The Netherlands: legal, guided retreats near Amsterdam.
Four or five nights, two guided sessions and a small group at De Hoorneboeg or The Place To Be. Experienced facilitators, peaceful surroundings and space to reconnect. Rooms from $4,250.
Private, takes about seven minutes. Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before being invited. If it is not the right fit, we will say so.
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Upcoming programs
Upcoming Netherlands dates
Five-night Signature retreats run mostly at De Hoorneboeg, four-night retreats at The Place To Be. Apply once; you choose your dates after approval.
Prices are per guest and start at the shared-room rate; private rooms are higher. Apply once and choose your retreat after you are approved. Financial aid is available for guests with need.
Why the Netherlands
Legal, close to home for Europe and the UK, and quiet
The Netherlands is one of only two countries where this work is fully legal, and Beckley operates only where it is. Our programs are built around the intentional, guided use of plants, legal in Jamaica and the Netherlands. It is the shortest flight for guests coming from the UK and Europe, and a comfortable one from the US East Coast.
Two formats run here: the five-night Signature Program with two guided sessions, and a four-night program with the same two sessions and the same preparation and integration curriculum in a more compact week. Both are online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week.
Fully legal jurisdiction, one of two in the world
Fly to Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)
De Hoorneboeg: 25 miles from Amsterdam, by train or taxi
The Place To Be: a former farm in the Achterhoek, eastern Netherlands
Emergency services close by, practitioners with clinical backgrounds on every team
Private transfers and all meals included
Legal status
The law, in plain terms
What the Netherlands permits has been settled Dutch law since 2008, and structured retreat programs have run openly under it since long before the current wave of interest. That is not a grey area or a loophole.
What the law covers is possession and use inside the Netherlands, by adults. It does not cover anything that crosses a border. Nothing travels with you in either direction, and a legal retreat here changes nothing about the law at home. Every guest receives a custom amount within a predefined range, around what you would see in a clinical trial in the US, though this is not medical treatment. Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before being invited.
Tell us about every medication and health condition on the application and the call
SSRIs and SNRIs may mean it is not the right fit, or not yet; apply anyway and tell us
Give yourself a day or two on the far side of the retreat before meetings or long travel
Bring nothing and take nothing home; border offences are serious everywhere
Preparation starts four weeks before you fly, online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week
The venues
De Hoorneboeg, Hilversum
Until 1792 this was a small, barren hill in the middle of a heathland plain, left behind by the ice. Everything here since has been planted, built, lost and put back by hand.
The heath
The estate sits on the edge of the Hoorneboeg heath, one of the open heathlands of het Gooi. Sand paths, pine, birch, and in late summer the heather turns the whole plain purple.
Kept by a small community
A community formed around the place in 1974 and kept it with volunteer workdays. Since 2018 a foundation has renovated the buildings with real care, honouring the wish that this stay a place for contemplation.
The beech avenue
An avenue of beech runs through the woods behind the estate, old enough that the canopy closes overhead. Group sessions happen indoors, in pale, wooden, warm rooms. Circles form around the fire in the evening.
The venues
The Place To Be, Achterhoek
Woods, heathland and small meadows between hedgerows. The Achterhoek is not on the way to anywhere, which is rather the point.
Built in 1921, rebuilt in 2021
The farmhouse went up in 1921 on a dirt road surrounded by oaks. A century later it was taken apart and rebuilt to modern standards in bio-based, circular materials. It sits inside the six-hundred-hectare Slangenburg estate, and you can walk out into all of it.
Twelve metres to the ridge
The old stable is now the main session hall, a hundred and fifty square metres with a twelve-metre ridge. Sound carries the way it does in a barn, which is to say beautifully.
Lodges and farm rooms
Eight bio-based ecolodges for two, two larger lodges for three or four, and twelve farm rooms with shared facilities. Most accommodation here is shared, which is why The Place To Be carries the most accessible prices.
Rooms and pricing
Two programs, priced by room
Swipe the table to see all prices.
Program
Length
Sessions
Per guest
Signature Program
5 nights
2 guided sessions
$6,750 to $9,500
4-Night Program
4 nights
2 guided sessions
$4,250 to $7,800
Shared rooms are the lower price and private rooms the higher; The Place To Be is mostly shared accommodation. Included: airport transfers on arrival and departure days, all meals and snacks, every group session, yoga, meditation and breathwork, and the full preparation and integration programs, online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week. Not included: flights, and massage where offered. Optional 1:1 coaching can be added at checkout, and financial aid is available for guests with need.
Private transfer from the airport. Settle in, meet your group and the team, and open the week together.
Preparation on site
Meditation, breathwork and gentle movement. Time with a facilitator to set your intention. Time in nature, and a digital detox.
The sessions
Two guided sessions on separate days. Each lasts around six hours, in one room, with your group and the full team. Every guest receives a custom amount within a predefined range, around what you would see in a clinical trial in the US, though this is not medical treatment. Music guides the arc and a facilitator is within reach the whole time.
Integration on site
The day after a session is set aside to make sense of it: group circles, 1:1 time, rest, and practices you can take home.
Departure
Closing circle, then a private transfer to the airport. Six weeks of integration begin the following week.
Who holds the room
Structure you can feel
There is at least one facilitator for every four guests during sessions, usually one for every three. Our teams include practitioners with backgrounds as psychotherapists, psychologists and physicians. On retreat they are not acting in their licensed capacity, because Beckley does not provide medical treatment, but that training is in the room with you. Public emergency services are quick to reach from both centres.
Neil Markey
Co-Founder, CEO. Former US Army Special Operations Captain; McKinsey; Harvard T.H. Chan.
Fede Menapace
Chief Growth Officer. Former COO of MAPS. Stanford MBA; former McKinsey consultant; go-to-market leader at Segment.
Anja Saloranta
Chief Operating Officer. Harvard Business School MBA. Former COO of Ballentine Partners and Head of Commercial Operations at Ginkgo Bioworks.
Dr. AZA Allsop
Head of Research. MD, Harvard Medical School; PhD in Neuroscience, MIT. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine.
Karestan Koenen
Research Advisor. Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dingle Spence
Team Lead. Retired Jamaican physician in oncology and palliative medicine.
Ben Sheinwald
Lead Facilitator. Biodynamic body psychotherapist, leading group work since 2014.
Kosu Boudreau
Lead Facilitator. Registered trauma psychotherapist and integration specialist.
Photos
Around De Hoorneboeg and The Place To Be
The heath, the woods, the houses, the session hall and the rooms.
The path across the heathThe brick houses in the woodsThe session room at De HoorneboegThe fire pitA bedroomThe rebuilt farmhouse at The Place To BeThe session hall in the old stableInside a lodgeThe beech avenueThe dining room
In their words
Our guests are making real change
Four guests on what the program was like, in their own words.
“Every leader in America should go through this program.”
Jim MacPheeFormer COO, Walt Disney World. Two-time Beckley guest.
“I am walking away from this retreat with new found love in my heart. And I am humbled. Feeling cleansed and restored.”
Toni KoFounder, NYX Cosmetics (sold to L'Oreal).
“My experience of the retreat was just fantastic. The four week preparation before the retreat really helped people understand how powerful the work is, and also trained people on a set of practices to best navigate the experience.”
Ashish KothariFounder and CEO, Happiness Squad. Former McKinsey Partner.
“I did a lot of research around wellbeing programs and found Beckley Retreats. I manifested for two years that I wanted a life-changing experience like this. Now here I am, I've done it and it has been amazing.”
Two Times writers came to the Netherlands as guests and wrote about it. We link to them because they are honest.
The Times · February 2025
Harriet Walker went to the Netherlands as a guest
On stress, control and a week in the Netherlands. Subscription required.
The Times · June 2023
Emily Sargent on grief and a week in the Netherlands
On the loss of her mother and what the week gave her. Subscription required.
Questions
Before you apply
Is the suitability call required?
Yes. Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before being invited. It is mandatory: we go through your history together, answer your questions and make sure the program is a fit. It protects you, and it protects the group you will sit with.
Is this legal?
Yes. The Netherlands is one of only two countries where this work is fully legal, and Beckley operates only in legal jurisdictions. It is federally illegal in the United States, which is why our programs run abroad. Beckley Retreats is a US public benefit corporation.
Which venue will my retreat be at?
Each date above names its format. Five-night Signature retreats run mostly at De Hoorneboeg, four-night retreats at The Place To Be, with some five-night weeks there too.
I have never done anything like this. Which program should I choose?
The five-night Signature Program carries the most preparation and support, which is why we recommend it to first-time guests. The four-night retreat suits guests who already know the work or cannot be away as long.
I take an SSRI or SNRI. Can I still apply?
Some medications, including SSRIs and SNRIs, may mean the program is not the right fit, or not yet. Apply anyway and tell us; the call is where it is worked out.
What happens if a session is difficult?
Difficult passages are part of this work and the team is trained for them. A facilitator is with you the whole time and the next day is built for making sense of what came up.
How long is a Netherlands retreat?
Four nights at The Place To Be or five nights at De Hoorneboeg, with two guided sessions on separate days. Around that sit four weeks of preparation and six weeks of integration, online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week.
Getting there?
Fly into Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS). A private transfer meets the group on arrival day and takes you back on departure day. De Hoorneboeg is about 25 miles from the city; The Place To Be is about 90 minutes east. Transfers cover program days only.
A healthier, more beautiful world is possible.
It starts one person at a time, with rest, good food, clear air and a structured program held by people who have done this work for decades.
If the Netherlands is the place
Apply once, in about seven minutes. Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before being invited. You choose your retreat after approval. Prefer to talk first? Book a call.
