Amsterdam has been in the news lately as it fights against the wrong kind of tourism. But it’s still one of Europe’s loveliest cities, and quite rightly, people will always want to visit. The historic center is booming, with all the good and bad that brings. Which makes staying away from it appealing.
The lakeside De Durgerdam offers a compromise that doesn’t feel like one. The beautifully outfitted hotel opened last year in the outlying village of the same name. It’s technically part of Amsterdam but quiet, with a single-lane road and a quaint little church. The city’s buildings seem distant on the opposite shore. Down the road, a farm shop works on the honor system, and villages maintain the sort of picture-perfect tidiness that the Dutch hinterland is known for.
It’s bucolic as all get-out, a slow-living haven. Yet it’s just 30 minutes by bicycle—Amsterdammers’ preferred unit of measure—from the city center. (Taxis and ride shares also work.) And the 14-room hotel has a design sensibility, attention to detail, friendly service and yummy food that make it a destination in its own right.
De Durgerdam is the first hotel managed by Aedes, a Dutch real estate and hospitality group specializing in “places with heart and soul that have a positive impact.” They’ve developed well-regarded projects such as Soho House Amsterdam and the city’s Andaz and Hyatt Regency hotels. De Durgerdam is the first hotel they’re running themselves, and it’s the first Aedes property to wave the brand’s flag.
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“In the past 15 years, Aedes has invested in and developed heritage buildings for leading names in hospitality,” says founder Paul Geertman. “It has allowed me to think about how to make a difference, how we can bring our expertise in development along with an ethos focused on creating buildings that last…. We want to create spaces which are timeless and sustainable…. In a way, you can say we have been cheering on the bleachers for a long time, but would now like to step on the football field and play ourselves.”
The new hotel is a case in point. “With De Durgerdam, we have seen it is possible to work with complex, historical foundations and allow them to continue to function with a reduced environmental impact,” he says. “We don’t want to compromise on that or quality.”
The hotel’s restaurant and best rooms occupy a heritage-protected building that has functioned as an inn since the 17th century and was most recently a restaurant. (Most of the rooms are in a newer building surrounded by gardens in the back.) Historically, Durgerdam was a fishing village that was open to the North Sea, but when the bay was dammed off and turned into a freshwater lake, they lost their livelihood. After a careful, years-long restoration, the hotel pays homage to that history.
Patina abounds. A school of miniature jeweled fish floats across a corner of the restaurant, De Mark. A pair of weathered wood mermaids hang above a service staging area. A net is suspended over the center of the dining room, woven with glass drops that represent the fishermen’s tears over losing their livelihood.
Robin’s-egg blue raincoats hang in the room as functional decoration. Weathered wood is everywhere. Peeling paint and snippets of wallpaper tell stories. Gorgeous custom tulip-wood headboards resemble the contours of the lake. The original 17th-century staircase is intact, complete with a small sign warning that 400 years of use have made the steps tilted and slippery.
“It’s important that the designers are material researchers,” says marketing and communications manager Monica Hanlo, referring to the Dutch design agency Buro Belén, for whom De Durgerdam was the first hotel interior project. “There’s a focus on details, on making things that are tangible. They also looked at the relationship between light and color.”
And they’ve nailed their use of both. The rooms have subtle, natural tones, mostly an earthy sage green and a redbrick inspired by traditional sailcloth tanning. The lighting throughout, whether from the sun or the LED lighting, is something straight out of a Vermeer.
Speaking of art, there are works from old masters as well as contemporary artists from across the Netherlands, all inspired by the place, the water and its history. “Art is a personal passion, and I like knowing that guests will be able to enjoy it too,” says Geertman. “The same goes for the selection of books. We have put a lot of time in selecting and curating everything. Nothing is placed without a reason.”
That goes for what’s on the plate as well, as De Mark is the sort of place that’s meant to lure city dwellers with its casual approach to fine dining. The restaurant was conceived in collaboration with chefs Richard van Oostenbrugge and Thomas Groot of the city’s Michelin two-star Restaurant 212. Their ideas, executed by head chef Koen Marees, lean toward modern comfort food that highlights local products.
Obviously, the menu changes often, but dishes include the likes of mushroom paté with coffee powder, roasted cod with buttermilk and cream of roasted celeriac, and spring chicken roasted with mustard and tarragon with herb salad from the garden. But perhaps the standout is the tomato steak tartare, a vegan dish that takes hours of roasting, dehydrating and other preparation to turn the fruit into something meaty, flavorful and deeply satisfying.
Delectable as it is, it’s something that slightly flummoxes Aedes’s head of sustainability, Esther Mouwen. It takes eight or nine tomatoes to make one umami-rich serving, with a lot of seeds and stems left over. Although they go into the compost with everything else, she’s exploring other options.
She can do things like this because being small lets Aedes go all-in on sustainability, quickly implementing ideas that brands like Soho House and Hyatt—as well intentioned as they may be—can’t do with any real speed. One of her biggest wins so far has been creating De Durgerdam as an entirely gas-free hotel—a rarity in the Netherlands, especially in a historic building—with a heat pump to keep things cozy and a wood-burning cooking fire to keep chefs (and diners) happy.
“We have four main themes, which aren’t shocking but important,” says Mouwen: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving biodiversity, circularity and people, including employees, neighbors and surrounding communities. She has a lot to say about stakeholder pledges, professional development, biodiversity benchmarking and measurement, and hydraloops to manage water responsibly.
The ”people” pillar feels especially relevant, given Europe’s current love-hate relationship with tourism. De Durgerdam gets this right too, encouraging guests to get around by bike, keeping the music down, communicating about potentially disruptive deliveries and incorporating the neighbors into the hospitality—the firewater that’s offered in guests’ rooms is made by one elderly villager, and another rents out her beautiful old boat for day trips on the lake.
And it’s showing that there’s more to Amsterdam than its crowded center. “The UK is known for its country house hotels, but the Netherlands doesn’t have that culture,” says Hanlo. “People don’t expect quality outside the city center. But now people are realizing this is something we didn’t have before.”
