Why You Should Put These Flower Fields on Your Holiday Itinerary

There are plenty of things to love about spring – colourful flower fields being one of them. The myriad flower festivals across Asia are highly popular with avid photographers and nature lovers. And in Europe, you’ll find gorgeous landscapes carpeted with lavender, tulips, marigolds and other brightly hued blooms. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most beautiful flower fields around the world.

Japan

Tonami Tulip Fair

The city of Tonami in Toyama Prefecture is the main producer of tulips in Japan. Its headline attraction, the Tonami Tulip Fair, runs between April and May every year, featuring more than 600 varieties of the vibrant blooms. Visitors can look forward to several large fields filled with tulips, a pond with floating flower beds and a large gallery showcasing the art of tulip cultivation.

Tsurumi Ryokuchi Park

Elsewhere, Osaka is no stranger to stunning foliage, and the flower fields at Tsurumi Ryokuchi Park are a must-visit. In addition to seasonal blossoms, you’ll get to glimpse an array of birds and partake in family-friendly activities such as horseback riding and golfing. There’s even an indoor pool if you fancy a dip.

Tip: Book a stay at Fraser Residence Nankai, Osaka, which is a 35-minute train ride from Tsurumi Ryokuchi Park.

Furano Flower Fields

The Furano Flower Fields in Hokkaido are best known for their endless rows of lavender, which reach their peak in early July. However, you can also admire a wide variety of seasonal blooms at other times of the year – lupines and tulips in May, blue salvias and poppies in June, sunflowers and cosmos in August, and yellow mustards and dahlias in September and October.

South Korea

Taean Tulip Festival

Recognised as one of the top five tulip festivals by the World Tulip Summit Society, the Taean Tulip Festival in Taean County (around a three-hour bus-ride from Seoul) welcomes visitors from mid-April every year. Don’t forget your camera – there are more than a million tulips from 300 different species you’ll definitely want to snap photos of! Besides the tulip festival, the Taean peninsula is also home to the Chollipo Arboretum, a seaside botanic garden filled with daffodils, hibiscus and magnolias and other flora.

Jeju Canola Flower Festival

The next time you visit Seoul, consider spending a few days on scenic Jeju island, which is a 70-minute flight from the capital. From late March to early April, the island is awash with bright yellow canola flowers – there’s even a Jeju Canola Flower Festival held every April. Cherry blossoms are another major draw here: plan your trip around the Jeju Cherry Blossom Festival (typically held at the end of March), or head to Jeju National University and Sinsan Park to admire the blooms, which feature larger petals than those on the mainland. 

Germany

Planten un Blomen Park

Located in the heart of Hamburg, the Planten un Blomen Park (“Plants and Flowers Park” in German) is a botanic garden filled with an assortment of pretty blooms. There’s an Apothekergarten with a wide array of medicinal herbs and plants, a Japanese garden complete with a tea pavilion, and a Rosengarten featuring more than 300 varieties of roses. Elsewhere around Germany, you may stumble upon roadside flower fields signposted “blumen selbst schneiden”. These are essentially pick-your-own flower fields, where you can cut your own fresh blooms for a few cents a piece.

In the far south-west of Germany, Mainau Island on Lake Constance attracts more than one million visitors every year thanks to its glorious floral displays. From March to May, you can admire flower fields adorned with snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, blue stars and tulips; this is followed by roses from the end of May onwards, and then dahlias in autumn. Open from sunrise to sunset, the island is also home to a butterfly sanctuary and an arboretum with over 500 exotic trees.

Tip: Make your base at Fraser Suites Hamburg, which is a convenient 16-minute walk from Planten un Blomen Park.

France

Provence

Combine your next Paris vacation with a trip to Provence in the South of France, which is famous for its picturesque lavender fields. The delicate flowers begin blooming in June, cloaking the landscape in mauve and purple hues. Top flower-viewing spots in Provence include the Valensole commune, which hosts a popular lavender festival on the third Sunday of July every year, and the Drôme region. Then there’s also the quaint hilltop town of Sault, where you can experience its lavender fields as late as mid-August – the higher altitude and cooler weather mean that the flowers bloom later in the year. 

Vietnam

Hanoi

From around mid-December to late February every year, the flower fields along Thach Cau Road in Hanoi’s Long Bien district transform into a sea of pink, magenta and lilac. This is due to the annual blooming of globe amaranths – small, round-shaped flowers known as bach nhat in Vietnamese. The fields are a 35-minute taxi ride from Fraser Suites Hanoi, which offers 280 fully furnished residences overlooking the city’s famous West Lake. Love spending time outdoors? Check out 20 of the world’s most unforgettable gardens.


Adapted from Fraser Cachet Issue #26 © Frasers Hospitality and SPH Magazines. Updated in December 2022.