What to book before a match trip (and what to skip)
Updated June 2026
Short answer: book what genuinely gets harder or pricier the longer you wait, in the right order. The match ticket comes first — from official sources only (the club, league or official ticketing; we don't sell tickets, ever). Then book flights and your bed direct with the airline and the hotel. After that, three small extras earn their place — travel insurance, an eSIM and an airport transfer — while a hire car and city tours are situational. Here's the honest verdict on each, including what to skip.
It's easy to land on a checkout page for everything at once and end up paying for things your trip never needed. So before the booking spree, here's what's actually worth securing ahead of a football or sports trip, in the order that matters — and, just as honestly, what you can leave alone.
One principle runs through all of it: book the thing that can't be replaced first. You can almost always find another flight or another bed. You cannot magic up a genuine ticket to a sold-out fixture the night before — so that's where we start.
The centrepiece: your match ticket
Match ticket Buy official — not from us
The club, the league, the governing body, or their official ticketing & official resale.
This is the one thing on the whole trip you should never gamble on, and the one thing Front Row will never sell you. We don't trade tickets and we take no cut on them — by design. The ticket is where the fakes, the locked-out turnstiles and the wildly overpriced resales live, and the only reliable defence is to buy from the official source for that competition: the club, the league, the governing body, or their official resale platform.
Get this sorted before you book anything else for a hard-to-access game. There is no point holding flights and a hotel for a match you can't actually get into — and if the only ticket you can find is from a stranger or a tout, that's your signal to walk away, not to pay more.
Read: how to buy tickets safely →
No affiliate link here, and there never will be — we don't sell tickets. Buy from the official source.
The big two: flights and your bed
Flights Book it — direct
Book direct with the airline once you've found the fare.
Usually one of your two biggest lines, and cheapest the further ahead you book. Use a comparison site to find the route and the fare if you like, but book direct with the airline. When a flight is cancelled, moved or you need to change it, dealing with the airline itself — rather than a third-party middleman — is far less painful on a trip where the date is fixed and missing the game isn't an option.
Accommodation Book it — direct, near transport
Book a bed you can actually get back to after the final whistle.
Your other big line, and it surges on a match weekend, so book early. The thing that matters most isn't the nightly rate — it's whether you can get back to it after the game. Pick somewhere near good transport, even one hop out of the centre, and book direct with the hotel where you can so changes and problems are easier to sort. A cheap bed you can't reach after the final whistle is a false economy.
Worth pre-booking: the small stuff that saves the trip
These are the lines people leave out and then regret. None is expensive; each removes a specific way a trip goes wrong.
Travel insurance Worth it
Sort it before you travel — not after something goes wrong.
The classic skip-it-and-regret-it line. A fixed-date trip is exactly the kind where a cancellation, a delay or a medical mishap hurts, and insurance has to be in place before the thing happens to be any use. It's a small cost against the size of what it covers — sort it when you book, not at the airport.
An eSIM Worth it
Data the moment you land — tickets, maps, the group chat.
On a trip that runs on your phone — mobile tickets, maps to the ground, finding your group — being connected the second you land is genuinely useful, and an eSIM means no hunting for a SIM kiosk or eating a roaming bill. Cheap, quick to set up, and one less thing to think about on arrival. Worth it for most international trips; skip only if your normal plan already covers data where you're going.
Airport transfer Worth it — if you arrive late
A driver at arrivals, fixed price, no post-match surge.
Most useful when you land late, arrive somewhere unfamiliar, or there's a big group with bags. A pre-booked transfer is a fixed price with a driver waiting — no scramble for a taxi and no surge pricing after a big fixture empties out. If you're arriving in daylight to a city with a simple train into town, public transport is cheaper and just as easy — so this is a worth it for the awkward arrivals, not an automatic yes.
Situational: book only if your trip needs it
City tours & experiences Maybe
Great if you're making a trip of it — easy to overspend if you're not.
If you're turning the fixture into a proper city break, a tour or a day trip can be the making of the weekend. If it's a quick in-and-out for the game, it's also an easy place to overspend on things you won't have time for. Book it when sightseeing is genuinely part of the plan — otherwise leave it. Verdict depends entirely on your trip.
Attraction & skip-the-line tickets Maybe
Worth it for the one or two sights you'll definitely do.
For the headline sight you know you'll visit, a skip-the-line ticket booked ahead saves a queue on a tight schedule. Buying a stack of them for a packed itinerary you won't get through is where the money leaks. Pre-book the one or two you're certain about; decide the rest on the ground.
Hire car Skip — for most match trips
A cost and a parking headache in most big match cities.
Here's our honest skip. In a major match city — exactly where most of these trips go — a hire car is usually a liability: city-centre parking is dear and scarce, match-day road closures are a nightmare, and public transport gets you to the ground and back more easily than a car ever will. Skip it for a single-city fixture. The one exception is a genuine multi-city road trip — driving between host cities at a tournament, say — where it flips to worth considering.
At a glance
| Item | Verdict | When it's worth it | Rough cost band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Match ticket | Buy official (not from us) | Always — and always from the official source for that competition | Wildly variable — face value to many times it |
| Flights | Book it — direct | Always; book early, direct with the airline | Often your biggest line |
| Accommodation | Book it — direct | Always; near transport, book direct, surges on match weekends | Your other biggest line |
| Travel insurance | Worth it | Every fixed-date trip — must be in place before anything goes wrong | Low |
| eSIM | Worth it | Any international trip unless your plan already covers data | Low |
| Airport transfer | Worth it | Late arrivals, unfamiliar cities, big groups with bags | Low–medium |
| Tours & experiences | Maybe | Only if you're making a sightseeing trip of it | Medium — easy to overspend |
| Attraction tickets | Maybe | The one or two sights you'll definitely do | Low–medium per sight |
| Hire car | Skip (mostly) | Only a genuine multi-city road trip; skip for single-city fixtures | Medium + parking |
The order to book in
- 1. The ticket route, from official sources. Confirm you can get a genuine ticket before committing to anything else. Here's how to do it safely.
- 2. Flights and a bed near transport — direct. Your two biggest lines, cheapest booked early, easiest to fix when booked direct.
- 3. The small protective extras. Insurance before you travel, an eSIM for arrival, a transfer if you're landing late.
- 4. The situational stuff, last. Tours, attractions and a car only if your specific trip actually calls for them.
If you'd rather have this mapped to a date and a budget, our match-trip planner walks you through arrival, a checklist and a budget for your fixture — and it leaves the ticket out of the budget on purpose, because you buy that from official sources.
Common questions
What should you book before a match trip?
Book the things that genuinely get more expensive or harder to get the longer you wait, and book them in the right order. First sort the match ticket from official sources — the club, league or official ticketing — because there is no point booking anything else for a game you cannot get into. Then book flights and accommodation direct with the airline and the hotel, as those are usually your two biggest lines and the cheapest the further ahead you are. After that, a handful of smaller extras are worth pre-booking: travel insurance before you travel, an eSIM for data the moment you land, and an airport transfer if you arrive late. City tours, attractions and a hire car are situational — book them only if your trip actually needs them.
Where should I buy match tickets for a football or sports trip?
Always from official sources: the club, the league, the governing body or their official ticketing and official resale platforms. Front Row does not sell tickets and never will — the ticket is the one thing on a match trip you should never buy from a random reseller or a tout, because that is where the fakes and the overpriced resales are. Buy official, and if you must use resale, use the official resale platform for that competition. Our guide to buying tickets safely covers the red flags.
Should I book flights and hotels through a booking site or direct?
For flights and beds, booking direct with the airline and the hotel is usually the better call. Direct bookings make changes, cancellations and problems far easier to sort when something goes wrong, and you are dealing with one party rather than a middleman. Comparison sites are useful for finding the fare or the area, but once you have decided, booking direct tends to leave you better protected on a trip where the date is fixed and missing the game is not an option.
What is not worth booking in advance for a match trip?
A hire car is the main one to skip unless your trip genuinely needs it — in a big match city with good public transport, a car is usually a cost and a parking headache rather than a help, so it is a maybe at best and a skip for most. City tours and attraction tickets are worth it only if you are actually making a sightseeing trip of it; for a quick in-and-out fixture they are easy to overspend on. Everything else comes down to your specific trip: book what your plan needs and leave the rest.
Related guides
- How to buy tickets for big sporting events safely
- How much does a football trip abroad cost?
- Champions League away days: how to do a midweek football trip
- World Cup 2026: the host cities and how to plan a trip
Next steps: protect the one thing that can't be replaced by reading how to buy tickets safely, size up the budget with what a trip actually costs, or map it all to your fixture with the match-trip planner.
Before you go
The extras above, in one place — book the ones your trip actually needs.
Tickets & attractions
Skip-the-line tickets for the sights and things to do around the game.
Browse tickets →Airport & transfers
A driver waiting at arrivals — fixed price, no surge after the final whistle.
Book a transfer →Tours & experiences
Make a trip of it — city tours and day trips around the fixture.
Browse experiences →Rent a car
Driving between host cities? Compare hire cars.
Compare cars →Stay connected
An eSIM with data the moment you land — tickets, maps and the group chat.
Get an eSIM →Travel insurance
Cover for the trip and the unexpected — sort it before you travel.
Get covered →