Hemp Hotel

This historic hippy hangout was an Amsterdam landmark, now permanently closed.
This groovy little hotel promotes hemp products with every conceiveable item made of hemp. Mila Jansen is well known for inventing the Pollinator which makes hashish out of leftover cannabis leaves. The Hotel has very reasonable rates which include a vegetarian breakfast. Prices range from 100-145 guilders per room. The Hemp Hotel is located in a quiet part of town.

The Hemple Temple Bar is located in the ground floor and has all sorts of hemp food and drinks for you to try. It’s open nights until early in the a.m.

Frederiksplein 15
Amsterdam
Phone: 625-4425

South Africa

“If you’re looking for hippies South Africa has got them. Cape Town especially hosts a large hippy community, here we have the famous Green Market Square where hippies sell their creation from clothes to paintings. Every year from late June into early July thousands of people make their way to Grahmstown, a small town in the middle of nowhere, for the Grahmstown festival. Every hippy in the country winds up there sometime time during the 2-week festival. The festival is actually an arts festival where plays of all kinds (from miming to Shakespeare) can be seen, but along with the abundant actors come the hippies, hoping to make a profit off the large crowds of tourists and catch a few laughs at one of the many comedy plays. The entire town consists of two main streets and several theatre houses, what space is not being used for makeshift stages is a hippy market the size of a football field. All those who have been to one of the annual Grahmstown festivals agree on one thing; it gets better every year. As more and more people come and the hordes of hippies become uncountable the atmosphere seems to grow in a unique feeling of appreciation for the newfound peace in this unstable country. As I returned home to Cape Town after the latest festival I realized that I met more humane people from all over South Africa than I had in years of travel. It’s an experience of a lifetime not to be missed.”

Mesnil Eglise, Belgium

I moved from Brussels to the little town of Mesnil Eglise (yes, Belgium) and see from the 75 habitants half of them are old and new tekno-hippies. From the solar energy professor to artists and bio food producers all invite friends to spend the summer in the woods of the Ardennes. This makes a lot of people smokin’ and roamin’ the 3 streets of the village… The melting pot with the original farmers worked well out during the last 25 years.

Cambodia

This is the HOT NEW HIPPIE DESTINATION!!! Unlike neighboring Laos & Vietnam, Cambodia has pretty easy to deal with visa formalities. It also seems to attract all sorts of interesting types, & seems to not attract the typical tourist types responsible for ruining Thailand for example. Its also a fairly relaxed place while being a bit crazy at times. They say its a lot like Thailand used to be. The ruins at Angor are incredible like nothing else I have ever seen. In addition, although international pressure is changing a few things, grass is all over the place. There was over a kilo in a cabinet in my guest house that was left by people leaving the country, & it is sometimes brought to your table free of charge in some travelers restaurants, so you will smoke it of course & buy more food! The civil war is over too now.

Sherbrooke and Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada

The townships are also the most English place in Quebec. Many old and younger hippies live out in the country here. There’s also been a few sizable communes, one of them mysteriously gone leaving all their stuff behind.

Lennoxville is an arrondissement, or borough, of the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Lennoxville is located at the confluence of the St. Francis and Massawippi Rivers approximately five kilometres south of downtown Sherbrooke. ~Wikipedia

Madison, Wisconsin

A beautiful downtown, with a beautiful university right on the lake, lots of housing co-ops, and really friendly and nice people. People from Wisconsin tend to be slightly dingy, and Madison is considered to be the craziest town in the state (it’s also the state capital) – but it’s the right kind of crazy, in my opinion. The only drawback is that it gets a little cold there in winter.

Madison is a VERY groovy place, and state street is chock full of head shops/coffee shops/every shop that deviates from the norm that you can think of……there is even a Nepali restaurant that I loved….also loads of interesting people throughout the town. I couldn’t believe how many street performers I saw, there were devil-sticks flying everywhere and lone saxophonists filling up the empty alleyways, soothing your mind like a mental Halls cough drop.”