NASCAR races
Sports Travel and Tours, a TAP partner, offers more than 40 racing itineraries each year; about 38 of those are NASCAR events, and a handful of other trips feature races such as the Indianapolis 500 and the F1 U.S. Grand Prix. NASCAR season starts with the Sprint Unlimited in February at the Daytona International Speedway and usually runs through October or early November.
“It’s so loud, but you can more than hear the energy of the cars passing by you,” said Jay Smith, president and owner of Sports Travel and Tours. “It literally goes through your body. It’s so amazing.”
Sports Travel and Tours’ racing packages aren’t “necessarily different; it’s easier,” Smith said. The company arranges for the hotel. The motorcoach takes the group to the track. And “the seating is generally better than you can get on your own,” Smith said.
“For the most part, because we’re coming back year in and year out, we have a track record, and we’re getting better seats than the general public,” he said.
Going with a tour means travelers don’t have to fight 100,000 other people for a hotel room or a parking space, but beyond convenience, Sports Travel and Tours offers its guests more in-depth experiences.
Depending on the race, the company can arrange for people to tour the pits and see the cars up close. The company encourages its visitors to rent scanners, which allow people to hear the race broadcast and listen in on communication between drivers and their crews. Many times, Sports Travel and Tours will also arrange a prerace tailgate party at the motorcoach.
Free time during the weekend itineraries is left open for travelers to explore. For example, many people who attend the Toyota-Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway take advantage of the northern California location to tour area wineries, Smith said.
Fiesta San Antonio
Fiesta San Antonio will celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2016. The annual festival began in 1891 when a group of residents held a Battle of Flowers to honor the heroes of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. Although the April festival has gone by several names since then, today’s Fiesta San Antonio is a 10-day citywide affair packed with parades, cultural performances, food, live music and more.
“The costumes of the mariachi bands playing all around town, playing at the Mercado, little kids dressed in their bright outfits — it’s a visual potpourri,” said Randy Case, president and CEO of AFC Vacations, a TAP partner.
AFC Vacations has been running its San Antonio Spring Fiesta itinerary for 10 years, highlighting the festival, the city and the surrounding region. AFC reserves grandstand seats for the Fiesta Flambeau Parade, one of the festival’s signature events and one of the largest illuminated parades in the nation. The evening parade features lighted floats and light-up costumes, all with a distinctive Hispanic flair.
The group stays at the Drury Plaza hotel on San Antonio’s Riverwalk, which Case describes as “Bourbon Street meets Texas.” The trip starts off with a private, narrated boat ride on the San Antonio River, and guests can explore Riverwalk’s shops, restaurants, bars and nightclubs.
Day trips take travelers to tour the Alamo and to Texas Hill Country, where they’ll visit the Lyndon B. Johnson ranch and the German town of Fredericksburg. Guests will also stop at the Austin Wildflower Center and the 1720 Mission San Jose.
This year, AFC Vacations introduced “mystery events.” Travelers know there will be a surprise event during the trip, but they don’t know when or where it will happen — or what it will be. Mystery events could be a special meal, an attraction or an entertainer portraying a historic person.
French Quarter Festival
New Orleans’ French Quarter is a hopping place all the time, but it’s particularly hopping during the annual French Quarter Festival, a free music festival held every April throughout the historic district since 1984.
The festival heralds itself as the largest free festival in the nation, with a record-setting attendance of more than 732,000 people in 2014. Bad weather caused attendance to drop in 2015. Three days of festivities feature 800-some local musicians playing jazz, blues and zydeco on stages that dot the quarter and line the Mississippi River waterfront.
Guests also enjoy parades and marching bands, food vendors and fireworks and dancing in the streets.
“They go and eat and drink and listen to music and dance in the streets,” said David Burns, managing director for TAP partner All-American Tours, which introduced its French Quarter Festival itinerary in 2014. “It’s just a real fun time.”
The trip is special for many travelers because they’re on their own. All-American Tours gives guests the choice of booking at Marriott’s AC Hotel or the boutique Blake Hotel, depending on their budget, and has guides available for questions or help. Other than that, people simply explore the French Quarter, the festival and the food.
“It’s a unique event because they’re on their own,” Burns said. “Our customers are used to having a rather firm itinerary and a guide and it’s point A to point B. Here, it’s a free-for-all. People enjoy it.”
