Silverstone F1

[Knuto]

Me and friend of mine (klemmel her at ucp) are thinking of taking a trip to f1 at silverstone. I was wondering if anyone had some advice on where to stay for the weekend.

Since we are going there just to watch f1 I thought it would be best to find a hotell near silverstone. Does anyone know a decent hotell not too far away??

[Jack_Bauer]

Hmmm, the problem is you might have left it a little late for getting decent accomodation near to the circuit. Obviously it's the biggest event on the British motorsport calendar and all the hotels in the surrounding area get booked up by fanatics, corporate sponsors, and of course the teams, months and months in advance. Also the hotels nearby jack up the prices for the occassion, so if there are any rooms left be prepared to have to pay BIG money.

Generally the later you book the further away you end up staying. How are you travelling there? If you're bringing a car over by ferry then things won't be so bad as there are plenty of motels on the motorways in Northamptonshire which are within an hour or so's drive to the circuit.

Try going to either www.travelodge.co.uk and searching for Northampton, or going to www.holidayinn.co.uk and doing the same. These are not really viable options if you don't have a car unfortunately.

The other option if you don't have a car would be to slum it and camp out near the circuit. Never done it myself but it's the hardcore way of doing it and is also very popular. Silverstone itself is basically a little farming village in the middle of nowhere, but lots of the farms in the surrounding area open up their land for camping (for a fee of course). You then just walk to the circuit in the morning. Be prepared to have to endure the classic British summertime. It could be hot or cold, dry or flooding, but that's part of the fun of camping in Britain.

[Knuto]

Ok. Thanks! I found a travelodge 7 miles from silverstone. But since we'll fly over there i guess it will be a little tricky transport route with bus?

[Zytek_Fan]

Ok. Thanks! I found a travelodge 7 miles from silverstone. But since we'll fly over there i guess it will be a little tricky transport route with bus?

Be prepared for madness on the motorways.

[DBR9]

ok i went last year mate, don't boher with a hotel go camping. there is a huge country club thing that rents out it's fields for the race, it takes about 3 minutes to get to silverstone as it connects directly to it, there are always spaces up until the last minute, they have pitches with pre-setup tents so you wouldn't have to bring one and the majority of the drivers stay at the huge onsite mansion. I can't remember it's name ill try and find it out

[Knuto]

Ok. Thanks. Much appreciated. That sounds great

[DBR9]

here you go mate this is the website

http://whittlebury.com/camping.html

its top notch, good atmosphere, dead close to the circuit and as mentioned you can get autographs etc from the driver i've attach ed pics of the site and manor

[Klemmel]

Do you think it would be wise to travel by train? We are arriving at Stanstead and I was thinking we could take a bus to London and maybe take the train to Milton. And one other thing... We've found a plase to stay in Milton, but it's about 7 miles away from the track. Do you think it would be possible to travel by bus between the two plases?

[Jack_Bauer]

When you say you've found a place in Milton are you referring to the town Milton Keynes? It's a fairly large place and there will be plenty of GP supporters staying around there so I would imagine there would be some sort of transport in place. I couldn't be absolutely certain of that though.

One thing to consider when planning to travel by road to the event is the traffic. Generally on the morning of the GP it is absolute chaos trying to get there. What kind of tickets do you guys have/are planning to get? If they are grandstand seats then it's not so much of an issue, but if you are just standing in the open spectator terraces then getting there as early as possible is essential if you want to get good spots to watch from. Usually the hardcore fans who camp out the night before the race set off for the circuit stupidly early in the morning, around sunrise, so they can be first in the queue when the gates open. If you end up spending a couple of hours in a traffic jam trying to get to the circuit then you can forget any chance of getting the best trackside spots to view from.

[Klemmel]

We are going for the cheepest ticket, but are ready to get up early in the morning. The earliest local bus leaves Milton at 0615.