fbpx

MGA Register

Search
Members
Navigation

Proposed MGA 70th Anniversary Tour – 2025

2025 is a special Anniversary year for MGA and for MGA owners – it will be70 years since the first MGA was made.

The MGA Register Committee has been investigating what the Register could do as a correspondingly “special” and memorable Tour and Event for 2025, to appeal to Register members worldwide – not just in the UK.

The outcome of those deliberations is a proposal for a tour of Ireland in June 2025.

The main tour would be based around Scenic Car Tours Celtic Classic Tour, https://www.celticclassic.co.uk as follows:

  • It is 5 days and 4 nights based in Derry. Driving tours will cover the North East corner of Ireland, between Belfast and Derry, and will include tours of the Causeway Coast (East) and a stretch of the Wild Atlantic Coast from Derry to Letterkenny (West). It will also include a visit to the Giant’s Causeway (sorry – extra charge of £20 per person for non members of the National Trust!). We will also drive to Belfast, where we will visit the Titanic Experience and have a guided tour of the city.
  • Provisional dates are Thursday 26th June to Sunday 30th June 2025.
  • Budget price per person for this tour is likely to be £650 for Bed and Breakfast, plus an additional £80 per person for the Sunday Night Gala Dinner and Ceilidh, using the 4* Waterfoot Hotel in Derry. (Half board may be available.)
  • The tour price includes daytime ferry crossings between the mainland and Ireland – Liverpool to Belfast, Cairnryan to Belfast, Holyhead to Dublin, Fishguard to Rosslare, or Pembroke to Rosslare. Overnight sailings may carry a surcharge. We would hope to have firm 2025 prices by July 2024. (For Irish residents, and members not travelling from the mainland, “Event only” prices excluding ferry costs are available.)
  • Details of the itinerary for the 5 days, and details of the Waterfoot hotel, are on the Celtic Classic / Scenic Car Tours website. https://www.celticclassic.co.uk/ and at https://www.celticclassic.co.uk/cc-tourpackages
  • All prices assume 2 persons per room, and 2 persons per car.
  • Note: – This Celtic Classic Tour from Scenic Car Tours is advertised on pages 18 and 19 of the December 2023 / January 2024 edition of Safety Fast! by Scenic Car Tours. Please note that this website is showing details for 2024 only – The pictures will be the same, but we are looking at 2025, remember!

In addition to this Celtic Classic Tour weekend, if participants wish to extend their visit to Ireland and to visit the Republic of Ireland / Eire, and in particular to see the west coast of Ireland, – the Wild Atlantic Coast, we have worked with Scenic Car Tours to devise a variation on their Wild Atlantic Coast tour, as follows:

  • An additional 6 day, 5 night tour along the South and West coasts of Ireland, from Dublin up to Derry. (Dublin, Adare, 2 nights in Galway, and then Ballina)
  • This tour takes place BEFORE the Celtic Classic event (rather than AFTER the event as is “normal”), so likely to be 19th to 25th June 2025.
  • And the route goes South to North rather than the reverse.
  • So it arrives in Derry to join the Celtic Classic and the wider group on 26th June.
  • In effect, this extra 6 day tour is the https://www.celticclassic.co.uk/copy-of-hotel-accommodation tour (Ignore the words in this web address – it does take you to the right place!!)
  • Budget price for this tour is around £900 per person. – This is in addition to the Celtic Classic cost, of course.  Details of the accommodation and the route is in the web-link above (but, of course, we would be doing the route “in reverse” in order to meet up with the wider group at the Celtic Classic).

What happens next?

In order to progress this proposal, the MGA Register Committee and Scenic Car Tours need to get an indication of how much interest there is these proposals.

In order to make the base tour (the Celtic Classic) viable with an MGA identity we need at least 45 cars. To make the “bolt-on” Wild Atlantic Way pre-tour viable we need at least 20 cars.

So we need your thoughts and opinions between now and the end of February 2024.

  1. Are you interested in the Celtic Classic Tour for 2025, as outlined above?
  2. If so, would you prefer Bed and Breakfast basis, or Half Board?
  3. Would you want to join the Sunday Night Gala Dinner and Ceilidh?
  4. Are you interested in the 6 day / 5 night “pre-tour” from Dublin round the Wild Atlantic Way up to Derry?

Please send your replies and thoughts to the MGA eNewsletter Editor at mgcarclub-mganewsletter@outlook.com by 29th February 2024.

Thanks for your participation.