We had one night after Amsterdam before we were due to head to our rented apartment in Brussels. We knew we didn’t want to travel too far but also wanted to go somewhere that had been on our “to-see” list. Haarlem, which is only around fifteen minutes from Amsterdam and was supposed to be filled with quaint streets, lovely buildings and yet more canals and windmills, seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
It was so nice to only have to travel fifteen minutes with our backpacks – probably our shortest travel day ever! We did, however, still manage to get lost finding our accommodation which made it a bit longer, but that’s kind of becoming a tradition now. We had been intrigued by a funky and new hostel in Haarlem which went by the name Hello I’m Local. It seemed like a bit of an odd name, but it did seem to fit with the design we’d seen on the website, which in itself seemed quirky and fun. Basically, it turned out that the hostel (which is classed as a boutique hostel, and it is much nicer than many standard hostels so I can see why) sourced all of its furnishings, food and drink from local suppliers, vintage shops and other locations in the Netherlands. All of the bedrooms are themed around a famous Dutch person, tradition or place.
I had thought that our room was probably the cutest in the place – it was themed around the old-style Dutch rooms which contained a raised bed in a “cupboard” (called a bedstee) – but then I saw some of the other rooms and fell in love with those as well. My favourites were the travel-themed room with maps on the wall and suitcases for tables and the publishing room which contained a typewriter and a lightshade with little notes you could personalise yourself. Both very apt for me!
We spent part of our afternoon working downstairs in the lobby/common room and purely by coincidence we happened to be there for tea time which takes place every afternoon (coincidence – I promise). Any hostel that brings me tea and choccie biscuits while I’m working earns major points in my book.
We spent the rest of our afternoon and evening wandering the (unfortunately rainy) streets of Haarlem and grabbing dinner before coming back to the hostel and chilling in the common room again. What I loved about this place was the feeling of community. The common room was full in the evening with people having drinks (there is a bar downstairs) and playing board games. We have found several of the hostels we have stayed at have been lacking in this area so it was a nice change. The next morning we decided to order breakfast downstairs to set us up for our bus journey to Brussels. We ordered the traditional Dutch breakfast which included several Dutch cheeses, breads, jams and chocolate sprinkles. I had never heard of the tradition of sprinkling toast with chocolate sprinkles in the Netherlands, but it’s something I could definitely get behind.
I certainly couldn’t eat a breakfast like this every day without being the size of a house (how are the Dutch mainly so skinny?!) because there is no “off” button for Scott and I when it comes to big blocks of cheese. I loved this hostel, it definitely had one of the best vibes we’ve had in any accommodation in a long time. I also loved that you got to learn a lot about local culture and traditions. The only downside I found was that the wifi didn’t work in the rooms. This could have been orchestrated by the hostel to create a good atmosphere downstairs, I’m not sure, but it didn’t prove a problem for us as there were plenty of outlets and we probably would’ve missed tea time if we’d been working our room!
We were guests of Hello I’m Local, however they did not ask me to write a positive review of the place (or eat ridiculous amounts of cheese!) All opinions are my own and I love supporting small local businesses such as this one.
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