Goodwood with a little one

[someuser08]

It's going to be our first FOS on Sunday. We are going with a 6 yo son and therefore will be unable to a) get in very early (hopefully by 9:30ish) b) walk a lot of distance, so any tips and suggestions of what to do on the day would be much appreciated! For the little one its probably more interesting to do close-up/ hands-on things rather than watch from a distance (although GAS and Red Arrows are probably a must for us).

[someuser08]

DavidY said:

Ear plugs, if you are likely to be near any noisy cars, remeber a 6yo is a lot closer to the noise than an adult is.

Good point. Would ear defenders be suitable as well? I don't think I can make him wear ear plugs

[someuser08]

MattyD803 said:

Yeah, absolutely. You can get them on Amazon.

I went 4 years ago and I am pretty sure the sound of the Williams F1 car starting up as we were stood behind is still ringing around my brain.....your little one won't be best pleased, so this is a great shout.

Also, the obvious, sensible footwear, sunscreen, cap, sunnies and plenty of fluids, because unfortunately you do need to trek about to see the various displays, stands, paddocks etc and if it turns out warm and sunny, you'll be grateful you prepared.

Thanks, just ordered from Amazon. We are going to Silverstone a week later anyway, so I will definitely need them anyway.

We are generally well prepared for days out and the forecast for Sunday doesn't look too hot (if anything rather cold - 17C and chance of rain)...

[someuser08]

KarlMac said:

- 9:30 isn't early for goodwood, so make preparations to sit in a queue to get in. Gates open at 6:30am this year, I'd aim to arrive as close to 8ish as you can.

I know! But if the little one doesn't get enough sleep - it ruins the day for everyone afterwards, so I'd rather see less things but enjoy them
Its going to be around 2h drive for us, so we are already starting earlier than usual. I did my research though on which route and car park to aim for, so hoping that will help...

[someuser08]

ecsrobin said:

As has been mentioned aiming for 0930 could get you in an hour or 2 of traffic.

Is this guaranteed from every direction?

[someuser08]

Thank you everyone for your inputs!

I will try as early as I can, but unlikely as early as suggested. I will report with my experience back after the event though.

P.S. I know its not weekend yet, but I was checking traffic today in the morning via google maps and all the routes to goodwood were green until 10am (I stopped checking after that). Unlike M25 that was clogged up since 6am (although it will be better on the weekend for sure). Considering its a sold out even for today - should it give me some hope?

Edited by someuser08 on Thursday 23 June 14:34

[someuser08]

So as promised, some feedback after we attended yesterday (Sunday). The event is amazing! It was our first and no matter what itinerary we would have planned - it was always difficult to stick to it as there is so much to see.

First, the traffic - after all the warnings here we didn't really experience any. We arrived about 9am from north east into car park M with zero queues. In fact I got strange looks from my family in the car "Are you sure we are going the right direction?" as there was no cars in front of us until we reached the gates of the car park. The section where we were guided to had just a few rows of cars in front of us (and on the way back we also saw just a few rows after us). Either we got really lucky with this particular car park or everyone, after reading this types of forums, arrived really early this year. Anyway, after parking it took us only 2 min to get to the ticket office, collect tickets (again no queues) and get in.

Of course once we were there - it was really busy by then and we decided to slowly explorer everything from where we were. Because we were south of the hill track we didn't get to paddocks until later in the afternoon. Once we did it was quite a carnage with cars moving, people queuing etc. F1 paddock was disappointing: at the time we were there - there was only Zak Brown around (plus huge crowd awaiting for George Russel to drop by Mercedes area).

In the morning though we did Electric Avenue, Future Labs (great for kids), commercial stalls, GAS show (again great for kids and this is where ear defenders really helped - thanks for the advice). Red Arrows - was the first time we saw them, so were really impressive, but a bit too far out from the centre of the show, hard to see from time to time unless they were high up in the air.

Lunch time queues for food were enormous, but we did bring ours with us, so didn't waste time on that. Picnic could be set up pretty much anywhere.

Good shout about getting a tractor up the hill - it was really good fun and we got really lucky with the timing: we got there just when shootout started so we saw almost everyone getting out of the cars after the finish, including Jenson Button and the winner, Max Chilton. Very reasonable amount of people up there as well comparing to the bottom. Walking down was easy from there, seeing rally cars on the way. Really dusty there though even if you don't spend much time stationary there. In some places we had to walk through the clouds of dust (from rally cars plus it was quite windy).

I agree that the best place to watch the hill action if you don't have grand stand tickets is the area half way up the hill. First its elevated above the hay bales, so you can even sit on the grass and still see the action and second they has small standing platform for public there and third, not that many people around. We got there very late though (on the way back from the top of the hill). Next time we know, but there is no way we would have just walked there straight in the morning on our first visit (even if we knew about it).

I think one needs a couple of days to really get the most of the FoS - one to spend watching the cars going up the hill and in the paddocks and second for the rest of the activities. May be we'll do overnight stay locally next year...