Breakfast

Your road tour registration includes breakfast at our host hotel. The location and style of breakfast will vary from tour to tour, but typically you will receive breakfast vouchers upon checking into your room, which you can use at an on-site restaurant or quick service. At hotels that do not have a breakfast restaurant, we will have our own meeting room with a catered breakfast each morning.

Just make sure you grab something to eat before 8:45 AM, because that’s when we always have our daily…

driver’s meeting

Every day of the tour, at exactly 8:45 AM, we meet in our designated parking area to go over our plans for the day, answer any questions you may have, and make sure everyone gets on the road at the same time with GPS units working properly.

Most folks (including some tour staff) will already be out in our parking area between an hour and 30 minutes before the driver’s meeting. This is a great time to ask staff any questions you may have about the tour or the GPS units, give your car a quick once-over with the detailing supplies we have on hand, and grab some water bottles from our cooler.

Things to know before you hit the road:

Make sure you and your co-driver both have your legal photo ID with you for the day’s activities. We sometimes visit distilleries or wineries that require proof of legal drinking age for entry (or souvenir purchase).
The lead staff car always needs to leave before the rest of the group and will take the fastest route to the next destination and make sure everything is ready for us there. Do not follow the lead car, and do not leave any stop before the lead car leaves.
Another staff car (usually driven by our Publisher Emeritus, Tim Suddard) will drive towards the front of the touring pack, following the GPS route.
The photography car will sometimes follow the route, but will often deviate to get ahead of the pack and set up for photos along the side of the road. Keep an eye out for them, and don’t be afraid to smile and wave for the camera!
The chase staff car will always follow along at the back of the pack and will not leave any stop until after the last guest car has left. This car will follow the GPS route exactly, monitoring for breakdowns or other issues. For this reason, if you break down or have a mechanical issue that requires you to stop, please stay on the route. Pull over and stay visible - our chase car will be on the lookout for broken down cars. If you have cell signal, text the chase car driver to let them know you are stopped.

Hitting the road

At 9:00 AM every day of the tour, we’ll all leave our designated parking area at the same time to start Leg 1 of the day’s route. Be sure to have read the GPS Instructions page in your guide book so you know how to get started on the pre-planned route.

This is not a timed rally or a race. You do not need to be competitive with the other cars. Drive at whatever pace you are comfortable with, and do not feel pressured to keep up with the front of the pack. All we ask is that if you know you will be driving slower than other cars, please allow the faster cars to leave the parking area first.

Things to know about our curated driving routes:

These routes are almost always longer than the fastest route from point A to point B. The roads are a big part of the fun, so sometimes we go out of our way to get on some more winding roads with better scenery and less traffic. We promise it’s worth it.
You are allowed to stop to use the bathroom or fuel up during transits, just make sure you know how to get back on the route if you’ve left it. Check your guide book - we’ll note any Sunoco gas stations along the route on a page near the front, and we try to recommend bathrooms along the route for longer transits.
Our routes are designed to be safe for older and lower cars. If your GPS directs you down a gravel or dirt road, you are no longer on the planned route. Consult the GPS instructions for what to do next. That being said, because we are a large group, we may occasionally need to park on unpaved overflow parking areas.
If at any point you decide to leave the route or skip an activity, please let our staff know. It’s your vacation, so you’re welcome to spend it however you want, but if we don’t know that you’re not coming to one of our stops, waiting for you to arrive there may hold up the group.
If you have an emergency and need to pull over, please do so a safe distance from the road while remaining visible. If it’s a medical emergency or a car crash, call 911 before calling tour staff. Once you are safe, text and call the chase car driver.
Our chase car driver is equipped with basic tools and repair items and has experience working on classic and sports cars. With some time and tinkering, they may be able to get your car back into driving condition in the event of a breakdown. If the issue is not fixable on the side of the road, our chase car driver will arrange for your vehicle to be towed to the hotel or to a nearby repair shop.

destinations

Over the course of a tour, we’ll visit a mix of car-themed destinations, historic sites, natural points of interest, and museums. Each of these destinations is listed in the guide book, along with their street addresses, our anticipated arrival time and planned departure time.

During the tour, we try our best to stick to those scheduled times, so please try not to leave a stop before the scheduled departure time - otherwise you may arrive at our next destination before we are there to greet you.

Just like we mentioned before, if you deviate from the route for any reason and feel that you will not make it to our next destination within 15-30 minutes of the planned arrival time, please let a staff member know.

Lunch time

At our lunch stops, we’ll either have a menu for you to select from, or you will have chosen your entrees ahead of time. If you pre-selected entrees for a meal, we will have place cards for you to take to your seats which will let the wait staff know what you ordered.

Non-alcoholic beverages are included at lunches as part of the tour. For liability reasons, though, any alcoholic beverages you may order during a lunch stop are your own responsibility, and you will receive a separate bill for them.

Parking Lot Bar

At the end of each driving day (with the exception of the night that you have to yourself), we’ll meet you in our designated parking area with some frosty beverages (beer, wine, soda and water) and snacks. So park your car, relax, and crack open a cold one with your fellow tourers before we all part ways to get ready for dinner.

The timing of the parking lot bar will vary depending on when we return from the driving route each day, so consult the schedule overview in your guide book for details.

Dinner Time

For our off-site dinners, we’ll meet up in the lobby of our host hotel at a designated time before heading out together - either on foot or by bus, depending on the distance.

Every dinner on our tours starts with a cocktail reception at 6:30pm. You’ll have time to order a few drinks and discuss the day’s adventures with your fellow tourers before dinner service begins at 7:00pm. Just like at lunchtime, if you’ve preselected your entree, it will be on a place card for you to take to your seat with you.

We’ll keep the cocktails flowing until 7:30pm, so feel free to order whatever liquor drinks you’ll want to enjoy with your meal before that time. After 7:30pm, bar service will switch to beer and wine only.

Towards the end of dinner, we’ll have some announcements about the plans for the following day as well as some little surprises for you, so we ask that you please stick around for dessert to avoid missing important information.

After dinner, the night is yours. Tour staff will return to the hotel to prepare for the next day, but you can keep the fun going as late as you like.

So, what does a typical day look like on a Classic Motorsports Road Tour?