So I've been hording vacation time for the last 3 years or so, and now I'm planning on hitting a WSBK/MotoGP race or 10 this year. Since in all likelyhood I'll be attempting this miraculous feat solo (because I'm a loser), I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations as far as travel agencies, or just keeping it simple and easy. The plan is leave on Thursday or Friday, and come back Monday or Tuesday. I found http://www.polepositiontravel.com/ for motogp races, but haven't found anything similar for WSBK events. Also, if you're a chick with a flexible schedule, and you can speak Japanese, Italian, Spanish, German, or Czechoslovakian, call me (I'm not really that big of a loser). Or if you're just a chick with a flexible schedule... You can call me to. Cannoli and that other gay dude on here.... No, you can't call me.
My wife and I went to Valencia in 2004. We pretty much bought our race tickets from the track, it was like a Ticketmaster thing that we did over the phone and bought the hotel and plane ticket off of Expedia. We got a hotel close to the train station as we had read that you had to take the train to the track. Valencia actually has it's own stop on the train. Loads of people on raceday but pretty quiet for practices, qualifying, and other events. I hear that if you stay at the liitle town that the track is near it is a crazy party like Daytona bike week type thing. Food was great too! I suggest the paella and tia manzana (apple tea). People were pretty friendly but I siggest that you brush up on your Spanish because they weren't very helpful at the train station. We had to switch trains once and because I couldn't read the signs we almost went to Madrid by accident.
Looking for the same thing - I'll be in Japan for the next 3 years so anything I can get to from there I'll be attending. No World Superbike events in my neck of the woods but Motegi in April and Malaysia if I can get there for MotoGP. I leave Monday to go, so once I get settled in, chances are there are some folks over there that have made the trip before so I'll see what info I can get from them.
Seriously? That's pretty much two full days of travel for two to 2 and a half days at a racetrack. Seems like a really poor use of travel funds and vacation time. If you really want to do it right, take a couple of weeks off, go to a race weekend, spend the next week to two weeks travelling the region, go to another race weekend, then fly back. For instance, you could fly to Germany and catch the Sachsenring races, then travel to the UK for Donington, then fly back to the US. Would make a nice vacation.
If you have a lot of days saved up then I would plan long vacations in cities that are close to the track to maximize your money. The packages from polepositiontravel.com are nice if you don't want to do a lot of research and call around to hotels in the local area before planning a visit. Even if you are traveling alone, make sure you make a decent length vacation out of it, traveling solo doesn't necessarily mean you're a loser (well you could be a loser, I don't know you so I can't make that judgement ).
Yeah, you really should try and get more time, the flight over and back, at least for me, was brutal, 12 hours. You'll kick yourself later. For a bunch of years a group of us kept saying were gonna do a EU tour and hit some races, but no one ever got their sh@t together, so in 98, I just went solo. 3 weeks and 5000 miles later, with no GPS, had hit a MotoGP at Paul Ricard and WSBK at Nurburgring, stayed at Hotel Dorint watching the race from the hotel balcony in the rain, drink great beer and eating rabbit stew and then did the Classic course all the next day. It was the trip of a lifetime. Flew into Brussells and picked up a BMW. Went down through France, Spain then the south of France, up through Monaco, over the Dolomites, the French Alps, down through Germany to the Black Forest and Nurburgring, up to Amsterdam and back to Brussells. There is a company called Relais-Chateau that is a broker for old castles and chateaus where you can stay in unbelievable places for what you'd pay for a typical room at Holiday Inn Express and stuff. Been there a few times now and did extensive research before going, so if you have any questions, PM me. Last word of advise, don't make the same mistake I did on my first trip, and book yourself at places everyday. You'll want some fleibility and you can always find lodging. Oh yeah, bring a GPS.... Have fun....
It doesn't matter how you schedule it to me but i would suggest just get to the area and figure out the rest when you get there. I went to the german gp in 03 and just took a train to that town from Stuttgart. Upon arrival i walked to the track, bought a ticket, staked out a camp spot and hung out for the weekend. I was solo and I met plenty of cool people. They only thing i would worry about is the race being sold out in places like Spain and Italy where the fans are nuts. If you are going to one of the U.S. events, book early and hope you don't get gouged.
I don't know, I'm thinking I would rather deal with all of the long flights and headaches in order to be able to take in more races. After all, that's why he's going. Early mornings and long days at the track are all part of it. My list in order of preference: Mugello Phillp Island Sachsenring Catalunya Portimao
I was looking into something similar recently and found this: http://www.ducatitours.com/events.php. I have no experience with them, but it looked pretty intriguing...
Interesting. Anyone use them? Wife and i are planning on being in italy end of sept for our anniversary, and she said we can watch the imola round of wsbk. would be pretty cool to take a tuscany tour on a duc.
I'm working with www.vacationstogo.com on an "Independent Tour" of Northern Italy right now. Basically the hotels, flights, rail transportation and transfers are all planned out and paid for. You just need to be at the airport, hotels and train stations at the right time, the rest is up to you. I have one planned out now to put me in Florance, Italy the days of the Italian GP. Just a 30km drive north from Florence to get to Mugello!!
References If anyone wants to contact clients who have been on our tours PM me and I will forward some email contacts for some of last years clients. Joe Ducatitours :up:
I know the time constraints suck. But I'm still semi young, and scrappy, and most trips will probably be solo, so I have some flexibility. I could stretch it a day on the front end if need be. But I'll have to be back in the states Wednesday morning at the latest. I'm really just shooting for quantity anyways. Thanks for all the advice though, and I'll use it all!
I did the Malaysian GP this year. Great place to watch a race, good food, really great people. Oh ya, and for $80 we got 2 tickets at T1, 2 tickets at start/finish and complimentary tshirts and hats. We added up our costs, and it was almost cheaper to go to Malaysia than it was to go to Laguna
Has anyone been to Qatar for a race or in vacation? I have to head to India for a couple weeks and the MotoGP race would be the week before I would need to be in India. My company is pretty good about PTO going to and leaving India. I think it would be a once in a life time chance to go to Qatar and see a night race.
