Tobacconist Farm Campsite — Hotel in Stroud

A group of 8 of us (4 x couples, plus a dog, and 2 additional visitors on the Saturday totalling 10 adults) stayed at the Tobacconist for two nights the first weekend in August. It is a lovely and well-equipped site: the shower/toilet facilities are clean and conveniently placed, each pitch on our stretch had its own water tap, it was very quiet and peaceful, there is a very nice pub less than 10 min walk away (The Crown Inn), and the pitches themselves were spacious and broken up by trees and/or long grass/hedges which provided a nice amount of privacy. As it is on a farm, there are lovely animals nearby including a couple of donkeys (Alice and Alan) who come up to say hello.

This would be a 5 star review if it wasn’t for our treatment on our arrival. My two friends were the first to arrive to the site and they had an extremely unpleasant welcome. Lucy (the campsite owner) was rude, raised her voice, and made the start of our weekend away extremely stressful. Lucy brought up the issues to the rest of the group as we arrived that evening, greeting people saying ‘it has not gone well so far’, that we had got the booking wrong, how we had under-paid, and how our ’unhappy blonde’ friend was not happy with her. I would NEVER expect this treatment from anyone in a customer-facing role.

The cause of the drama seemed to be down to an issue with our booking (which we had booked almost 3 months before our visit) – something about exceeding the number of adults/ cars/ campers/ tents per pitch. Under normal circumstances, I would expect a call/email in advance of our stay to highlight any issues so I could resolve them, and where this isn’t possible, a calm and polite conversation on arrival with suggestions of ways we could resolve any issues (e.g. additional payment, some sort of change of location/pitch etc.).

The site itself does not have a website and so we booked through Campsites.co.uk. Through this website we were able to book 6 adults per pitch, but on arrival, we were made aware of a 4-adult limit. Specific rules or how the camp operated and is set-up wasn’t clear - the Tobacconist’s info on the site does not mention any particular rules or caps and so when booking for a large group it is easy to make a mistake if you do not have all the information. There also seemed to be an issue with the amount of cars we had (again, no mention of this on the booking site) and so this also caused trouble. Each one of us had a hostile greeting and personally it left me feeling extremely anxious and guilty; I would never go out of my way to bend rules or try and get more than I pay for. It was a misunderstanding that I believe could have been quickly resolved by a 2 min chat.

The whole experience that evening was absolutely horrendous and it is fair to say I will never camp here again… Although, as we were directly told by Lucy, I am now banned from staying there again anyway because I have now left a...

Fantastic find! Tobacconist Farm is a very well maintained and equipped site located a couple of minutes walk from the Village of Minchinhampton. We were one of three families consisting of 5 children ranging from 2 to 11, we also had a first time camper with us. I camp a few times each year and will definitely add this site to my network.

We found the owner of the site to be very friendly, professional and welcoming, she is clearly proud of the site and wants to maintain high standards which ultimately benefits guests. There are animals on the farm and some children left the paddock gate open, the owner kindly explained to the children that it is important to close the gate in order to safeguard the donkeys, contrary to other reviews, I saw no evidence of her being rude or displaying any negative attitude towards guests.

There is plenty to do on the site and the local area, a variety shops are walking distance and Stroud is a 10 min drive and is handy for activities on a rainy day.

You can have campfires off of the ground and you can borrow a fire pit from the site if you don't have one, you can also buy wood from the farm for a reasonable price.

The toilets, showers and kitchen were the best I've seen, and there is access to a fridge freezer (first come first served I guess).

There is a small playground which is ideal for younger children and there is a dog walking area which we found to be very useful.

I would say the site is perfect for families, there were small adults groups and the odd couple I believe too. The pitches are very generous so it still has a private feel even though the site was quite busy.

Deffo...

I recently came back from a 3 night stay at this campsite. A group of 6.

On the second day as we were returning to the campsite after a dog walk, I slowed down to say hello to the owner Lucy and make sure she knew we were coming in - she proceeded to ask me when we were paying as she said she had spoken about the matter to me the day before, she had not. I advised her that I would get the person she did talk to, to come to her when they returned later.

She then started an aggressive rant about how she had told all our camp the day before about recycling and the camp rules on this - I clarified that she had never spoken to me or my partner about this at any point.

She then started shouting that she had me on her CCTV throwing the wrong items in the wrong bins. I told her in no uncertain terms she did not, as I had not put anything in a bin, she called me a liar and again stated ranting she had this on CCTV. I told her this was someone else I was camping with, she had NEVER spoken to me and she could watch it again and then come back and apologize to me. She never did. She also had an aggressive outburst with someone else we were camping with and we heard of her doing the same with others. This woman should not work in a role that deals with the public.

She is aggressive and rude, I would not stay here again under any...