I’m writing a series of short blogs describing my experience of attending Premier League games. Today, episode three, the guys’ long weekend in London. If you missed episode one or episode two, I recommend reading those posts. I talked about going to my first two Premier League matches.
The Premier League season started back in August
If you are like me, an American-based Premier League fan, you are excited this time of year. The season is well underway. The question is: do you want to attend a game in person? If that’s you, you are in the right place. In this blog, I’ll discuss an approach to accomplishing that.
Getting to a Premier League match may seem daunting
If you’re an American-based fan like me, attending a Premier League game can seem like a daunting challenge. The most significant part of the challenge, of course, is getting across the pond and back again.
You can attend a PL game as part of a guy’s long weekend in London
In the previous episodes, I described two approaches for attending a Premier League game. In this blog, I’m going to talk about another way to see a Premier League match. Plan a guy’s long weekend away in London. Look at that picture below. You see two of my good friends, Joel and Geoff, smiling as we toured around Westminster Abbey.
Reality check — going to a game is not cheap
Before I get into the details, let me provide a quick reality check. Going to a Premier League game is not cheap for US-based fans. The highest costs you’re likely to incur include the flight going over, the hotel once you get there, and tickets to the game itself. Bottom line, Premier League games are not cheap.
My friends and I attended an Arsenal match in London
In January of this year, a few of my friends and I spent a long weekend in London to attend an Arsenal Premier League game. Why Arsenal? Joel, one of my friends, is a huge Arsenal fan. He picked the team and wanted to go to London. I said, “Count me in.”
We attended the match during a week-long weekend in January
Here is a quick summary of our trip. We went in January. Oddly enough, the weather was not too bad. It included three of us: Joel, Geoff, and me. The goal was to have fun experiencing a Premier League match. Neither one of them had been to one. We also explored an old university town. So, we saw London, went to the Emirates, and visited Oxford University. You can see that we stayed three nights in London.
Our schedule in London worked well
Schedule-wise, we flew in. So, day one was a Friday. We checked into our hotel, wandered around downtown London, and went on a food tour in Soho. That was a lot of fun. Day two was all about getting to the football match. Afterward, we did execute a pub crawl. Below is a picture of Joel reminding us that when they ring the bell, it means last call.
We spent the third day exploring old Oxford
On day three, we took an excursion to Oxford University, one of the most prestigious and oldest universities in the world. It was magnificent. I had never been there before. Geoff had been there, so he served as our tour guide, taking us all around this wonderful city. We hung out in some pubs, visited some libraries, and had a great time. Oxford is easy to get to from London, a little over an hour by train.
Here are some best practices from our trip
Here are the best practices from this trip. Premier League matches are awesome. I’m not an Arsenal fan, but I was for the day and had a blast at the Emirates Stadium. We stayed in the Seven Dials part of London. It is an excellent location, really close to Soho. Speaking of Soho, the food tour we took was a delicious surprise. The reason is that we didn’t really eat British food. There were more international dishes. At my age, I think a good strategy is a pint at each pub. Drink your pint and move on to the next one. Regarding Oxford, it is an excellent day trip option from London. Easy to get to and memorable.
Of course, there were some lessons learned as well
London can be expensive. For example, the taxi from the airport to the hotel was pricey. We stayed three nights, which I think is the perfect amount of time for a long weekend. Tickets to the game were purchased through hospitality at the Emirates Stadium. Great deal. The tickets were expensive. Was it worth it? I think so. Just saying. If you’re going to go that route, it’s probably going to cost you a pretty penny. Cheering for Arsenal is draining. They went up two to nothing at halftime and then ended up tying two to two. You could sense all around the stadium was, “Oh no, not this again.” They are having a much better season now. And the last thing regarding train travel: Sunday’s the worst day to take the train. They do a lot of maintenance. We experienced some delays in the morning. Nothing earthshattering. Just a reminder, if you can travel via train on other days, I would avoid Sunday if possible.
We had a blast during our guy’s long weekend in London
Let me wrap up this blog by saying this trip was fantastic. We had so much fun on the guys’ weekend in London. We talk about this trip all the time and the possibility of going back and bringing a few more friends with us. We’ll definitely be back next year.
I am Doug Keating, and this is my letter to sons.