Getting on the bus was a breeze organized simple. Coming back from Bunol was madness. People were... read more
Getting on the bus was a breeze organized simple. Coming back from Bunol was madness. People were... read more
Unfortunately the tour company we originally booked with pulled out of the festival last minute so... read more
I booked tickets for La Tomatina with Spaintastic tours. On arrival at the collection booth I was told that the tickets should have been collected before 9am, which was not included in the conditions of sale or email instructions.
Luckily I managed to purchase replacement tickets, but now I am contacting Spaintastic for a refund, and they are telling me they don't issue refunds and that I have to go to the town hall.
Bottom line, the event is great fun but don't book through Spaintastic. If only I had red the other reviews on this site before booking I would have avoided them.
We were a group of 70 people and they organized a tour to valencia and la tomatina. It was great fun, and the staff was amazingly helpful in organizing it. Highly recommend!!
First off - let me start by saying that the one star is for Spaintastic - NOT Tomatina. Tomatina in itself is fun. Spaintastic, however, is very disorganized. First off, their website is worthless. My friend and I spent about 30 minutes trying to book a bus tour and Tomatina ticket on the website with no success. When we went to the Spaintastic office the next day they did not seem to care that the online booking system wasn't working. They pushed their water after party hard on the attendees - from the in person booking at the office, to the day of the event in the morning and getting of the bus. 10 euro water party they said. That "party" was pretty much a scam. All it was was people hosing you down every once in a while (after long intervals of waiting). Nothing party about it. We pretty much went out of desparation because the showers they said were nearby actually didn't exist and they emphasized again and again that you couldn't get back on the bus unless you washed the tomato off.
Word of advice - you can skip the "water party" and get hosed down by the locals for free. And they seem to really enjoy doing it!
They also say they have their own lockers which are the most expensive locker option, and don't let you reserve them ahead of time even though they are their own lockers!! Even at that they aren't really lockers - it's just a bag holding service that you're only allowed to use once or else you have to pay the 5 euro again - the term "locker" is misleading here.
Their bus service from Valencia was mostly straight forward (though they didn't seem to have all their sht together even then). But getting a bus back was a hot mess. No organization, just a bunch of yelling and pushing.
The employees themselves didn't seem to know much. Most questions were met with "I don't know" or wrong answers. (Where are the showers? When do the buses come? etc., etc.)
Moral of the story - if I did this again I would go without the company and take a RENFE train as the entrance to Tomatina itself is only 10 euro. You could book a place to stay the night before, join in all the pre-parties and after parties, have access to the shower in the place you booked and enjoy Buñol a little bit - it's quite a lovely city and I wish I had more time to explore it.
I was this year's Tomatina and it was all very good. They showed great professionalism. I came from Madrid by bus and everything was perfect. The staff was very friendly and at all times had the necessary attention. This year I want to visit Valencia in Fallas and surely will hire some of their offerings.
We booked a package for La Tomatina that included return bus trip to and from Valencia, La Tomatina tickets, t-shirt and Sangria/ Paella after the festival. When we arrived in Buñol for the festival we were given a wrist band and told that this was our entry to the festival. We then walked down into the town (about 20 mins) and tried to enter the festival. We were told by security and festival organisers that the wrist band we had been given was for the return bus only and that we should have been given a second wrist band to enter the festival. We were then forced to line up and buy new tickets to enter La Tomatina that cost €15 each. After the festival had ended we went back to our bus to find that all passengers on the bus were in the same situation. The guide said it was nor his fault or responsibility and refused to issue refunds. We never received the t-shirt, sangria or Paella and had to buy new tickets to the festival, all in all we were over €50 out of pocket. DO NOT BOOK WITH SPAINTASTIC!
We were rather late when booking the tickets, there were no "only tomatina"-tickets left, so we decided to buy tickets including bus. However, there was only the 5 am buses left. When a friend of ours booked his ticket three weeks later, suddenly there were 7 or 8 am buses available again (seemed very arbitrary).
So I got in touch with Spaintastic in order to change the bus. They responded that there was no space left in a later bus and it was too late anyways to make arrangements. I responded them quoting their terms & conditions, which stated an exact date. They then replied that they had mixed up the dates and we could change our bookings. For 15 EUR per ticket we could change the bus. We received the new bus tickets and clear instructions that the entry tickets were still valid and we only had to replace the bus tickets. When we arrived in Bunol however, the scanner did not recognise our tickets. We had to walk to another ticket office, had to explain our problem to about 10 different people who did not seem like they would help us. Luckily, I had my phone with me and could show them all the booking details and emails we had exchanged with Spaintastic,so in the end they gave us a bracelet. Even if the tomato fight was fun, Spaintastic did nothing to make it a good experience - rather the opposite.
It might however be different if you book early enough and do not have to rely on any more service by Spaintastic.