Off-grid cabins in Dutch countryside with high coziness factor
Cabiner / Noord Veluwe / Gelderland / Netherlands
Off-grid. It is such a definitive almost provocative word to an urban lover such as myself. And at the same time, it has some kind of romantic aspect to it. To escape the everyday and be free.
One place that has been on my list since we lived in the Netherlands is Cabiner, a ”hotel” that offers just that, the possibility to go off-grid in beautiful natural surroundings. And now I finally had the chance to book a stay.
The idea for Cabiner was created when friends Sander and Victor were hiking in the Norwegian north. They stayed over night in the simplest of cabins and were inspired. So inspired that they formed the idea of creating something similar, but closer to home. And so they did.
Each cabin is temporarily placed in nature and can be easily relocated to another location when needed. And when it is time for the cabin to meet their maker (don’t know if that saying makes sense when referring to a building…), it can be totally disassembled and the materials reused.
When writing this there are cabins placed in 7 different locations in the Netherlands, all with the same idea, to get close to nature, live off-grid and leave no trace behind which fully awakens my inner hipster. We stayed in a cabin in an area called Noord Veluwe, in the middle of the Zwolse Forest, located an hour east of Amsterdam. You can’t drive to the cabin but have to park at a car park and then hike about 1,5 km with all of your stuff. The cabin is a cute little house with wood stove, a hand-operated pump to draw fresh and filtered ground water. The power for lighting and ventilation is generated by solar panels. And besides this, it is just you and nature.
Me heading from the car to the cabin. Perfect off-grid bag. :-)
Almost there…
All of a sudden the forest opens up and there is our cabin.
There are slippers to be used in the cabin…
…but of course I brought my own.
First slippers and then coffee.
Heating comes from the massive wood fired oven.
The inside is all wood.
The view from the sleeping loft upstairs.
I am preparing dinner while M is out taking some photos for me.
RG inside info
This place is perfect if you…
…want to try how it is to live off-grid. If you are longing to escape civilization for a while and get closer to nature in a rustic but comfy cabin in the Dutch countryside.
My favorite thing about this place…
…is that after each overnight stay they invest money in the nature reserve where the cabin is placed. A great way to give back.
What not to miss when staying here…
…is to thoroughly read the packing list. We didn’t. Or to be precise, I got one in Dutch, I asked for en English version. It never arrived so I thought it wasn’t so important. So we ended up having to hike back to the car and drive to Zwolle to stock up at IKEA and the local supermarket.
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