I have been to Amsterdam twice. Admittedly, it was to smoke weed. The city is beautiful, the culture is super cool, and the heady lifestyle that was brought into the city in the 1960’s has very much remained. But I didn’t go to see the Van Gogh museum or take a boat down any one of the city’s beautiful canals. No, I went to try the best marijuana on the planet. I went to experience the cannabis culture that’s deeply rooted there. Those other things? They were just an added benefit.
Nowadays, you don’t have to travel across the Atlantic to partake in the “Amsterdam experience,” as cannabis has thankfully become legal in more than half the country, and with that legalization has come a whole new avenue for tourism in the United States—one that revolves solely around cannabis. Unfortunately, many people outside the handful of popular recreational states like Colorado and California aren’t quite sure how to utilize it just yet.
Lack of advertising due to legal issues is a bummer for those looking to vacation in an adult-use state, and state tourism boards still shy away from promoting their weed-friendly laws as an attraction. The purpose of tourism is to highlight the beauty of a particular area, but it’s unfortunately rather tough to do with cannabis and the archaic laws that still surround it. As a result, cannabis tourism faces many hurdles and legal states still have a long way to go before pot tourism can flourish. However, that doesn’t mean there’s nowhere to legally enjoy a good buzz. And a good view.
Weed tourism may be in its infancy, but there are still plenty of places to enjoy yourself without having to be holed up in a quiet room somewhere jamming a bunch of towels under the door as you strategically blow your next hit out the window. In fact, a little light googling will immediately bring up cannabis tours, hotels, hostels, and quaint Bed and Breakfasts that are all very welcoming to the cannabis traveler, not only providing a comfortable place to smoke or vape, but also providing buds, bowls, bongs, dabs, edibles, topicals, and just about anything else you can think of when it comes to experiencing cannabis.
So where to begin? Well, if you haven’t yet, going to an actual dispensary is a great place to start. Not only will you come across a wide selection of beautiful strains, tasty edibles, and innovative products for just about taste and style, but you’ll also be able to experience what it’s like to be served by a “budtender.” Beyond offering a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to many of the particulars of marijuana, budtenders are a fun group of people with a terrific (and often contagious) energy that’s sure to rub you in just the right way—even before you partake! They get into the business because of a deep love for the plant, and they share that love with everyone that comes their way.
Once you’ve experienced a proper dispensary, a proper cannabis tour should be next on your list. Sites like my420tours.com and kushtourism.com offer an abundance of guided tours in states like Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon, and yes, even Nevada, with a handful of other states in the works as legal recreational consumption becomes more mainstream. These cannabis tours are one of the few places outside a dispensary where you can interact with and be educated by experienced, knowledgeable professionals in the industry, not to mention get the opportunity to go behind the scenes and witness parts of the industry that most people didn’t even know exist. Many of the big cannabis grows and farms are operated like high-end wineries, even offering guided tours and tastings as such. These vineyard-esque tours feel more like a trip to Napa Valley than some shady cannabis outpost, and as many of the budtenders and growers on the farms will show you, enjoying cannabis is very much comparable to enjoying a fine vintage—the handing, smelling, tasting—all of these are part of the cannabis experience. Plus there are few things more enjoyable to the cannabis consumer than walking through a professional grow and feasting your eyes on such vast swaths of cannabis. Seeing so much marijuana together all in one place is truly an extraordinary sight.
Of course, no cannabis-friendly travel guide would be complete without a proper list of European-style “coffee shops” to purchase and consume your cannabis, cafe-style, as you would your cappuccino or latte. Unfortunately, those types of shops haven’t yet arrived for obvious legal reasons. Still, there are a few legal cannabis-friendly lounges out there, particularly in Colorado. Coloradopotguide.com is a site that offers up a listing of some of the front range cannabis lounges and dab bars that are open to the public, while several ganja yoga spots, like Ganjasana in Boulder and Four 20 Yoga in La, offer up cannabis-themed yoga sessions as part of their spiritual, physical, and mental routine. Speaking of which, I would also highly recommend a cannabis-infused massage while you’re at it, which spots like LoDo Massage in Denver, Yeden in Colorado Springs, and others make it their business specializing in.
There are also plenty of fun, cannabis-themed educational activities that are now being offered in many of the legal states. Puff, Pass, and Paint offers up cannabis-friendly painting classes that allow you to get creative while getting high, while places like Denver’s Stir Cooking School offers up cannabis cooking and baking classes to learn how to make the perfect edible.
Bottom line: While cannabis tourism here in the U.S. clearly has a ways to go, there are still plenty of terrific options to wet your beak. Whether you’re looking for cannabis-friendly lodgings, the perfect strain, tasty edibles, or a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the most advanced cannabis farms in the world, there’s certainly no shortage of cannabis-themed destinations to plan for cannabis-themed trip. And as the country continues to embraces cannabis and more cities and states become legal, cannabis travel will only get better.
By Chris Fisher
