Guide · Amsterdam · 2026-10-15
Nuru or body to body in Amsterdam: the step a returning guest takes after the oil hour
After one or two oil sessions, many regulars want the next booking to feel different. Body to body and nuru are the two formats they most often weigh up, and the choice depends as much on the hotel bathroom as on preference.
Both formats share a principle: the therapist uses her body as well as her hands, with slow gliding contact rather than strokes alone. Beyond that they diverge in ways that matter to a guest on a trip. One stays close to the oil session he knows. The other changes the material, the room and the length.
Body to body: one step from the familiar
A body to body massage keeps the warm oil and the bed of the session most guests already know. It begins with the hands, then moves to fuller contact as she decides. There is no gel and nothing to rinse, so it fits a small hotel room exactly as the oil hour does. For many regulars it is the first new format they try.
Nuru: gel, a sheet and a shower
A nuru massage replaces oil with a warm, slippery gel. She brings the gel and a waterproof sheet, sets them out first, and the work moves with long gliding contact, the pressure coming from weight rather than fingers. At the end there is a rinse, which means the shower becomes part of the booking.
The bathroom decides a great deal
A regular who stays in the same building each trip already knows whether the shower is generous and the water hot. That knowledge makes nuru an easy choice. A guest in a new hotel with a narrow cubicle may prefer body to body this time and keep nuru for a trip with a better bathroom.
Length
Body to body suits an hour for a first try, with ninety minutes the more common choice once a guest knows he enjoys it. Nuru is possible in an hour but tight, because of the gel and the rinse, so most guests book ninety minutes, and two hours for those who want time after the shower.
Same figures, same rules
Neither format costs more than another at the same length. A same-day request from a returning guest for one or two hours at a central address is paid at the door, for nuru as for body to body. Three hours or longer sends half ahead in both. She names her limits at the start of each visit, and a format a guest has had before is no exception.
Trying one, then the other
Some regulars take body to body on one trip and nuru on the next, comparing the two over successive visits. That is a sensible way to learn which you prefer. The guide to a different format covers how to ask.