Cristiano Ronaldo travel tips

A statue of Cristiano Ronaldo towers over a crowd of admirers as they queue to have their photos taken with it. One young man with a leather satchel thrown over his shoulder giddily takes his turn. I’m watching from the roof of the Pestana CR7 hotel in Funchal, Madeira.

Tarmac meet-and-greets. Exclusive airport lounges behind well-marked doors. Rolls-Royce transfers. Velvet ropes. These luxuries almost feel like something out of time, given the current obsession with discretion. But that’s what makes Madeira’s new Reserve hotel refreshing—it’s not afraid to be a place for people who want to flaunt their VIP status.

Football icon and Al-Nassr player Cristiano Ronaldo is currently staying at – and promoting – The Red Sea. The coastal destination is a flagship project of Saudi Arabia’s tourism dream, expected to house 50 luxury hotels by the end of the decade.

The world’s most valuable horse race will be staged this week with the Saudi Cup 2024 set to be bigger than ever.

The United Arab Emirates go into the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™ aiming to build on their back-to-back semi-final finishes. And just as was the case in 2015 and 2019, Ali Mabkhout will carry the hopes of his nation. Not many players in Asian football have as many records to their name across club and country, domestic and continental football as 33-year-old Mabkhout, and he travels to Qatar hopeful of breaking one of the most important records of them all.

According to professional travel organisation, European Best Destinations, the Portuguese island of Madeira is the best place to see the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display. The travel experts polled a panel of 11,963 travellers from 112 countries, mainly from the United Kingdom (22,42%) and the United States (18,91%) and found the top destination to count down the 2024 New Year is Madeira, followed by Marbella (Spain) with London ranking number three. Here are the top ten.

The tone for this year’s Riyadh Season has been set following the huge success of the much-publicised and highly charged London face-off between Tyson Fury, the current WBC Heavyweight champion, and unbeaten MMA champion, Francis Ngannou.

Football legend Lionel Messi has ditched his Paris Saint-Germain kit for Louis Vuitton as he stars in his first solo campaign for the fashion house’s ‘Horizon’s Never End’ campaign.

A Saudi prince lent soccer player Neymar his private Boeing 747 jet to fly him to Saudi Arabia. 

The FIFA Women's World Cup might be taking place half a world away — in Australia and New Zealand, from 20 July — but football-mad families can get a fix of the beautiful game far closer to home. The UK and mainland Europe have great options if you want to include live matches or stadium tours into a city-break.