Exploring the rising cannabis tourism industry

In places where cannabis is legal, many things have changed. Forget about awkward encounters with your plug to score mid-grade weed—instead, waltz into a well-lit, clean dispensary and browse the shelves for whatever tickles your fancy.

And forget about hiding your stash when you are on holiday, too. If you're vacationing in an area where cannabis is legal, you might be able to live out your love for the herb in full splendor by touring weed dispensaries or farms, participating in tastings, trying the menu at a cannabis club/lounge, or even by staying at a cannabis-friendly hotel.

As the legalization of cannabis reaches many parts of the world, the tourism sector is ushering in a new form of vacationmaking—namely cannabis tourism. Keep reading to learn about this growing trend and the type of experiences open to weed-loving tourists, from simple dispensary visits to all-inclusive cannabis vacation packages.

Cannabis tourism: A market full of pot-ential

The cannabis industry doesn’t have a hard time bragging about its huge economic potential. But the hype surrounding cannabis tourism is real. Just like wine lovers flock to famous regions to taste specific varieties and learn more about the wine-making process, cannabis lovers are just as motivated to travel to areas where they can legally get their smoke on (and even learn something about where weed comes from, too).

Amsterdam’s coffeeshops, a league of legends of cannabis retailers, have long been attracting lovers of cannabis to the Dutch capital. Studies suggest that close to 60% of the tourists in Amsterdam visit the city to experiment with drugs (O’Regan, 2022) and that its coffeeshops generate up to €283 million in revenue every year (DutchAmsterdam, 2009).

Similar trends can be seen in the US, too; those states with legal cannabis markets are reeling in a huge influx of both national and international tokers. Research shows, for example, that 70% of Gen Z travelers consider access to legal weed important when vacationing (Bologna, 2022). The same research shows that close to 40% of active leisure travel in the US is now cannabis-motivated.

So, what experiences are weed-loving travelers chasing? Broadly speaking, cannabis tourism currently encompasses weed-friendly accommodations and travel packages, access to dispensaries or consumption spaces like cannabis lounges, and educational tourism (like cannabis farm visits, cooking classes, and more).

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Cannabis-friendly accommodations and vacation packages

Accommodation is central to a good vacation. As the global weed market grows, finding a weed-friendly place to hang your hat (and spark a jay) is easier than ever before. Aptly named 420 accommodations are springing up all over areas where weed is legal—especially in mature markets like the US.

In Denver, Colorado, for example, The Patterson Historic Inn lets you enjoy a toke inside a Victorian-era, National Landmark building situated in the heart of the city's iconic Capitol Hill neighborhood. Alongside nine uniquely themed rooms, the Patterson is also home to The 420 Lounge—a private lounge where guests and members can consume their own weed while indulging in a menu designed to pair with a smoke of Colorado's finest.

But even in younger weed markets, cannabis accommodation is also on the rise. Thailand, for example, only legalized weed in 2022 but is already home to Asia’s first cannabis-friendly resort. On the small island of Koh Samui, The Beach resort invites weed-loving guests to kick back, chill out, and toke up in their cannabis-friendly suites—maybe while sipping on a Mai Tai or after enjoying one of the resort’s unique herbal spa treatments.

Cannabis-friendly B&Bs are also springing up around the world. Run by and for tokers, these are a great alternative for travelers looking for a homey feel that you might not find at a larger establishment. In fact, sites like Bud and Breakfast are exclusively designed to help weed tourists find suitable private accommodation.

But what if you’re the kind of tourist who struggles to piece together the fares, accommodations, and activities that make for a great travel itinerary? Don’t fret—the cannabis tourism sector is also home to a handful of travel companies that offer elaborate vacation packages around the world.

One of these companies is HigherWayTravel.com. The brainchild of April Black, former travel coordinator for the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup, HigherWayTravel curates multi-day vacation packages for weed lovers from all walks of life to destinations like Colombia, Jamaica, Hawaii, and even Europe!

Destination dispensaries: A unique attraction

For many, visiting a place where they can buy and consume cannabis legally is a highlight in and of itself—especially for those living in areas where cannabis use is still criminalized. And as legalization spreads, cannabis lovers have a growing number of places to put on their travel bucket list.

Amsterdam is, and likely always will be, a sort of Mecca that every weed lover should visit at least once. For party-spirited smokers, the city’s famous red light district is a great destination, with classic coffeeshops like The Bulldog and plenty of entertainment options ranging from rowdy bars to live sex shows. If getting hammered and watching strangers do it isn’t quite up your alley, head out to quieter districts like Jordaan, Oud-West, and Oost and get a smoke from one of the less-touristy coffeeshops in these areas, like Kafenion, Blue Lagoon, or Coffeeshop Oost.

If Amsterdam’s off your radar, a more modern destination is California. Home to a much more developed cannabis industry, Cali has great places to scope out weed, including many famous dispensaries. But for something truly unique, consider visiting one of the state’s vineyard-style cannabis farms.

Mine + Farm Inn, for example, is a boutique 420-friendly Bed and Breakfast operating inside of the historic Ridenhour Ranch in the Russian River Valley—a premier wine region in California's Sonoma County. Besides its homey rooms, the inn also offers tailored "elevated events" such as educational workshops, tastings, or even infused dinners—all featuring cannabis cultivated right on site.

Alternatively (or maybe on the same trip), consider hopping the border to Nevada—home to arguably some of the flashiest dispensaries in the world. Not only are they the perfect place to stock up on top-shelf flower, dabs, or edibles, but Vegas’ dispensaries also offer top-shelf live entertainment.

Planet13, for example, is a complex designed to “change the way cannabis is experienced.” A fully immersive entertainment venue, Planet13 encompasses the world’s largest dispensary, a full restaurant and bar, retail shops, and more. If you’re after something a little more fancy, The Dispensary Lounge combines premier cannabis with live jazz, first-class cocktails, and delicious cannabis.

As new legal weed markets sprout up around the world, traveling tokers get more opportunities to explore different cultures’ relationships with the herb. Right now, an up-and-coming market to keep on your radar is Germany, which may soon begin offering unique cannabis experiences to the 30+ million global visitors it receives every year (Road Genius, 2024).

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Cannabis lounges and consumption spaces

Buying weed legally is great, but having an awesome place to light up is even better. That’s where consumption spaces like cannabis lounges and bars shine. Some great examples of stellar cannabis lounges include:

• Rise Mundelein: A prime spot in Chicago, Illinois where you can go to light up and enjoy whatever flower, dabs, or edibles you scored from the adjacent Rise dispensary.
• Sky High Lounge: Vegas’ first cannabis consumption lounge and still a prime spot to have a chill smoke in Sin City.
• The Pizza Pusha: A unique space that serves up infused pizza, gelato, salads, and more. Talk about elevating your typical NYC slice.
• The Studio: Located on the iconic Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, The Studio is a dispensary, bar, and lounge all in one, serving up top-shelf bud, delicious canna-cocktails, and an all-around good vibe.

Where cannabis lounges and bars stand out from traditional coffeeshops or dispensaries is in that they offer tourists a more comprehensive experience that combines cannabis with two of life’s greatest pleasures—eating and drinking. Moreover, a lot of cannabis lounges also provide live music or other forms of entertainment that pair well with a smoke.

Despite everything they offer consumers, cannabis lounges and bars are relatively scarce when compared to cannabis-friendly hotels or retail stores. That’s because these venues often face tighter regulations and even opposition from locals who don’t want a cannabis bar or lounge to operate near where they live. Luckily, as the stigma around cannabis goes up in smoke and markets become better at regulating the sale and use of weed, we’re seeing more of these venues pop up around the world.

Educational cannabis tourism

Sure, weed smokers love to chill. But they are also often very curious—and that’s something the cannabis tourism industry is very much capitalizing on.

Just like wine or beer lovers can flock to vineyards or breweries to get closer to their drink of choice, weed lovers can now get an inside look at what goes into creating their premium flower, high-potency dabs, or mouthwatering edibles. Humboldt Cannabis Tours, for example, provides highly educational and professional tours of the facilities producing Humboldt County’s highly revered cannabis.

For those more inclined to eat cannabis rather than smoke it, there’s also plenty to get excited about. Cannabis cooking classes are sprouting in pretty much every legal cannabis market in the world. Cape Town’s Cannabis Institute, for example, holds a comprehensive Cooking with Cannabis class where attendees learn the basics of weed cooking, such as how to make infused butter and oil, as well as how to make cannabis sauces, dressings, and even topicals.

Meanwhile, La Rica Uruguay offers personalized cooking classes in Montevideo—the capital of the first country in the world to legalize weed in its entirety. Its founder, Marcela Ikeda, also offers private cannabis-infused dinners and a growing list of ready-made products like infused chili oils.

Another growing aspect of educational cannabis tourism is the rise of cannabis wellness retreats. If you’re interested in incorporating cannabis into your self-care routine, these experiences are perfect, as they can teach you ways through which to use cannabis to nurture your body, mind, and spirit—namely by pairing it with activities like yoga, meditation, pilates, massage, skincare, and more.

MoodRXTreats, for example, was founded by Pittsburgh-based cannabis entrepreneur Holly Teegarden, who’s owned a dispensary and been involved in other cannabis-related ventures, too. The company curates immersive weekend retreats targeted at women looking to connect with themselves through cannabis—whether they’ve tried it before or not. In 2025, MoodRXTreats retreats are scheduled to be held in Maryland, Michigan, New York, and Ohio.

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Challenges and legal complexities

Of course, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies in the world of cannabis tourism. Just like any other branch of the legal weed industry, cannabis tourism faces constant challenges.

In the US, for example, one of the major factors playing against the growth of cannabis tourism is the continued prohibition of weed under federal law. Since weed is still a Schedule 1 substance, any cannabis tourism business operating in a legal state is technically still breaking federal law. And though the federal government hasn’t shown much interest in persecuting cannabis businesses, federal prohibition still poses a bunch of challenges, including:

• Varying state laws: What might be legal in one place may be completely illegal in another. Moreover, the quality of cannabis may vary greatly from one state to another, due to a lack of federal regulation standards.
• Travel restrictions: Crossing state borders with cannabis is still very much a no-go in the US.
• Federal tax restrictions: Because cannabis is federally illegal, it can’t raise federal taxes.
• Banking restrictions: Cannabis businesses, including those in the tourism sector, have long been dealing with tight financial restrictions, as they cannot access banking.

Outside of the US, the global cannabis industry also faces many challenges—a major one being the pushback generated by the stigma surrounding weed and its use. This is often the case in young legal markets or conservative areas.

Of course, constructing a functioning tourism infrastructure around cannabis also raises many legal questions. Most pressing, for example, are legal frameworks that support safe weed consumption without becoming too restrictive, followed closely by concerns regarding liability. Cannabis businesses operating in legal cannabis states, for example, may struggle to qualify for the insurance necessary to keep their staff and clients protected when emergencies or accidents occur.

Moreover, the cannabis tourism industry also faces the challenge of having a significant impact on the environment. The regular tourism industry is already known to put a strain on the environment through its reliance on transporting and housing people. Adding to this is the environmental stress of cultivating cannabis (Helmer, 2019), a plant that consumes lots of water, fertilizer, and light.

Public health and safety, of course, are also a concern when legalizing cannabis and developing industries around its consumption. While cannabis is often considered safe by those who use it and are interested in profiting from its legalization, the reality is that we’re still uncovering the many ways in which this complex plant affects the human body. Moreover, the increased potency of modern cannabis also raises some real health concerns, particularly regarding its effect on mental health (Backman, 2023).

Finally, another major concern facing the growth of the cannabis tourism sector regards equity. In many parts of the world, poorer people have typically been more affected by the criminalization of cannabis—oftentimes to devastating ends. Now, as the laws around cannabis change and a billion-dollar industry is constructed around the sale of legal weed, questions arise about how to make this industry accessible to everyone, including those unjustly harmed by the prohibition of cannabis in the past (Yang, Berg, & Burris, 2023).

Cannabis tourism: A new frontier

Cannabis tourism is a growing industry with plenty of potential. As new markets for legal weed emerge and existing ones mature, the number and type of experiences open to traveling tokers only increases.

In this article, we’ve aimed to give you a general understanding of what cannabis tourism is, the potential of the industry, and the experiences it’s already put up for offer. At the same time, we briefly explored the many challenges facing the industry. From public safety concerns to legal restrictions and even equity, there’s no shortage of challenges that need to be overcome for weed tourism to fully blossom.

Steven Voser

Steven Voser is an independent cannabis journalist with over 6 years of experience writing about all things weed; how to grow it, how best to enjoy it, and the booming industry and murky legal landscape surrounding it.

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