May 2021
If you have a little time to spare I have the perfect activity for you! In The Hague you can currently visit the bluebell forest at Landgoed Ockenburgh. I made a visit to this fairytale forest with my mother and sister for Mother’s day and found the bluebells, which are also known as wild hyacinths, in full bloom! They will only bloom for a short time, so right now is the perfect place to visit Landgoed Ockenburgh, read all about it in this blogpost.
Practical information
The bluebell forest is located in national park Hollandse Duinen in The Hague near Landgoed Ockenburgh . Usually the bluebells/wild hyacinths are in bloom around April, but because of the cold temperatures in the past months they only started blooming around May 5 this year. This means you still have some time to visit them in the next week. You can park your car at the main parking of Landgoed Ockenburgh. When you start walking toward Villa Ockenburgh you will see a map that will indicate where you should turn left for the bluebell forest. The forest is located about a five minutes walk from the parking. Parking and entry to the park are free. We visited on a Sunday afternoon with good weather and it wasn’t crowded at all.
Bluebell forest
You can walk through the bluebell part of the forest in about 15 minutes. The forest had a really good vibe, the purple carpet of bluebells combined with the green of the trees with the sunlight peeping through really made for a magical sight. When we visited it was pretty quiet and you could only hear the birds sing 🙂 Make sure you stay on the paths and don’t step on the bluebells, because once you step on them they will never grow back. We noticed some people letting their kids roam free in the park and trample on the flowers, we immediately told them to be careful around the flowers. In case you see this happening, you should speak up too to protect the bluebells.
Villa Ockenburgh
Villa Ockenburgh is the restaurant that is located in the middle of Ockenburgh park. When we visited the terrace was open for lunch and drinks until 6PM. The restaurant inside looked particularly lovely, I hope they can open up again soon. Villa Ockenburgh also has a greenhouse where they grow some of the ingredients for the restaurant. The menu changes with the seasons, so you never have to get bored of the dishes.
