A friendly budget hotel in Amsterdam dedicated to the use of hemp - from food to fabrics, you'll find hemp can be found in an amazing variety of useful things.
The Hemp Hotel is a small budget hotel with 5 themed rooms (Caribbean, Afghani, Indian, Tibetan and Moroccan). We use HEMP as much as possible, from mattresses, curtains, shampoo, soap to a hemp roll for breakfast. We also have a public bar!
The rooms are all in the style of a country/region. They are all brightly painted and decorated.
Of the 5 rooms, there are two twin (two single beds) rooms with a private shower. Two rooms have a double bed and shared facilities and there is a single room, also with shared facilities. All the rooms have a sink, towels, shampoo, soap and a TV.
- The Afghani Room there is a traditional dress, authentic carpets a hemp mattress and hemp curtains.
- The Moroccan Room has some woodcarvings, an authentic carpet, hemp curtains and hemp mattresses.
- The Caribbean room has a banana tree, stylized waves and butterflies painted on the walls, and hemp bed spreads.
- The Indian Room has a beautifully painted wall with a peacock on it, a TV with a DVD player, a couch and traditional wall hangings on hemp cloth.
- The Tibetan Room (the single), has a big balcony, hemp curtains and some tanka paintings.
Included in the price is breakfast served from 11 am till 12:30 noon. Breakfast consists of a hemp roll, a muffin, tea/coffee, juice and condiments. If we know in advance, we can organize lactose/ gluten free breakfasts as well.
Check out is at 12 noon, so check in is not till 3 pm.
The Hemp Hotel was set up in '98 by Mila Jansen and her daughter Elferra. Mila hitchhiked to India from Amsterdam back in 1968, taking her 4 yr old daughter with her, travelling through the flower power era and stopping in Pakistan, Afghanistan etc on her way to the ashrams of India. Her second daughter, Elferra, was born in Almora, India in 1974 and on returning to Europe in 1988 to study, decorated the hotel using the theme of the art and culture of the areas she hiked through.
If you want to understand some of the stories that the Hemp Hotel team bring to your stay, consider this... Almora, where Elferra was born was a small village where there was little offical medical coverage. At the time, there was only one doctor for a very large region. He used to travel from village to village to help the villagers. Of course Elferra was born while he was away! So her parents had her weighed at the green grocers and got a hand written letter with the time and place of birth, her parents names and a few stamps (probably for good produce - Elferra still has this piece of paper!). Elferra's father took this piece of paper down to Delhi to the Dutch embassy. They did not accept this piece of paper as a birth certificate, so she was declined Dutch citizenship. After a few attempts and set backs, Elferras parents decided to go to Goa for the winter. It was here that Mila managed to buy a birth certificate..... Strangely enough, Elferra was nearly a year old by then. However, this WAS accepted by the Dutch embassy, so Elferra at last could become a legal Dutch citizen.
Hemp has a chequered past, from the media hype of legalised smoking in Amsterdam to it's use in ropemaking, matting, soap, cloth, insulation, as well as medicinal and nutritional usage.
Mila is also involved in Hemp projects in Kazakhstan, supporting villagers to find alternative incomes for their existing farms and hemp products.
Cathy and the staff team know the city well and will be able to help anyone out with particular questions regarding day trips, outings, things to do or see. Don't forget that Amsterdam is usually cloudy (if not rainy), so come prepared. The summers get pretty hot and humid…which brings out the mosquitoes, so bring mosquito repellant. And most importantly, you always walk a lot more than you planned to, so bring comfortable shoes! Or a whole bunch of blister plasters.
www.unusualhotelsoftheworld.com 
