Tourists wanting an exceptional holiday experience invited to ’Hooitel’

Sleeping in the hay

IDSKENHUIZEN, the Netherlands – A northern Dutch farmer has received the municipal green light to launch his ’Het Hooitel’ overnight accommodation for tourists looking to make their holiday exceptional.

Farmer Meindert Leenstra who also runs a camping, borrowed the idea from long-gone days when seasonal farm workers – often Germans who up to the twentieth century would manually cut the grass and help with haying - for the night would settle in their farmer’s haystack.

The municipality of Skarsterlan has approved Leenstra’s plans, who meets all the fire regulations. The farmer’s barn already was equipped with fire extinguishers, and does not allow smoking on the premises.

Leenstra expects his guests to take sleeping bags and pillows along. He praises his service as one every tourist should experience at least once in a lifetime. ’Just smell the herbs and feel the hay.’ The hay-covered section in the barn sleeps a maximum of ten people. The guests will not feel lonely in any case, because Leenstra’s herd of one hundred dairy cows ‘reside’ nearby.

The rate for a night at Het Hooitel is 15 euro a person, a farmers’ breakfast included.