Secret Escapes have another Grand Prix deal, this time to Abu Dhabi in November 2017. The sale runs until Tuesday 5 September 2017.
For those unfamiliar with Secret Escapes, it is a members only website with hand-picked hotels, holidays and exclusive offers. They guarantee to offer the best rates online during a sale. Every week they run up to 140 short ‘flash sales’ lasting around ten days each. It is free to join and if you use this link to sign up you will receive £15 credit off your first booking.
In this post:
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Secret Escapes has a deal for £1169 to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which includes:
- Flights in economy to Dubai (overnight)
- 3 nights in a Superior room at the Hotel Novotel Abu Dhabi Al Bustan with breakfast included
- Two-day General Admission ‘Abu Dhabi Hill’ Tickets to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2017
- Tickets to the after race concert (includes Calvin Harris)
- Private airport transfers and shared circuit transfers
You can also pay a bit more to get higher category tickets to Grand Prix.
The Novotel gets 4.5/5 on TripAdvisor but it is a bit of a way from the circuit at around 30 kilometres from the Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island. The hotel has a rooftop pool and a spa as well and is about 15 minutes from downtown Abu Dhabi.
Is it good value?
If you booked the same flights it would cost £377 for Qantas or £419 for BA. However, you could get Royal Brunei cheaper for £329 to Dubai (but it is a dry airline) or Etihad for £377 to Abu Dhabi. The hotel would cost £207 per person using TripAdvisor. You can’t actually get the General Admission ‘Abu Dhabi Hill’ Tickets anymore but the next price bracket up for Marina Grandstand would be £185. This would make a total of £768 if you went for the Etihad flights to Abu Dhabi which would have a much shorter transfer. Although breakfast is not included and you would have to pay for your own transfers, the Secret Escapes does not work out any cheaper so you would be better making your own package up.
Monaco Grand Prix day trip
This offer has a specially chartered flight from London Stansted, Liverpool, Glasgow or Manchester to Nice (approximate flight time of two hours 15 minutes, with in-flight catering and complimentary drinks). Once landed, you’ll transfer by minibus to Monaco (approximate travel time of 45-90 minutes, depending on traffic) and will have time at leisure to have lunch (not included) before watching the race. Included are Z1 category standing tickets for the race.
The race is set to start at 2 pm and finish at around 4 pm, after which you’ll have some free time before your coach transfer at approximately 6.15pm back to Nice airport. There are also more expensive options for higher category tickets as well as including lunch at Cafe de Paris in Monaco.
The offer is on until Tuesday 5 September 2017.
Is it good value?
The Z1 category Grand Prix tickets do not have any left for Sunday but they have the Saturday for €99. On Sunday, the cheapest Grandstand tickets are €440. If you flew BA you could get a day return flight on the Sunday from Heathrow for £170. This makes the total £573.
You obviously have to factor in transfers which are likely to be expensive, but again it looks like the Secret Escapes deal is not as good as doing it yourself. The exception would be if you were travelling from Liverpool, Glasgow or Manchester where a day trip would be tricky without direct flights. Then, Secret Escapes would definitely be a better option.
You can find Secret Escapes here.
