Some attractive sporting trips available
Horse racing
The Open takes place at Cheltenham next month. The highlight of the three-day weekend meeting is the Paddy Power Gold Cup, on Saturday, November 15th. Leopardstown Tours (01-2958901, www.leopardstowntours.com) and Tully's Travel (059-9136100, www.tullys.ie) have deals for the event. Leopardstown Tours has two- and three-night packages, including flights, accommodation, transfers and taxes, starting at €489 per person. Tully's Travel has two-night packages for €385 per person sharing, including flights, transfers and hotel accommodation.
Winter Olympics
Last week residents of Canada and the US got a chance to request tickets for the 2010 Winter Olympics, in Vancouver. They have until November 7th to apply. Depending on demand, a lottery will take place during November, with any remaining tickets going on sale in February. More than half of them cost less than 175 Canadian dollars (€116), although tickets for finals and the opening and closing ceremonies cost multiples of that.
As with the Beijing Olympics, the English company Sportsworld (00-44-1235-555844, www.sportsworld.co.uk) will be the official agent for Ireland. The Olympic Council of Ireland expects to announce details of its ticketing arrangements shortly. Irish agency CanAmerica (01-8720444, www.canamerica.ie) will be arranging packages closer to the event.
Soccer
Sportstours (01-4572311, www.sportstours.ie) has late availability for Manchester United's clash with Celtic at Old Trafford on October 21st. A one-night package, including return flights, hotel accommodation and a match ticket, costs €699 per person plus taxes.
Mark Rodden
rodden.mark@gmail.com