Howdy Fellow Quakes Fans, I started to post this over in the Premier League section, but then figured I'd start by getting advice from Quakes fans first, since you are all so worldly, knowlegeable and wise. Moderators, if this really doesn't belong here, feel free to jetison the thread and I won't take it personally. Wife and I are going to be in London during Christmas and will be there for the EPL Boxing Day fixtures as well as the round of fixtures being played that Wednesday the 28th. There are at least three London based matches each day. We'd like to make it to a match each day. First choices would be Chelsea at home to Fulham on Boxing day and either Arsenal home to Portsmouth or Fulham home to Villa on Wednesday. Here's where you guys come in. Anybody with experience have tips, suggestions, warnings, recomendations etc, as to: A. Traveling to England/London in general, since we've never been there. and B. Securing tickets to and attending Premiere League games. (Although they aren't available yet, it looks like they can be ordered through the teams' websites. Is this the best way to go?) Thanks for your help.
And I am going to London for the second half of August. Need some advise about getting tickets to Community Shield game.
1. Get a good travel guide. My favorites are by Rick Steves. He has general books like Europe Through the Backdoor, and specific books on countries and cities. 2. Do not plan to drive if you are staying within London. The Underground and other rail service can get you pretty much anywhere you would want to go. If I remember right, Stamford Bridge is on Fulham Road, which is a bit confusing. The station comes up in a shopping mall. Look up high above the exit door for the sign pointing to the stadium. There's also a hotel at the stadium, which looks very nice but I have not stayed there. I believe they have a package deal, hotel plus game tickets. For big games, it costs a fortune, but for smaller games, it's struck me as not so bad, by London standards. 3. Europeans are way more uptight about security than we are. If you remember how much hassle it was to get into Spartan the first couple weeks after 9-11, that will give you some idea. With recent events, this will probably get worse before it gets better. They also are a lot more strict about mixing fans from opposing teams. For example, I once had to change out of the home team jersey because I tried to go in the gate near the visiting section. I suggest wearing neutral gear, just to avoid the issue. They also tend to hold the visiting fans for a few minutes until the home fans leave, to avoid mixing on the streets. Their history of crowd interaction is much different from ours. 4. My own policy is to get the best tickets available. After all, you are going half way around the world, don't cheap out at the last second. Give yourself the best experience possible. 5. Small teams in small stadiums can be a lot of fun. For example, I saw Leyton Orient play Chelsea in a friendly a few years ago, which was a great time. Chelsea pretty much overwhelmed Orient, but it was fun to see the enthusiasm and atmosphere of the little old beat up ground. We also had a nice chat with the fans around us. 6. Don't be afraid to talk to the people around you. Going to a game is a great way of guaranteeing you get to talk to someone from the other country for 2 hours, and you even have an assured common interest. If you are not shy, you will have a good cultural interaction. Have a good time, I envy you!
Have to say that I disagree with you on this point. I've never known Europeans to be half as uptight about security as we are in the States, and I've both lived and travelled there. Though, undoubtedly things will be different now. I've just returned from London, was in fact there during the attacks, and the mood is justifiably a bit different. I'm sure things will ease up as the time passes, but for now cops are everywhere. The rest of the points stated by Enge I wholeheartedly agree with. Don't think of driving in London, as you would also have to pay obscene parking fees and a congestion charge of £8 per day to drive in Central London (excluding weekends). As for match tickets, I don't know much about the status of that except for Arsenal. Arsenal tickets are almost impossible to come by, and will probably be even less so now that it will be our last year at Highbury. However, I know there is a bloke on the Arsenal boards who has gotten tickets for BigSoccer posters in the past, so you may want to ask over there if you are interested in seeing Arsenal (which I totally think you should do, but I'm biased ). All in all, London is an amazing city and I'm sure you will have a wonderful time. The area around Piccadilly Circus is my favorite. Harrod's is also fun (probably more for your wife than you), and of course Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are not to be missed. I would advise against the Changing of the Guard if you are pressed for time.. finally got around to doing that this time after having missed it the past 3 or 4 trips, and I must say I hadn't missed much. Feel free to PM me with any other questions you may have, London is like a second home to me. Safe travels!
Also, London in the winter means lots of rain, and it gets dark pretty early. Make sure to take warm clothes and umbrellas!
1) You should be able to get great air fares travelling in the winter, although having said that I'm not sure about the Christmas window. 2) Driving a car in London makes no sense. Take the tube or taxi. You can buy a multi-day pass for tourists at any Underground station which will save you $$$. 3) Be prepared to spend a lot of money. The exchange rate is not good. 4)I would suggest you look to stay in the Russell Square area. There are some good cheap B&B's not too far from that tube station. 5) Avoid the Bureau de Change booths for exchanging currency. I use either an ATM card at a bank or a VISA card at a bank to get local funds. Check with your creditcard issuer for two things: a) find out what charges, if any, they apply to charges posted in British pounds sterling. Most cards now add something like 2.5% on top of the bill. b) call your credit card company before you leave the country, and tell them you'll be in the UK for this period of time. It can prevent your card from being frozen by their internal security team, if they happen to freak that the card is suddenly being used outside its past historical use. 6) I love the British. You'll have a great time doing the chat with taxi drivers, fellow fans at the football scenes, etc. 7) Tell them you're from the 50% that voted for Kerry.
I would echo concur with Enge. Try and go to a smaller club for one game. A totally different atmosphere and experience. A small ground, not many fans, but, they are the real hardcore fans of the sport. Ones I would recommend would be Orient, Brentford, Barnet, or if you're feeling really brave Millwall. Also think about taking come trips out of the Capital. A lot of places can be reached within a couple of hours by British Rail. Use the Underground and rail networks, however, I would research the lines before hand so you know where you are going. Looking lost is not a good idea. I think someone has already mentioned the day passes. These are also good on the buses. If you are feeling up to a New Years party there is always a big get together at Trafalger Square. Difficult to get from at night, but, would be a cool thing to do. There is lots to do, concerts at the South Bank, shows in the West End, lots of free Museums. I lived in London for 7 years so feel free to PM me with any questions or suggestions of places to go. Have fun. -Richard
Hmm.... When I went to Europe (this was pre-Sept 11), I got nearly jumped on by a police dog being led by a police man in darn near riot gear in the Belfast airport. And then there were the guys patrolling the French undergroud/metro/tube/train/whateveritscalled with machine guns.... And that was all prior to the Sept 11 attacks and the craziness that has followed. I was told all that was normal. But in any case, I had a ton of fun and want to go back so bad!
A few things to note: -Between Christmas and New Year's a lot of restaurants, shops and even some museums are closed. -Check tripadvisor.com for hotels. This website has lots of reviews and links you to deals. Right now the pound is about $1.73 to $1.75, about the best it's been in two years. Can't tell if it will be above or below that, but if you have to prepay now it may not be a bad idea (I just did the same for a Nov. trip there). -To get tickets to EPL games, call the ticket office directly (I recommend setting up a long-distance account with onesuite.com - I use them to make early AM calls to England and pay about two cents a minute!) and ask them to help out a Yank who's desperate to see a match. Unfortunately, Londoners can be about a blasé about helping tourists as New Yorkers are (whereas, say, West Bromich would be falling all over themselves to get a Yank into a match). Ask what your best option for getting tickets may be. Maybe you can book in the stadium's hospitality section (and pay through the nose, although it's often a cheaper alternative than buying from a scalper). Tickets go on sale to season ticket holders first. If anything is left, they go on sale to the general public, sometimes only a week or two before the match and with the best tickets being sold only at the box office. One alternative is to try to buy tickets in the visitor's section (though for Charlton/Arsenal and Chelsea/Fulham you won't have much luck since both are London teams). Try contacting some supporters groups (or some fans within these boards as someone suggested -- maybe they know a season ticket holder who will be going away that week who will be willing to sell you their tickets, but beware of fraud). Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham tickets are very, very difficult to come by, especially during the holiday season when a lot of people aren't working. You may be able to score some off a tout on the street outside of the stadium, but you're just as likely to be sold fake tickets. Sometimes you can get a good deal on tickets about 10 minutes after the match has started--the touts would rather make some money than take a total loss--but you run the risk of wasting your afternoon and not getting tickets, or, again, being sold fakes (and possibly missing some of the best action on the field). -Chelsea/Fulham on Boxing Day will be one tough ticket to score. You're talking two teams from London on a day when most of the nation won't be at work. Good luck, but your only alternative may be to pay an exorbidant fee to a ticket broker. As far as seeing an EPL game that day, Tottenham/Birmingham may be your best bet, but even that is going to be one tough ticket to score. If you're intent on seeing an EPL match with minimum hassle, I recommend the West Ham/Wigan game on 12/28 as an alternative as West Ham is back in the EPL. -The advice to check out Championship or First League matches is a great one. On the 28th you can check out Crystal Palace/Derby, Millwall/Watford or Queens Park Rangers/Cardiff. -Probably your best bet for a Boxing Day match is the Brentford/Swansea (First League).
Ah well, I suppose it depends where you are and when. But during all my time in Europe I've never experienced anything like security in the States. Of course post-7/7 London is very different from pre-7/7 London, but I expect the extra security will be lifted soon.
When the IRA was at its peak in the lae 80's and early 90's it was the highest security I have ever seen. It was really intense at any major event. Thats what scares me about 7/7. If they can get through in London they can anywhere. -Richard
That might be the best suggestion of all! The Football Ground Guide website right here: Football Ground Guide is a good resource for finding out what the stadiums are like, where the good and bad seats are, and what is in the area near the stadium. Note the unofficial websites, which are supporters clubs. Many of these websites have great insights about the best ways to get tickets, and some of the people who run these sites may be able to help you get tickets as well.
Oh? There was no major security at Live 8, which I would have thought would have pretty high security. Guess the security magically disappears whenever I'm around then.
I started this, so I guess I'm obligated to jump back in. I think we are talking about two different kinds of security threats. Terrorism and fan misbehavior. I would say that at a typical American sporting event, there is almost no worry about fans hurting one another. Euros have a much darker history with these kinds of problems. An American fan might be surprised to see: (1) Attempts to guide visiting fans on their way to the stadium onto routes where they will not intereact with home fans. (2) Huge numbers of police, on foot and mounted on horses, keeping fans apart. Also, throw in a fair number of police dogs. I've seen this kind of thing even at friendlies. At U.S. events, the cops mainly try to keep us from crashing our cars into one another. (3) Putting visiting fans in cages. I think they do less of this than they once did, but I still see some of it on FSC. Many times, you will also see an empty section on each side of the visiting fan section to create a buffer zone. (4) Rules against wearing the wrong colors in the wrong section. This is the tip most useful to a travelling fan, because it would never have occurred to me that I was breaking a rule or endangering myself by wearing the wrong t-shirt. (5) Holding visiting fans after the game. I've never heard of any U.S. stadium with such a policy. On the terrorism front, both sides seem to be catching up with another. I've seen the guys in black uniforms with machine guns wandering airports and train stations over there. However, I visited New York last fall. I have a friend who lives half a block from the UN in mid town. There was literally an army of heavily armed guys, and they were everywhere. Same thing at the Statue of Liberty, which was a bit ironic. I agree with whoever said that those Boxing Day EPL tix will be hard to get. Getting into Chelsea-Fulham will probably be as hard as a July 4 Red Sox-Yankees game. You wil have to decide how important it is to see your team, or if you just want to see a game. The lower divisions can be a lot of fun, and will have a lot of atmosphere to soak up.
Yeah. When I went to Columbus for the Cup in 2001, there was security with machine guns at SFO. I'm incredibly afraid of guns. So maybe I notice it more. But when I almost ran into the guy with the guns (I was fiddling with my bags after going through security and wasn't paying attention to where I was going and there he was), the first thought in my mind was, "it's just like Europe."
Would agree about calling the teams' ticket offices, although it's probably a longshot for Chelsea or the Arse. Posting on a team's board might work. Less glamorous Premiership teams, or lower division teams, are also a good option. A train ride to West Bromwich or Blackburn would see ticket prices fall dramatically. If all other options fail, you can always go through a ticket agency. You will pay top dollar, but how often do you go to London anyways? Try these guys: http://www.frontrowfootball.com/. They are expensive, but they are also legit. You won't get burned with a fake ticket. Just pretend the price is dollars, not pounds. It won't hurt so much!
Thanks everyone for the feedback, keep it coming. I had already thought about trying to take in a lower division match for the atmosphere. All of your advice backs that notion. Brentford, Barnet and Leyton Orient all have home matches on Boxing Day. Barnet and Orient look like they would be a load of fun to see. Cristal Palace and QPR are at home that Wednesday. So those are all options. By the way, is Watford as close as it looks on a map? That being said, as clubfoot points out, we don't go half-way around the world that often so we want to try our best to make at least one of our two matches an EPL one. I'll think big to start with and call Chelsea about the Boxing Day match and haven't absolutely ruled out a reputable ticket broker even though it would cost almost as much as our airfaire to get into one match. But Totenham and Charleton are both home on Boxing Day (although the Charleton match is against Arsenal and therefore a tougher ticket I'm sure). Also on that Wednesday Fulham and West Ham both are at home. If anybody gives a rat's behind, I'll let everyone know how it goes. As to the city itself, we have three or four hotels to choose from all around Hyde Park. A couple north of it and a couple south. Any comments on whether one area is any better than the other? Thanks again for the help.
You might find the area north of Hyde Park a little more comfortable as far as finding places nearby to eat that are open and local pubs. You've got Notting Hill, Portobello Road, Baywater/Queensway, Edgware Road etc. in close proximity. If you're staying near Paddington Station, the Heathrow Express train gets you into the city in about 20 minutes, compared to about a hour on the Picadilly Line (cheapest option) or 45 via cab (very expensive). Below Hyde Park you have Knightsbridge, Kings Road, lots of shopping and museums. Some areas closer to Westminster Abbey/Parliament are mostly government/business so they'll be pretty dead that week -- good if you don't like crowds, but not very convenient if you want to find a convenient pub or place for a bite.
I don't have personal experience with the place, but it's gotten a lot of good reviews from travelers on tripadvisor.com. I'm actually considering it myself for the last leg of my trip to England in November. I think it looks pretty good for something under $200/night (especially considering that there's nothing under $100 worth mentioning and everything priced above that that's worth considering is going to be a $450+ luxury hotel like the Dukes or similar--there's really no middle ground when it comes to London hotels). Hotels in London are very hit and miss. Best deal I ever had was the Savoy in late 2003 just before Fairmont Hotels took it over -- spent about $250/night for an incredible room. Unfortunately now it's more like $600.