What You Need to Know About Travel to the 2026 World Cup

Soccer fans will arrive in the U.S., Mexico and Canada to see 48 teams compete for soccer’s top prize

The FIFA World Cup is coming to the U.S., Canada and Mexico starting June 11, 2026. Here, soccer fans in Houston, a host city, cheer as the teams set to play there are announced in December 2025.

Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Bill Fink,

AARP

Published February 18, 2026

The world’s biggest sporting event will take place across the U.S., Canada and Mexico this June and July, as 48 national teams compete to be the World Cup champion of soccer. Soccer fans will flock to stadiums in 16 cities in huge numbers to cheer on their countries during the nearly six-week tournament. But even if you’re not a die-hard soccer fan or originally from one of the visiting nations, it’s still well worth your while to attend a game in person — or, barring that, to go to one of the many “fan zones” that will be created in the host cities.

The passion and spectacle of national fan groups gathered en masse — dressed in costume, singing national anthems and chanting player songs — is an event worth traveling for. My experience at the 2002 World Cup in Korea remains one of my most treasured travel memories.

“It’s not only the world’s largest sporting event,” says Jorge Gotuzzo, the lead for World Cup marketing at Visit Seattle, the city’s tourism arm. “It’s the largest cultural exchange you’re ever going to see.” The World Cup’s cultural exchange is well suited for the 50-and-over crowd. “Sixty-two percent of sports fans over 50 value feeling a sense of community with other fans,” according to a 2023 Nielsen study cited in Long-Term Care News.

Take advantage of this rare opportunity to see the World Cup close to home, not only for the games but for the global community — whether inside the stadiums or soaking in the international atmosphere throughout the host cities.

The championship match of the FIFA World Cup will be played in New Jersey on July 19, 2026. Here, the FIFA Peace Prize.

Hector Vivas - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

What is the FIFA World Cup?

The FIFA World Cup is the world soccer championship in which the top men’s national teams compete for the title once every four years. FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is the international federation of football (soccer), the governing body for soccer worldwide. The FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place in Brazil in 2027.

The World Cup is by far the world’s most-watched sporting event, with an estimated 1.42 billion people tuning in for the 2022 World Cup championship game, more than eight times the number who watched the Super Bowl in 2025.

When will the World Cup take place?

The World Cup will take place between June 11 and July 19, with the kickoff in Mexico City and the championship game in New Jersey. During these nearly six weeks, there will be 102 other matches, including group play and knockout playoff rounds. Every team will play at least three matches. The top-performing teams move on to single-elimination playoff rounds.

In the group stage, Team USA will play Paraguay on June 12 in Los Angeles and against Australia on June 19 in Seattle, with a still-to-be-determined qualifier on June 25 in Los Angeles.

Who is playing in the World Cup?

This year’s tournament has been expanded from the usual 32 teams to 48. So far, 42 national teams have qualified during a multiyear tournament that involves virtually every nation. The remaining six teams will be decided in a final playoff round in March.

The teams that have qualified include:

Where to see the games

Each U.S. stadium will host six to nine matches. Matches will take place in the 16 cities listed below. The stadium names are also listed.

Also note that most stadium names will be changed for the duration of the World Cup because of sponsorship rules. For example, Seattle’s Lumen Field will be called “Seattle Stadium” during the tournament. So if Google Maps is confused when you’re searching for the temporarily renamed World Cup venue, revert to the name of the regular home football stadium.

Atlanta: Mercedes-Benz “Atlanta” Stadium
Boston: Gillette “Boston” Stadium
Dallas: AT&T “Dallas” Stadium
Guadalajara, Mexico: Estadio Akron “Estadio Guadalajara”
Houston: NRG “Houston” Stadium
Kansas City, Missouri: GEHA Field at Arrowhead “Kansas City” Stadium
Los Angeles: SoFi “Los Angeles” Stadium
Mexico City: Estadio Azteca “Mexico City”
Miami: Hard Rock “Miami” Stadium
Monterrey, Mexico: Estadio BBVA “Estadio Monterrey”
New York: MetLife “New York New Jersey” Stadium
Philadelphia: Lincoln Financial Field “Philadelphia Stadium”
San Francisco: Levi’s “San Francisco Bay Area” Stadium
Seattle: Lumen Field “Seattle Stadium”
Toronto: BMO Field “Toronto Stadium”
Vancouver, Canada: BC Place “Vancouver”

Most stadium names will be changed for the duration of the World Cup because of sponsorship rules. Estadio Azteca in Mexico City will be known as Estadio Mexico City.

Hector Vivas/Getty Images

How to travel to the games

Note that the stadiums associated with some cities on the list, like those in New York, San Francisco and Boston, are located a significant distance from the city center. For example, the San Francisco–associated Levi’s Stadium is in Santa Clara, California, more than 40 miles south of San Francisco. It’s much closer to San Jose city and airport than to San Francisco International Airport. Likewise, New York hosts its game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and Boston’s Gillette Stadium is 29 miles from its city center.

Before arranging travel for any World Cup trip, be sure to research the stadium’s location and commuting options. Given probable traffic and security delays to reach stadiums on game day, public transportation will be a time- and money-saving option. In Los Angeles, for example, the city is debuting a dedicated stadium shuttle and is working to expand rail service and rideshare options to reach the games.

For visitors with disabilities, U.S. stadiums must comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act to provide accessible seating, routes and restrooms. The accessibility organization Wheel the World has partnered with World Cup host cities Seattle and Miami to create guides for hotels, activities and transportation.

For travel to the host cities, plan ahead. An estimated 1.2 million international visitors will be coming to the U.S. for the World Cup, according to research company Tourism Economics. Expect flights to be booked early to host cities — and not just at the international terminal. All the teams play in multiple cities, so domestic flights could be challenging near game days because of the number of visiting fans.

Amtrak is expecting a busy summer for train travel as well. “Amtrak is excited to welcome soccer fans from North America and across the globe as they cheer on their home nation teams and travel between cities for matches,” said Roger Harris, company president, in a news release. Amtrak is recommending that customers book now to secure tickets.

How to get World Cup game tickets

FIFA has already completed three rounds of ticket lotteries, so the bulk of game tickets have already been sold. There will be one more sales round for the remaining tickets beginning in early April.

Be forewarned: FIFA set the ticket prices notoriously high, and you will likely have to pay even more on secondary markets. Currently, the cheapest StubHub ticket for the opening match in Mexico City is about $3,400, and the cheapest for the finals in New Jersey is about $8,200. For “budget” fans, the cheapest ticket currently available on StubHub is $293 for Ivory Coast versus Curaçao in Philadelphia.

If you’re looking to buy tickets on the secondary market, you should be aware of potential ticket scams on platforms such as Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and through independent online ads.

Buying tickets through reputable secondary market platforms such as SeatGeek, StubHub and Ticketmaster come with additional fees, but the sites guarantee ticket validity. The official place to purchase resold tickets is the FIFA Resale/Exchange Marketplace website, beginning in April. However, FIFA will charge a 15 percent fee on every transaction on its website, plus tax, for both buyers and sellers.

Hospitality packages are currently available for purchase on the FIFA website for most games (a preferred ticket and VIP lounge access provided). Still, prices range from $1,475 to $3,900 per ticket for the qualifying rounds and from $8,200 to $12,700 per ticket for the semifinals.

The pricing is discouraging some longtime fans. “I was excited to go to a Belgium game,” says retired tech consultant and former Belgium-based expatriate Geoff Greig, 60. “But the cost [tickets, hotel] is putting me off.”

He’s planning to make a last-minute decision, hoping that cheaper tickets become available closer to game day and that he can stay with family or friends in a host city.

Tickets to the games of the host teams will be the hardest and most expensive to get, as well as for games featuring popular teams such as Argentina, Brazil, England and France.

Your best bet to save money on tickets is to attend group-round matches between non-soccer powers or smaller countries. For example, the Ecuador versus Curaçao game in Kansas City, Missouri, is currently less than half the price of most U.S. or Brazil matches. Sure, those games won’t have the star power of Brazil or the home-field excitement of Team USA, but you’ll still be treated to a fun game while sharing the stadium with passionate groups of fans from the countries represented.

For fans with disabilities, FIFA is providing a limited number of accessibility tickets and companion tickets for each game. Tickets are sold during each phase of the lottery process, with the final segment still to come.

people wading in the water while watching a soccer match on a screen on a boat

Argentina soccer fans watch the 2022 World Cup final against France at a watch party at Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami in December 2022. Miami is a host city for the 2026 World Cup.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

How to best experience the World Cup without a game ticket

Fans who can’t (or won’t) pay top dollar for World Cup game tickets can still enjoy the tournament’s festive atmosphere. Every host city will hold official World Cup events and watch parties in the free fan zones. Miami is expecting 815,000 fans to attend its FIFA Fan Festival — nearly double the total amount of match tickets sold for the games there. In Canada, Vancouver will host viewing parties and a Vancouver FanFest featuring a new amphitheater at the Pacific National Exhibition grounds.

You don’t even need to go to an official city or FIFA event to join in the World Cup revelry. Just check out a friendly neighborhood sports bar in any host city, or beyond.

“We have a strong soccer pub culture here,” says Seattle’s Gotuzzo. He recommends Seattle’s George and Dragon Pub for England fans and the Kangaroo & Kiwi for visitors from Down Under, as well as the female-friendly Rough and Tumble Pub, in the Ballard neighborhood.

Even if you haven’t booked a room at a neighborhood hotel near a game venue, you can still stop by for the atmosphere. James and Codi’s Last Chance Lounge at Seattle’s Embassy Suites is “100 steps” to the stadium, so “we expect it to become a natural hub for hotel guests, visiting fans and locals looking to celebrate the international energy of the tournament,” says sales manager Jordan Estey.

In Miami, the Betsy South Beach hotel’s music “programming will definitely reflect the international cultural mix of our guests. And in our restaurants, we expect to have menu items that reflect the cuisine of our global visitors,” says Jonathan Plutzik, co-owner of Miami’s Betsy South Beach hotel.

Where to stay during the World Cup

Lodging near the stadiums may be a challenge during the World Cup, with corporate groups, sponsors and fans booking up large swaths of rooms.

“As soon as the specific games were announced, so people knew what teams were playing, the switchboard lit up with reservations from those countries,” Plutzik says. He says his hotel is still not sold out, though. At Seattle’s Embassy Suites by Hilton hotel, adjacent to the stadium, Estey says, “We are seeing strong early interest from both groups and individual travelers. While we still have availability at this stage, we expect inventory to tighten significantly as international travel plans are locked in.”

She advises, “Book early, stay flexible and prioritize location. Hotels close to the stadium and major transit corridors will book first, especially on match days. Fans should also expect premium pricing on nights leading up to and after each match.”

For one extreme example, the Best Western near Foxboro, Massachusetts, a five-minute drive from Gillette/Boston Stadium, is charging up to $2,500 for a room on game day, even though normal summer rates begin at $138.

Expedia’s Fan Travel Outlook report recommends that visitors look for “Alt City Savings” to search for lodging outside of host cities. Expedia says hotels in Fort Worth, Texas, (rather than Dallas) and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (rather than Miami) can save you more than $50 per night on average and are still within a 30-minute commuting distance to game sites.

With many hotels targeting group sales, a good option for fans seeking lodging is home or apartment rentals, especially if you’re traveling with family or friends. As a World Cup sponsor, Airbnb has a dedicated website for the games to facilitate stadium-area rental searches. Vrbo’s website includes a page highlighting rentals in World Cup cities, with many individuals independently declaring their homes “World Cup ready.”

Still, make those reservations early. In December, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution declared, “Atlanta’s short-term rentals are starting to fill up for the World Cup. ”

For playoff rounds where teams are decided on short notice, travelers should consider booking through last-minute specialists such as HotelTonight or Whimstay for home rentals.

%{postComment}%

Bill Fink is an award-winning travel writer covering global adventures for BBC, Lonely Planet, Thrillist and many other outlets. Follow him @finktravels.

Unlock Access to AARP Members Edition

Join AARP to Continue

Already a Member? Login

Most Popular

Benefits Recommended For You

See All