Stoke Travel Reviews 135

went to stoke travel springfest as part of a stag do...
Just wasn't what was presented on the website.

bed is really a mat. tents are awful. bathroom facillities lacking for the number of people. showers awful. breakfast is pointless and small... you could see they were trying to give you the least they possibly could. Its so far away from the beer gardens and the spring fest site... you have to take a bus and a train to get there... and there are so many nicer places in the city centre and are honestly farrrrr cheaper and nicer. Everyone so drunk that they were not compus mentus. Would not feel safe here if I were a girl to be honest... its really obvious that people are getting peer pressured into drinking despite how the company presents itself...

This was like being in a refugee camp but with beer. Great if you are 18 and can sleep on the floor... beer was okay but really everything else was faff. Only 18-22 year olds would tolerate this... and only the ones drunk out of their minds at that. If thats what you want as an american or australian kid then... have at it... but if not then be aware that you are paying alot for not very much.

Ended up booking a hotel after one day... cost less per day and got considerably more.

I would hard pass if i were you... there are much better, cheaper and easier ways of enjoying spring fest (and i suspect october fest as well). Like... considerably cheaper and better else where. Even when you consider the all you can drink beer... you will honestly pay less and get more else where... like significantly more... its really a waste of money.

I get it though... if you are 18 (and male) and want to get so drunk you won't remember anything... go for it... if you are anyone else... avoid.

Munich is so much more than this... real shame...

I made the mistake of booking two Stoke trips at the same time: a week in 'San Sebastien' (using quotes because the surf house is so far out, it's near impossible to get to San Sebastien) and two nights at Oktoberfest.

It's really not worth saving the money. The surf house experience was so awful we left early and booked a hotel for the rest of our trip. We did meet some cool people first, and bonded over how disappointing everything was. I should have cancelled the Oktoberfest trip but we'd already booked expensive flights and there weren't many hotels left. Of course, it wasn't any better than San Sebastien - the campground was the worst I've ever stayed in and I wish we'd shelled out for a hotel instead of toughing it out.

Customer service was super rude when we followed up about issues. Do yourself a favour and book literally anywhere else. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I don’t normally take the time to leave reviews for places but I need to for Stoke Travel and their Oktoberfest site! I’d read some bad reviews and was apprehensive but the free beer is great, the atmosphere is exactly how I was hoping and every day I met some new friends to go to the festival with. I’ll 100% look at other festivals with Stoke, if you know you’re camping, bring some warm clothes and don’t expect the facilities to be the same as a hotel, then you’ll have the best time like I just have!

Our very large group checked into a hotel after one night and I recommend you do the same especially as Munich is freezing in September. The staff are mostly rude and unhelpful and the facilities massively oversold - the teepees aren’t waterproof, 1cm roll matts, stained and musty sleeping bags and tents. plus 💩 smeared over the walls of the men’s bathroom, in the women’s shower and in sleeping bags thrown outside between tents. the only thing that’s decent is the drinks …. Which you pre-pay for lol. Definitely not for the faint hearted.

I would rate this lower if I could.

We got to the site at around midday on Saturday 17th September, so we missed the first night party.

We arrived to site and it looked like a scene from the walking dead. The facilities are basic and dirty, there are taps that trickle water and no soap. No loo roll either if you need it.

The tents are tiny. I'm 6ft4 and my head touched both ends of the tent. The air bed is a small 2" thick roll up bed and the sleeping bag is about as thin as a bag for life.

The staff members all seemed to be drunk or high and the bloke running it actively lied to our faces ( not about the site or the festival but it still matters ).

The tents were also pretty run down and muddy with a damp smell inside of them. If you want a bit of personal space, don't come here, the tents touch each other and are actually tied to each other with the guy ropes.

Someone also took a crap up one of them, charming.

The bar/party area is a few marquees with holes in them and a bunch of travellers serving cheap beer via pouring it from a bottle. The breakfast is guacamole or beans on toast and looked foul.

Out of the 10 of us in the group, 8 of us checked into a hotel for the night and I would honestly advise you to do so.

You couldn't pay me to step foot in that campsite or even glance at a Stoke Travel experience again. It was dreadful.

I risk not receiving any sort of refund by writing this review however I feel that other would be travelers who want a pain free experience should know of my journey with Stoke travel before booking so they don’t go through the same pain my fiance and I went through.

As a vivid traveler myself living and as an expat working in professional services in Europe for the last 4 years, I have to traveled to over 70 cities and also traveled with many ‘travel package’ companies including Busabout, Contiki, Topdeck, Sail Croatia and Turkey and have never had a negative review.

My experience with Stoke Travel has been anything but positive. There are many facets to this review so I will try and summaries as best as possible however as it is having been quite a long journey it might quite lengthy (sorry in advance).

The 4 month journey –

My fiance and I booked a travel package with Stoke Travel to go to Andorra in March, 2020 albeit this was around the time where the pandemic was known however no countries made any sort of decisions to close borders and the seriousness of it wasn’t fully aware, in saying that concerns were raised to Stoke travel whether the tour was moving forward and they had confirmed it was.

After travelling to Spain the night before, the morning of the tour came and everything seemed quite normal, similar to other tours I have been on however half way up to the Andorra mountain the tour was cancelled as Stoke personnel informed us this was due to the closure of Andorra borders, we were forced to turn around back to Barcelona however we were reassured that Stoke will do everything they can to take care of a refund and inform us of what the next steps would be. We were understanding to the unfortunate situation, trusted the word of Stoke and were happy to wait until the details on the refund were released.

This is where the pain, stress, and unprofessional customer service of Stoke travel really begins. Weeks went on and I had personal issues of losing my job due to the pandemic and as an expat this means I also have to leave the country hence no sort of voucher is of any benefit to me so the request for a refund was vital however after weeks went on I had continued to actively follow up for a refund of our money due to the cancellation. When I first tried to tell them of my situation I was constantly informed of their Force Majure clause located in their T&Cs and this was constantly put in my face and only until I sought legal advice is when the CEO and co-founder of Stoke travel, Toby Paramor got in touch with me. When this happened I thought this was an admirable thing for Stoke travel to do so we engaged in a phone conversation where we mutually reinstated and agreed with what I was saying in terms of my situation, Stokes situation, redundancy, needing to leave the continent and how a voucher does not hold any weight for us and again Toby the co-founder agreed that a voucher makes no sense however due to the Covid-19 pandemic they needed some time to see if they would still be operational which I was totally reasonable and understanding towards and gave the benefit of the doubt as companies were feeling a deep burden hence I agreed to what he suggested in which to wait for his update which he promised to personally provide me with in a 3 week call that he would give me.

3 weeks went by and I had seen Stoke travel were still operational which I was happy for however I did not receive any call, message or email so I gave it a few more days then I had to contact Toby directly to which the blame game begun. Although our purchase was with Stoke travel who are a packaged travel company that make money in delivering bundled packages, the blame game of waiting for Andorra mountain to open up so they can return and process refunds begun. This was then the continuous response I got each time I had to actively follow up for an update. About a month went on and I still received the same update from the CEO, I went on to do my own research within the hotel site of Andorra which we were going to stay at, the site displayed they were working from home and were processing refunds and cancellations and I had sent screenshots to Toby to which he replied “If I would like to take over negotiations in trying to secure refunds back on behalf of the group you are more than welcomed, otherwise please sit tight” for a senior person, a co-founder and a CEO of a people based company to sarcastically suggest to a customer to take over negotiations for behalf of the group is super unprofessional and disappointing especially the matter is between Stoke and I.

This been ongoing for 4 months now and no progress has been made hence this is still an ongoing process for my partner and I however it doesn’t seem like it is going in any positive direction so I would just warn other would be travelers of what they are going into.

Booked the Oktoberfest 2020 camping package for my stag party in February this year - initial contact was prompt and very good.

Oktoberfest was cancelled last week and received an email from Stoke travel to say they could either keep the £1000 deposit paid and it could be transferred onto another one of their packages for the next 2 years or a refund. As I was needing to rebook another hotel for October I asked for a full refund. I received an email to say they will process the refund but it will take time because of the backlog of refunds due to Covid 19 and that there would be a administration fee of 20% for all refunds (£200).

I responded back to say that I was not happy to pay this as this was never in the original email that they sent me and they are refusing to pay the full refund.

I understand that there maybe a small admin fee to pay but £200 is an absolute joke!

Went to their Oktoberfest camp, which was an amazing experience. All staff I met were friendly and helpful and their site had security who were also friendly. The free food and beer was great quality too!
Didn't give a 5th star because their initial wait time to get booked in was ludicrously long (2.5hrs) and there was no one there to stop queue skippers.