Cheshire travel specialist Sorrel Ashton has been busy arranging for football fans to travel to the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Sorrel says: “It is not too late to go to the World Cup. The knockout stages are about to begin, and I have clients already in the fan zones and clients heading to the Final in New Jersey on July 19th. If you have been wondering whether there is still a way to make it happen, the answer is yes. It just needs a bit of creative planning.”
Sorrel’s guide below provides tips on how to make your sporting trip of a lifetime come true.
England: What’s Left to Play For
England are through the group stage in strong form and have a favourable route through the knockouts, with games potentially taking them through Atlanta, New Jersey, Miami and beyond, all building towards the final on July 19th. Scotland, who were back at a World Cup for the first time in 28 years, sadly didn’t make it beyond the group stages.
New York and New Jersey are the natural bases for the back half of the tournament. Atlanta, Miami and Boston are all within easy reach for individual games, making a multi-city trip very achievable with the right flights and a bit of flexibility on logistics.
You Don’t Need a Match Ticket to Be There
The official fan zones running across all sixteen host cities are free, spectacular and genuinely worth travelling for. Big screens, live entertainment, food and the kind of atmosphere you only get when tens of thousands of football fans are in the same place at the same time.
In New York and New Jersey, the Brooklyn Bridge waterfront fan zone runs until July 19th, the Rockefeller Center Fan Village is free throughout the tournament, and on Final day Global Citizen is hosting a free watch party for 50,000 people on the Great Lawn in Central Park. Miami, Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles all have strong fan zone programmes running through the knockout stages.
Getting Into the Stadium
The main ticket ballot has closed, but hospitality packages remain available across all remaining matches including the knockout rounds and the Final. Availability is shifting almost hourly as opponents are confirmed and demand builds. If being inside the stadium is the goal, this is the route in now, and the Final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey is the one to move on first.
Getting There: Creative Routing from the North West
Manchester has good transatlantic options and this is where most of my clients are departing from. But getting the pricing right at this stage of the tournament takes some creative thinking, and that is something I have been doing a lot of.
Flying into a neighbouring city and pairing it with car hire is one of the most effective tools I have been using. Newark rather than JFK, or Fort Lauderdale rather than Miami, can make a real difference to both cost and match day logistics. Being flexible by even a day either side of your preferred dates consistently unlocks better fares, especially now that demand is concentrated around specific knockout fixtures.
For clients doing multi-city trips, I have been building itineraries around domestic US flights between host cities. The network is excellent and the fares, booked smartly, are more accessible than most people expect. For anyone who prefers to travel from Liverpool, the Aer Lingus connection via Dublin onto transatlantic services to New York, Boston and Miami is the routing I reach for first. The added benefit is US pre-clearance at Dublin, which means arriving in America as a domestic passenger and skipping immigration queues entirely.
If you are happy to travel to London first, the frequency and range of direct services from Heathrow and Gatwick to US host cities is significantly greater than anything available from the North West, and worth considering for late-stage bookings where specific routes are already filling up.
Where to Stay
For the Final at MetLife Stadium, Manhattan is the practical base. Dedicated event trains run from Penn Station to the stadium in under 30 minutes. Staying in New Jersey itself is often considerably cheaper with the same easy connection. In Miami, South Beach and Brickell are the hubs on match days, with the stadium around twenty minutes north. One consistent piece of advice: towns just outside the host city almost always offer better availability and pricing at this stage, with solid transport links in on match days.
A Few Practicalities
- ESTA: British passport holders need one to enter the US. Apply at esta.cbp.dhs.gov, around £17, usually approved within minutes.
- Travel insurance: Essential. Make sure it covers sporting events and any disruption if games go to extra time and affect connections.
- ID for alcohol: the US requires photo ID at all venues. Carry your passport rather than leaving it at the hotel.
- Match day transport: Rideshare demand surges around kick-off and final whistle. Use public transit where available and build in extra time.
Let’s Get You There
Flights, hotels, hospitality, transfers, multi-city itineraries built around the matches you want to see. The window is closing but it is not closed.
Get in touch: sorrel.ashton@myTC.com or find me on Instagram at @sorrel_travel
