Travel – Eco Hotel Interior Inspiration, Conscious Hotels, Amsterdam

Travel – Eco Hotel Interior Inspiration, Conscious Hotels, Amsterdam

Have you ever stayed in an eco hotel, or given much consideration to eco design? We recently travelled to Amsterdam with KLM airlines and stayed in an eco hotel with so much character, and as someone who is generally happier outdoors than indoors, it really inspired me.

A Hip Eco Hotel

Conscious Hotels aim to make their hotels green but fun, to be hip rather than hippy, in other words they make all the eco hotel decisions, so you can relax. All the energy comes from renewable sources, you can see the windmill that provides the power on the website and there are lots of clever eco design features too.

Location, Location, Location

Conscious Hotels Museumplein is right by a bus stop leading you directly to Schipol airport in under 30 minutes. It is ideally located on the edge of this beautiful square packed with some of Amsterdam’s largest museums: The Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Modern Art Museum, there is also a second hotel situated by Vondelspark.

Bring the outside in

This living plant wall is incredible, and brings so much texture and fun to the room as well as forming a stunning focal and talking point. I love the tapestry cushions and log occasional tables too.

This hotel is full of features that bring the outside in, a living wall of greenery, open doors to a garden full of lush plants and breakfast spots, we loved having a little garden to explore when the kids had exhausted the breakfast options. One of the family rooms opens out directly onto the garden.

The leafy wallpaper and Eames chairs gave a really fresh feel to the breakfast room.

A lovely quirk is that each door has a message on it, ours said ‘Behind this door lies your own special kingdom where you make the rules, just say the magic words’ – how brilliant was that! It was true too, step inside and there is this stunning feature forest wall, so convincing that it looks real at times, I love tree feature wallpaper, after falling for this silver birch wallpaper a few months ago. The beds are soft, with mattresses made from natural materials and organic fair-trade linen.

The desk in the bedroom was made from recycled yogurt pots, you would never have guessed though, even if you licked it. Instead of licking the desk I recommend you try the tasty breakfast, which also has a conscious: biodynamic eggs, free range coffee, home made granola and a machine to make your own orange juice.

The hotel even has a green roof with a hive for bees. Being a city of bikes, the air feels cleaner in Amsterdam, they want to keep it that way too, which is why you can also book an electric taxi to and from the hotel or hire one of the hotel’s fleet of bikes to explore.

Need to Know

We flew from Birmingham airport as a guest of KLM to their hub at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. Our flights were complementary, return flights with KLM UK from Birmingham to Amsterdam start from just £79 per person, though with KLM you can fly from over 17 UK based airports to reach Amsterdam.

Conscious Hotels have a range of room options, including family rooms for 3 and 4, which are spacious and comfy and perfectly located just 10 minutes walk from both Museumplein and Vondelspark. It’s a short tram ride into Amsterdam proper, but this is a really peaceful place to base your family.

Original article and pictures take www.wayfair.co.uk site