Netherlands Psilocybin Retreat, Legal and Guided

Why the Netherlands

Legal, close to home for Europe and the UK, and quiet

Psilocybin truffles are legal in the Netherlands, and Beckley works with truffles there, in two quiet retreat centres an easy transfer from Amsterdam Schiphol. It is the shortest trip for guests coming from the UK and Europe, and a comfortable one from the US East Coast.

Two formats run in the Netherlands: the five-night Signature Program with two guided psilocybin 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.

Legal jurisdiction for psilocybin truffles
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, and practitioners with clinical backgrounds on every team
Private transfers and all meals included

Legal status

The law, in plain terms.

In 2008 the Netherlands banned psilocybin mushrooms. Psilocybin truffles, the underground part of the same organism, were not included in the ban and remain legal to grow, sell and use. They contain the same active compounds, psilocybin and psilocin, and they are sold openly in licensed shops. That is not a grey area or a loophole. It has been settled Dutch law for eighteen years, and it is the basis on which structured retreat programs have run openly in the Netherlands since long before the current wave of interest.

What the law covers is possession and use inside the Netherlands, by adults. It does not cover anything that crosses a border. Psilocybin is a Class A drug in the UK, Schedule I in the United States and prohibited almost everywhere else in Europe, so nothing travels with you in either direction, and a legal retreat here changes nothing about the law at home.

Beckley uses truffles at both Dutch venues. The sessions are guided exactly as they are in Jamaica, and in each one every guest receives a custom amount within a predefined range, around what you would see in a clinical trial in the US. Truffle potency varies by batch, which is why the team sets the amount for each guest rather than leaving it to you. This is not medical treatment. Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before acceptance, whatever the law requires.

Before you travel

Tell us about every medication and health condition on the application and the call. Some medications, including SSRIs and SNRIs, may mean the program is not the right fit, or not yet; apply anyway and tell us.

Give yourself at least a day or two on the far side of the retreat before meetings or long travel. The last day is built for making sense of what came up, and it helps to let that settle.

Bring nothing and take nothing. Not truffles, not "just a little", not residue on written materials. Border offences are serious everywhere.

Preparation starts four weeks before you fly, online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week, so you arrive knowing your group and the team already. Coming from the UK? Our guide for people in the UK covers the law at home and getting here.

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.

25 mifrom Amsterdam, by train, taxi or bicycle

50 yrskept by the same small community

1792the first lodge built on the hill

5 nightsSignature Program, two guided sessions

Heather and pine on the Hoorneboeg heath

Hoorneboegse heide

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.

The hill itself was pushed up by glacial ice. In the early eighteenth century parcels of heath were leased out to revive farming in the region, and this one turned out to be well suited to an estate.

One of the renovated brick houses at De Hoorneboeg

Kept by a small community

The siblings Frederik and Amélie Pijnappel bought the estate in 1906 and filled it with a library of some seventy thousand volumes of philosophy and social science. They also gave the farmhouse over each summer to factory girls from the cities, often the only week off they had in a year.

A community formed around the place in 1974 and maintained it with volunteer workdays. Since 2018 a foundation has been renovating the buildings, working to Pijnappel's wish that this stay a place for contemplation. It is quiet and lush, and the buildings have been restored with real care.

The beech avenue

An avenue of beech runs through the woods behind the estate, straight enough to see a long way down and old enough that the canopy closes overhead. The heath lies on one side and the buildings on the other, so it is the natural way to cross between them on foot.

Group sessions happen indoors, in pale, wooden, warm rooms. Circles form around the fire in the evening. Amsterdam is twenty-five miles away and the paths start at the door.

Where you sleep

Rooms at De Hoorneboeg

Several buildings, each with its own name and character, are used for sessions, meals and sleeping. Rooms are simple, pale and warm. Private and shared rooms set the price; the range is in the table below.

The Place To Be, Achterhoek

Woods, heathland and small meadows nestled between hedgerows. Meandering streams, country estates, farms and ancient trees. The Achterhoek is not on the way to anywhere, which is rather the point.

600 hathe Slangenburg estate, straight from the door

1921the farm was built; rebuilt to modern standards in 2021

12 mto the ridge of the session hall, the old stable

90 minfrom Schiphol airport, transfers included

The rebuilt farmhouse at The Place To Be in evening light

Built in 1921, rebuilt in 2021

The farmhouse was put up in 1921 on a dirt road, surrounded by oaks that were already old. Exactly a century later it was taken apart and rebuilt to modern standards, with new buildings added in locally sourced, bio-based and circular materials. The result keeps the bones and the quiet, and loses the draughts.

The centre sits inside the historic Slangenburg estate near Zelhem, named for a seventeenth-century castle: six hundred hectares of ancient trees, meadows, ponds, avenues and woodland, and you can walk out into all of it.

The session hall in the old stable at The Place To Be

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 reaching for the sky. Sound carries the way it does in a barn, which is to say beautifully.

A balcony level sits above the old barn floor, timber underfoot and daylight coming in from the side: the quiet counterpart to the hall below it. The restaurant seats forty and doubles as a workshop space. Food is made with care and eaten together.

Where you sleep

Lodges and farm rooms at The Place To Be

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.

Ecolodge for two

Timber-lined lodge for two guests, with its own bathroom.

Larger lodge

For three or four guests travelling or rooming together.

Farm room

A simple room in the farmhouse with shared facilities. The lower end of the price range.

Bathrooms

Warm, clean, modern bathrooms, private in the lodges and shared in the farmhouse.

Photos

Around De Hoorneboeg

The heath, the woods, the houses and the rooms.

Photos

Around The Place To Be

The farmhouse, the session hall, the lodges and the estate.

Our vision

A healthier, more beautiful world is possible.

Places like these are part of how we get there. Guests arrive with the noise of a full life and leave having slept, walked in the woods, eaten well and sat by a fire for five days.

Rooms and pricing

Two programs, priced by room

Program	Length	Sessions	Per guest
Signature Program	5 nights	2 guided psilocybin sessions	$6,750 to $9,500
4-Night Program	4 nights	2 guided psilocybin 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. 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.

On retreat

What the days look like

Arrival

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 psilocybin 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.

Food and care

Fed well, held well

Every meal and snack is included and prepared on site. Tell us about allergies and preferences on your application.

The team in the Netherlands

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. The truffles are sourced from trusted suppliers.

Fly to Amsterdam

Book flights 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 in the east of the country, a longer drive through farmland. If you want a night in Amsterdam on either side, that is easy to add. Transfers cover program days only.

Questions

Before you apply

Is the suitability call required?

Yes. Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before acceptance. 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. Psilocybin truffles are legal in the Netherlands, and Beckley operates only in legal jurisdictions. Together with Jamaica, the Netherlands is one of only two countries where psilocybin is fully legal. Working with psilocybin 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 on the list below names its venue. Five-night Signature retreats run mostly at De Hoorneboeg, four-night weeks at The Place To Be, with some five-night weeks there too.

Truffles or mushrooms, does it matter?

Truffles contain the same active compound, psilocybin, and the sessions are guided the same way. The team sets the amount.

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.

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.

Are psilocybin retreats legal in the Netherlands?

Yes. Psilocybin truffles have been legal to grow, sell and use in the Netherlands since the 2008 ban on mushrooms, which did not include them. Retreat programs using truffles operate openly under that law. Beckley runs only where psilocybin is legal at the national level: the Netherlands and Jamaica.

Can I take truffles home afterwards?

No. Truffles are legal inside the Netherlands only. Importing psilocybin is a serious offence in the UK, the US and almost every other country, and nothing leaves a Beckley retreat.

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.

The Netherlands: legal psilocybin retreats near Amsterdam