u/No-Trifle-597

First off - Absolutely amazing. Intended as a once in a lifetime trip, but would 100% do it again.

What’s included - 5 days of full hospitality, amazing food every day (more below) open bar, prime view of the start finish, enclosed glass lounges and open air terrace. Paddock and gridwalk access, some extra small tours.

Viewing: Overlooking the start finish and opposite the pits. Always something exciting going on, amazing for the pre race ceremony and start. Always activity. There are 2 levels, plus an outdoor balcony. Loads of small tables of 4, all looking right out onto the circuit, plus some sofas / beanbags and cinema seating areas at each end.

Food: Amazing. French fine dining. 3 courses lunch and dinner. Half buffet style, half waiter service. Photos don’t do it justice. My wife described it as a 5 day restaurant holiday experience, with cars going past! Also an open bar, wine champagne cocktails as well as soft drinks tea coffee etc.

Tours: There are 2 remote viewing points they take you out to on shuttle at pre arranged times. One is at Arnage/Indianapolis, and the other is at the first chicane! Amazing to see the cars breaking hard shifting down and then powering out the first chicane at night! (Img 12). There is also a behind the scenes tour of race control, media centre, etc with explanation in the centre opposite, just above the podium. (Img 9)

Overall vibe: Lovely. Everyone was very friendly and civilised. It was obviously busy on Saturday afternoon, and again Sunday, maybe a couple of hundred people total, but still space for everyone to have a seat with a view out etc. 95% of the time there were completely free tables to sit at just as a 2. Highly recommend the Wednesday-Friday, at most 20% full, very chilled, lovely calm space with radio lemans in the background. Incredibly civilised sitting drinking champagne eating amazing food.
Random cool thing - (Img 11) It has its own private tunnel going under the track to the paddock. Not often used but a nice thing to have!

Cost: It’s €4,200 each. Includes the grid walk & paddock access, vip parking and things too.

Expensive yes. Worth it? IMO as a one off absolutely yes. If you’ve got the money to do it regularly, yes. As a ‘value for money vs camping with a group of mates’ obviously not. But it’s a very different experience. Depends who you’re going with etc.

For review of the paddock and gridwalk aspects, available also on their own see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/lemans/s/OahnSiarOk

What’s it actually like

Paddock (first 3 photos): Gives you access to the back of the garages. However what it means in reality is as per the photo. They’re all built out. At best you can see through a small window, a narrow strip through, but most are completely blocked off and have a TV screen showing what’s happening inside.
The cool part is more the front and rear ends which you see lying around, up close. The occasional very brief driver passing through, but not often.
Honestly, a little underwhelming. Not really somewhere to hang around, feels like a thoroughfare or where people pause waiting to do their own teams hospitality etc.

Gridwalk (other 7): What it says on the tin and you’ve probably seen others do if you’ve ever watched the start of the race from out straight. Opportunity to walk around all of the cars up close, just hours before the race start. It’s so cool!!
As per the photos, you really can get within touching distance of all of them! It’s a little busy, but it’s easy enough to get close to every car over the time allowed and study in as much detail and appreciation as you wish. It’s a little busy but never felt too much or intense, particularly around everything non hypercar. Amazing to see some of the details up close.

For me, it was part of the panoramic24 hospitality package, so I can’t say if worth the money on its own, but hoped it may help others!

Any recommendations for the must visit shops whilst here? The Spark store is on my list, what else should be?