Solscape

I was disappointed in this spot as a campsite for a camper van. The cost was far to high as the campsite was just their parking lot. The facilities were run down. I paid for two nights and then asked for my money back for the second night because our camper was leaking and there were heavy rains. The person working at the counter said she couldn’t refund me. When I asked why not and if I could speak with the owner she just said “she’s around. Do you know what she looks like”. But she didn’t get her for me. Facilities were run down. For our family to use the sauna it would cost an extra 100 for an hour use. There is lots of free camping in raglan and I would recommend that instead for self contained campers. The kids enjoyed the trampoline and the view is beautiful.

We had an excellent experience working with Steph from Hike n Bike for our car relocation service. It was easy to set up and Steph was friendly, professional, and flexible. The car relocation service was a breeze and made our OGR experience worry free. Steph also took some great photos of us at the start of the ride. 10/10 would do again!

We were recommended this place and when we checked out the website it looked amazing. The website offered massage, great food grown and prepared on the property, and surf lessons. I received an email the week prior asking me to book any on site services, when I tried none were available- no food, no massage, no surf school. When we arrived to stay in our earth dome we found it very basic. No towels and a shower room with holes in the walls! This place is basically a run down backpackers! Great views though.

I love Solscape. It is a very special place to stay and I have come here over the last 12 years first with my family when the children were younger, and more recently on my own. It has always been a retreat from the humdrum of city life and a place of peace and quiet. But over the last few years I have seen lack of upkeep. Projects are abandoned and the greenhouse now in disuse. The Tepee village has been all but abandoned, with just one last tepee standing, and looking neglected. The main cooking area has a real lack of cutlery, pots and pans and drying cloths. There are no plugs for the sinks, so to wash up the plug holes need to be sealed with garden leaves. The caboose cabins are rusting badly and some may be beyond repair. Half completed projects are left with grass growing around the resultant building debris. I was still coming here though as I felt I could turn a blind eye to all of this, as there was still value in staying. But on my last trip the teenage son of the owner was racing around the main accomodation area on a motorised scooter and did not heed my requests to stop. Families were staying at that time with toddlers walking around. This young man and his friends were later running amok in the cafe area. That was the last straw for me. I asked for a refund, which was granted without question and I found alternative accomodation. I will not be returning to Solscape again in its current state. Very sad for me. And also for a once beautiful vision.

We had been really looking forward to our stay at Solscape. We booked and paid for three nights on a powered site. When we arrived, we found that reception had closed early, our allocated pitch was already occupied, and there were no other pitches free. We tried to talk to staff in the kitchen and elsewhere onsite, but they were rude and not interested in helping us. We called the out-of-hours numbers several times until someone eventually answered, and we spoke to a manager. He told us he was on his way up from the town. We waited at reception at the entrance to the site. When he arrived, he drove straight past us, and didn’t stop to acknowledge us or reassure us he was going to sort things out. After a further wait (we had now been waiting an hour and a half), I went to try and find him. He was sitting in his car on the phone and refused to acknowledge my presence. He was the fourth member of staff that had now ignored me, so I was getting a bit tired of it. (It turns out that the other members of staff were probably woofers and not paid staff. That might explain why they weren’t interested in sorting out a double booking.) Eventually, the manager finished his call and was clearly unapologetic. After a brief discussion, he said he was going to ‘kick the other guy off the pitch’. I was uncomfortable with that, so he suggested that I ‘find somewhere else to stay bro’. So, after two hours of trying to get a member of staff to sort out the double booking, we left with no apology, no refund and nowhere to stay at 7.30pm in the evening. The website made it look like a friendly and spiritual place. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is rundown and has a very unfriendly vibe. It has stunning view from the café, but the junk on the lawn spoilt it. The powered sites are cramped in a corner of the car park next to permanent residents who were clearly over having to share their space.