Home Stays for Dutch Guests at AWBF

We will welcome more than 30 visitors from the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival in February 2017.  Seven more are already with us, working on the Dutch Boat Project at the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin. While we have provided accommodation for many of them, we know that home stays with local Tasmanian friends and families are a very rewarding way of enriching their experience.  It could be that you have Dutch heritage, or that you are interested in the remarkable wooden boats our guests will be bringing out with them, or just that you enjoy meeting new people and showing them what a beautiful place we live in. Perhaps you have received hospitality in another country and you would like to return the favour.

If you would like to open your home to one or more of our Dutch visitors, we have an easy way to make that happen:  just contact the AWBF office on (03) 6223 3375 or email us at info@australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au to register your interest.  We’ll do our best to match you up with our Dutch guests.  Most will arrive on 7 February, 2017 and stay through the festival, departing the following weekend on 18 February.  You don’t have to host a Dutch visitor for the whole period; we’re asking for a minimum of three nights’ accommodation, whenever you like.

You probably know that almost all Dutch adults and children have an excellent command of English and you might even learn a few words of Dutch before they go home!

Almost all of our guests will take part in Festival activities, including sailing, children’s entertainment and an interesting project to trace Dutch heritage for Tasmanians with links to the Netherlands.  That means that daily access to the festival site will be important, so if you are on a public transport route or within an easy taxi ride of the Hobart CBD, we’re interested in talking to you!