Speedway Star Travel Club

[spiegal 294]

Please forgive the blatent plug...but this is the easy way to contact all those people who have been calling.

 

Our 2008 Tours brochure will be in this week's SPEEDWAY STAR (Sat.22 Dec) issue...all 20 pages in a bumper edition.

 

Also on a personal basis, sincerest best wishes to Speedway People everywhere for a peaceful, healthy Christmas and New Year.

 

James.

Travel Plus Tours

[i love tractors 0]

have just seen the advertisement in this weeks star and i'm wondering why these trips are so expensive. i go to 2 to 3 gp's abroad every year and each trip is under half that amount. for £400+! i can get a holiday for a week anywhere in the med!

Edited December 21, 2007 by i love tractors

[gaylord 0]

Ive been on a couple of their trips and they are very well organised.but your right,they are very expensive.

[i love tractors 0]

Ive been on a couple of their trips and they are very well organised.but your right,they are very expensive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

im sure if everybody paid me £400 i could do as good a job as these!

what makes me laugh is the fact that i have stayed in the same hotel at the same gp's/ice racing events. so how do they justify this extra amount of money?

and have these trips gone up from last year?

[SCB 0]

I guess they can charge what they like if people are going to pay it.

 

Personally, having gone to Prague twice now, half the fun is working out all the details youself

[iris123 21,013]

That is right scb.They seem to have many happy customers who travel time after time with the Club.So if they are ok with it and i love tractors is happy with their arrangments what is the problem?

[Trees 2,814]

The extra dosh is for organising everything .................... doh!

[Kevin Meynell 2]

so how do they justify this extra amount of money?

 

They put together the package for you, presumably take responsibility to sort you out if one or more things go pear-shaped, and I guess provide some sort of guarantee against hotels/airlines/coach companies going-out of business.

 

In the olden days, it was a bit of pain to have to sort everything out yourself (particularly in Eastern Europe) and you probably couldn't really do it a lot cheaper. In addition, whilst there were other companies doing cheaper speedway tours, those had the annoying tendency to disappear at short notice leaving fans high-and-dry (Tee Mills comes to mind).

 

This said, in these days of the Internet it's dead easy to organise everything yourself, so long as you're prepared for something to go wrong on the odd occasion, then you can do it a bit cheaper now. I'd be a bit surprised though if you're really doing a GP weekend for GBP 200 - when you take into account flights, hotels, getting to/from the airport, parking at the airport, transfer from the airport, GP tickets and so forth...

 

I must agree though, half-the-fun about travelling is organising things myself, although these days I just want to stay at home when I've got time off.

Edited December 22, 2007 by Kevin Meynell

[BigFatDave 258]

Ive been on a couple of their trips and they are very well organised.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Couldn't agree more. So they may cost an extra coupla bucks more than if you went through all the hassles and did it yerself but so what - do you wanna hafta put up with unbuilt or uninhabitable hotels, busted-a**e bus companies, people that delight in ripping off Foreign Tourists, Ryanair, losing yer wallet, and the latest - strikes by militant unions holding travellers to ransom!

I've used 'em before and I'll doubtless use 'em again. Mind you, I'm looking forward to a trip with the boys & girls from Know-all Tours, or Alcoholics Unanimous, one of these days.

[i love tractors 0]

The extra dosh is for organising everything .................... doh!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what £200+ per person??????????????????

[i love tractors 0]

They put together the package for you, presumably take responsibility to sort you out if one or more things go pear-shaped, and I guess provide some sort of guarantee against hotels/airlines/coach companies going-out of business.

 

In the olden days, it was a bit of pain to have to sort everything out yourself (particularly in Eastern Europe) and you probably couldn't really do it a lot cheaper. In addition, whilst there were other companies doing cheaper speedway tours, those had the annoying tendency to disappear at short notice leaving fans high-and-dry (Tee Mills comes to mind).

 

This said, in these days of the Internet it's dead easy to organise everything yourself, so long as you're prepared for something to go wrong on the odd occasion, then you can do it a bit cheaper now. I'd be a bit surprised though if you're really doing a GP weekend for GBP 200 - when you take into account flights, hotels, getting to/from the airport, parking at the airport, transfer from the airport, GP tickets and so forth...

 

I must agree though, half-the-fun about travelling is organising things myself, although these days I just want to stay at home when I've got time off.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

so does their trips include getting to airports,parking and gp tickets?

i'm going to gothenburg and with flights, two nights 4+ accommadation and tickets to the gp it will come under £200.

and for prague its just over £160.

[orion 7,618]

what £200+ per person??????????????????

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Wow maybe there trying to make money ? Maybe mcdonalds should sell there burgers at cost price

[rabbit 1]

i'm going to gothenburg and with flights, two nights 4+ accommadation and tickets to the gp it will come under £200.

and for prague its just over £160.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good for you. Buy why criticise a company that for many takes the hassle out of traveling to a GP? Each to their own - some people are happier paying a company to sort things out for them and the fact that many people go with them often repeatedly proves they must be pitching it at an OK level. A bespoke travel company is always going to be more costly than a bargain bucket trip but just because you've managed to do a good deal for yourself doesn't mean everyone has the time and inclination to do so.

[crazysue 613]

I have done both methods and there are pros and cons for both.

 

Travel Plus is expensive but (a big but) you feel safe, all the arrangements are done for you, you have no need to worry about getting from the airport to the hotel, the hotel to the GP and back and hotel back to airport. For a single passenger, this makes it a whole lot safer, especially if you are female.

 

I travelled to Denmark on my own for a GP, and from the get go, it all well a little pear shaped. My friend who lives in Denmark was called in at the last minute to do something else, so it was left to me to travel from an hour from Aarhus (think it was called Vjeune) to Copenhagen by train arriving at 5pm in a strange city with no idea of where the hotel was. A quick taxi ride got me to the hotel with enough time to just drop my stuff and head straight back out again. During the GP because my friend was unable to come, I was in amongst strangers most of which didn't speak a word of English (the only Danish I knew at the time was Congratulations, happy birthday and thanks!) so it was very lonely, although by the end of the evening, these strangers had taken to this rather strange Englishwoman.

 

Now for the really scary part.... GP finishes, all transport full and no way to get back to the hotel unless I walked....and er, I had no idea how to get back! After several attempts to hail a taxi whilst walking down the road leading from the stadium, I was almost in tears. Here I was, stuck in a strange city in a strange country, at night, all on my own and with only very rudimentary knowledge of the language....so I did what my parents had always told me NOT to do, I spoke to the nearest stranger, who luckily turned out to also be a little lost as although he and his group were native to Denmark and from a place not too far out from Copenhagen, they had no clue how to get to the train station. So we all joined together and started walking...with no real idea of where we were going but eventually we walked far enough away from the stadium to be able to get a taxi back to my hotel , which amazingly enough, we had been walking towards and the taxi only had to drive around a corner and we were there.

 

The evening was finished off with a group of us then hitting the food places near to my hotel for a meal, drinks and general merriment and I was safely deposited back in my hotel at 4am in the morning.

 

Only problem now was getting from Copenhagen back to Aarhus for my flight but after the rigours of the night before, I found this relatively easy, for now I had picked up a fair amount of the language (enough to read the newspaper and understand a train timetable) and in fact, the people on the train had difficulty believing I was a Brit (I thought the British flag on my coat might have been a giveaway) because I sat there reading a Danish newspaper,timetable and seemingly knew which was my stop without being in a panic.

 

It was only after all of this that I realised it could have been oh so different, what if the group of blokes I spoke to had not been law abiding? What if I had taken the wrong platform for my train home?

 

I was vulnerable and I didn't like it but god was I proud of myself to getting through without giving up.

[SCB 0]

I'd be a bit surprised though if you're really doing a GP weekend for GBP 200 - when you take into account flights, hotels, getting to/from the airport, parking at the airport, transfer from the airport, GP tickets and so forth...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Last year I went to Prague from the Thursday to the Tuesday for under £200. Accommodation was £100, flights £55, tram tickets less than £5, GP ticket and a programme for about £15. That's only £275. With the remaining £25 I got very merry in the stadium for about 80p a pint. It's looking a little more expensive this year but still only about £50 more unless the flights drop in price which is not likely.

 

 

Personally, travel plus tours is not for me but I can see why they charge what they do, it's simple supply and demand, all companies will charge as much (or as little) as possible to get the biggest profit and if TPT have worked out that prices are the ideal and people are happy, who are those of us who don't want to use their service to complain?

Edited December 22, 2007 by SCB