Run To the Sun Newquay VW Rally Bank Holiday Weekend

Run to the Sun is a VW festival that's been held at Trevelgue Holiday Park, Newquay since 1987. RTTS has grown every year since then and is now one of the biggest VW and Custom Car shows around.

RTTS is based at Trevelgue, which puts on a whole weekend of entertainment on the holiday park, including lots of music tents and top names.

The RTTS weekend is always held on the late May Bank Holiday, with cars arriving in convoy from the Thursday onwards. There are organised cruises all the way from London. Volksworld lead one cruise from Reading to Newquay, while other groups organise their own cruises, knowing they'll all meet up somewhere en route, creating traffic jams going back miles as over 100,000 people head for the sun in Newquay for the weekend. The RTTS cruise has been known to be 1,000 cars long!

It's traditional that if you're part of the RTTS crowd you put up a sign in or on your car in some way with the letters RTTS.

Most of the weekend, the rally is contained within the Trevelgue Holiday Park, but as everybody is an individual and in their own groups, the town finds it is inundated with impromptu cruises around and through the town, bringing it virtually to a standstill most of the weekend.

Over the years, the entertainment on offer at the RTTS has just kept growing and now they have no less than five separate arenas erected, with DJs, live music playing all day long and well into the evening, bars and food outlets.

While a lot of people will turn up in their VW camper vans - and want to sleep in them, there are others who bring tents and stay in the Trevelgue camping fields. When you buy a ticket for RTTS in includes your camping ticket.

Additionally, as Trevelgue is a large Holiday Park, there are plenty of caravans to be booked for the weekend - over 300 in total. The prices to hire a caravan are exceptionally reasonable, with 4-berth to 9-berth caravans available, working out (at full occupancy) at just £100/person. However, if you read the small print you'll see that you can stay for the whole week for just a further £50 (per van, not per person), making it daft not to. Why queue with everybody else for hours on the motorway and go home when for just a few quid extra you get the week!

So, check that deal out and plan to stay for the week ... you know it makes sense!

One part of the RTTS that does happen away from Trevelgue is the annual Show N Shine event. This is usually held in the Tregunnel Hill Public Car Park (TR7 1QT for Satnav) and is completely open and free for anybody to walk around and see all the cars that people have... so a great free day out looking at the VW campers, custom cars and admiring the effort that's gone into them.

The Show N Shine is open to anybody who has a car they want to show off - they don't have to be a ticket holder of RTTS at all. All the cars are then assessed and prizes awarded by The National Association of Street Cars, with cash prizes going to the winners.

With 2012 being the Royal Jubilee year, the bank holiday has been moved to the following Monday. This means that RTTS 2012 will be a week later than you might have expected. The dates for RTTS 2012 are 1-4 June 2012.

SHOW N SHINE 2012

The Show N Shine in 2012 is at NEWQUAY AIRPORT (postcode for satnav TR8 4RQ). Gates open at 8am on Sunday 3 June 2012. There is an entry fee for spectators.

Entering Show N Shine 2012

If you're not wearing your official 2012 RTTS wristband, then putting your car into the Show N Shine will cost you £10, with a wristband it's £5.

Getting There

If you don't have a car or a lift, then RTTS is part of the liftshare network, so you can get online and arrange a lift for yourself.

Alternatively, you could arrive by plane to Newquay Airport - which is just about 2-3 miles from the Trevelgue campsite.

If you arrive by train, you can either catch the train to St Austell station, then get off and catch the bus to Newquay (the distance between the train station and the bus station is about 30 paces as they're literally next to each other). Or, you can stay on the train, change at Par and arrive at Newquay Station - just check the timings, there can be a long wait at Par, then the train travels at about jogging pace, so it might be easier to get off and hop on a bus. From Newquay train station, or Newquay itself, you'll need to find a Western Greyhound bus (probably coloured green) that'll take you out to Trevelgue.

Western Greyhound provide an excellent bus service to and from Trevelgue for the weekend of RTTS.

National Express coaches will bring you into Newquay bus station - from there just find the Western Greyhound bus stop and wait for the next bus.

Megabus and Megatrain are options too.

Trevelgue is a bit out of town, down a narrow dark lane, so you can't really walk it from the town, but there will be lots of regular buses to/from Trevelgue, conveniently, there's really only one route so if you're walking on the road between the two the bus will pass you by - so if you start to walk and can't make it, just get to the next bus stop and wait, it won't be long.

There are plenty of taxis in Newquay and at Trevelgue that will take you in/out of town.

Run to the Sun is hosted by Trevelgue Holiday Park, just 2-3 miles north of Newquay.

Address: Trevelgue Holiday Park, Porth, Newquay, Cornwall, TR8 4AS
Telephone: 01637 872343

Website: http://www.trevelgue.co.uk

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Photographs by
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgspiller/

Red VW: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39881171@N00/203365707
Colourful VW: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39881171@N00/21010589
Blue VW: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgspiller/203377736/
Red Deuce Sedan: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgspiller/203355465/
Old VW: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39881171@N00/203378261

Western Greyhound Bus: http://www.flickr.com/photos/didbygraham/3507251122/in/set-72157605179623810/

VW Convoy:http://www.flickr.com/photos/39881171@N00/203368245