The Achterhoek

This year, just like last year, East Nomads has settled near the village of Aalten –  located in the middle of nature within a beautiful rolling landscape and close to the German border. Normally, Camping Goorzicht houses thousands of visitors for the Zwarte Cross, but in 2020 and 2021 you can come here for a unique experience camping, exuding those festival vibes!

Festival vibes during the corona crisis

Those festival vibes can be fully explained because East Nomads is an initiative of a creative concept agency ‘De Burgemeesters’ and a festival production agency called ‘Deworrying’. At the beginning of 2020 they were ready to put on a large number of festivals, but due to the corona crisis, that all fell completely into the water. With East Nomads they created a cool, new way of going out for their target group. And not only that: by working together with the aforementioned campsite and as many different festival organizers and local entrepreneurs as possible, they all figured out how to get through this crisis in a good way.

Arrival

The holiday atmosphere was immediately there when we drove through the beautiful natural surroundings to Aalten. From the parking lot, we followed the signs to the campsite and were surprised by the dancing LPs above us as we walked onto the site. Yes – off to a good start! After this, the spacious grassy landscape, surrounded by trees, appeared. We noticed right away that this is a campsite full of special accommodations – a restaurant, cozy seating areas, and lots of signs with fantastic quotes on them (“Wine flies when you’re having fun!”). Everything is in one style, with lots of wood, straw, and earth tones, making it a beautiful, green paradise.

The accommodations

They offer various unique places to stay and thanks to their grand layout, they all give you the ultimate feeling of space and tranquility in their own way. What we also thought was fantastic is that each accommodation has its own sanitary facilities with toilet, shower, and sink. This allows you to really withdraw to your own place – if you want. 😉

For example, you can choose a Nomads Tent, one of their beautiful, atmospheric Belltents, which are fully equipped. No air mattress here, but a wonderfully comfortable bed and plenty of space! If you go with children, then a Little Dutch Cube is the perfect accommodation. The Cube consists of two cubes: one for the parents and one for the children. What makes this even better: toys for the kids and your own hot tub, which you can use throughout your stay.

Dream Away

We stayed in perhaps one of the most beautiful glamping accommodations ever: the Dream Away. This shelter owes its name to the glass roof, through which you can look at the stars all night (weather permitting). You will find one double bed in this as standard, but you are also welcome with four people, they simply add extra beds – because there is plenty of room. Just like The Cube, every Dream Away also has its own luxury design hot tub, so you can guess where we spent a few hours! 😉

Relaxation and activity

For both relaxation and activity, you have come to the right place. They have a basic program, with daily and weekly activities, and you don’t have to leave the site for food and drinks. There is a mini library, games cabinet, fire pit, and open-air cinema, as well as yoga and massages! Unfortunately, there was no planned activity during our visit, but there was still plenty to do. After our arrival we first thought it was time for a glass of wine (and beer for the men) in the restaurant, then we decided to grab a game. After an hour of Jenga, a table tennis tournament, and a game of bowling, we decided to retire to our own terrace with a picnic table and lounge chairs.

On arrival, we were also given a speaker on loan – which you can purchase for a nice price! – so with some nice music on, a game, and snacks, we enjoyed ourselves at our picnic table until the hot tub was warm. With ambient lighting and a good glass of wine,  your weekend can’t go wrong, right? Welp… unfortunately it started to rain very hard when we were in the tub, and our Dream Away was not (yet) resistant to this heavy Dutch weather. Luckily we were helped quickly and were able to spend the night in two of the Bell tents, also super luxurious!

The next morning

You can order a local breakfast for only €7.50 per person – either in advance, at the reception, or via their app! With this app, you can not only order food and drinks 24 hours a day, but also ask for the reception for whatever you need.

Useful! After enjoying breakfast it was, unfortunately, time to go, but what a nice place this was. We are curious where they will settle next year, we will certainly be there again!

→ This article was written in collaboration with East Nomads. We were allowed to stay here for a night for free, in exchange for content. Of course you can read our own opinion here!