tourist hotel mass moca

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” - Henry David Thoreau

• Sanford Suite
• Archer Suite

TOURISTS is a hotel and riverside retreat inspired by the classic American roadside motor lodge, set on the banks of the Hoosic River in the Berkshires city of North Adams. Our 46-room property is a union of design and nature, home to woodland trails, riverbank vistas, sculptural installations, and more. Using common, organic materials, your room is both haven and trailhead, connecting you with your vacation self and serving as a basecamp for adventure.

Activities at TOURISTS

On property.

Hikes, yoga, crafts and more on our 80-acre forest campus.

Sing for Your Slumber

Our signature live music series. All are welcome.

One of the world's most dynamic centers for contemporary visual and performing art set in a sprawling 19th century factory.

Mount Greylock

Celebrated by Thoreau, Melville, and others, it's the highest point in Massachusetts at 3,489 feet. Accessible by hike or drive.

Internationally renowned art collection and research center, in a 140 acre pastoral setting.

APPALACHIAN TRAIL

"Three modern girls, each with a heavy pack, march bravely out from Blackinton on the winding forest track...at the start of the old Long Trail." – 1933

The Cascade

A short, beautiful forest amble tracing Notch Brook in North Adams to a cascading waterfall.

The Northeast's premiere tree-to-tree adventure park set in a 1,400-acre forest preserve.

Ashuwillticook Bike Trail

Rail-to-trail running 11.2 miles from Adams to Lanesborough. Outstanding views of scenery and wildlife.

Cricket Creek Farm

Family owned, grass-based cow dairy in Williamstown, with farm store featuring award-winning cheeses.

Hairpin Turn

Completed in 1914, a spectacular scenic vista overlooking North Adams and the Hoosic River Valley.

Berkshire Rivers Fly Fishing

Year-round guided boat and wading trips and casting lessons to fishermen of all skill levels in Western MA.

Zoar Outdoor

Guided whitewater rafting and kayaking trips on the Deerfield River

Windsor Lake

Just above downtown North Adams, with a legacy of outdoor fun - swim, boat, fish, bbq, playground.

Erected on Whitcomb Summit by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in 1923 honoring those who lost their lives in World War I.

Natural Bridge

America's only natural white marble arch. Walter Fähndrich's Music for a Quarry plays at twilight.

50-acre former dairy farm now home to the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.

Linear Park

Splash spot in the Green River for families with playground and picnic area.

SAVOY Mountain State Forest

Glacial lake surrounded by tall pines and 50 miles of hiking trails.

Hancock Shaker Village

750-acre living history museum with authentic Shaker buildings, exhibitions, and family events.

The Taconic Range

“They abound with springs and streams of water, and are everywhere covered with woods...” – 1809

The Hoosac Range

"With a complex of phyllite, quartzite, and granitic bedrock, it defines the eastern flank of the valley." – 2014

Berkshire Outfitters

Canoes, kayaks, bikes, skis, and everything else for your outdoor excursions.

Mohawk Trail State Forest

6,000 lush acres of mountain ridges, gorges, and woods teeming with wildlife.

The Airport Rooms is our neighborhood cocktail lounge and restaurant . Join us for dinner in the dining room, drinks in the lounge, or upstairs in one of our four private dining rooms. Parking is available in the hotel lot.

BOOK A TABLE

PURCHASE A GIFT CARD

Our Lodge is open to all for breakfast, all-day snacks, coffee/tea, cocktails, wine, beer, and boozeless bevs. Visit our calendar for upcoming guest chef pop-ups and other happenings.

• Breakfast menu
• Snacks menu
• Beverage menu
• The Airport Rooms menu

BREAKFAST Thur-Mon (7:30-10:30a)

ALL-DAY SNACKS Thur (3-9p); Fri-Sun (12-9p)

THE AIRPORT ROOMS Thur-Sun (5-9p)

Got a gathering in mind? Book a room block while you're here. Or better yet, t ake over the whole hotel. Weddings, retreats, dinner parties, and parties parties happen here too.

Let's talk. Follow the link below to get things started.

SUBMIT EVENT REQUEST

Savor the Berkshires in all their glory. This summer and fall, stay 4+ nights and we'll cover 1 night's sleep. That's four nights for the price of three. Some restrictions may apply.

How Wilco’s Bassist and His Friends Turned a Berkshires Motel Into Tourists, a Dream Summer Getaway

What once was a one-star hotel in north adams, massachusetts, is now an eco-friendly lodge with a james beard award–winning chef where everyone is welcome..

• Copy Link copied

Tourists opened on July 30, 2018, in the Berkshires.

Photo by Nick Simonite

Between Mass MoCA and Tanglewood—the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—North Adams, Massachusetts, has become an epicenter of art and music in New England and a popular weekend getaway for people living on the East Coast. But the small town’s history as a summer destination goes back to when the Mohawk Trail, the first U.S. scenic byway, opened in 1914, drawing a generation of newly mobile travelers through the Berkshires.

Now, one of the midcentury motor lodges located on that historic road has reopened as Tourists , a brand-new, 48-room resort from John Stirratt, the bassist from Wilco, Ben Svenson, from the design-led development company Broder, as well as a diverse group that includes Brooklyn Magazine’ s founder, the former chef of San Francisco’s Bar Tartine, and a local brewer from North Adams.

Airport Rooms and Tourist Home, 861 State Road, North Adams, MA. Operated by Virginia Stevens for 50 Years between 1944 and 1994, the 1813 Farmhouse undoubtedly had a long history of hospitality even before those years, in a place that has always attracted visitors. The simple sign TOURISTS, placed by Virginia and others on the Mohawk Trail beckoned motorists to stop and stay a while. #berkshires #mohawktrail A post shared by TOURISTS (@touristswelcome) on Jan 21, 2018 at 5:45am PST

The group was inspired to name the hotel Tourists after finding a vintage sign on the property while they were renovating it.

“It was a word that spoke to the history of this region in particular,” Svenson told AFAR. “A lot of what we’re trying to do is to tap into an economy that really moved the needle in North Adams not so long ago. There has been a huge tourism legacy here and we wanted to tie into that past and remind people all it has to offer.”

Using the foundation from a midcentury motor lodge, the 48 rooms at TOURISTS have been rebuilt from the ground up.

Even though the midcentury Redwoods Motel was still operational when they bought it, the one-star motel was in such a state of disrepair, the team decided to keep the foundation but rebuild the rest from scratch to create an eco-friendly hotel with a minimalist vibe that Stirratt describes as an “austere luxurious experience.” Designed by architect Hank Scollard, a protege of MASS MoCA architect Simeon Bruner, the rooms have built-in king beds, high-vaulted ceilings, and picture windows looking over the forest behind the hotel. To further bring the outdoors inside, the LEED platinum eligible-hotel also has an advanced air circulation system that brings fresh air into each room every hour. Some rooms come with bunk beds for families, and all of them include outdoor space via semi-private patios or private decks with outdoor showers.

A new hotel is about to blow minds. Follow @touristswelcome to see how. Opens July 30. Thanks @stirratt2 for having me. #morethanahotel #experience #theberkshires #summernights #getaway A post shared by John Dolan (@johndolanphotog) on Jul 1, 2018 at 5:05pm PDT

While Stirratt had been coming to North Adams for years to play at Tanglewood, he and the rest of the team had to convince chef Cortney Burns, formerly of San Francisco’s Bar Tartine and Duna , to move out east to head up the food program at TOURISTS. For now, Burns cooks the lighter fare that is served at the lodge and deck bar, but in early 2019 she’ll open the hotel’s restaurant, LOOM, in a church-like structure on the property that used to be the home of a Welsh temperance society.

In addition to the restaurant and the hotel, two other structures on the property have been repurposed into centralized spaces for guests. A 1962 ranch house now serves as the hotel’s lodge, where guests can drink coffee in front of the fireplace in the morning, enjoy a snack in the evening, or spend time outdoors on the patio that overlooks the pool. The 1813 farmhouse, just a short walk away, has been transformed into a cocktail lounge and live music venue.

Stirratt also convinced his friends from New Orleans Airlift , an artist collective famous for building pieces of playable architecture, to come out last summer and build the Chime Chapel , which he describes as a “little nest stage out in the woods” behind the property where he plans to host shows throughout the summer.

In addition to organized shows at the Chime Chapel, Stirratt says he plans on luring friends in bands out to Tourists while they’re touring the Northeast.

“We like this idea of off-hand musical performances,” Stirratt said. “The real magic has happened with these accidental musical combinations that you just can’t plan. We’re looking for more magic like that.”

Tourists opened on July 30, 2018. R ates average $195 per night.

>> Next: The Sweetest Small Towns to Visit in the U.S. This Summer

In the Midst of a Cultural Boom, a Smart New Hotel Arrives to the Berkshires

Wilco bassist john stirratt and bar tartine alum cortney burns join a crack team of collaborators behind tourists, just minutes from mass moca and the clark art institute..

Tourist isn’t a dirty word in North Adams, Mass., a slice of the Berkshires that sightseers and explorers have traversed for centuries, from the Native Americans who fished and traded in the Hoosic River Valley, to 1910s motor-car drivers taking in the scenery from the sinuous Mohawk Trail, to modern culture travelers viewing installations by Sol LeWitt and James Turrell at Mass MoCA. Indeed, the business of welcoming visitors is the linchpin of North Adams’s ongoing economic revival, its escape route from the hollowed-out fate of so many other Massachusetts mill towns.

So it felt only natural that the partners in a new, forward-looking hotel here decided to call it, simply, Tourists . Opened this past summer, Tourists has the bones of an old-fashioned roadside motel but the design sophistication and sense of place of a lifestyle resort. “We wanted to build something that was part of the place,” says lead partner Ben Svenson, who also designed the property. “So when you’re there, you feel like you’re connected to both the ecological and cultural roots of that particular piece of dirt.”

Svenson, a self-described building geek whose firm is acclaimed for its adaptive reuse projects, was looking for investment opportunities in North Adams’s stock of 1890s-era structures but landed instead on the Redwood Inn, a rundown mid-century motor lodge on the highway to Williamstown. He and his partners—who include Wilco bassist John Stirratt, local brewery owner Eric Kerns, Brooklyn magazine founder Scott Stedman, and chef Cortney Burns (an alum of San Francisco’s Bar Tartine)—then acquired adjacent lots, ending up with a 60-acre parcel straddling the Hoosic River. The property will eventually include a network of hiking paths that connect to the Appalachian Trail and will repurpose several existing buildings: An 1813 rooming house will host live music and cocktails, and, as of next spring, a century-old Welsh temperance hall will house Burns’s restaurant, Loom.

The main hotel buildings are mostly new builds, with a look that’s refreshingly spare but still feels organic and connected to its surroundings. Svenson was inspired by Sea Ranch, the quasi-utopian community of redwood-clad houses on California’s Sonoma Coast, and he and architect Hank Scollard stuck to simple structures and natural materials, arranging the site to prioritize nature. The rooms comprise a U-shaped complex of long, shedlike cabins clad in untreated local white oak, with large picture windows and patios overlooking the river, forest, and subtle landscaping by the firm Reed Hildebrand. Interiors are pared-back—lots of plywood and poured concrete—but airy, thanks to vaulted ceilings and built-in window seats. Decoration is limited to a few vintage postcards on the wall and colorful woven rugs (Julie Pearson, formerly of Austin’s Spartan Shop, supplied the soft goods.) “The only visual interest is what’s out the window,” Svenson says. “We tried to prioritize the landscape as the work of art, and not try to compete with it.”

As for actual art, the area has plenty of that on offer. In addition to Mass MoCA, whose 2017 expansion nearly doubled its exhibition space, Tourists is within a short drive of the Clark Art Institute, which unveiled its own expansion by Tadao Ando and Annabelle Selldorf in 2014; and the well-regarded Williams College Museum of Art. And there’s more to come: Thomas Krens, the former Guggenheim director who had a hand in establishing Mass MoCA, recently unveiled ambitious plans to create new cultural institutions in North Adams, including the Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum (yes, both in one) designed by Frank Gehry and planned for 2020, followed by a motorcycle museum by Jean Nouvel, and a museum of time by Gluckman Tang.

“There’s a decided uptick in North Adams,” says Joe Thompson, Mass MoCA’s longtime director, of the town’s accelerating fortunes. In the past 18 to 24 months, he says, “artists and artisans are moving to town, plus people interested in food and micro-agriculture.” He also sees a demographic shift: It’s not just the gray-haired Tanglewood and Jacob’s Pillow set coming to the Berkshires nowadays, but younger couples looking for a variety of experiences—an invigorating morning hike, a challenging bit of contemporary art, a farm-to-table dinner. With the arrival of Tourists, this corner of the Berkshires will become a destination for a new generation of, well, tourists.

Related Stories

In london, an eccentric boutique hotel shakes up the..., in sydney, a swath of suites dare guests to expect the, villa skärtofta offers high art and haute cuisine, the aura of the swiss riviera permeates locke’s..., in istanbul, a new restaurant rounds out a..., résidence bouchardon is steeped in seventies..., at trattoria del ciumbia, dimore studio travels back..., cúpla london fashions a high street shop for rixo, you’ll feel the magic at bruno mars’ suave new..., every inch of this hotel is crawling with color and....

Next Article

From the Archives: Surface #27, Fall 2000

Most viewed, miles greenberg makes a haute-futuristic study of martyrdom in venice, and other news.

Our daily look at the world through the lens of design.

Aman Group Brings a Sleek Sister Spot to Tokyo, and Other News

Indigenous artists win big at the venice biennale, and other news, the product debuts we loved at milan design week.

From alpine-inspired curtains by Ramdane Touhami to Sfrido Estate’s ensemble of marble offcut...

Dorsia’s Neon Disco Installation Lights Up Coachella, and Other News

Rooms & Suites

Rooms to remember

The architectural details of our Victorian row houses take you back in time, while our in-room amenities are just as thoughtfully selected to delight today’s discerning travelers. Whether you’re recharging with a weekend getaway or taking an extended stay with your crew, Porches is the place to relax and get a breath of fresh air. Traveling with a group? Learn more about reserving blocks of rooms.

Deluxe Standard King Bed

A colorful, spacious room with a king sized bed and a slate-floored private bath. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., deluxe standard queen bed, a colorful, spacious room with a queen sized bed and a slate-floored private bath. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., deluxe double queen bed, a colorful, spacious room with two queen sized beds and a slate-floored private bath with a claw-foot bathtub and separate shower stall. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., deluxe superior king bed with a porch, a colorful, spacious room with a king sized bed, private porch, and slate-floored private bath with a claw-foot bathtub and separate shower stall. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., deluxe standard queen bed with a porch, a colorful, spacious room with a queen sized bed, a private porch and a slate-floored private bath. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., one bedroom suite, our suites feature a bedroom with one queen bed and a private bath with jacuzzi-style tub, plus a separate living room area equipped with a sofa bed. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., extended stay suite with fireplace, a one-bedroom suite with a queen size bed, fireplace, private bath, living room, kitchenette, and washer/dryer. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., extended stay suite, a one-bedroom suite with a queen size bed, private bath, living room, kitchenette, and washer/dryer. some suites have a fireplace or private porch. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., a two-level suite, with a second bedroom and bath in a loft accessible via a spiral staircase. includes two queen beds, two baths with jacuzzi-style tubs, and a living room equipped with a sofa bed. healthful continental breakfast buffet, parking, and wifi included in nightly amenity fee., settle in & savor the spirit of the berkshires, whether you need amenities for an extended stay or want to enjoy tête-à-têtes by the fireplace or on a private porch, this is the place to imagine your next shared adventure. each suite comes equipped with a living room, jacuzzi-style tub and unique features ranging from skylights to a spiral staircase., make it more than a stay..

Savor your exploration of a region where culture meets creativity with one of our specially tailored lodging packages. Available seasonally.

Back by popular demand! Take advantage of our  Art Escape Package and enjoy comfortable and stylish rooms, two tickets to your choice of either  MASS MoCA  or  The Clark Art Institute  on us, and a delectable European-style breakfast served each morning also included in your stay.

Available year-round.

Subject to availability & blackout dates.

STAY LONG & PROSPER

Enjoy a getaway to North Adams and save 20% when you stay three or more nights.

Offer valid until June 30 2024. Subject to availability & blackout dates.

Full deposit due at time of booking and non-refundable. 

SUITE RETREAT

Enhance your Porches Inn getaway with a complimentary suite upgrade! Immerse yourself in the unique charm of our 1–2-bedroom suites and ensure your stay is truly unforgettable with the added comfort and amenities like a Jacuzzi-style tub and a convenient kitchenette.

Offer valid until 6/30/24. Subject to availability & blackout dates.

News & Happenings

Get the latest scoop on what’s coming to Porches.

Why You Should Book Your Next Event in North Adams, MA

Why North Adams is A Great Wedding Destination

The Coolest Historic Hotels In the Berkshires to Visit

The porches inn at mass moca, it’s more than a stay. it’s an experience..

• Experiences
• Art & Music
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Sign up for our Newsletter

The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA

View prices for your travel dates

• Excellent 840
• Very Good 294
• Average 106
• Terrible 24
• All languages ( 1,314 )
• English ( 1,296 )
• German ( 9 )
• French ( 4 )

" The breakfast is NOT to be missed!! "

" there is a lovely pool and gym on site. "

" Bring ear plugs as you can hear noise fro other rooms "

" If you want to sit outside, skip the noisy front porch and find the spa porch in the back of the property! And,room 219 was especially nice! "

" Be sure to bring a bathing suit so you can enjoy swimming under the stars - then warm up in the sauna. "

Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.

THE PORCHES INN AT MASS MOCA: UPDATED 2024 Hotel Reviews, Price Comparison and 355 Photos (North Adams, MA) - Tripadvisor

Tourists Welcome: A Rustic Oasis in the Berkshires

“We thought that it would be kind of funny to call a spade a spade,” says Ben Svenson, lead partner and visionary behind Tourists , a new hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts. “We like the challenging nature of taking a word that has a negative connotation and being forced to reconsider it.”

It seems like everyone is reconsidering North Adams lately, from visitors to the increasingly popular Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) to the buyers behind the rise in single-family home sales. Tourists, which opened in July, puts the city and its surrounding areas firmly back on the map.

The five partners behind Tourists—Svenson; brewery owner Eric Kerns; chef Cortney Burns; John Stirratt, a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning band Wilco; and founder of Brooklyn Magazine and Northside Media Group Scott Stedman— describe the 48-room property as a post-Airbnb hospitality experience with modern design elements contrasting artfully with the woodland trails, riverbank vistas, and sculptural installations that surround the hotel. A 1962 ranch house that stood there previously has been repurposed into the hotel’s central lodge, which Stedman calls the “community living room, a place to congregate casually and share time with friends or meet new people.”

“We celebrate the idea of leisure travel as a tourist, embracing the most remarkable aspects of a region,” he continues. “North Adams is such a spectacular and unusual convergence of art and nature, and we felt that being a tourist here is a really remarkable experience. We wanted to create a brand that exemplifies that.”

915 STATE ROAD

NORTH ADAMS, MA

Tourists Welcome

Big Things Are Happening in the Berkshires

North Adams, Massachusetts was an industrial town. Then it became a museum town. With the recent opening of Tourists, it can now call itself a cutting-edge boutique hotel town.

The first thing we wanted to ask Ben Svenson is why he named his hotel after the dirtiest word in travel. Tourists. Mutter it under your breath and you evoke the image of a destructive cultural viking, rolling through town as part of an unconscious horde, erasing what feels special about the place. In an ideal world, we would never be rampaging tourists, and always enlightened visitors . Interested travelers . Or, as the mayor of one overrun Italian city requested, “temporary cultural inhabitants.”

The founders of Tourists , an exciting new hotel in the Berkshires, have no use for such euphemisms.

Here in North Adams, Massachusetts, they’ve reclaimed the word. On the site of what was once the ’60s-era Redwood Motel, a group of partners came together with the goal of creating a self-contained 18-room clubhouse. But the project grew, and mutated, and drew in surrounding properties, and by the time it opened in 2018, this former motel on the banks of the Hoosic River featured all the ecological wonder of the Berkshires, coupled with high-end amenities and a visual sensibility inspired by the celebrated design oasis of Sea Ranch, California.

20 years ago, this would not have been the hotel you’d expect to find here. North Adams is a city that was long synonymous with the decline of American manufacturing. These days, it’s better known for hosting the largest contemporary art museum in North America. Svenson’s answer to the question — why Tourists ? — spans both of these realities.

But first, the literal answer. The history of tourism in the northern Berkshires goes back at least a hundred years, with the construction of the scenic Mohawk Trail in 1914. During the trend’s heyday in the 1940s and ’50s, road signs sought to lure tourists from their scenic drives to restaurants and lodging. As he got to know the space that would become Tourists, Ben Svenson, part of an impressive group of founding partners, found one such old, faded wooden sign.

It displayed a single word, and you can guess which one. “That was a convention from the Mohawk Trail,” Svenson explains, “to have this word Tourists with an arrow.” And considering all the connotations of the word today — vikings, selfie sticks, etc. — “it just felt so radical.”

They named their hotel Tourists (well, technically they named it Tourists Welcome), but the sign isn’t the only reason why. North Adams is a city that’s by all accounts still in the process of revival. In 1985, Sprague Electric — a massive complex of buildings that headquartered the city’s major employer — closed, devastating a city where it employed, in some cases, multiple members of the same family. Just a year later, the community saw a path forward. The project, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), would take up residence in the abandoned buildings of Sprague Electric and, hopefully, provide a big enough draw to revive the city. After a grueling march through fundraising struggles and political courtship, MASS MoCA finally opened in 1999.

And while the museum wasn’t, as some had hoped, a “silver bullet” to economic revival, it has, over time, made a significant difference. As Joseph Thompson, founding director of MASS MoCA, put it in an interview last August, “The last five years, there’s a new vibe in town, and you can see it and feel it. Younger people are moving to town. There are new restaurants opening up all the time. There’s been probably twenty-five million dollars just in hotel investment.”

As we put it when we first added Tourists to Tablet shortly after their opening: “The Berkshires are undergoing the sort of revival that travel trend pieces are made of.” The pandemic has only illuminated the importance and the capability of cultural institutions to power an economy. Annual attendance numbers at MASS MoCA have reached 300,000 in the past, with gawkers and enthusiasts drawn by the biggest names in contemporary art, and the artists drawn perhaps by nothing so simple as the sheer quantity of space. In Building 5, home to one large gallery exhibit at a time, artists build giant, awe-inspiring pieces from scratch. See one of these pieces and you get a sense of the scale of this museum, and how it might anchor an economy.

“The art and the way that we make it here in collaboration with artists is more akin to filmmaking — in which there are artistic directors and lighting and sound and there’s obviously a creative director, the artist,” said Thompson in the documentary about his institution, Museum Town . “There’s a whole slew of people who are coming together to make a very complicated work of art.”

In short, an art-powered economic engine. Undoubtedly, it’s an engine that brings tourists, and brought Tourists, too. “Tourists does not exist without MASS MoCA,” affirms Svenson. Nearly every founding member of the hotel group came to know North Adams through the museum. In the case of John Stirratt, bassist-turned-hotelier, the connection is the Solid Sound Festival, a massive event at the museum every other summer headlined and curated by his band, Wilco.

North Adams has become more and more of a museum town since the arrival of MASS MoCA, a community of artists and temporary cultural inhabitants both. Still, there’s a divide between the museum visitors and those who’ve lived here for decades. “This is a funny place to have a very high-end hotel,” admits Svenson. And here we have another reason for the name. “Just to call a spade a spade felt interesting.”

It’s a self-awareness that grows from a desire to close the distance between the disparate elements of North Adams. “We had a growing conviction that people were coming here and not sleeping here, because they didn’t have a place that spoke to them,” says Svenson. “If you could connect those dots of getting the visitors of MASS MoCA to actually sleep here, you could not only create a business that was dynamite, but employ a bunch of people whose prospects were not so great for employment in the area.”

The visitors of MASS MoCA definitely sleep here. Why wouldn’t they? We love to feature restored motels on Tablet. This one’s different. “If you do what I do for a living,” says Svenson, a developer, “the first thing you do is introduce yourself to your neighbors.” On his rounds, he found that most of them wanted to sell, a sign of where North Adams was at the time. Before long, 30 parcels of land united to create 55 acres (now over 80) of what one reviewer aptly described as “something of an adult summer camp compound.” Walking trails pepper the campus (aided by a wooden suspension bridge built over the Hoosic River).

Peppered across the compound: a saltwater pool, various sculptural installations, a lodge for dining, and a cozy space called the Airport Rooms. Svenson and partners stumbled upon this last structure, created from a ’40s-era rooming house, in a state of mid-century suspended animation. “John said when he saw the Airport Rooms, he said, ‘oh my God, it’s like a Hollywood prop house,’” remembers Svenson. “It was like, Brillo Pads from 1952 still in their packaging.” Today, it provides a purposely intimate, too-small venue for live music and cocktails. It’s among the features most missed in this age of open air and six-foot distances.

The broken-down Redwood Motel, meanwhile, was replaced by another warm, stylish, and hip little hideout. Svenson wanted the experience of the rooms to feel like you had direct contact with the outside world. Keeping the features of the motel they enjoyed — namely, your own door and that comforting sense of repetition — they added their favorite creature comforts. Back decks, outdoor showers, and “bay windows the size of a full mattress.”

Then there’s that striking white oak siding. This is where Svenson really lights up. “That’s completely taken from Sea Ranch’s design principles of finding a locally sourced, natural material that does not require treatment and will last a long time,” he explains, a little giddy. “Sea Ranch was all about creating buildings that were basically so integrated into their setting that they could visually disappear — and increasingly so over time, as the buildings become aged in a way that’s almost part of the woods. Tourists was an attempt to do that.”

“They had redwood. For us, we found white oak.”

After COVID forced the closing of the hotel and the museum, both are currently reopened with the appropriate adjustments. Thanks to its ample outdoor space and private entrances, Tourists has found itself better positioned than many hotels to offer a comfortable escape. An art and adventure program they began in 2019 was a particular godsend for guests as some of the usual attractions around the city were shuttered. If you were there now, you’d find seasonal activities — fire-building classes and snowshoeing — along with some they’ll keep year-round. Take a guided hike into the woods, an art walk around North Adams, go stargazing and eat s’mores, or visit the outdoor exhibits at The Clark (the other renowned art museum nearby).

And if you were there right now, you don’t have to think of yourself as a tourist. But really, you are one. And if that feels confrontational to you, Svenson’s sure you can handle it.

“I believe our audience likes to be challenged,” he says. In fact, the name is almost a conceptual art piece in itself. “It’s like if you opened a supermarket and you named it ‘food,’” he says. “There’s something really kinda funny about that.” ▪

  Book Tourists on Tablet Hotels.

Photo credits: Peter Crosby , Nick Simonite , Nicole Franzen , R’el Dade and Marcus Lloyd

Tourists is a new hotel in the Berkshires, for art and other lovers

Art aficionados slot The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art high on their bucket lists for good reason. A vast art and performance space housed in a former 19 th -century textile mill complex, MASS MoCA specializes in large scale immersive installations. For example, during my recent visit, I was able to admire Liz Glynn’s The Archaeology of Another Possible Future , the five-part exhibition spreading across 30,000 square feet. Visitors begin by wandering among the “analog caves” of reclaimed forklift panels, then through shipping containers which stand as “relics of a global economy in acute transition,” then up scaffolding towers where 3D printers produce usable pieces of hardware, to end in “the post-industrial vacationland” where hospital stretchers, modified into lounge chairs, recline under tanning lamps. Glynn’s project, which invites viewers to ponder “What happens to stuff, and the people who make stuff, in the age of an increasingly virtual, dematerialized economy?” is ambitious both conceptually and physically. And it’s just one of the many works at MASS MoCA that could be displayed in few, if any, other settings.  

Museum goers can easily spend an entire day there, but — even if they planned to visit the nearby Clark Art Institute, valued for its French Impressionists, the next day — they’d have a ways to go to find a hotel that complemented the art experience they’d just enjoyed. T he Southern Berkshires, home to towns like Stockbridge and Great Barrington, has long catered to visitors, but there simply hadn’t been a hotel in the Northern Berkshires that would appeal to the kind of folks, say, who’d happily drive three hours from Manhattan to view Jenny Holzer’s LED light projections. That’s changing.  

Enter Tourists, a hotel and retreat on Route 2 in North Adams, newly renovated and expanded from the slowly dying Redwoods Motel. With 48 rooms, Tourists has the expected luxuries — a pool and deck bar — as well as the unexpected, such as a suspension bridge spanning the Hoosic River, leading to fifty acres of hiking trails.  One trail leads to a yoga/meditation deck. Another leads to “The Chime Chapel,” an outdoor sculpture of playable windchimes, created by the New Orleans art collaborative Airlift. Yet another path links to the Appalachian Trail, so hikes can extend beyond the fifty acres, perhaps even to Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts. Greylock’s distinctive silhouette, covered in snow, looked like a great white sperm whale to Herman Melville and inspired Moby Dick .   

The name “Tourists” came from a giant wooden sign the hotel’s creators found in the derelict Redwoods. They kept more than just the sign; the aesthetic at Tourists is moto-lodge chic. A “camp out” feel reigns, from the cedar-clad lobby to the coffee served in retro Stanley thermoses, to the guest rooms’ high-end toiletries redolent of — could it be — Vic’s Vapo Rub?  James Beard Award-winning chef Cortney Burns’ “sweet bite” menu includes the ingredient “spruce” before the more familiar “chocolate chip cookie,” and “sumac” modifies “granola.” Burns’ high-end restaurant, LOOM, currently under construction in an old church on the property, won’t be finished until winter, but one can enjoy her playful “jar food” starting July 30, when the hotel opens.  Remember sitting around a fire at sleepaway camp , grilling hot dogs on sticks, potatoes in tin foil, making apple pie in a tin can? Burns’ jar of fermented butternut squash and sesame dip served with spelt porridge bread was indeed consumed around a fire at Tourists — though that might be the only similarity with my years of Camp Singing Hills cuisine.

Perhaps the uniqueness of Tourists has less to do with details of design and more to do with the spirit of its creators.  The origin story captures this well: Several years back Scott Stedman, founder of Northside Media, was chatting with a friend of a friend at a Chicago party.  When their talk turned to passion projects, they discovered they both harbored the dream of creating a resort. They exchanged ideas on hospitality, discussing how hotels shape travelers’ desire to engage with their locale.  The guy Stedman was talking to? Turns out it was John Stirratt, the bassist for Wilco, who has seen a hotel or two in his time. “You gotta meet my cousin Ben, a real estate developer,” Stedman told Stirratt. So cousin Ben got on board; and Ben’s brother, Eric; and Eric’s brother-in-law, Dana, and so on. Eventually there would be eight partners, which they’d need to pull off the buying of twenty-two different parcels in North Adams, an area Stirrat had first fallen in love with when performing at the Solid Sound music festival in 2010.  

How does this spirit of serendipity and creative collaboration play out on the ground?  Consider that the Tourists team used the hotel’s soft opening not as an opportunity to reward investors or charm travel industry insiders, but to bring poets together.  Good-time guru Stedman (who does NOT seem like the head of a successful marketing company, and that’s a compliment) invited five poetic co-hosts — Jeff Gordinier, Dan Chiasson, Sandra Beasley, Jana Prikryl and myself — to invite poets we admire for a poetry-pop up retreat, free of charge. Poets NEVER turn down anything free of charge.  We recited poems about booze standing on picnic tables at cocktail hour, capturing perfectly, says Stedman, “the inebriated joie de vivre of Tourists.” We recited poems, ours and others, at the chime chapel under the stars, around the fire with our jars of food, and while being led by a local forager through the woods. I can’t imagine that treating 35 thirsty poets and partners of poets to a free vacation is sound investment strategy. Which is exactly why Tourists might be on to something. The place has mojo that comes from participating in the gift economy. It’s launching into the world on the turbo jets of love.

So maybe visitors who come to Tourists in order to visit MASS MoCA should consider booking more than one night. Otherwise, they might be so lured by the charms of the hotel that they forget to visit the museum.  

915 State Road

North Adams, MA 01247

(413) 346-4933

touristswelcome.com

Beth Ann Fennelly is Poet Laureate of Mississippi, and most recently the author of Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (W. W. Norton) .

Get The Wonderlust Newsletter

The world at your feet: New destinations and experiences, and the best travel deals!

TOURISTS Hotel Embraces Nature With Design in Western Massachusetts

This riverside retreat gives the American Motor Lodge a long-awaited and well deserved redesign

Ellen Eberhardt

Photographer

Peter Crosby, Nicole Franzen, R'el Dade and Marcus Lloyd

Tourists , a riverside retreat in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts is giving the American Motor Lodge what it’s always deserved—a little TLC. The 48-bed property centers design and the outdoors (sounds familiar), all inspired by its bucolic location on the banks of the Hoosic River.

Led by a team of four partners, the hotel’s location lends itself to easy exploration of both nature and art . The Mohawk and Appalachian trail s converge on-site, while Mount Greylock, Massachusets’ tallest mountain, is a hike away.

Both MASS MoCA and the Clark Institue are within a short drive, amoung other lesser-known attractions like the Hancock Shaker Village and more. While the retreat has limited group-gatherings in and outdoors due to COVID, in safer times they plan to continue hosting open-air concerts and private events.

"Adventure" is a key part of the Tourist’s experience, with an extensive catalog of various walks, hikes, and outdoor activities organized by an in-house Art and Adventure coordinator.

Guests can book morning or sunset hikes, wildflower and outdoor sculpture tours, group yoga, meditation by a waterfall, or a “ Craft and Sip ” session, where you can create room sprays with essential oils, leather keychains, beeswax candles, herbal bath salts, and more. Safe to say they know their customer.

The rooms themselves feature minimalist, modest design, accented by custom wooden furniture and various nature-inspired products and art. Each has a private deck where guests can enjoy breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee and alcohol—ordered via text. A saltwater pool sits at the center of the grounds, with access limited due to social distancing.

With strict COVID protocols seemingly in place, for our readers itching to get back out there or in need of a much-deserved break in reality—this may be the place to start.

From December 2020 through April 2021, the hotel is operating on a Thursday-Sunday schedule with a minimum stay of two nights, to ensure rooms the property remains as safe as posisble. Rooms start around $221 a night .

For more Berkshire stays check out 11 Best Cabins to Rent in Western Massachusetts

Published 04-01-2021

Minimal, inviting, with ocean vistas aplenty—a first hand look at the new York Beach property with rooms built into a coastal shore

Escape NYC to one of these high-design, outdoorsy retreats in the Catskill mountains, featuring hot tubs, cozy taverns, pickle ball courts, and more

From the minds of AutoCamp, the new basecamp near Arches & Canyonlands National Park offers guided tours, gear rentals, and Vanlife parking

Find your desert basecamp at one of these elevated roadside motels, boutique hotels, and hacienda-style getaways

Near Porto, Portugal, is the Arouca Rustic Complex: a 2-bedroom reimagined granary house that marries traditional vernacular with modern design

Five minutes from the central plaza and strong year-round surf, NICO relies on contextual design to secure its status as a traveler’s destination

Gallery Mode

Search hotels in North Adams

Enter your dates to see the latest prices and deals for north adams hotels, star rating, review score.

Located in North Adams, 17 miles from Bennington Battle Monument, Tourists has accommodations with a seasonal outdoor swimming pool, free private parking, a garden and a shared lounge.

Hotel Downstreet

Steps from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and placed in North Adams city center, this hotel offers a spacious on-site health club and easy access to local attractions.

The Porches Inn at Mass MoCA

Located across from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, this inn offers on-site art exhibitions and an outdoor pool with heated pool deck. Mount Greylock is 8 miles away.

The Lodge @ America’s Switzerland

Featuring a garden, a terrace as well as a bar, The Lodge @ America’s Switzerland is located in North Adams, within 25 miles of Bennington Battle Monument and 10 miles of The Clark Art Institute.

The Williams Inn

The Williams Inn has a fitness center, shared lounge, a restaurant and bar in Williamstown.

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Williamstown

Located within 17 miles of Bennington Battle Monument and 30 miles of Tanglewood, Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Williamstown provides rooms in Williamstown.

Stay Berkshires

Located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, this motel is surrounded by the Berkshire Mountains and features rooms with an outdoor seating area and free Wi-Fi access. Williams College is 2 miles away.

Mount Royal Inn

Located in Adams, 24 miles from Bennington Battle Monument, Mount Royal Inn has accommodations with a garden, free private parking and a terrace.

Villager Motel

This motel, located in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains, features free Wi-Fi access. Williams College and the Clark Art Institute are 5 minutes’ drive away.

The 1896 House Country Inn - Brookside & Pondside

Surrounded by gardens and lush landscaping, this 17-acre accommodations features an outdoor heated pool and an on-site restaurant and bar. Skiing at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort is 11 miles away.

Prices drop the second you sign up!

What Guests Said About North Adams:

Pretty town with lots of restaurants. somewhat hilly..

We were passing thru on our way to NY We needed an...

My husband and i went to north adams to visit the....

Explore guest reviews of hotels in North Adams

Research, refine, and make plans for your whole trip

List your property

• Mobile version
• Your account
• Make changes online to your booking
• Customer Service Help
• Booking.com for Business
• Places of interest
• Guest Houses
• Unique places to stay
• Discover monthly stays
• Unpacked: Travel articles
• Seasonal and holiday deals
• Traveller Review Awards
• Flight finder
• Restaurant reservations
• Booking.com for Travel Agents
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs
• About Booking.com
• Partner help
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Safety Resource Center
• Investor relations
• Terms & Conditions
• Partner dispute
• How We Work
• Privacy & cookie statement
• MSA statement
• Corporate contact
• Content guidelines and reporting

Booking.com is part of Booking Holdings Inc., the world leader in online travel and related services.

Verified reviews from real guests.

We have more than 70 million property reviews, all from real, verified guests .

How does it work?

It starts with a booking.

The only way to leave a review is to first make a booking. That's how we know our reviews come from real guests who have stayed at the property.

Followed by a trip

When guests stay at the property, they check out how quiet the room is, how friendly the staff is, and more.

And finally, a review

After their trip, guests tell us about their stay. We check for naughty words and verify the authenticity of all guest reviews before adding them to our site.

If you booked through us and want to leave a review, please sign in first.

Check-in date

Check-out date

Save big in North Adams

Get exclusive Booker deals by email

For a limited time only

Error: Please enter a valid email address.

Error: Oops! An error has occurred.

Awesome! You're now subscribed

Skip the line! Advance tickets are recommended for all museum visitors. Walk-ups are always welcome. Purchase your tickets here .

Have questions about visiting MASS MoCA? Read our full FAQ.

In-person discounts are available. Check to see if you are eligible .

Museum Hours

Closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day (December 25) Open Tuesday December 26 and New Year’s Day (January 1)

Kids 5 and under and museum members always visit for free. Admission to Kidspace is always free.

IN PERSON DISCOUNTS:

STUDENTS and STAFF from Bennington College, Williams College, and Yale University as well as MCLA students receive free museum admission upon presenting their school ID at the Box Office on the day of their visit.

LIBRARY PASS PATRONS receive free museum admission upon presenting their physical or digital library pass at the Box Office on the day of their visit. See if your local library is a Library Pass Program member here.

MUSEUM PARTNERS , members of the Whitney Museum of American Art and ICOM, receive free admission upon presenting proof of active membership with the Whitney or ICOM at the Box Office on the day of their visit.

*MASSACHUSETTS EBT, WIC, CONNECTOR CARE, and WONDERFUND CARDHOLDERS receive discounted museum admission of $2 and free admission for children under the age of 18 in their household during regular museum hours. A valid Massachusetts EBT, WIC, ConnectorCare, and Wonderfund card must be presented at the Box Office on the day of their visit.

We are proud to participate in the Card to Culture program, a collaboration between Mass Cultural Council and the Department of Transitional Assistance , the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Nutrition Program , and the Massachusetts Health Connector broadening accessibility to cultural programming. See the full list of participating organizations offering EBT , WIC , and ConnectorCare discounts.

PLAN YOUR MUSEUM VISIT

To help protect delicate art, food, drinks, umbrellas, folding chairs, bags and backpacks over 8.5 × 11 × 4″, and other large or ungainly objects are not allowed in the galleries.  And please, don’t touch! 

A parking map is available here and has many options for parking, food, drinks, and shopping in downtown North Adams, Mass.

Information about the dining options on the museum campus and in downtown North Adams is available here .

We document visitors in our galleries and during events. If you do not wish to be included in the images we publish, please alert our staff at the box office upon arrival.

Accessibility

MASS MoCA is committed to accessibility. Ask about wheelchairs, gallery stools, and event listening devices at the Box Office. For more information about accessibility at MASS MoCA, click here .

Advance planning is recommended for select exhibitions. Learn more here .

Gallery guides are available for most exhibitions. Have questions during your visit? See one of our museum attendants.

Art-making in Kidspace at the Artbar

Open during museum hours on weekends and school holidays.

During music festivals, all outdoor spaces are closed to museum visitors including James Turrell’s C.A.V.U. , Anselm Kiefer, Taryn Simon, Franz West, Micheal Oatman, Stephen Vitiello, Richard Nonas, and Marko Remec. Please check the Events page for festival dates.

PUBLIC TOURS

Museum educator-guided public tours are one-hour highlight tours of the museum that focus on 3–5 exhibitions. All of MASS MoCA’s tours are conversation and inquiry-based, encouraging participation while also providing important content and context about the art on display.

Regular admission rates apply. Learn more here . 

COURTESY CODE

By purchasing a ticket to join MASS MoCA’s visitors, staff, and artists on the museum campus, you agree to follow a Courtesy Code, detailed here .

Download a PDF version of the MASS MoCA map here.

Mapa del museo, descarga una versión en pdf del mapa de mass moca aquí..

1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247

413-66-4481

Visit Website

Housed on a restored 19th-century factory campus, MASS MoCA exhibits some of the liveliest, most evocative - and provocative - art of our time. Open all year with a full schedule of performing arts events and film in addition to 120,000 square feet of gallery space.

From spring offensive to charm offensive: The Taliban are working to woo tourists to Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Around 30 men are crammed into a Kabul classroom, part of the debut student cohort at a Taliban-run institute training tourism and hospitality professionals.

It’s a motley crew. One student is a model. Another is 17 and has no job history.

The students vary in age, education level and professional experience. They’re all men — Afghan women are banned from studying beyond sixth grade — and they don’t know anything about tourism or hospitality. But they are all eager to promote a different side of Afghanistan. And the Taliban are happy to help.

Afghanistan’s rulers are pariahs on the global stage, largely because of their restrictions on women and girls. The economy is struggling, infrastructure is poor, and poverty is rife.

Advertisement

And yet, foreigners are visiting the country, encouraged by the sharp drop in violence, increased flight connections with hubs like Dubai, and the bragging rights that come with vacationing in an unusual destination. The numbers aren’t huge — they never were — but there’s a buzz around Afghan tourism.

In 2021, there were 691 foreign tourists. In 2022, that figure rose to 2,300. Last year, there were 7,000.

Mohammad Saeed, the head of the Tourism Directorate in Kabul, said the biggest foreign visitor market is China because of its proximity and large population. Afghanistan also has advantages over some of its neighbors.

“They’ve told me they don’t want to go to Pakistan because it’s dangerous and they get attacked. The Japanese have said this to me also,” Saeed said. “This is good for us.”

But there are disadvantages, too.

Visas are difficult and expensive to access. Many countries severed ties with Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power, and no country recognizes them as the legitimate rulers of the country.

Afghan embassies either closed or suspended their operations. There’s an ongoing power struggle between Afghanistan’s embassies and consulates staffed by people from the former Western-backed administration, and those under the Taliban administration’s full control.

Saeed concedes there are obstacles for Afghan tourism to develop but said he was working with ministries to overcome them.

His ultimate aim is to have a visa on arrival for tourists, but that could be years away. There are problems with the road network, which is half-paved or non-existent in some parts of the country, and airlines largely avoid Afghan airspace.

The capital Kabul has the most international flights, but no Afghan airport has direct routes with major tourist markets like China, Europe, or India.

Despite the challenges, Saeed wants Afghanistan to become a tourism powerhouse, an ambition that appears to be backed by the Taliban’s top leaders.

“I have been sent to this department on the instructions of the elders (ministers). They must trust me because they’ve sent me to this important place.”

The students also have aspirations. The model, Ahmed Massoud Talash, wants to learn about Afghanistan’s picturesque spots for Instagram posts and its history for media appearances.

Business school graduate Samir Ahmadzai wants to open a hotel but thinks he should know more about tourism and hospitality first.

“They hear that Afghanistan is backwards, poverty and all about war,” said Ahmadzai. “We have 5,000 years of history. There should be a new page of Afghanistan.”

Classes include Afghan handicrafts and anthropology basics.

An unofficial subject is how to interact with foreign women and how their behavior or habits could clash with local customs and edicts. Examples might be women smoking or eating in public, to mixing freely with men who are not related to them by blood or marriage.

The Taliban have imposed a dress code for women and requirements for them to have a male guardian, or mahram, when they travel. Dining alone, traveling alone, and socializing with other women in public have become harder. With gyms closed to women and beauty salons banned, there are fewer places where they can meet outside the home.

In a sign that the country is preparing for more overseas visitors, the country’s only five-star hotel, the Serena, has reopened its women’s spa and salon for foreign females after a monthslong closure.

Foreigners must show their passport to access services. Women with “born in Afghanistan” on their ID are barred.

The restrictions on Afghan women and girls weigh on overseas travel companies, who say they try to focus on the positive aspect of cultural interactions by making donations, supporting local projects or only visiting family-run businesses.

Shane Horan, the founder of Rocky Road Travel, said visiting Afghanistan should not be seen as an endorsement of any particular government or political regime.

“Ultimately, the goal should be to support responsible tourism practices that contribute positively to the local economy and foster mutual respect and understanding, while also remaining cognizant of the broader political context in Afghanistan.”

He said there was no input from authorities about what tour groups saw or did, and that the company worked closely with a women’s rights organization in Afghanistan. A percentage of the tour cost went into supporting this organization’s programs, Horan added.

There are no women at the Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management. The students don’t mention it. But an official at the Tourism Directorate does.

“It’s a heartbreaking situation,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “Even female family members ask if they can study here. But there was a change in policy with the change in government. The women who were studying before (the takeover) never came back. They never graduated.”

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Amsterdam’s Latest Effort to Fight Excessive Tourism: No New Hotels

The city wants no more than 20 million hotel stays annually. The measure is one of multiple efforts to control the flow of visitors.

By Claire Moses

Amsterdam has been searching for any way to rein in the number of tourists that visit the city every year.

In March of last year, the city launched an ad campaign specifically targeted at British men between 18 and 35, urging them to “stay away.”

In July, the Dutch capital announced it would bar cruise ships from docking in the city center .

The city has also long tried to control the crowds in its red-light district, where rowdy groups of tourists often cause disruptions to local residents. It has added stricter rules about smoking marijuana . It has banned new tourist shops. And still, the people keep coming.

Now, the city — which is as well known for its canals and 17th century art as for its legal sex industry and easy access to marijuana — has taken one more step to further restrict the explosive growth of tourists: It is banning hotels from being built.

“Amsterdam is saying ‘no’ to new hotels,” the City Council said in a statement. “We want to make and keep the city livable for residents and visitors,” it added.

Amsterdam, which added that it was seeking to keep hotel stays by tourists to under 20 million per year, saw its highest number of visitors before the pandemic in 2019, when there were 25.2 million hotel stays, according to the city’s data.

Last year, that number was exceeded by tourists staying over in Amsterdam, not including stays in short-term rentals like Airbnbs and cruise ships. And the measure also does not take into account daily visitors who do not stay the night.

The ban on new hotels, while sending a clear message about the city’s aim to reduce the number of visitors, is also largely symbolic. The city’s policy on hotel construction was already strict, and there had been only three proposals since 2017 that met Amsterdam’s requirements, according to the city. New hotels that had been approved or were in development — 26 in total — would be allowed to proceed for now.

Under the new rules, a new hotel can only open if another one closes. It also isn’t allowed to add more rooms than were available, according to the city.

“The effect won’t be very big,” said Ko Koens, a professor of new urban tourism at Inholland University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He also said that in the long run, the capping of hotels could make them more expensive to stay at.

While this ban alone would not make a huge dent in the number of visitors to the city, Mr. Koens said, taken together with other initiatives it could make Amsterdam a less appealing place to visit. But, he said, “For now, visitors don’t seem to mind.”

In total, Amsterdam has nearly 42,000 hotel rooms that can accommodate more than 92,000 people, according to Statistics Netherlands, a governmental institution that compiles data about the country. (In total, the Netherlands has more than 150,000 hotel rooms.)

Amsterdam’s initiatives to rein in tourism have been largely focused on its crowded city center. But as long as Amsterdam’s airport, Schiphol, continues to be a major European hub, it won’t be easy to keep visitors away from the city.

“There are no simple solutions,” Mr. Koens said. “It’s super complex.”

Amsterdam also announced this week it would start cutting the number of river cruises allowed to dock in its waters. In 2023, that number was 2,125. In 2028, the city wants it to be halved, with no more than 1,150. The city predicts that effort could reduce the number of visitors that come into town by 271,000. This proposal, the city said, is to improve the quality of life for residents and to reduce emissions and crowds.

“The balance in the city needs to improve,” Hester van Buren, a deputy mayor who focuses on the city’s port, said in a statement.

Amsterdam isn’t the only major European destination that has been struggling to get a grip on the growing number of tourists. Venice announced it would charge day-tripping visitors 5 euros ($5.33) to enter the iconic streets of its city center on weekends and some holidays from April 25 through mid-July, its busiest season.

Amsterdam, currently in a busy touristic time because of its famous blooming tulips, has not announced a similar measure, but it is likely there will be more efforts and experiments designed to limit visitors — like the hotel ban.

“Without such a stop, Amsterdam’s center would become one big hotel,” Mr. Koens said. “You don’t want that either.”

Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news. More about Claire Moses

Thousands protest in Spain's Canary Islands over mass tourism

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Reporting by Borja Suarez Writing by Ana Cantero Editing by Helen Popper

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

A Russian missile attack killed three people and injured three others in the Ukrainian port of Odesa early on Wednesday, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.

World Chevron

Police enter Columbia University amid protests

New York City police entered Columbia University Tuesday evening in an apparent effort to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who seized and occupied a classroom building and have been encamped on the campus for two weeks.