolutely beautiful. Love the field of tulips. Beautiful family, too. 🙂
Thanks so much!!! It is a beautiful place for a family outing 🙂
I’m dying to go here, it looks so beautiful!
http://www.layersofchic.com
The fields are such a great place to go in the Spring, I hope you get a chance to see them soon!
Wow…. I feel like your pictures capture the beauty of those flowers. I’m learning about Tulip festivals for the first time. Looks like something worth exploring
Thanks so much, that is such a compliment! It is definitely worth exploring, there are just so many colors and varieties of tulips (and even other flowers!)
This looks like a dream! Tulips are my favorite, so this is something I feel like I absolutely must see one day!
Tulips are a beautiful flower, they never used to be my favorite but I think they’re one of my favorites after seeing so many varieties!
I’ve never heard of a Tulip festival but would definitely go if I were closer. Tulips are my favorite flowers!
Tulips are a beautiful flower- you should go visit some of the fields around the world!
That’s so cool to have made it there – I’m dying to go myself. Bookmarking this post!
I hope this post comes in handy when you visit a field- even if it isn’t the Skagit Valley one!