Spa F1 2014: Need to arrange a trip + Holiday. Ideas Please

C

CornishRob

Senior member
Hello all,

So for Christmas, my girlfriend got me a great present. Tickets for the both of us to go to the 2014 F1 at Spa. I didnt know i was getting them, so was a great suprise. I have never been to the F1 before, so really looking forward to it. Did Le Mans a couple of years ago and it was great. If anyone has any advice for Spa, it would be greatfully recieved. Especially accomodation, parking and all of that type of thing as i imagine it gets rammed during the F1.

She basically said the tickets are booked, so what shall we do? We need to decided on travel arrangements etc and what to do. We can take as much time as we want, but were thinking maximum a week away from the UK.

In my mind, driving makes sense, then use the rest of the time to visit some other places. I havent really travelled around much of Northern Europe for pleasure, but have spent a fair amount of time around the north sea coasts of Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark for work. I did visit Bremen once with work and had a great night out there! Looked to be a nice city.

So what i am looking for are some reccomendations for either before the F1 or after. Places to visit, areas to head to, or even nice hotels/B&Bs etc to stay in.

I guess if we did drive, we would use the Channel tunnel, so could do Bruges (never been there) and Antwerp (only driven around it on the main roads and its always been busy) as they are close, but other places which are worth a visit would definately be considered.

Thanks guys
 
Sounds like you got a great girlfriend there :thumbsup:

A road trip around Europe in the Z en route to the F1 would be a great way to get there. Can't help on hotels etc, but I'm thinking of doing similar with my dad, so will be watching the thread with interest.
 
Lucky you,can't help you with anything unfortunately except have a great time.Always fancied going to Spa.
 
What a great present. I've done spa twice, both driving and I might be doing it again this year.

I've done it two ways so far. The first time we stayed in a hotel in Brussels, anywhere closer gets seriously booked up early. The drive from Brussels to Spa was a chore and I wouldn't do it again.

Last year we stayed on one of the official camp sites, and had Eddie Jordan show up for a q+a session before he did a small gig. The camp site was expensive, breakfast was too busy so we skipped it and a shower at a normal time of day impossible. It was a drive to anywhere, Stavelot (I think) was a brilliant village which was a ten minute drive away from the campsite , and was where we chose to eat out in the evenings. Really relaxing and got to see plenty of cars driving through after the race.

Parking for the race - we turned up in good time on both quali and race day. Race day we were parked up by 8am. All the surrounding roads are blocked off by the police and very well managed. Costs 10€ per day, you pay at the road blocks then pick and chose your car park. We were within 5 minutes of the track without a problem both days. The only problem was leaving, both times, bottlenecking for around 1.5 hours which is inevitable.

All in all, from experience we are going to drive again, and stay in a hotel in Stavelot or rent a house with a group of friends. We will get grandstand seats having been pushed off our perches last year on the bank which was rammed more than ever. However if your tickets are bronze you won't be disappointed , just be prepared to stand your ground if you go to Kemmel straight - which gives you a thud from the cars at flat out speeds with a view of a lot of the track and a nice big screen.

Hope that slightly helps! You'll love it.

Tom


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There's a few shots! Brussels is a must, it really surprised us!!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Tom and Steven :thumbsup:

A few great ideas there. I had a look at Stavelot which looks a great location with nice accomodation, but hotels already seem very expensive now. Looking at between £900-2500 for 2/3 nights, which are normally 80euro a night and a lot are already booked up. I'm not overly keen on paying this as I don't think we would be there very much. More of just a place to sleep over the race period. I think we will look at areas slightly further away and travel in.

There seems a lot more choice with reasonable prices in a sort of radius of about 15 miles away, so I think we might explorer these options. We might then either drive in each day, or get public transport if there is any to try to save time sitting in traffic and it means we can have a few drinks if we want.

Would you re recommend going for all 3 days or just the Saturday/Sunday?

Just need to think of some other places to head to now before/after.
 
So need to book a tunnel train for the trip over and back. Over is not a problem. Going to do on the Monday morning!

Anyone got any advice about the way back? We need to be back in the UK on Sunday night as my girlfriend has work on Monday. Obviously going to be a late one, but not sure how to play the tunnel times.

I have used the tunnel a couple of times before, but one was with work, so just turned up and paid, and the other wasn't with so many unknows.

It says about three and half hours to drive from Spa to tunnel. How much extra time should I leave? I see Tom said last year, it was 1.5hr to get moving. Will the roads back to France be busy too? And realistically, what time will I get back to the car after the race? Says it sarts at 14:00 local time?

For experienced tunnel users, if I miss my slot, will they let is on the next one or when we arrive (within reason)? I don't want to buy a flexi as it's about £200 one way and normal is about £80!
 
CornishRob said:
For experienced tunnel users, if I miss my slot, will they let is on the next one or when we arrive (within reason)? I don't want to buy a flexi as it's about £200 one way and normal is about £80!
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I've used the Tunnel many times (used to live I France) even on the cheapest tickets never had any problems with them. If you get there early they will fit you on the first shuttle if available - many times I've come out of the Pet Passport office through the kiosks & straight onto the train. If you're late they just get you on the next available shuttle. The roads should be fine at that time of night on a Sunday.
Have a great trip & hope to see some good photos
 
Mafoo said:
Where did you land up booking in the end?
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I have just booked the train. Out on Monday and back Sunday night! Going to do Bruges, Brussels ten Amsterdam, before heading down to Spa.

We are stayin about 20 mins away from the track. I think it's a fairly quiet area, not a town etc, but only plannin to stay there Friday and Saturday night so should be fine.

Will look for some nice places in Bruges, Brussels & Ansterdam. Anyone got any recommendations??
 
Might see you on the train. We are on a Monday crossing too. Staying in a cottage about 20 mins from the track also.....would be a hell of a Z4 forum coincidence :-)

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Hopefully me nd my wife are doing a similar trip next season to spa was going to be this year my friend works for FIA so was going to get paddock passes nd meal for 2, for our wedding present this year but it's been put on hold she's booked disneyland paris for our 6yr unfortunately funds won't stretch that far. Will be keeping an eye on this thread may come in useful and interesting to see how you get on nd find the journey
 
Mafoo said:
Might see you on the train. We are on a Monday crossing too. Staying in a cottage about 20 mins from the track also.....would be a hell of a Z4 forum coincidence :-)

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
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Nice, sounds good.

I think we will have a casual start on the Monday morning. Think I have a 09:50 train, booked if we arrive a bit early we can hopefully get straight on! It's not too far from out house to the train, probably about 1.5hr. I will find out where we are staying from the missus and report back.
 
Chezsherman said:
Hopefully me nd my wife are doing a similar trip next season to spa was going to be this year my friend works for FIA so was going to get paddock passes nd meal for 2, for our wedding present this year but it's been put on hold she's booked disneyland paris for our 6yr unfortunately funds won't stretch that far. Will be keeping an eye on this thread may come in useful and interesting to see how you get on nd find the journey
Click to expand...

Wow, being in the paddock sounds awesome. Would love that, but would be far too expensive for us to do. I will update the thread with as much info as possible.
 
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