Celtic Park tour named one of the world's top attractions

There is yet another reason for celebration at Celtic Park as it was announced today that the Celtic Park stadium tour has been named the best family-friendly day out in the world according to travel ratings experts, Tripadvisor.

This fantastic achievement comes after the Celtic Park tour was given a gold award by Tripadvisor as one of the top attractions in the UK last year, and this latest piece of success for the Celts sees the Paradise tour named as one of the best visitor experiences in the world.

The stadium tour takes visitors behind the scenes of the biggest football stadium in Scotland, giving guests the chance to see Celtic’s massive trophy collection, the home dressing room, the players’ tunnel, the dugout area and the Directors’ Box in the main stand.

Each tour is led by an official Celtic Park tour guide, and with a large pool of guides making up the tours department, visitors to Celtic Park are guaranteed that no two tours will ever be exactly the same, with each guide bringing their own experience and knowledge to their tours.

The world-renowned stadium tour starts and ends in the Celtic Park Sports Bar, and after this morning’s tour, the Celtic View caught up with some of the visitors who had enjoyed their experience at Paradise, and the global appeal of the stadium tour was clear to see.

Sam and Max from Maine in the United States, along with Graham from Massachusetts, were only too happy to wax lyrical about their experience at Paradise.

“I’m a big soccer fan and I loved the tour, it was amazing,” said Max. “I loved the trophy room, and my favourite trophy was the European Cup.

'I would recommend it to my friends. I’ve loved being here, it was a great experience.'

Graham added: “The facilities are great and the tour guide was really funny and witty, but he was also very knowledgeable.

“You can tell how much it means to the people here.”



Those sentiments were echoed by Dan and Ryan from Florida, who enjoyed the tour alongside their friend and Celtic season ticket holder, William from Glasgow.

“Celtic Park is beautiful,” said Ryan. “There’s an amazing sense of history here. The tour was fantastic.

“The history here shows that Celtic goes beyond just football, and that’s something that everyone can benefit from learning about.”

Dan touched on the global reach of the club, saying: “Celtic are known throughout the world, they have a worldwide presence. Supporters all over the globe follow Celtic.”

As well as welcoming visitors from all over the world, the Celtic Park stadium tour is also a massively popular attraction with local Celtic supporters like William, who revealed that he is a return visitor to the stadium tour.

“I’ve been on the tour several times,” he said. “Whenever I have visitors, this is one place that I try to bring them.

'You don’t need to be a football supporter to enjoy the tour or understand what this club is all about.'

“It’s just a great club to be a part of."

Celtic’s Stadium Tours manager, Frank Rafters, has overseen the growth of the tours department over several years and has shared his joy at this latest piece of success for the club.

“We are delighted to have been given this accolade by Tripadvisor,” he said. “It means a great deal for us to be recognised in the form of such positive feedback from both tourists and locals alike.

“My team and I work hard to achieve the highest possible standards while welcoming tens of thousands of guests annually.

“All I can do is thank the tour guides for the incredible work that they do. I’m immensely proud of them

 

Well done to all those involved at CP who are responsible for this, from the tour maangement, what the club makes available and accessable etc, and of course the guides especially.

I know it has been a long time since the two times I did this - the first being in 2004 and second in 2006 - and even got my hands on 'the big ears' on that first occasion - but they must've seriously revamped and lifted since then to get this honour!

Barcelona's Camp Nou is the best football stadium tour I've ever done (that was also in 2006), but if this acclaim for Celtic Park might mean have to do this again to re-appraise!

 

Barrowfield, best tour and months old news about additional standing section getting spun recently.

Must be slow on the transfer front and Celtic need to spin some feel good news to keep the noise about how useless we are in the transfer market again.




Was on the tour two years ago, actually well done to the guys who do the tour. Very friendly and knowledgeable and was a good wee day out. So well done and well deserved.

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Barcelona have the size factor and the glam going for it. The trophies as well.

But it's very impersonal.

The Celtic one is very much more s booked group tour where you're taken care of as you go through it, stories told and banter etc.


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That’s great. Now invest a bit of money in painting the pace and repairing some of the crumbling mess in the stairwells.

 

Nothing like walking down the tunnel in the tour and the stadium opens up before your eyes, takes your breath away, we can only imagine what like it is as a player in a full stadium.

 

Only done it once but the guy that took is round was class, so guessing the rest are as well.

Great achievement for everyone involved.

 

I really liked Barca's, yes the silverware of course, but that is at CP also... but there was the full on Salvadore Dali gallery of all kinds of art that he made including pieces inspired by Barca, but a bunch of other aspects that they had that CP didnt back then, including allowed access to the home dressing room (Celtic just allowed access to the away) and up in the media gantry.

I get why Celtic stopped fans from going into the home dressing room back then, bacause as the guide on that first occasion commented, there was an occasion where they'd led a tour and Alan Thompson was still in the shower (these are the pre-Lennoxtown days), and on both occasions because of the proximity of Barrowfield we spotted a number of Celtic first team players around the stadium incl Joos Valgaeran, Magnus Hedman, Ross Wallace & Stephen Pearson etc. But still it was cool to actually be able to be in the dressing room where Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Puyol, Valdez, Xavi and of course Henrik etc individual spots around the changeroom were, and imagining it on matchday.

 

You can get in the home dressing room now.
Last I was there they had it all setup, Japan flag on Kyogo corner a well.

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That's cool and that is a big tick then. Like I said, last I did it was 2006, in pre-Lennoxtown days, so it made sense why back then that they didn't, but couldn't help but feel disappointed by only being allowed to see the visiting teams rooms at the time, when naturally you wanted to see the where the Bhoys (or Ghirls when they play at CP) go.

 

It is good, but is it Tina Turner good?

Is it marble staircasing good?

Is it mahogany chesterfield chair good?

Is it a telephone in a office from the 1920s good?

 

Another step towards the pre season trophy, think we might do it this year...

Fair play to all involved and I'm embarrassed to say I've never actually done it..

 

We've got a stadium to play in. That should win it.

 

The tour is class. Done it last year.

 

I done it last year also, first time since I was about 6.

It's probably ranked better as you get to go into the boardroom, into the dressing room and into the dugout and it is guided the whole way.

I have only done Barcelona and Real Madrid and the inside part is better for Barcelona, their tour is like an actual museum with all the trophies, history, Messi's ballon d'ors and allsorts its absolutley massive and some amount, also all well decorated and that. Barca im sure had rooms that were like cinemas only small and you could sit and watch things like interviews and clips of old players and like documentary style stuff.

Real Madrids was like Barca's but they were still decorating at the time, all the walls were just black mostly and there wasn't as much stuff there but you just walk around yourself. I felt like Real Madrid maybe only had about 30 things to look at where as Barca had about 300.

Barca and Real also only allow you into the stand although in Barcelona you did go into the tunnel at a part past the dressing rooms and chapel but you aren't allowed in them or out the front of the tunnel.

One thing missing is probabably at Barcelona and Real you can get a meal pitchside, they open it like an outdoor restaurant probably can't do that in Glasgow as your meal would be like soup half the time when its pishing rain but could put a roof up.

 

Aren't the lounges and the restaurant in the other stands though?
The walfrid bistro, if it still exists, would be in the main stand, but I'm sure it's front facing out to the road, so wouldn't be a simple dinning experience.

I do like the idea though, have you're meal looking out to the pitch and watching even the groundsman do his thing.

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you seem to have forgotten the “world class ceramics” and the rusty old bike…?

 

done the tour last year. This locker is the only one that has a tradition that you have to sign it if you get the locker.

 

How could you forget the bike?

That bike is a good 30 minute talking point in a trophy room that looks like a hobos hoard space.