Want to come to the Boerma Instituut? Here’s some tips & tricks!

Every year many prospective florists travel to the Boerma Instituut from all over the world. We understand that planning and organizing your stay in the Netherlands can be quite intimidating.
Therefore we are writing this article about frequently asked questions and have added some tips of our own.

 

Where to stay? What type of accommodation should I book?

This is perhaps the most frequently asked question and the best answer depends on a couple of things.

However, what we think is the most convenient place to stay as a student of our flower school is the Hotel ‘Chariot’.
It’s about 5 minutes by car, 10 minutes by bike or 30 minutes walking from the hotel to our school, so the location is very convenient if you don’t want to travel far back and forth.
We only hear good things from our students staying there. There’s also a shuttle service that they can arrange from the hotel to the school for € 5,- per ride.
If you have any fellow classmates staying at the school, that can be very cost efficient. You could also rent a bike for about € 12-15,- through them.

Hotel Chariot has it’s own restaurant, but there are also some other options nearby, like a bar/café called ‘The Beach‘. This is an indoor beach volleyball club, which has it’s own bar and restaurant.
Not far away is also Brasserie David, a lovely little restaurant on the river. There’s also a supermarket about 8 minutes walk from the hotel called Hoogvliet (5 if you take a shortcut).
Actually it doesn’t quite matter where you are staying in the Netherlands, there’s always a supermarket closeby. Aalsmeer, a town with a population of only 31.989, has about 12 supermarkets.

Hotel Chariot is located on a road, not so much in the center of Aalsmeer. So if you are willing to travel a bit further, then you can stay at Hotel Jonge Heertjes or Hotel Aalsmeer. There’s some more restaurants nearby as this is more in the town center of Aalsmeer.
If you’d like to have some more food recommendations in Aalsmeer, we can highly recommend Restaurant ‘Oh!’ in the Ophelialaan or ‘Joseph aan de Poel‘.

Another good option would of course be to rent an Airbnb. This can be done individually or as a group. When you register for one of our vocational training programs (DFD, ADFD or IMF) we can add you to the Whatsapp group of that program.
That way you and your classmates can perhaps book a place together. When looking for an Airbnb we would recommend searching for Aalsmeer, Kudelstaart or Amstelveen. These are all easy places to travel from to our school by bus for example.
Other places we would recommend to look for are Uithoorn and Rijsenhout, if you don’t mind biking to school or renting a car.

In the case of Amstelveen, we would recommend staying near Amstelveen Busstation. It takes about 31 minutes to get to the Boerma Instituut from there, but there’s a whole mall area with many shops and restaurants.
Furthermore it’s about 30-40 minutes by public transport from Amstelveen Busstation to Amsterdam Leidseplein (For comparison, it’s about 1 hour from Aalsmeer to Amsterdam by bus).

 

Traveling to and from the Boerma Instituut

Having just mentioned travel briefly, biking in the Netherlands is very convenient and safe. The Netherlands has built it’s infrastructure to acommodate for safe biking, for example by having seperate bike paths.
The Netherlands is also a very flat country, so it’s very easy to bike. It’s why the country has more bikes than people (1.4 bikes per capita).

Renting a bike

It’s possible to rent a bike for about € 12,-  to € 15,-. However, if you go on www.marktplaats.nl (the Dutch equivalent of Marktplaats), you can sometimes buy a bike second hand as cheap as € 30,-.
Before you leave the country, just put the bike up for sale on Marktplaats again and you’ve earned yourself some free transportation during your stay in the Netherlands.

Public Transport

If you don’t want to bike or perhaps it’s raining, then you could always take the bus. At about 10 minutes walking from the school, there’s a busstop called ‘Nieuw Oosteinde’. Although many Dutch people like to complain about it (which seems to be one of our national hobbies), the public transportation in the Netherlands is actually really good (It’s ranked #6 in the top #16 of the world).
You can pay for any Dutch public transport (subway, tram, bus, train) with a contactless creditcard from Maestro, Visa, Mastercard or VPay. If you don’t have one of those you can buy a OV-Chipkaart.

Airport

The Boerma Instituut is only 15 minutes by car or 35 minutes by public transport from the Amsterdam Schiphol airport, so it’s incredibly easy to get to the school.
Also any of the accomodations close to the school are 15-20 minutes from the airport by car as well.

One of the Safest Countries in the World

Furthermore, the Netherlands is ranked one of the safest countries in the world. Ranking #11 on this list and #16 on the peace index.
To compare, the US is ranked #43 on the first list and #132 on the second list. So please feel at ease when traveling around the country by yourself.

 

What to do in your spare time?

Aside from homework of course, there are many options!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is only 30-minutes by car or 1 hour by public transport (or bike for that manner).
Amsterdam has many sights to see. Some of the most famous museums there are the van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. Both conveniently located close together on the Museumplein.
If you want to visit the van Gogh, you should really book your ticket online ahead of time. You can’t even buy a ticket at the door anymore.
The Rijksmuseum on the other hand is easily accessible. Some flowershops in Amsterdam that we recommend to visit are AP Bloem and Menno Kroon.

Haarlem

Furthermore, Haarlem is another beautiful city only about 20 minutes by car or also 1,5 hour by public transport. We’d recommend going on a Saturday, to see the market at the ‘Grote Markt’ next to the beautiful Bavo Church.
For a small fee you can go inside the church, which is definitely worth seeing with it’s beautiful wooden ceiling and incredibly beautiful organ. Furthermore there are many lovely restaurants and boutique shops.
Flowershops we recommend visiting there are: Jasmijn (Bloemen), Miss Bloem, Pluk n Bloom and ByDennis.

Utrecht

The city with some of the most beautiful canals is Utrecht. About 40-50 minutes drive from Aalsmeer or 1,5 hours by public transport. Utrecht has a very lively local music scene and a bustling city center with many beautiful sites to see.
For those that might be familiar with the character, Utrecht is also home to the Miffy Museum. A famous Dutch cartoon character that some argue is the inspiration for HelloKitty.
UItrecht also has a lovely flowermarket on every Saturday.

But what about Aalsmeer?

Of course, Aalsmeer, the small town where the Boerma Instituut is located, also has plenty to explore.
There’s the Historical Garden, which is where one of the original Auction Houses of Aalsmeer used to be.
They also organise canal tours through the waters of Aalsmeer. Then there is the Flower Auction of Aalsmeer, RoyaFloraHolland which is the biggest flower auction in the world and used to be the biggest building (now it’s the 9th biggest floor area).

The flower auction has a tourist entrance, which we recommend you to visit at the latest at 08:00 in the morning, as that’s when it’s still bustling with activity there. Unfortunately, the auction clock itself is not in use anymore, as it’s all online. However, plenty to see with all of the workers riding around with their carts with trolleys full of flowers.

We would also recommend visiting Boerderij Meerzicht, not too far away in the Amsterdam forest for some traditional Dutch style pancakes! (This is more of a lunch or dinner thing than a breakfast thing here)
Furthermore the towncenter of Aalsmeer is very cosy. When you are visiting the Historical Garden, it might be fun just to walk around and explore.