Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers to the questions we hear most, from people thinking about joining and from members planning their first tour.
No. Nothing the club does on the road is timed, scored or ranked, and nothing ever will be. There is no leaderboard, no numbers on the doors and no penalty for stopping. That is partly taste and partly sense: a competitive element can void your motor insurance and turns the places we drive through against us.
A supercar tour is a multi-day drive in your own car, with a small party, on roads chosen for the driving: Alpine passes, Highland glens, Welsh mountain roads, the Atlantic coast of Ireland. Valenza Privé runs them as a club rather than as a tour operator: the route is driven in full before you see it, every hotel is slept in by us first, the cars are parked securely each night, and a tour leader travels with the party, with a technician on the longer tours. Nothing is timed, and a tour is a package under the Package Travel Regulations, so your money is held in trust until you depart.
A tour operator sells you a holiday. Valenza Privé is a club, and the tours are something the club does rather than the thing it exists for. You are elected rather than sold to, membership is free, and the same people are on the road with you next year. There are excellent operators and we are not in the business of running them down; the difference is simply that when a Valenza tour is finished you are still a member, and there is a club night next month.
Apply on the membership page: who you are, what you drive and what you would like from the club. The team reviews every application, and where the club and the applicant suit one another an invitation follows. Membership is free: there is no joining fee and no subscription. A subscription of £100 a year is published now for 1 January 2029, so that nobody joins on one basis and is surprised by another.
An interesting one. Marque, age and value are nobody’s business but yours. Members have driven everything from a modern supercar to something older with a proper engine note. We value you as a person just as much as the car you drive. Your car must be roadworthy, legal in every country visited, and insured for the whole trip.
No. Members drive Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Porsches, Aston Martins and Bentleys, and they also drive Lotuses, Morgans, Caterhams, TVRs and cars older than their owners. The criterion is that the car is interesting and that you enjoy driving it on a good road. Supercar, sports car, grand tourer or classic, it is welcome on every tour.
You do. Members drive and insure their own vehicles, and you must hold cover valid for every country on the route, including your passenger and the car itself. The club does not insure members’ cars, and our terms say so in plain words. We do not and cannot verify anyone’s cover, and we never tell a member whether they are covered.
One thing to know before you book anything. Many policies exclude taking part in organised vehicle events, and some of those wordings catch any organised tour, not only a timed or competitive one. Nothing the club does is timed, scored or ranked, which helps with some wordings, but it does not save everybody. So before a tour, tell your insurer or broker what it is, ask them in writing whether you are covered, and keep the answer. The members’ area has a place to put it.
A small party, and the number is set for each tour rather than fixed for all of them, because a week in the Alps and four days in the Cotswolds do not want the same group. Small is the point: it is what keeps a mountain road a pleasure and a village glad to see you.
The standard, which is the five things the club holds itself to on every tour: exceptional hotels, exquisite cuisine, secure parking, unwavering support and incredible roads. Each is published on the About page.
Every hotel, the dinners set out in the itinerary, the roadbook and the club team on the road with you throughout. Fuel, tolls and vignettes are yours, as are other meals unless the itinerary says otherwise. The exact inclusions and price are set out for each tour before you book.
The price is set per person, two sharing a car and a room, with a supplement for travelling alone, and is published with each tour’s dates rather than as a single figure for the season, because a week on the Swiss passes and four days in the Cotswolds are very different beasts. Members see the dates and the prices first. What the price covers is set out above and does not move afterwards: there is no public discounting, ever, and there is no fuel surcharge waiting at the end.
A tour is paid by bank transfer into a designated trust account, as a deposit when you take a place and a balance before departure. Event tickets are paid by card at the point of booking. Your place is held from the moment the deposit clears, and you are shown the prescribed pre-contract information and the booking conditions before you commit to anything.
Yes. Tours are packages under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. Every payment you make towards a tour is held in the club's designated trust account, separate from the club's own money, until the day the tour departs. You receive the prescribed information before you commit to anything.
Briskly where the road invites it, gently where it does not, and always within the law. These roads were chosen because they are a joy to drive, and we want you to enjoy every bend of them. Nothing is timed, there is no leaderboard and nobody waits at the other end with a stopwatch, so the pleasure is in the driving rather than the arriving. The mornings are for the roads, lunch is somewhere worth stopping, and if you want half an hour with a view, the roadbook has already allowed for it. We drive as guests wherever we go, and anyone whose driving reflects badly on the club will not be invited again.
Your licence, your V5C or a hire agreement, your insurance certificate valid for every country on the route, and a UK identifier on the car. Some countries require items to be carried in the vehicle, and low emission zones in France, Germany and Italy need to be arranged before you travel rather than at the barrier. The roadbook lists what each country on that tour wants, and the club chases anything missing before departure. The requirements change, so check the current position on GOV.UK as well: what is written here is information, not advice.
On certain tours our head technician travels with the party, with the tools and the knowledge to keep a car going. Recovery and parts stay with your own cover, so members always need breakdown cover valid in every country on the route. If a car cannot go on, the priority is you and your passenger: you continue with the party while the car is dealt with, as each case allows. We do everything we can never to leave anyone behind.
The book for the tour: every day, the route, the stops, where lunch is, where the cars go at night, the telephone numbers that matter, and the alternative if a pass is shut. Printed, because a printed page still works in a valley with no signal, and on the club’s app as well. It is written after the route has been driven in full, in season, not before.
Tours are priced per person, two sharing a car and a room. Club nights and Soho in the Sticks are open to guests. Experience days are usually members only because the numbers are small.
Renowned motoring journalist Simon Weir and the Valenza Privé Ops team. Every route is driven in full, in season, before a member sees it, and the roadbook is in the members’ area on your phone, which can be added to the home screen of any iPhone or Android phone.
The Alps and the Italian lakes, the Pyrenees, Spain and Portugal, the Scottish Highlands, mid and north Wales, the west coast of Ireland and the Cotswolds. Every one of them is a place the roads are the reason to go rather than the way of getting there. The season is published on the tours page and the dates come from the club rather than from this page, so it is always current.
The ones the club builds its tours on. In Switzerland, the Nufenen, the Furka, the Grimsel and the Susten between Locarno and Interlaken, and the lanes around Lake Maggiore and Lake Lugano. In Scotland, the single track roads of the north west Highlands and the Bealach na Bà. In Wales, the Black Mountain road, the Elan Valley, the Llanberis Pass, the Ogwen Valley and the Berwyns. In Ireland, the Atlantic coast through Connemara. In England, the lanes of the Cotswolds. Each is driven in full, in season, before a member sees it.
No. We do not publish a member’s name or image without written consent, and we ask members to extend the same courtesy to one another. You are asked at booking whether the club may publish photographs in which you can be recognised; if you leave it blank, none is published, and any image of you is deleted if you ask.
Yes. Members sign in to see the dates, book places, read the roadbooks and look after their cars in My Garage.
The terms and privacy notice are published on this site. Tour booking conditions are issued with each tour.
