Dutch Grand Prix Hospitality Review

It’s felt like a long time coming, but following a 2 year delay thanks to our old friend Covid-19, Red Eye finally managed to experience our debut Dutch Grand Prix last weekend. We had a number of guests attending the race, with a variety of different accommodation and hospitality packages, so it was great to hop over to Zandvoort and experience the event for ourselves - and it’s fair to say that we weren’t disappointed!

Dutch Grand Prix Flights & Transfers

We flew with Easyjet from London Luton to Amsterdam Schiphol on the Thursday, and despite all the doom and gloom currently in the media everything went seamlessly. The flight is only one hour from London, and with only hand luggage to worry about we were on our way to Zandvoort in no time. As well as a return flight coming in at under £100 we think this makes the Dutch Grand Prix one of the best F1 trips from the UK available, and we haven’t even started on the other positives yet!

Our pre booked driver was waiting for us at the terminal and the ride to the hotel was a comfortable 30 minutes in a smart Tesla, costing €90. After a brief chat we discovered that our driver Carlos was randomly the brother of former Chelsea striker Jimmy Flloyd Hasselbaink, so we had a good conversation about football and London and before we knew it we’d arrived at the hotel.

As an alternative there are plenty of taxis available outside of the airport but we would always recommend booking your transfer in advance with us, just for ease and assurance. There is also a train from the airport to Zandvoort but you do need to make 1 change.

Zandvoort Accommodation

We stayed at the Palace Hotel, close to the beach in Zandvoort. In all honesty this was by no means the Monte Carlo Bay, but it was a solid 4* and in our experience location is everything when it comes to Formula One trips.

There is the option to stay in Amsterdam if you wanted more of a luxury hotel, which is approximately a 45 minute car ride away, but this transfer time increases dramatically during peak times over the weekend. Also, unless your car has an F1 accredited pass it can only get so close to the circuit. The other advantage of Zandvoort accommodation is that you are immersed in the unique Dutch Grand Prix atmosphere, which as we go on to explain is an experience that makes this race truly unique.

The Palace Hotel was approximately a 30 minute walk from the circuit, and the walk is probably the most pleasant and easy journeys from a hotel to a race circuit that we’ve ever had! This was made even easier when we decided to hire bikes (€45 for the weekend) and we simply rode to and from the circuit via the busy promenade – definitely the best way to travel!

Zandvoort Atmosphere & The Orange Army

The simplest way to describe Zandvoort is that it’s very similar to a traditional English seaside town. As mentioned earlier though the atmosphere transforms the city over the Dutch Grand Prix weekend and makes it a truly unique and brilliant F1 destination. The support for Max Verstappen and Red Bull is huge, and only comparable to the most tribal of football ultra-fans – think the Tifosi of Italy and multiply it by a hundred! We would say though that despite some media negativity of Max fans earlier in the season the atmosphere couldn’t have been friendlier. The orange army was extremely jovial and there wasn’t one sign of hostility or volatility towards rival fans all weekend as far as we could see. We saw plenty of Lewis fans with Mercedes t-shirts sharing a beer with the locals and we were really impressed with the overall positive party feeling that surrounded the track and town.

Dutch Grand Prix Hospitality Packages

For the race weekend we had guests in Formula One Paddock Club, as well as some lucky people who enjoyed the hospitality of Red Bull racing in their team Paddock Club. As official distributors of F1 Paddock Club we can provide tailored hospitality packages at every race and after this weekend the Dutch Grand Prix is sure to be a favoured Grand Prix amongst our regular guests.

We also had exclusive access to the unique hospitality package of the Race Home with Beach Club access, which combined on-track hospitality with passes for the Beach Club Far Out, located on the nearby promenade. This provided high end morning and evening hospitality to really enhance your Dutch Grand Prix experience. At the circuit you had a prime grandstand seat with access to an adjoining hospitality suite, serving food and drink throughout the weekend. For more information on this package please contact a member of the Red Eye Events team.

The Race & Conclusion

The race itself also didn’t disappoint. Although the Verstappen win was almost an inevitability it wasn’t without drama, and the Dutch victory only added to the party atmosphere.

After a night of joining the celebrations in Zandvoort we travelled back to the UK on Monday, and the only negative of the whole weekend was Schiphol Airport. The queues for airport security were huge, and despite arriving in good time we only just made the flight. We would recommend arriving at the airport super early for your return flight, but this may well be a temporary issue. Despite this we travelled home having had a brilliant weekend and we can only highly recommend travelling to the Dutch Grand Prix in 2023.

For more information on the 2023 Dutch GP hospitality packages available, as well as travel and accommodation options in Zandvoort, please contact a member of the Red Eye Events team and we would be happy to put together an itinerary that fully tailored to your needs.

Until next year Zandvoort!