NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands, a country in northwestern Europe, is known for its flat landscape, canals, tulip fields, windmills and cycling routes. Amsterdam, the capital, is home to the Rijks Museum, Van Gogh Museum, the house where Jewish diarist Anne Frank hid during WWII and a red light district. Canal side mansions and a trove of works from artists including Rembrandt and Vermeer remain from the 17th-century "Golden Age."

The Netherlands is a low-lying country with around a quarter of its territory at or below sea level. Many parts of the Netherlands are protected from flooding by dykes and sea walls and much of the land has been reclaimed from the sea. The Netherlands has a long coastline with the North Sea and borders Belgium to the south and Germany to the east.

Of all the European countries, Holland is the one that has embraced the most the hippie spirit, its fashions and values, in depth of time. In its idiomatic mix of liberalism and conservatism expressed as a tolerance appreciated by the state system, Holland encourages the birth of self-ruled communities and living patterns hard to encounter in the rest of the continent.

AMSTERDAM

Amsterdam, capital city of The Netherlands, known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled facades, still preserved as the legacies of the city’s 17th-century Golden Age. Its Museum District, houses works by Rembrandt and Vermeer at the Rijks Museum, the Van Gogh Museum and modern art at the Stedelijk. Cycling is key to the city’s character, and there are 400 km of cycle paths in this city.

This one’s a no-brainier. With its liberal drug policies and freedom of expression;  Amsterdam is the hippest city in Europe. Hash cakes galore and the people of Amsterdam embrace bohemians with both open arms and hearts. With large green open spaces, quirky pubs and carnivals aplenty around the year; Amsterdam is the perfect starting spot on the hippie trail.

Amsterdam is a mythical city that few people anymore believe to exist. Legend has it that it rises from the sea somewhere between Holland and Norway, due north of Germany at varying intervals. The myth is at least as old as the ancient Greeks, although the name derives from Latin and is several hundred years newer than the story itself. The "myth" of Amsterdam is still perpetuated by hippies who claim to have once visited or have talked to someone who has visited Amsterdam. Hippies usually speak of vast amounts of red lights, drugs, and coffee shops. There is believed to be places where you get enjoy coffee, drugs in a red lit area! Some hippies are right though since there is more than one Amsterdam in the world. One is in Netherlands and the other is in New York. Unfortunately the one in New York can't be this mythical one.

Magneet Festival is often compared to the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada Desert in USA, but it has it’s very own style.  “No spectators, only participators” has always been the “Magneet Philosophy”. It’s the first crowd sourced festival in the whole of Europe: anyone can pitch his idea for an activity/show on the website. If you get enough votes, the festival will facilitate the initiative. The festival offers lots of music, theater, installations, poetry, arts and activities for kids. And of course many food stalls/trucks, restaurants (vegan too) and bars with cocktails, fruit juices and the usual drinks.

Most special is the festival’s atmosphere. The bohemian feeling is all around and it gives you a relaxed holiday feeling mixed with the energy of exciting things happening around. The location adds to it. The festival is located at an artificial island, created to build a new part of Amsterdam, but at the moment it is just an enormous heap of sand. A bit of The Nevada Desert experience after all.

The Vondelpark in Amsterdam is the city's largest and most famous park. It's the favorite urban retreat for both old and young hippy Amsterdammers, as well as foreign visitors. The 47 hectares of grass-covered meadows, winding paths, ponds and broad open spaces is an attraction in itself.

The lush urban idyll of the Vondelpark is one of Amsterdam's most magical places – sprawling, English-style gardens, with ponds, lawns, footbridges and winding footpaths. On a sunny day, an open-air party atmosphere ensues when tourists, lovers, cyclists, in-line skaters, pram-pushing parents, cartwheeling children, football-kicking teenagers, spliff-sharing friends and champagne-swilling picnickers all come out to play. Although the Vondelpark receives over 10 million visitors per year, it never feels too crowded to enjoy.

The hippy center of Europe. Marijuana is sold legally in more than 400 coffee shops, a long history of tolerance, beautiful old city, great vibes everywhere, and Yes, the friendly Dutch speak English. Truly a Hippie Heaven!! Lots of head shops, smart shops, rave venues, hip fashions, museums and concerts. The Vondelpark has been a gathering place for hippies since the 60's.

Every music lover in Holland knows Paradiso, which is also called Amsterdam’s Pop Temple. The building is located on the Weteringsschans, near the Leidseplein, and occupies an old church built around 1880 in the Neo Roman style. These days it mainly welcomes music lovers, about 1,500 at a time!! Part of Paradiso’s fame dates from 1967, when the Vrije Gemeente church building was squatted by a group of hippies who wanted their own club. Another group of hippies in the Vondelpark heard about it and established their ‘love-in’ in Paradiso. 

Shortly after that the church became known as ‘Paradiso Cosmic Relaxation Center’. Pretty soon the club welcomed groups like Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart, thus establishing its reputation. Concerts are still organized here today and the pop temple welcomes world-famous artists on a regular basis. It also serves as a venue for parties and other cultural activities.

The High Times Cannabis Cup is the world’s foremost cannabis festival. Founded in 1988 by Steven Hager, the High Times Cannabis Cup is held each November in Amsterdam. The event allows judges from around the world to sample and vote for their favorite marijuana varieties. These judges-at-large decide the Cannabis Cup (overall winner in the cannabis variety competition), best new product, best booth, best glass, best hash and best Nederhash. A team of VIP judges decides which seed company has grown the best Indica, Sativa and hybrid strain and which company has produced the best Neder Hash and best imported hash. The High Times Cannabis Cup also includes live music, educational seminars and an expo for marijuana-related products from cannabis-oriented businesses.

Amsterdam has always been a magnet for the hippies from all over Europe and the Magic Center of the alternative Provo’s culture.

See You Soon...On Another Famous Hippie Location

Until Then...NAMASTE...

#Trotterhipp

CANADA

Canada, stretching from the United Sates Of America in the south to the Arctic Circle in the north, is filled with vibrant cities including massive, multicultural Toronto; predominantly French-speaking Montreal and Quebec City; Vancouver and Halifax on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, respectively; and Ottawa, the capital. It’s also crossed by the Rocky Mountains and home to vast swaths of protected wilderness.

From 1965 to 1973, the United States entered full-scale into the hideous Vietnam War. Peace-loving Americans flowed northward, fleeing conscription. Canada became saturated with American poets, peace activists and pot growers. These illegal refugees were unable to hold legal employment, and so many turned to growing cannabis. Many settled in British Columbia, bringing with them innovative indoor growing techniques. While beat poets puffed pot in crowded Toronto nightclubs, back-to-the-land hippies lay naked on the sand and huffed herb in places like Vancouver’s nudist Wreck Beach.

Communes were most prolific on the Western Coast, but the most famous of all was Southern Ontario’s Church of the Universe, founded in 1969. Church members professed marijuana to be the sacred Tree of Life.

NELSON

Nelson  is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the extreme West Arm of The Kootenay Lake in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of restored heritage buildings from its glory days in a regional silver rush. Nelson is one of the three cities forming the commercial and population core of the West Kootenay region, the others being Castlegar and Trail.

Nelson, better known as Canada's pot capital is a bohemian town that has managed to keep its carefree spirit intact. A number of quaint local watering holes and coffee shops are scattered in between heritage structures. It surely is unquestionably beautiful, with snow clad mountains circling it proudly. Macleans magazine has included Nelson on its list of ten Canadian places to see in 2014, calling it a “Modern-day hippie Sanctuary.”

“It was a place to get away from typical parental expectations and to hang out with like-minded friends,” wrote Katherine Gordon in her 2004 book about the region, The Slocan. Here, between the Selkirk Mountains and the Kootenay River, the responsibilities of adult life would never find them.

Although Nelson got its start as a mining boom town, the roots of its modern day incarnation were established nearly a century later. In the 1960's, the region had become a haven for disciples of the free-love movement, many of them Americans dodging the draft by fleeing 60 km north of the border. By the 1970's, back-to-the-lander had carved out about a dozen communes in the local forests.

By the time the new wave of hippies hit Nelson in the ’80s, the original flower children had children of their own, having happily traded in their socialist retreats for single-family homes. A sobering recession shuttered Nelson’s main employer, a sawmill, forcing the freewheeling town to buckle down and find ways to drum up new business. Local leaders started on a campaign to spruce up the community’s Victorian buildings in hopes of attracting tourists to their scenic spot on the map.

But instead of wealthy travelers, the city was stormed by unemployable youths, following the same trail of their hippie predecessors. By the end of the decade, the new wave of anti-establishment kids had taken over, striking up hack-sack games and drum circles in the main street, while their unchained dogs soiled Nelson’s sidewalks.

The dog ban was part of a sweeping series of bylaws targeting the young nomads. Within a span of a few years, hack sack, skateboarding, rollerblading, and unauthorized music were all outlawed on Baker Street, Nelson’s historic main strip.

Joussard, Alberta, Canada: Location of the "NORTH COUNTRY FAIR", Each summer on June 20-23 (sometimes on the 19th, depending on which one falls on a Friday) there is a Summer Solstice Celebration held in this little northern Alberta town. Hippies and free spirits alike come from all over to enjoy this wonderful enlightening experience of live music, new age work-shops, dancing and of course the artisan market. Situated beside the Lesser Slave Lake, there are many great places to camp on and off the fair site. It's like taking a step back in time, if only for one memorable weekend a year, to see beautiful people join together and celebrate the longest day of the year. The North Country Fair is surely a huge gathering of the free.

San Francisco may receive all the attention when it comes to the hippie movement, but Vancouver has many charms. Besides, a city with some of the most liberal marijuana policies and a distinctly multicultural vibe deserves to be on the list.  There is a lost of nostalgia here about the 1970’s, and it is readily apparent in the groovy Kitsilano district where tie-dye is ubiquitous and old hippies with long hair and ponchos still wander about the streets. It’s also the birthplace of Greenpeace.

See You Soon...On Another Famous Hippie Location

Until Then...NAMASTE...

#Trotterhipp

CAMBODIA

Cambodia is a Southeast Asian Nation whose landscape spans low-lying plains, the Mekong Delta, mountains and Gulf of Thailand coastline. Its busy capital, Phnom Penh, is home to the art decor Central Market, glittering Royal Palace and the National Museum's historical and archaeological exhibits. In the country's northwest lie ruins of Angkor Wat, a massive stone temple complex built during the Khmer Empire.

Trust hippies to get underrated destinations in the limelight. When Thailand got ruined by commercialism, these carefree spirits shifted their attention to Cambodia- where the birds still sing and nature runs amok. A bit crazy in parts and immensely free-willed, this country has become a hot hippie destination in current times.

Cambodia... "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 people, 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  as it used to be once. The ruins at Angor Wat are incredible like nothing else one 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.

SOUTHEAST ASIA is hardly the final frontier when it comes to backpacking. Buses specially tailored for foreign tourists line every Bangkok street corner; tubing the Nam Song in Laos ends with gift shops; pancakes and spaghetti are ubiquitous even in Burma.

KOH RONG

Koh Rong, is the second largest island of Cambodia. The word Rong might refer to an old term for cave or tunnel, although some islanders say Rong refers to a historical person's name.

Koh Rong is an island about the size of Hong Kong, with 28 beaches that ring an untamed mess of virgin jungle. The main beach where the ferry drops us off, is home to Koh Toch, a village settled about 25 years ago. Locals traditionally made their living as fishermen on brightly painted Cambodian longboats, and, whether it was the sun or the surf, or the happy abundance of fish in the rich waters, these were some of the friendliest people you will ever meet. Being invited to sit down to a traditional dry salted fish and rice dinner with a Khmer family is common. On Koh Phangan, being invited to sit down for dinner with a local — or being asked to hold their baby or play with their kids or have a warm and watery local beer with a crew of old men playing cards — is unheard of. It’s not as if Thailand lacks an authentic culture…but the country, especially its islands, has been inundated with foreign tourism for so long that it’s far more difficult to forge sincere connections than it is on Koh Rong.

Koh Rong is still the last authentic party in Southeast Asia, but it’s also an indication of what unregulated, unfettered development and an unchecked influx of tourism can do to a place.

In 2013, there were only  roughly 20 guesthouses on the beach, and electricity ran reliably only between about 5 pm and midnight. We can spent our days lazily passing joints on the tourist end of the beach, or playing with kids in Koh Toch. The Koh Phangan nights of Long Island iced tea buckets and prepackaged EDM and capsules of crappy Molly were nonexistent. This was a real party, a real pursuit of pleasure; travelers spent their evenings spinning poi, playing guitars, swapping stories, singing by candlelight.

Looking at the beach, the village is situated left of the community pier with mostly foreign-owned guesthouses to the right. Going left meant being in Cambodia proper: thatched roofs, rusted metal, very free-range chickens, boats so old, being refurbished 24/7 by old men with gnarled hands. Going right meant an untouched beach paradise with water as clear as crystal and sand as white as snow. It sounds cliché, but this is what the cliché is actually meant to describe. I wouldn’t have believed just how white sand could be or how crystal the ocean until I came to Koh Rong.

The most amazing thing about the Cambodian Island of Koh Rong is not the white sandy beaches, the crystal clear water, the jungle views, the friendly locals or even the plentiful supply of fresh fruit smoothies. It is the "Phosphorescent Plankton" that is visible in the water after dark. A combination of low light pollution on the island and the warm temperature makes these tiny glowing lights visible in the ocean after dark. I was told many a fable about how best to see this natural phenomenon by an old hippie in a local restaurant. Including, to wait until the island’s generator goes out for the night and that the best place was out in the front of the Paradise Resort. So there I was waiting on the beach in the middle of the night when the owner of the Paradise Resort passes by on his nightly walk and informs me that his resort has its own generator so therefore the lights never go out!!

It’s just that in 2014, Koh Rong is less a village that happens to be on a paradise beach, and more a paradise beach that happens to be home to a village. This, of course, is because of the influx of tourism. There were roughly 300 tourists on the island at any given time a year ago; now there are more than 700. While the majority of people passing through are still conscientious, there are a lot more neon tank tops than last year. There are Full Moon Parties. With them, of course, come bucket drinkers and fist-pumping, “throw your hands up in the air” anthems. I’ve heard people come into bars and asking for Molly — only to be told in no uncertain terms to turn around and get on a boat back to Koh Phangan. There are more foreign women wearing bikinis in the village than last year (a truly disrespectful thing in Khmer culture), more foreign men who can’t hold their liquor stumbling in the sand by 3 pm. A fire earlier this year, sparked by two travelers (allegedly drunk, smoking in bed) destroyed two businesses and nearly destroyed one more.

While the true party — the pursuit of real pleasure — ends, the other party is just getting started.

If you have ever traveled to Southeast Asia, you will have heard people complaining about “How it has changed, and how it used to be.” I don’t mean to be one of those people. It’s still paradise. You can still float on your back under a massive equatorial sky and be amazed by the glowing plankton washing over your skin. The villagers will still invite you in for a dinner — if you take the time and effort to venture from the western side of the pier. You can still have a meaningful romp on Long Beach. You can still form real connections with the kids and indulge in some of the best noodle soup at Mr. Run’s. You will still meet some of the most special, interesting, kind, intelligent, and honest travelers you can meet anywhere in the world.

But it’s changing. Fast. Really FAST...!!!

See You Soon...On Another Famous Hippie Location

Until Then...NAMASTE...

#Trotterhipp

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The hippie subculture began its development as a youth movement in the United States during the early 1960's and then developed around the world. Today it is a commonly used term.

Its origins may be traced to European social movements in the 19th and early 20th century such as Bohemians, and the influence of Eastern religion and spirituality. From around 1967, its fundamental ethos — including harmony with nature, communal living, artistic experimentation particularly in music, and the widespread use of recreational drugs spread around the world during the counterculture of the 1960's, which has become closely associated with the subculture.

In the mid 1960's, a never before seen counter-culture blossomed throughout the United States, inciting both the Flower Power movement as well as the general revulsion of more straight-laced, Ward Cleaveresque Americans. No longer wanting to keep up with the Joneses or confine themselves to white picket-fenced corrals of repressive and Puritanical sexual norms, these fresh-faced masses would soon come to be known as Hippies. Originally taken from ‘Hipster’, the term “hippie” was used to describe beatniks who found their technicolor heart in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco; children of the road who believed they should make love, not war. Their vocal opposition to the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and the increasingly rocky road to shared civil rights among all Americans led to this new, alternative form of activism.

Donning psychedelic floral clothing and growing beards that rivaled Rasputin’s in length all became part of the evolving counter-culture. With this also came a new epoch of fashion, film and literature; one which would grow out of the San Francisco valley and spill into the daily lives of the masses at home and abroad within the span of a couple of years.

OREGON

Oregon is a coastal U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region known for its diverse landscape of farms, forests, mountains and beaches. Metro Portland is famous for its quirky, avant-garde culture and is home to iconic coffee shops, boutiques, farm-to-table restaurants and microbreweries. It lies in the Willamette Valley, a renowned red-wine-producing area. Snow-capped Mt. Hood, to the east, offers hiking and skiing.

Just about Any city in Oregon West of the Cascade Mountains is a Hippy Haven. Oregon is the only state where hippies enjoy a majority at the voting booths during election times. There's an old saying going around "Hippies don't die...They just move to Oregon". During the past few years hippies have been moving to Oregon in droves because there's employment for hippies here, and we hippies can go full out in our glad rags in public view with out being accosted, laughed at or put down. Oregon is a true Hippy Haven.

The Cascade Range is full of small towns that have been the last refuge of the hippies since the 70's. All of these little towns are literally lawless and have a long standing hippie tradition. Towns Like Alpine, Deadwood (Where the Rainbow Families Alpha Farm is), Falls city, Summit, Berkenfield (Near Portland), Harlan (Behind the Native American Sacred Mountain Marys Peak), Nashville (Where all the Bands just have to stop). Just grab a Map and you can find an old hippie settlement any where in the coast range.

Ashland, Oregon - Situated 20 minutes over the northern Californian border. Ashland is a collage town with lots of shopping, parks, theater, art and of course outdoor activities. Camping, fishing, winter skiing, water skiing. Lots of free places for parking, lot of camping sites in the outdoors and Tons of Hippies, young and old.

The hill and valley environments of Ashland, Oregon speaks to the hippie mind with an eastern slope of lush greens created by flowing water contrast by rolling oak cover hills to the West. Under the cover of a celestial sky, like a garden in the sun, Ashland has long born the fruits of many artists and seekers. Give time to Ashland and you will experience a living museum of the movement that predates that of the Height.

Ashland is hands down the most magical, incredible and delicious country in Oregon. Lithia park is a trippers delight, filled with duck ponds, a human sized rat wheels to play on, trees of every family and a gazillion and a half hiking trails for you and your pals to discover! On any given day you will see little billows of smoke arise and big, wandering eyes enthralled in all natures majesty. One can never say enough about this wonderful place filled with beauty, spirit and the best vibe you can possibly imagine! If you do take a road trip on over, you must check out Evo's downtown. Its hip beyond belief, not that every place in Ashland is not, but it is a hippie lovers delight!!

Breitenbush Hot Springs, Oregon - This wonderful getaway nestled in a very green, very magical forest deep in the Cascade range,  is a must for anyone passing through. A hippie secret for decades, it's a great retreat, where you can treat yourself to the therapeutic springs or signup for one of their special events.  You should make reservations if you plan to stay overnight or get into one of their many programs.

Corvallis, Oregon - Corvallis, Oregon has a lot of hippies.  There are so many coffee shops and bookstores to see them at.  The waterfront is a wonderful place to sit and enjoy if you are a true hippy at heart. 

Eugene, Oregon -Eugene  is a city of the Pacific Northwest located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Oregon Coast. Site of the Oregon Country Fair (each July) where each year hippies gather to celebrate their hippiness.  Home to the University of Oregon, many co-operatives, communes galore, a real cool Saturday Market, and Eco-consciousness.

Undeniably the best hippie destination in USA, Eugene is perhaps the most bohemian city in this country. Free willies and merry gringos thrive in this city and the smell of marijuana is never far. In fact, hippies have infiltrated every aspect of the city; from the government to the chamber of commerce even. Whats more, no one will laugh at you if you ask for tie-n-dyed underwear.

Grants Pass, Oregon - There are still active communes including an artists commune, the largest open air market in S. Oregon,  30% cottage industry for a variety of wares,  a good amount of organic farms, great music and meetings of the mind, a lot of Eco-consciousness and a liberal attitude (we out waited the right wingers and loggers).

Portland, Oregon - Is a wonderful place that is very tolerant to hippies.  Plenty of great people, and home to some great places, such as the nationally famous Saturday Market, a great place to meet people and just chill on the waterfront. Saturday market draws some of the most unique people one can ever meet. It is a great place for families and one can get almost any groovy hippy gear you want, as well as art from all over the world. Waterfront is were most hippies hang out, there are drum circles, smoking circles, its the best place to get rave flyers and the vibe is very laid back. 

See You Soon...On Another Famous Hippie Location

Until Then...NAMASTE...

#Trotterhipp