The New Wave In Travel

Travelling can be a solitary and regimented experience.
 
You can wind up in wonderful locations – but with no-one to share them with
 
You can spend night after night with a book at bedtime, while a whole city parties around you.
 
You can waste hours with a backpack in the rain after a 10am check-out or waiting for the breakfast room to open with a rumbling stomach or raging thirst.
 
We’ve all been there, but it doesn’t have to be like that.
 
Nestling on a hillside in the Basque city of San Sebastian, lurks a den devoted to the new wave in travel.

 
It’s fronted by two demented Australians and they’re the nicest blokes you could meet.
 
Billy and Lewy are 25 and they love the ladies.
 
These boys live life at its largest, but this not stop them behaving like an old married couple.
 
Between spouting random chat and finishing each other’s sentences, they provide genuine friendship and good times to anyone who darkens their door.

The House On The Hill, as their home has become known, is a hostel – but not as we know it.
 
In short, anything goes.
 
If you’re hungry, you eat. If you want to sleep, crash out. If you want beers at 7am, work away.

If you’re feeling artistically-inclined, the boys roll out the paints and you’re free to daub the walls.

 
If you’re feeling cultural, they’ll send you to the best spots in town.
 
If you’re feeling sporty, surf boards and an instructor are produced seemingly from thin air.
 
But it’s not this that makes the House On The Hill special. It’s the warmth and honesty of the place.
 
Travelling types from across the planet find their way to the boys’ table, where the Sangria and rosado flow freely and everyone brings something to the party.
 
After dark, San Sebastian erupts and dancing until dawn is the standard.

Naturally, the demented Australians lead the charge with an eclectic band of up-for-it internationals following in their wake.
 
With Billy and Lewy, you’ll never feel lonely.

 
This old married couple like to adopt their customers and you’ll leave feeling part of a very happy but entirely dysfunctional family.
 
The boys themselves are part of an even bigger, more dysfunctional family that operates under the name of Stoke Travel.
 
It was conceived by travellers for travellers – with the normal rules and regulations going out the window from day one.
 
Rejecting generic travel trade set-ups, the key to its success over the past five years has been sociability and spontaneity.
 
These days, the Stoke family has the Basque coast sewn up, with surf camps in Zarautz and Biarritz as well as the House On The Hill.
 

They also have surf bases in Portugal and Morocco and organise trips to Europe’s biggest festivals – La Tomantina, Oktoberfest and Running Of The Bulls.
 
And every year, they take their show on the road with a European roadtrip, taking in 10 cities in one month.
 
Billy and Lewy are part of a band of brothers and sisters primed to let the good times roll.
 
“Look, we’re not a school trip, we’re not even like a school trip,” says Stoke events organiser Nick Lalonde.
 
“We are, however, a reservoir of knowledge, wheels to a party – we’re there to make sure you don’t kill yourself but, hey, we’re not going to stop you trying.”
 
More info at: www.stoketravel.com