A tour company has been blasted for its "inhumane" treatment of 50 students from the University of Winchester left stranded at a service station for seven hours.

Jen Howard, 20, was one of the students marooned near Folkestone after their coach 'caught fire' while on route to Croatia for their societies' end of year tour.

After being promised a backup coach would arrive by ILOVETOUR, the company which organised the £400 week-long holiday, Jen and her friends were later told they'd have to either fork out for flights or turn around and head home.

Those who decided to go ahead with the trip had to sleep overnight in a terminal at Gatwick airport with no transfers organised for them once they reached Croatia.

The ordeal first started on Saturday, April 2 when the coach, which was due to pick them up from Winchester at 5.30am, turned up more than an hour late before setting off in the wrong direction.

After making it to Kent some five hours after they initially left Winchester, Jen said it was quickly clear that something was amiss. She said: "We were driving along and quite a few of us started smelling something burning, so the driver pulled over to take a look and there was a lot of smoke coming out of the coach."

The group, which was made up of students from the university's cheerleading and rounders teams, was told to get off the coach and wait at the side of the roundabout.

After around 10 minutes they were instructed to get back onboard by one of the two drivers, despite the burning, who insisted he would "drive slowly".

As they edged closer to Folkestone, where they were set to catch the Eurotunnel to France, the driver once again pulled over, this time at a different roundabout. Jen, who is in her second year of studying journalism, said the two drivers were speaking amongst themselves in a foreign language and refused to answer any questions.

After pulling over a third time, Jen and her friends eventually reached a service station where they where they were told a mechanic would come for them.

"None of us were particularly keen on getting back on the coach at this point, we still had around 24 hours to go, and we'd already missed our slot for the Eurotunnel," she said.

"With the drivers having gone the complete wrong way in England we were also a bit apprehensive about what would happen when we made it to Europe."

While the students were left waiting for a mechanic, Jen says they were told by the ILOVETOUR reps who were travelling with them on the coach that if it couldn't be fixed a replacement vehicle would come and collect them and take them on to Croatia - albeit considerably later than first planned.

However, after a gruelling seven-hour stalemate, they were met at the services by company bosses and told there in fact wasn't a second coach available for another two days.

They were instead told they would have to get flights, initially at their own expense, and a different coach would take them to the airport, or alternatively return to Winchester some 12 hours after they departed.

Jen, alongside most of the other students, reluctantly opted to stay put as they were only offered a voucher worth £100 to help cover the flights, which she says were priced at around £300 each way.

ILOVETOUR did provide transport back to Winchester for Jen and her friends, but again fell foul of its promise to take the nine girls who decided to fly to Croatia to the airport, with the group instead having to catch a train.

Since arriving in Croatia, Jen says the girls have been made to sign a contract which states ILOVETOUR is not liable for their transport home.

Jen says ILOVETOUR has offered the students who didn't go a full refund, but has yet to apologise, despite multiple emails and messages being sent to the travel company.

She said: "What was so hard was that it was a day full of lies really. We had sat there for seven hours and were continually promised that we'd get to Croatia, and then gradually the situation just got worse and worse before eventually we just ended up turning around and going back home. Yes, we're adults and we can all look after ourselves but being left in a service station for seven hours with no real idea of what is going on is just inhumane really.

"I have to say, the university (of Winchester) has been fantastic, it's completely out of their reach as they just use ILOVETOUR as an external company. Between themselves and the Student Union they've done as much as they can do, because unfortunately they can't give us our money back or get us out there themselves."

Despite the students being booked in for the first of four scheduled weeks of the ILOVETOUR programme, Jen says they haven't been offered an alternative date, adding that a refund alone falls short of full compensation for their ordeal.

She said: "No matter if we get our money back or not, our whole university is out there. Some of the girls who were on our coach have been at university for three years and haven't been on tour yet because of Covid. So, now they're finally able to actually go abroad they've had that chance taken away from them because it would simply cost too much money. The girls who have gone could end up spending near £1,000 to have this trip.

"We wanted the holiday, and we wanted that time away. To be put through that kind of emotional distress on the day was really quiet a lot, especially for those who suffer from anxiety when travelling anyway - it must have been incredibly overwhelming. Instead, we've had to come back home and sit in Winchester watching our friends having an incredible time."

ILOVETOUR has twice been contacted for comment but has yet to respond.