1) The owner of this park Charlie is a horribly abusive man. I had the displeasure of working at this dump of a park and I'm making sure everyone I come across doesn't ever go there. He is a crook and a predator. Don't stop here the park should be renamed wolf creek van park
2) I would like to point out that the manager used our credit card details to pass other transactions after our departure. We are now in the process of settling a dispute with our bank to get our money back. I VERY much recommend travelers to stay away from this place.
I'm not surprised now, reading other reviews about this place. The very first review you get in google about this park is from another man, claiming that he had been charged to his card, without his consent, days after his departure. Exactly the same thing he did to me. I should've known better... I would like to call out on these dirty practices and help future travelers to avoid the same situation that I went through.
3) We arrived around 8.30pm after a long drive from Perth. The park was full so we initially appreciated the efforts of the lady on the phone to squeeze us into an unpowered tent site. My son has been making video recordings of his adventure crossing the Nullarbor and had his camera on inside the car as we drove in. He asked the manager as we paid him if that was okay, to which he replied that he wanted no weirdos in the park and immediately evicted us. Perhaps he made other assumptions about us. I don't know, there was no discussion. I acknowledge that he acted within his rights but not as I would expect from the manager of a tourism operation. Someone else should be running that park. In the meantime leave your cameras at home.
4) Very crowded in January. If you take your pets to be prepared to be charged an extra $5 per night for each one. Facilities old and dirty. The only thing this park has going for it is the fantastic beachfront location.
5) It's not a 5-star park. The amenities are very old, but when we were there, they were clean, the camp kitchen is also the laundry, the owner can be blunt & possibly rude but he has a good heart & makes a great coffee.. the reception area is also the kiosk and Charlie's office... It's kind of grubby and needs a woman's touch. Don't rule this park out tho, it's right on the beach, wow what a spot... allows campfires, it's close to Apollo Bay, dog-friendly and allows dogs in its onsite vans. It is what it is.. Rough and ready
6) Great location, pet-friendly, clean but old bathrooms. An interesting character who runs the place!
7) No need for me to write a detailed review as it's all already been covered below regarding the management, toilets and general dodginess.
But if you want to look past all of that. They allow dogs and it's next to an amazing beach.
8) If you really want to spend an uncomfortable and unpleasant moment do not go to this place. The manager of the place is the most frightening person I met in the world. We've been discriminated because we were from another country, he wanted to seduce my wife and he made fun of our accent. Horrible experience!!
9) Do not give them your time, the manager here is a disgrace to our state.
10) I’d attest to the claims that he makes purchases with customers credit cards (he demands your credit card security code or rudely declines your booking on peak weekends when there’s limited availability elsewhere) He immediately came across money hungry.
For someone who lives on the beach, this bloke is a real flogging.
Response from the owner3 months ago
Sorry mate... We have great place here on the beach... Dog friendly and camp fires...unfortunately for you Without the security code we cannot process payments to hold any bookings... Its extremely busy and don't have time for people unable to follow our procedures to confirm bookings.. Nothing can be processed without security code... This has been the norm for many years and when booking or making payments with other companies...is the same... We have regulars for 15 years who follow suit.. Cheers
11) Do not stay there - the worst park I've ever stayed in and the bloke who runs it doesnt care about much except getting cash and is damn rude. Only positive is that it is on the beach but that doesn't change much. If you could rank minus stars this place would get minus 5.
12) Extremely rude management! Talked down to my wife like she was dumb, So we decided to go elsewhere and very happy we did. Way Better facilities and friendly and helpful management like it should be. Don't give these people your time or money. Trust all the bad reviews!!
13) At least the site was flat, shower and toilet facilities were old, unclean, and dark, water was hot, smelly dog poo on our campsite!! Very cramped, beach side of road was a benefit, good beach
14) If you like to be at the worst place to camp on the Great Ocean Road then go no further. That is it ! No more comment.
15) Wouldn't bother stopover here $66 one night no power
16) Great location. Right on the beach. Pet friendly and allows campfires in the right conditions. Basic, dated facilities but does the job. Good sized sites. Perfect for a weekend camping. Summer Holidays is a mad house with zero privacy from neighbours
Response from the owner a year ago
Thanks for the review.. Yes old school facilities. Can't change summer popularity.. Its like going to a packed beach... There is no privacy... This is an avsolte beachfront park. Better than none..
17) A shanty town that overcharges for spots near a subpar beach
18) Don't waste your time it's almost double the price as 2 minutes down the road at the big4 and it's really nice there with great facilities unlike the old ones here. But is on the beach front and can have pets if that's what your after
19) A nice camp site but ruined by the managers customer service skills. Was told one fee only to later find that there were additional costs that doubled the price. Manager was extremely rude to us from the moment we walked into the site. Made a relaxing trip away with my partner a disappointing and anxiety filled experience.
20) If I could give zero I would the rudest man in living history a lier a chip on his shoulder..and then Gave me an unregistered car. What an ashole
21) Why not 5stars?
1. The odor of dogs gets up my nose.
2. Too many people squashed in on top of each other.
3. Toilet block (only one for 80 sites)
is a genuine 1960 original.
22) Staff was rude. Location was great. Not the typical campground you'd imagine in AU
23) Beautiful town! Stayed there on Australia Day weekend, has great access to the rest of the Great Ocean rd Coast.
MAJOR DISSAPOINTMENT was the owners of the Caravan Park ripping us off! Having been told on booking that we were required to pay in full, which we understood and complied with, we arrived at the park to be told we now had to pay an extra tariff per head (basically doubling our accommodation costs). The fact we didn't have the funds to do this was of no concern to the owners who took it upon themselves to charge it (without consent) to my credit card. A shame really because they and all campers i came across were quite friendly.
My advice: Make sure you are fully briefed by them on exactly what "paid in Full" means to them
In response to managements response
Absolute Rubbish! The management were WELL AWARE of the amount of people staying! Hence the reasoning behind my disappointment at the time! As I said previously, due to it being Australia Day Weekend and one of their busiest, we were required to pay the ENTIRE amount for all of us IN FULL to guarantee the site! Which as I said before we were more than happy to do. At no time was there contact of any type by mobile or otherwise to arrange payment of the surprise additional costs. Also management we made aware at the time we neither had the extra funds nor the inclination to pay them as it was in direct contrast to our previous agreement!
Like I said, Lovely Town! shame about the service
24) Don't waste your time continue to Apollo Bay. The owner made it very clear that he did not welcome camper trailer at the park, however was more than happy to take our money.
There was dog poo over the ground where we were told to set up.
The owners dogs hung around our camp site while we were trying to cook our meals.
The owner hung around and watched everything we did for the couple days we were there.
Wasn't an enjoyable stay even though the beach was only a couple of meters from the park.
25) Not SKENES Creek WOLF CREEK- This place should be renamed WOLF CREEK caravan park - Everyone BEWARE
26) While the location is idilic, this is probably the most run down site we have stayed at. It was quiet out of season but would be very cramped at peak times. The ablutions were run down did not seem to be cleaned at all over the 5 days we were there. See the photos to form your own opinion.
At peak times, the (only) two WC cubicles for men must be in constant use.
When you ring up to book they try to charge you more than the price advertised on their website. They claim they reserve the right to do that!
Response from the owner2 years ago
Response from the owner2 years ago
Hi Grant, there is no disagreement that this caravan toilet block is 40 years old. There have been an additional shower put in with new showers, and new gas hot water system, with plenty of compliments on the showers from our regulars of 40 years who have seen vast improvements over several years- not forgetting the new public toilet block at the entrance with an additional WC cubicles and "disability access" for use.
This is crown land and, obviously, on the foreshore, which makes this place unique in its style and location, but restricted in its infrastructure
Commenting and making assumptions about the peak season is unfair as all our regulars during peak season are happy and have seen improvements over the years.
There may have been issues with contract cleaners at the time, but possibly some confusion that the toilet floor looks untidy but in reality only needs a repaint or polished concrete- yet to be decided.
As per our tariffs, changes can be made at anytime.
27) Very strange to have a total ban on cameras in a tourism destination... I wouldn't recommend going if you plan on recording your family holiday in any way. You will be evicted.
28) Nice enough place to stay but for a few problems with the manager. Like fraud. If you stay here do NOT give these people your credit card number. When we did they not only made charges from it that we didn't approve, and there was even a transaction in Apollo Bay recorded when we were back in Geelong. They should and may have their right to take credit card payments withdrawn.
CASH ONLY. THEY ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED!!
29) I would like to point out that the manager used our credit card details to pass other transactions after our departure. We are now in the process of settling a dispute with our bank to get our money back. I VERY much recommend travelers to stay away from this place.
I'm not surprised now, reading reviews from other users about getting charges to their cards without their approval. I would like to call out on these dirty practices and help future travelers to avoid the same situation that I went through.
30) The "powered" sites at $75 a night require you to hire an extension lead for an extra $50, which might I add is out in the open and tied to a tree. Not very safe. Extremely small sites with no gap between you and the next person
31) The manager objected to my son having his video camera on in the car as we drove in. Use of a video camera inside the park is not allowed. I dont know the policy on dashcams, mobile phones, Gopros or still image cameras. We were labelled "wierdos" and evicted.
32) July 19, 2014 - Would have been nice to know it was closed! Nothing on the website to indicate it would be closed. Drove all the way from Melbourne only to have to turn around and return to Anglesea.
33) Scary
34) Very ordinary tv would not work told manger did nothing fa cities order nary would not come back showers not hot
35) Expensive prices, small sites, poor facilities and incredibly rude management.
36) Great location, but doesn't weigh over the incredibly bad customer service, disgusting facilities an the owners feral dogs
37) Could do with an upgrade of their amenities block and a few lights for night time.
38) Good location - however, extremely poor customer service. They need to update their website with proper pricing as we were charged a lot more than expected. $230 for two nights (low season) but were charged for three, as there apparently was a 'three night minimum' stay for this weekend...their website states that the minimum is only for Monday -Thursday. They made up their own pricing charging extra people $15 not $10 like the website says. All in all very appalling customer service as they didn't properly explain the reasons why we were being charged so much. Not sure how they have a 4.5 star rating via Facebook, Google reviews gives it 2.8. Would highly not recommend.
39) I travel the GOC quite regularly, I generally have my spots I stay at though my mates and I decided to give this park a crack.
We should have leftinstantlywhenwesawtheowners dogs shitting next to a caravan, and having the owner screw around in his shop for 15 minutes while we waited to ask if we could even camp there.
He was very rude and sarcastic towards us, maybe due to us being young youth....though it's still not a way to run a business. Customer service 0/10.
Prices seemed to be varied depending on the owners emotional status of the day as he was very unclear with what or how much he was charging us.
When we finally got the price after setting up it was an incredible $70foronecamp site, 4 people.
The facilities were old and dirty, the games room consists of a broken pool table and a tv which doesn't turn on. Bbq was dirty and I'm glad I took my own stove top.
The beach was awesome, I'll admit that though...I recommend camping somewhere else and traveling to it as the owner decided to come out and have a dig at us once again for surfing, due to the kids fishing off the beach which we were easily clear of.
When leaving the owner true to make a good old fun joke about how much he stuck into us.
So overall a great stay with Skenes beach I'd rate it a .5/5 if possible and that's only because it's on the beach.
I wouldn't recommend staying here!
Look at wiki camp reviews to see some other quality camper stories.
Skenes Creek Beachfront Caravan Park Hi lochy... Great review... Facilities old yes... Cant expect to clean up after u all day after making a mess on the bbq..some people just inconsiderate..Think you forgot to mention removing green vegetation from the local restricted area for campfires is not on... Fact we gave u a discounted rate for the sites even though u used 2 sites... And it wasn't me telling ubto stop surfing because someone was fishing???? I'm a surfer... Enjoy
40) I would like to point out that the manager used our credit card details to pass other transactions after our departure. We are now in the process of settling a dispute with our bank to get our money back. I VERY much recommend travelers to stay away from this place.I'm not surprised now, reading comments in other travel sites from more users getting charges to their cards without their approval. I would like to call out on these dirty practices and help future travelers avoid getting scammed.
41)
Although the beach at skenes creek is as lovely as anywhere else along the great ocean road, I cannot express strongly enough how bad my experience here was. I was a female traveller, camping alone and I felt nervous from the time I arrived until the time I left. Plenty of things to complain about including dog poop everywhere, dirty facilities, and poorly organised sites (hard to read what number). I had paid for a powered site but the power was turned off around 7pm (it was dark) and then someone tried to open the doors of the van...luckily I had them all locked but I was very scared. The power did come back on after about ten minutes. The owner, Charlie, is very touchy feeling, wanting hugs from me (a complete stranger) as soon as I arrived. He also insisted I come up to the kiosk at night as he needed to see me about the site but when I got there he was clearly wanting to socialise instead. As I was away for some much needed time to myself, I found the whole experience most unsettling and not relaxing at all. I don't think sleazy is too strong a word! I left first thing the following morning and would not recommend this park to my worst enemy.
42)
The male manager is so so rude
We turned up for our booking that we’d made the week prior and had paid fees in full only to have to “prove” we’d paid for it. The staff had recorded our fees incorrectly and had apparently undercharged me by $1 and had forgotten to charge me the 3% credit card fee. ($1.68). None of which was my fault but I was spoken too as if it was. He went to great lengths to tell me how I’d got away with this “crime” of short paying $2.68. I said that he was making me feel very unwelcome as the error wasn’t mine. He said right he’d refund me then and I can go elsewhere. So I called his bluff, got my refund, told him how rude he was and found the most beautiful caravan park only 2 k’s up the road in Apollo Bay. So much better than his seedy looking place. Maybe I should be thanking him otherwise I’d have missed out on staying in such a better place with the friendliest receptionist I’ve experienced.
43) Worst caravan park I have stayed in, park sites to small for camper trailers to set up properly, park was dirty, the owner was rude, the shower and toilet facilities were not up to standard for the amount of people that were booked in, good to see that it is a pet friendly park but it would of been good if the owners of the dogs cleaned up after them that includes the owner of the park. For the safety aspect the park was to over booked for that there is only one entry and exit point.
44) Horrible place that was extremely dirty, no parking, limited toilet and shower facilities that were not cleaned and smelled like urine, swashed in like a squatters camp but worst as it is overpriced and the manager has an attitude and is rude.
​
​
45) Would never stay there, run down, lack of shower/toilet facilities, no visitor parking facilities, the sites were extremely limited in space and not clearly marked, there was very little room to park the car on site it was right on the beach front, beautiful views and dog friendly but I would not stay there overnight. It is approx. one km out of Apollo Bay which is a lovely town with great views.