Last week The Cannon Run Team took to the roads for our annual Research Trip that takes place a few months before every Mega Run event.
Full Team loaded with 3 vehicles we departed CR HQ and headed for Kent & Eastwell Manor, Eastwell is situated just outside of Kent and is perfectly placed to make our way easily to the Euro Tunnel. The well-known manor is famous for its grand entrances, walled gardens and unbelievable service. This all contributes to making Eastwell the perfect location for our Launch Party & Start Line.
Departing The Manor, we headed out to the euro tunnel where of course we have the wider carriages booked for our clients to save any curbing or stress on the first day! After arriving at Calais, we have a very straight forward journey through two French national parks and then into Luxembourg for our first luxurious hotel & stop off. An area of the hotel has been privatised for our own Cannon Run event & drinks with our in-house entertainments team heading up the evening!
The second day of our research trip took us from Luxembourg and into some beautiful driving roads that lay in ‘Parc Naturel Regional De’ Lorraine’ but these are nowhere near the best roads that we found during our time away! Adjusting our route slightly we decided to navigate away from Lyon which was the original plan as something beautiful caught our eyes on the map! A little town called ‘Annecy’ – As we closed in on what looked like a hidden gem, we were not disappointed, the roads got better and better before we laid our eyes on what can only be described as The Lake District of France! It wasn’t a hard choice for the team, The City Streets of Lyon or The Lakes of Annecy!? The decision was made without hesitation, so we immediately located the best hotel in the area which is of course 5 star and has amazing views of the Lakes. A meeting was held with their amazing management team and a wonderful evening with spectacular views has been set in stone for our clients.
We departed for the 3rd day of research and planning and that is exactly what we did. The next stop would be Monaco and the most famous route in is known as ‘Route Neapolitan’ which we have used in prior events. At The Cannon Run we like to keep things fresh, so we spent 7 hours plotting and driving some roads that are not ‘known’ by any famous route planning pages or tourist sites. After some tricky spots, back tracking and stops to re plan, we absolutely nailed it, some of the roads we found are not even named and we believe we have plotted the best and most exciting route possible into Monaco!
There was one obvious choice for us when we arrived at ‘The Billionaires Playground – Monte Carlo’ – The Fairmont Hotel, the home of Nobu and Nikki Beach, but also infamous for its views of the Monaco F1 Circuit and stunning coastline. Meetings were held and plans for our flagship event were put into place and we cannot wait to bring all of you to the city of wealth where we will stay for 2 nights as our mid-week break!!
Departing the playground of dreams, we made our way into Italy and headed along the coastline before branching off into mainland towards ‘Parma’ for our first regroup point of the day. Parma is world famous for producing some of the best ham, cheese and red wine known to man! Taking on board some of Parma’s heritage we decided that it was only right to include a visit to the tasting section of the Ham Museum. Belly’s full of ham and cheese, we departed Parma and headed for Modena. The name is ringing a bell, but you can’t place it. A town that is famous for housing the Ferrari head offices and others to name a couple, Maserati and Pagani! We located a lovely Ferrari themed hotel in the heart of the town where if you stand around outside for more than a few minutes you are guaranteed to hear the raw of a v12 Italian engine that’s out on secret test drives covered with strange livery to take away the overall image and design of the vehicles lines and curves, you can really feel the local heritage in your blood. On arrival to our Modena hotel, you’ll find dinner awaits, local food prepared by the head chef of the hotel to give you all a taste of Italy after a day on the road!
After an evening of fine food and rest it was time to put Modena behind us and make tracks to Maranello (35 mins south). The home of the Ferrari Museum and factory which of course we must visit whilst on a petrol heads tour! The museum was spectacular as you would expect, so we sat down with the guys and arranged a group visit for our trip in June – a perfect regroup and stop off.
The Maranello plans were locked, and we had something extraordinary on our radar that lay in the hills of Tuscany, a natural spa that we had been informed of, sitting at a perfect temperature of 38 degrees which was kept warm by the local volcano! As we approached Tuscany or Tuscana as the locals say, the roads continued to get better and better and before arriving we had also sorted the perfect path to the hot springs. Up on arrival, every expectation was met and more! The springs were beautiful, the area was breath taking and we had to add it in to our event! Without hesitation we located the best rated luxury property in the local area and made our way, discovering on arrival that the hot springs spanned as far as the hotel and their whole spa was built around the steaming waters. A meeting was held, the venue was booked, and negotiations were developed to keep the hot springs area of the hotel open for us until 1am with outdoor music and bar. The perfect stop.
The next day was set to be our final day but we couldn’t of been further from the truth, the planning at home had lead us to believe that the final leg to Rome would be spectacular but it was the total opposite, as we approached Rome the roads got rougher and rougher until we were cruising at an average of 15mph and avoiding what we would describe as craters rather than pot holes. We continued to push on and re navigate to Naples or ‘Napoli’ to avoid any disappointments for our supercar owners. Naples was not what we expected either and was one of the riskiest places we’ve ever visited. We needed to go back to the drawing board.
A day off the road was had by all for planning and studying what we could via the internet which after the previous 24 hours gave us no faith at all as we had already done this for the Rome part of the event. Unfortunately google doesn’t tell you everything and in actual fact sometimes just the good points.
We set off back to Tuscany to drive to a new location we found on the opposite side of the Italian coastline, a little spot called Rimini. We had no choice but to back track as we must drive the roads we use ahead of the main event, and we could not face the Rome situation happening all over again.
We planned 2 different routes from Tuscany and decided to split up, both routes looked great online but there was no way we were being fooled again so we hit the road as two teams and tackled both routes. The 2 routes were both great, but one was, not only great but full of breath-taking views and really thrilling driving!
We arrived at Rimini and was blown away, one of the team commented, ‘it’s like Marbella guys but cleaner and prettier’ and we all laughed and agreed, the town was beautiful, the hotels around the area were all luxurious and it really felt like Mega Run standard!
There was one particular 5-star hotel in the area which stood out, it was bold, beautiful, amazing staff reviews and the views were mind blowing! Without hesitation we headed to the Da Vinci for a meeting with their GM. The final plans were made, and we were over the moon with what the team at the venue could do for us. A canapé and welcome drink reception was arranged for our arrival before the awards ceremony would take place in their Grand Hall.
Once our awards have finished, we have then planned a final celebration in a local VIP Club to end our final night in style with our new friends and Cannon Run family!
The Da Vinci is also our chosen location for our extra 3 day extended stay, during the 3 days we have so far arranged a beach club, a boat ride of the coast and a small, planned drive around the local coastline, more information on the 3-day stay will be released in the coming days via our website.
