Team outing with an overnight stay in the dunes

A team outing that ends with everyone stuck in traffic at five o'clock is a long meeting with lunch. A company outing with an overnight stay is something else. The conversation that finally gets going at half past five can simply carry on. That is one of the main reasons teams come to ZeeVELD.

That is the first question we get. Come with ten and everyone also has their own bathroom. Come with 19 colleagues and everyone has their own bedroom. From 19 you start sharing, and there is room for 27.

It sounds like a detail, but it is not. A team that comes to the breakfast table rested, each from behind their own door, starts the day differently from a team that slept in a dormitory.

There are no other guests. The meeting hall, the conservatory with its wood stove, the dining room, the library, the reading room, the coffee lounge and the garden are all yours. You can all sit together or break off into small groups, without having to arrange anything or ask anyone.

Most teams split the day between working and being outdoors, and the surroundings make that easy. The dune reserve covers 5,300 hectares and starts right outside the front door.

• Three loops around the field, of twenty, thirty and forty-five minutes. Just long enough for a break without looking at your phone.
• Marked routes of three, seven and seventeen kilometres, starting at the entrance gate.
• The beach, three kilometres away: about forty-five minutes on foot, or fifteen minutes by bike.
• A dune excursion with a ranger from De Hoep, to be booked on 0251-661066.
• Bike hire at Kruijswijk in Castricum or at Johanna's Hof, halfway to the beach, which also has tandems and e-bikes.
• Outdoor workshops and meeting breaks, through our partner BuitenBusiness.

For activities in the dunes everyone needs a dune access pass, about two euros a day from the machine at the Noorderstraat car park.

The kitchen is professional and big enough for a whole group to work in. There are two kitchens, one for cooking and one for washing up, with the kind of equipment that makes a cook happy. Sharp knives, to name just one thing; that is the comment we hear most often.

A team that gets dinner on the table together has, by the end of the evening, done something none of them could have done alone. That is team building without hiring anyone to run it. If you would rather be looked after, our chef Ramai will cook for you.

ZeeVELD is a house for reflection and connection. That is not just a nice phrase, it is the reason it works: it is quiet enough to really talk to each other. Drinks together are very much part of that, and the coffee lounge is the busiest spot in the house. A party with amplified music does not belong here, and we would rather say so beforehand than afterwards.

Amsterdam is less than half an hour's drive away, Castricum station fifteen minutes by bike. Free parking a hundred metres from the house.