Sports City Guides

Brisbane is building toward hosting the 2032 Olympic Games and is already a regular stop for cricket, rugby league, and Australian rules football. It is compact, warm year-round, and considerably cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne as an event base.

Major venues

The Gabba · Suncorp Stadium

Best hotel areas

Brisbane CBD · South Bank

Airports

Brisbane Airport (BNE) connects to the CBD in about 20 minutes on the Airtrain

Canada’s largest city and the only market with teams in all of the NHL, NBA, MLB, and MLS. The venue cluster downtown is unusually compact, which makes Toronto one of the easiest major sports cities in North America to navigate without a car.

Major venues

Rogers Centre · Scotiabank Arena

Best hotel areas

Entertainment District · Financial District

Airports

Toronto Pearson (YYZ) connects to Union Station in 25 minutes on the UP Express, which is the single best airport rail link in North America for event travel

A compact coastal city with a downtown stadium, excellent rail transit, and mountains directly behind it. Vancouver punches above its size for major events and is one of the few host cities where you can genuinely walk from your hotel to the stadium.

Major venues

BC Place · Rogers Arena

Best hotel areas

Downtown / Yaletown · Coal Harbour

Airports

Vancouver International (YVR) connects to downtown in about 26 minutes on the SkyTrain Canada Line

Manchester supports two of the most-followed football clubs in the world, a serious music history, and a compact walkable centre. Both major grounds sit outside the city core but are reachable on the Metrolink tram, which means you can stay centrally and never need a car. The hard part is tickets, not travel.

Major venues

Old Trafford, Trafford · Etihad Stadium, East Manchester

Best hotel areas

City centre and Northern Quarter · Deansgate and Castlefield

Airports

Manchester Airport (MAN) connects to Piccadilly by train in about 20 minutes and also sits on the Metrolink tram network

Liverpool is a compact waterfront city with two football clubs about a mile apart, neither of which has a rail station at the ground. That single fact shapes every matchday: you stay in the centre, you take a bus or a taxi, and you plan the way back before you go. The city itself is one of the best value weekend trips in England, with a strong food and music scene along Bold Street and the Baltic Triangle.

Major venues

Anfield, Anfield · Hill Dickinson Stadium, Bramley-Moore Dock

Best hotel areas

City centre and Ropewalks · Albert Dock and waterfront

Airports

Liverpool John Lennon (LPL) is small and about 30 minutes from the centre by bus

Paris carries a Grand Slam on clay, the finish of the Tour de France, a national stadium in Saint-Denis, and the Olympic infrastructure built for 2024. The Métro makes venue access straightforward, and the city retained a genuine amount of its Games-era upgrades.

Major venues

Stade de France, Saint-Denis · Roland-Garros, 16th arrondissement

Best hotel areas

Le Marais · Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Airports

Charles de Gaulle (CDG) connects on RER B

Munich is the easiest big football city in Europe to visit without a car. The Allianz Arena sits at the northern end of a U-Bahn line, the airport connects to the centre by direct train, and the city itself is compact enough to walk. It is also the rare football trip where the non-football part of the weekend is a genuine draw rather than filler, because the beer halls, the Englischer Garten and the museum quarter are all worth a day on their own.

Major venues

Allianz Arena, Fröttmaning · Olympiastadion, Olympiapark

Best hotel areas

Altstadt and Marienplatz · Maxvorstadt

Airports

Munich Airport (MUC) is 30 to 45 minutes from the centre on the S1 or S8 S-Bahn, both of which run frequently and take normal transit fares

Dortmund is a football pilgrimage rather than a city break. The draw is one of the largest club grounds in Europe and the standing terrace behind one goal, and the honest advice is to build the trip around the match and use the wider Ruhr region for everything else. The centre is small, the ground is fifteen minutes from it, and the regional rail network puts several other Bundesliga cities within an hour.

Major venues

Signal Iduna Park, Westfalenhallen · Westfalenhallen arena complex, Dortmund

Best hotel areas

City centre around Hauptbahnhof · Kreuzviertel

Airports

Dortmund Airport (DTM) is small and serves mostly low-cost European routes

Milan is a two-club city where both clubs share the same ground, which makes it the only major European football destination where the stadium is almost guaranteed to have a fixture on any given weekend of the season. San Siro sits west of the centre with its own Metro station, and the rest of the city is a compact grid of fashion, food and design that supports a long weekend without needing a second match.

Major venues

San Siro, San Siro district · Unipol Forum, Assago

Best hotel areas

Duomo and centro storico · Brera

Airports

Malpensa (MXP) handles most long-haul traffic and is about 50 minutes from Milano Cadorna on the Malpensa Express

One of the great sporting cities on earth, with a stadium that has hosted three World Cup tournaments, a Formula 1 race at altitude, and a football culture that fills grounds week after week. It is also enormous, high, and far more navigable than its reputation suggests.

Major venues

Estadio Azteca · Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez

Best hotel areas

Polanco · Roma Norte

Airports

Benito Juárez International (MEX) sits close to the city centre and connects by Metro Line 5 and authorised airport taxis

Two square kilometres that host the most famous street race in motorsport. Monaco itself has very little accommodation, so planning a trip here is really planning a trip to the surrounding Riviera and commuting in by rail.

Major venues

Circuit de Monaco · Stade Louis II

Best hotel areas

Nice · Beausoleil

Airports

Nice Côte d’Azur (NCE) is the gateway, roughly 30 minutes from Monaco by road

Glasgow is the most football-saturated city in Britain, with two large clubs in the east and south, a national stadium in the same city, and a drinking and live music culture that runs independently of whether there is a fixture on. It is also cheap by UK standards and small enough that almost everything worth doing sits within a few miles of the centre.

Major venues

Celtic Park, Parkhead · Ibrox Stadium, Govan

Best hotel areas

City centre and Merchant City · Finnieston

Airports

Glasgow Airport (GLA) is about 25 minutes from the centre by express bus

Madrid is the rare major sports city where the biggest venues sit inside the city rather than on a ring road. Two large football grounds, a serious basketball culture, and one of the best Metro systems in Europe mean you can base yourself centrally and reach almost everything on one ticket. The planning problem here is timing, not distance: kickoffs are late and fixture dates are confirmed close to the day.

Major venues

Santiago Bernabéu, Chamartín · Riyadh Air Metropolitano, San Blas

Best hotel areas

Salamanca · Chamberí

Airports

Madrid-Barajas (MAD) connects to the city on Metro Line 8 in around 25 minutes with one change, or by Cercanías rail to Chamartín

Barcelona is a city people visit for three days and fit a match into, rather than the other way around. The largest football stadium in Europe sits in the western half of the city, away from the tourist core, and the ongoing phased rebuild has changed capacity and access more than once. It is a genuinely great trip with one caveat worth taking seriously: petty theft around big fixtures is a real problem.

Major venues

Camp Nou, Les Corts · Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, Montjuïc

Best hotel areas

Eixample · Gràcia

Airports

Barcelona El Prat (BCN) connects by Metro Line 9S, the Aerobús to Plaça de Catalunya in about 35 minutes, or Rodalies rail to Sants

No city in the world hosts more elite sport in a single year. Premier League football most weekends, a Grand Slam at Wimbledon, Test cricket at Lord’s and The Oval, rugby at Twickenham, and a regular NFL series. The transport network is what makes it all workable.

Major venues

Wembley Stadium · Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Best hotel areas

King’s Cross / St Pancras · South Bank

Airports

Heathrow (LHR) connects on the Elizabeth line and Piccadilly line

Los Angeles hosts more major sport than any other American city and is about to host the Olympics for a third time. The catch is geography: venues are scattered across roughly 50 miles of county, and the difference between a good trip and a bad one is almost always where you chose to sleep.

Major venues

SoFi Stadium, Inglewood · Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park

Best hotel areas

Downtown LA · Santa Monica

Airports

LAX is the main gateway and sits close to Inglewood venues but far from Downtown and Pasadena

Miami has become one of the busiest event markets in American sport, carrying a Formula 1 race, an NFL stadium that regularly draws championship events, a major tennis event, and a nightlife scene that is genuinely part of the draw. It is also more spread out than visitors expect.

Major venues

Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens · Miami International Autodrome, Miami Gardens

Best hotel areas

Brickell · South Beach

Airports

Miami International (MIA) is closest to Downtown and Brickell and connects to Metrorail

The deepest sports market in the world, with two NFL teams, two baseball teams, two hockey teams, two basketball teams, a Grand Slam tennis event, and a marathon that shuts down five boroughs. Getting around is genuinely easy here, which is rarer than it sounds in American sports travel.

Major venues

MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford NJ · Madison Square Garden, Midtown Manhattan

Best hotel areas

Midtown Manhattan · Long Island City, Queens

Airports

JFK connects via AirTrain to the E, J, Z, and LIRR

Las Vegas went from having no major league teams to hosting an NFL franchise, an NHL franchise, a Formula 1 street race, and a steady rotation of championship events and combat sports. For event travel it is close to purpose-built: everything is compressed into a small area with enormous accommodation capacity.

Major venues

Allegiant Stadium · T-Mobile Arena

Best hotel areas

Center Strip · South Strip

Airports

Harry Reid International (LAS) sits about 10 minutes from the south end of the Strip, closer to a major city centre than almost any other American airport

A small Georgia city of around 200,000 people that absorbs one of the largest events in golf every April. Augusta is unusual in sports travel: the accommodation market is dominated by private home rentals rather than hotels, and the event shapes the local economy for the entire year.

Major venues

Augusta National Golf Club

Best hotel areas

Downtown Augusta on Broad Street · West Augusta near Washington Road

Airports

Augusta Regional (AGS) is small and books out far in advance for tournament week

The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex holds one of the densest concentrations of professional sport in America, but almost none of it is in Dallas proper. The football stadium and the baseball park are both in Arlington, roughly halfway to Fort Worth, and the basketball and hockey arena is downtown. Picking the wrong base here costs an hour a day in the car.

Major venues

AT&T Stadium, Arlington · Globe Life Field, Arlington

Best hotel areas

Arlington entertainment district · Downtown Fort Worth

Airports

DFW International is the main gateway and sits between Dallas and Fort Worth, close to Arlington

Kansas City is a football and barbecue trip, and both of those are worth the flight on their own. The complex holding the NFL and MLB stadiums sits east of downtown with nothing around it but parking, which makes the tailgate the pre-game rather than a bar district. Downtown and the Crossroads have improved sharply and now support a proper weekend, with a free streetcar connecting most of it.

Major venues

GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Truman Sports Complex · Kauffman Stadium, Truman Sports Complex

Best hotel areas

Downtown and Power & Light District · Crossroads Arts District

Airports

Kansas City International (MCI) has a modern single terminal and sits about 30 to 40 minutes northwest of downtown

Philadelphia puts all four of its major professional teams in one stadium complex at the south end of a single subway line, which makes it one of the most straightforward sports cities in America to visit. You can stay in Center City, ride the Broad Street Line for fifteen minutes, and be at any of the venues. The reputation for a hostile crowd is overstated for visitors but the atmosphere at a rivalry game is real.

Major venues

Lincoln Financial Field, South Philadelphia Sports Complex · Citizens Bank Park, South Philadelphia Sports Complex

Best hotel areas

Center City and Rittenhouse Square · Old City

Airports

Philadelphia International (PHL) is 20 to 25 minutes from Center City on the SEPTA Airport Line, which runs directly into the main downtown stations

Boston is the most walkable major sports city in America and the only one where the two headline venues are a subway ride apart and both sit inside real neighbourhoods rather than parking lots. The complication is the football team, which plays in Foxborough about 25 miles southwest and is a genuinely separate trip. Everything else is close, old, and easy.

Major venues

Fenway Park, Fenway-Kenmore · TD Garden, West End

Best hotel areas

Back Bay · Fenway-Kenmore

Airports

Logan International (BOS) is unusually close to downtown, about 15 to 20 minutes by Silver Line bus or Blue Line subway, and the Silver Line is free inbound from the airport

San Francisco has two of the best-sited venues in American sport, a waterfront ballpark and a modern arena, both walkable from the same part of the city. It also has a football team that plays 40 miles south in Santa Clara, which is the trap every visitor falls into. Base yourself around Mission Bay and South of Market and the city venues are on your doorstep, then treat anything on the peninsula as a day trip.

Major venues

Oracle Park, Mission Bay · Chase Center, Mission Bay

Best hotel areas

SoMa and Mission Bay · Union Square

Airports

SFO is about 30 minutes from downtown on BART and is the main international gateway

Chicago has more major league teams than any American city except New York, two of them in baseball on opposite sides of town, and an elevated rail system that reaches almost every venue. It is the best value big sports city in the country for a visitor: hotel rates are lower than the coasts, the food is better than its reputation suggests, and you can get to a ballgame on a train for the price of a coffee.

Major venues

Wrigley Field, Lakeview · Rate Field, Bridgeport

Best hotel areas

The Loop and River North · Lakeview and Wrigleyville

Airports

O’Hare (ORD) is a major international hub about 45 minutes from downtown on the CTA Blue Line, which runs 24 hours

Indianapolis has quietly built the most walkable sports downtown in America. The NFL stadium, the NBA arena, the minor league ballpark and the convention centre all sit inside the same square mile, connected by the Cultural Trail, which is why the city wins so many bids to host events far larger than its size would suggest. The Motor Speedway is the exception and the main event: it sits six miles northwest in the separate town of Speedway, and on race day it becomes one of the largest gatherings of people anywhere in sport.

Major venues

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana · Lucas Oil Stadium, downtown

Best hotel areas

Downtown Mile Square and the Wholesale District · Massachusetts Avenue

Airports

Indianapolis International (IND) is about 20 minutes southwest of downtown and is routinely rated among the easier US airports to move through