Travel reflection: Hostelle Amsterdam Review

By Nicole Brewer

You read the name right. That’s “Hostelle“, which upon reading their review over a year ago I decided that last summer I’d have to stay at this adorable hostel located in the Biljmer area or better known as the Black Amsterdam region.  Hostelle is a woman only hostel that was started by the first Black woman to own a residence of its kind in the area.  It is the first and only all female hostel in the region. I read a write-up on the owner Bianca Brasdorp in Essence magazine and decided that once I made it to Amsterdam that I would stay there! Luckily, as I planned my Euro trip for the summer of 2012 to attend the Olympics I was able to squeeze in enough time to go to the Netherlands!

Hostelle was a great hostel to chose for the solo woman traveler.  My first night checking into the hostel I met a cool New Yorker and we ventured out on a night in town. We both were solo travelers and checked into the same 4 bedroom dorm at Hostelle.  I Loved the fact that each room was themed in fun ways such as the French inspired Marie Antoinette room to the Chinese room which had original artworks from China! The bathrooms even were themed. I know some of my friends from South Korea would just fall in love with the cute Hello Kitty themed bathroom lol.

The rooms were immaculately clean and joyful. The living area had huge bay windows, original art works from across the globe and the decor of the red kitchen was funky and fun.  The staff were also very helpful. The morning of checkout ran with a slight hick-up as one of the girls overcooked her breakfast and some of the girls were awakened pretty early to the smoke alarms!! Which I’m nonetheless grateful were fully working and in tact.  The staff rushed in to open the windows to get the smoke out lol.

I was overjoyed that upon my last day at Hostelle that I had the pleasure to met Bianca.  I chatted with her in detail and told her that she was an inspiration to me for being brave enough to start her business and break grounds in the region.  She was a delight to chat with and I of course had to talk to her about my new venture with @iluv2globetrot! She said I was free to leave some documents about us in the lobby area of the hostel ;-).  If you ever get the chance to visit Amsterdam women globe-trotters, I encourage you to check out the fabulous hostel, Hostelle, which has the pleasure of a womanly touch!