I fell in love with this beautiful farm when my wife and I saw some reels from other content creators. When we arrived, I fell even more in love.
But that's where the love stopped.
My wife purchased farm tour & cow milking tickets prior to our arrival & made reservations for dinner at the restaurant. She was concerned about there being overlap between the tour and dinner, so she reached out to Tirrito Farm. She was assured the 2 events wouldn't cross over.
We arrived at 2pm & met with the young lady in the store. She informed us that we could not check in until 4pm, so to please come back. Even though our dome was clearly unoccupied. We informed her that we had purchased tickets to the tour at 3pm & she also said to come back. We checked out the restaurant but then headed back into the store to find the young lady & a gentleman, I later found out was Dr. Tirrito at the counter. He informed us that he was unsure why his system charged us before hand for the tour. Apparently the system was not supposed to do that? We weren't offered an explanation or apology as he walked away, but no harm no foul.
We then walked around the property & returned at 3pm, as the tour tram left the main entrance. I did my best to call out and wave but no one heard or saw me. I ran into the store to alert the young lady. She said she called Roberto, the tour guide & that he would return for us & to wait outside, so we did. We waited several minutes before seeing the tour tram in the farm area. I returned to the store & the young lady said the owner was coming to pick us up. So my 9 year old daughter & wife went to the rest room.
That's when Yuri, the owner's wife went into the store, looking for us. When she came out, she did not appear or sound happy, motioning me to hurry up as she told me, "We have to go. We have to stick to the schedule. We're late." I explained my family was in the restroom. Her response, "Go get them." I was appalled & shocked. So I knocked on the restroom door, telling them to hurry. I then explained the entire situation to Yuri, who did not appear to care at all, only repeating that, "We're late & we have to stick to a schedule." Why didn't the tour guide wait 5 minutes or at the least make sure everyone with a ticket was there? They had our names & phone number. I then explained who I was, then, she relayed that she was the owner & her entire demeanor changed.
We met up with the rest of the tour & Yuri climbed over one of the fences to a pen & explained she was the owner and talked about Princess the donkey. She explained that this doesn't usually happen. So much for sticking to a schedule. We continued the tour, which was excellent. Roberto was informative & friendly. It was an experience I wish more people had. But I couldn't completely enjoy it because of the previous interaction.
We returned to the store & picked up our key card. We got to our dome but could not open the door. We were informed that someone would escort us to the dome but that did not happen, nor were there instructions on how to open the door. I assure you, this isn't your normal lock. Thankfully, our dome neighbors helped us because they had the same issue & figured it out themselves. After we unlocked the door, we were unable to lock it from the outside again.
We then went to dinner & our server was not the friendliest. Like it was painful for her to talk to us. She did bring us extra bread for our dip though. But she had no issue conversing with the ladies next to us. We retreated to our dome but found out that there was no extra blanket for our daughter & there was only 2 towels for the 3 of us. The listing for the dome states that it sleeps 4. The inside of the dome had a very strong and unpleasant smell, like the plastic from the material of the dome mixed with the clay dirt & that dirt will cover you and everything you own. The inside of the dome was furnished nicely & rather spacious for being what it is. But there was no one to call for assistance, no phone in the dome and the internet was spotty. They are closed Monday & Tuesday. The owners do live on the property, their large house looms over the main building of the farm. I did notice the owners following & observing us throughout the evening, prior to us going to bed.
We awoke at 2am, when the roosters started crowing. We packed our stuff & headed out. Again, there was no one to talk to or check out with but we were advised by email to leave our key card in the "locked" dome. The email also asked us to contact them with issues.
I'm a Chef & understand the hospitality business very well. It's unfortunate when others in the service industry only have hospitality towards certain people. By the looks of some of the reviews, I am not alone in that regard. I did email them and I attached Dr. Tirrito's 2 sentence response.
I desperately wanted to love the farm. But we came away with such an awful taste in our mouths. I'm extremely sad and disappointed. read more