Travel logistics

Interesting post by Michelle Higgins in the New York Times’ travel blog today, about planning travel to major sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup.

It may seem too early to be planning a 2010 vacation, but travelers who want to see the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this February or cheer their favorite soccer team at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next summer had better get going.

Despite the recession, demand is high for both events, making tickets hard to come by and sending prices for any remaining hotel rooms soaring. But travelers can still watch their teams compete if they’re willing to be flexible, spend a little more money and make their travel plans now.

Higgins also hits on something that is sitting in the back of our minds here at FGOC. Namely, how the hell do we plan our trip to South Africa next year when we won’t know where (or when, exactly) Australia* is playing until early December?

Unlike at the Olympics, however, where sports are tied to specific venues, and the dates and times of most events are already set, soccer fans won’t know where, when or even which teams will be playing in South Africa until all 32 teams have qualified and FIFA holds its tournament draw on Dec. 4.

That means travelers hoping to watch the United States in quarterfinals, for example, won’t know where the team will be playing — whether it’s at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, or nearly 900 miles away in Soccer City in Johannesburg — until just a few days before.

Of course, that’s always the case when it comes to the World Cup — and the last-minute scramble is part of the fun. But following your team around will be more complicated in South Africa than at the last World Cup, held in Germany in 2006. Fans staying in Frankfurt, for example, were within a two-hour train ride from most United States matches. South Africa, on the other hand, has less reliable trains and highways, and moving from match to match requires flying.

That’s something we’re just now working out, and that’s going to be the fun part. Sort of. Do we use a travel agent and go in bulk? Use our own travel agents? Go solo? Hire a goat?

I, for one, might want to stop in somewhere before or after the main event — for example, South African Airways flies direct from here in Washington, with a stop in Dakar, Senegal, which is almost exactly halfway between here and Johannesburg. I might be tempted to stay a few days there, because when the hell else are you going to be in Dakar?

I think getting the actual tickets from FIFA might have been the easy part.

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* If you’re just joining us here at FGOC, we have real, actual tickets to see Australia’s games in group stage, so that’s where we’ll be. Naturally, we’ll be following the good ol’ USA, too, as well as some others (see this post to find out who’s following whom) but we actually have tickets to see the Socceroos.