City guides

London offers unmatched flight and rail choice but is expensive, sprawling and slow to cross, so choose accommodation for the ground rather than simply booking the cheapest central bed. Contactless transport makes a weekend straightforward, while planning the correct station and away pub matters more than it does in most cities.

2 clubs · pub guide

Manchester is one of England's easiest football weekends: both major grounds are connected by tram and the centre has plenty of pubs, cheap curry cafés and late-night areas. The main trap for away fans is choosing a strongly home-supporting pub near the stadium, so drink centrally or around Salford Quays unless you know the door policy.

2 clubs · pub guide

Birmingham is an easy weekend base with strong rail links, plenty of affordable central pubs and a ground that is only a short suburban-train ride away. For Villa Park, drink around New Street or at the designated away pub rather than counting on entry to home venues in Witton.

1 club · pub guide

Liverpool is one of the great football cities to visit — a compact, sociable centre, a waterfront that tells you exactly what the place used to be, and a welcome for away fans that is warmer than the reputation of English football suggests. Anfield is three miles from the bars, so plan the journey out rather than assuming you can stroll.

1 club · pub guide

Bournemouth is a south-coast seaside town — seven miles of sandy beach, a Victorian pier, gardens running down to the sea — with the smallest ground in the Premier League tucked into a park a couple of miles inland. The away allocation is tiny, the weather in August is the best in Britain, and the town is set up for visitors in a way most football destinations are not.

1 club · pub guide

Sunderland is a Wearside city back in European football with one of the biggest grounds in England behind it — and, unusually, a Metro station right outside the turnstiles. The city centre is modest; the coast at Roker and Seaburn is the nice part, and Newcastle and Durham are both twenty minutes away if you want more of an evening.

1 club · pub guide

Glasgow is an easy football weekend: a compact centre, busy pub scene and straightforward rail or Subway trips to the major grounds. The main complication is the intensity of the Celtic–Rangers rivalry, so visiting fans should choose neutral city-centre pubs and follow the match-specific police route.

2 clubs · pub guide

Edinburgh is an easy away trip once accommodation is sorted: the centre is walkable, airport links are straightforward and Easter Road is about half an hour from Waverley. Leith Walk provides the most practical mix of pre-match pubs, affordable food and a direct walk to the ground.

2 clubs · pub guide

Cardiff is a compact, easy away day — a castle in the middle of town, Victorian arcades full of independent pubs, and a stadium you can walk to from the centre. European ties here are staged at Cardiff City Stadium because the Welsh clubs' own grounds are too small for UEFA, so the football is minor-key and the city does the heavy lifting.

1 club · pub guide

Belfast is a short hop, a cheap night out by UK standards, and a proper football city — two of its clubs are in Europe this season, at two very different grounds. The Cathedral Quarter does the drinking, the black-cab tours do the history, and the whole thing fits comfortably into a weekend.

2 clubs · pub guide

Amsterdam is straightforward for a weekend away trip: Schiphol is close, the Arena has direct rail and metro links, and most central nightlife is walkable. Prices are high in the tourist core, so eat and drink in De Pijp, Oost or Amsterdamse Poort and take Ajax's match-specific segregation advice seriously.

1 club · pub guide

Rotterdam is an easy weekend away city: compact in the centre, well connected by metro and tram, and full of inexpensive international food. For Feyenoord fixtures, however, supporter movement is tightly managed, so base yourself centrally and follow the visiting club’s Oude Haven and dedicated-transport instructions.

1 club · pub guide

Eindhoven is an easy away trip: the centre is compact, the airport transfer is simple and Philips Stadion is about a 15-minute walk from the station. Markt and O’Shea’s are the safer defaults for visiting groups, while the bars immediately beside the stadium are strongly PSV territory.

1 club · pub guide

Enschede is compact, easy to reach by train and built around a lively central square, but European matchdays are tightly managed. Expect a fixture-specific away meeting point and possible shuttle buses rather than a casual pub-to-ground walk.

1 club · pub guide

Nijmegen is a compact student city where the centre, station and riverside nightlife are easily covered on foot. De Goffert sits outside the centre in a large park, so away fans should plan the final leg and avoid the home-oriented Fanplein and Hazenkamp route unless officially directed there.

1 club · pub guide

Alkmaar is a proper little Dutch town — canals, a 500-year-old cheese market, gabled houses — half an hour north of Amsterdam by train. AZ's ground is modern and compact, and the trip is easy enough that most visiting fans stay in Amsterdam and come up for the evening.

1 club · pub guide

Skopje is cheap, odd and genuinely enjoyable — an Ottoman bazaar on one bank, a fifteenth-century stone bridge, and a centre rebuilt in the 2010s with several hundred statues and neoclassical façades that have to be seen to be believed. The national stadium is a ten-minute walk from the main square, and a night out costs less than anywhere else in this guide.

2 clubs · pub guide

Sofia is one of the cheapest capitals in the EU and one of the easiest for a short away trip — the airport metro drops you in the centre in twenty minutes, and almost everything worth seeing sits inside a walkable ring of boulevards under Vitosha mountain. Three Sofia clubs are in Europe this season, so you may well be sharing the city with another set of travelling fans.

3 clubs · pub guide

Reykjavík is the most expensive trip in this guide and one of the most memorable — a small, colourful capital under a volcanic sky, with daylight nearly round the clock in the qualifying months. Three clubs stage European ties here at small, atmospheric grounds within a few kilometres of the centre.

3 clubs · pub guide

Split is a Roman palace with a city grown inside it, a seafront promenade, and one of the great away-day atmospheres in the Adriatic at Hajduk's Poljud. In July and August it is hot, packed with tourists and not as cheap as it used to be — but the ferries, the beaches and the Torcida make it one of the best trips on the qualifying calendar.

1 club · pub guide

Zagreb is compact, relatively inexpensive and easy to handle by tram, with most drinking and accommodation within walking distance of the main square. The key complication for 2026/27 is Dinamo's possible mid-season move from Maksimir to Kranjčevićeva, so confirm the ground before making matchday plans.

1 club · pub guide

Budapest is the classic European away weekend: cheap beer, brilliant public transport, thermal baths for the morning after, and a ruin-bar district built for large groups with time to kill. Ferencváros are the club you will be visiting, and their Groupama Aréna sits right on a metro line ten minutes from the centre.

1 club · pub guide

Tbilisi is the cheapest and most characterful away trip in this part of Europe — sulphur baths in the old town, wine at £2 a glass, and a nightlife scene that runs until breakfast. It is a long flight from the UK, but Wizz and Ryanair fly in and once you are there a weekend costs next to nothing.

2 clubs · pub guide

Yerevan is a pink-tuff city of café terraces, cheap brandy and very cheap taxis, built around one enormous square with Mount Ararat sitting on the skyline behind it. Crowds at Armenian club games are small and tickets are a couple of quid, so this is an away trip about the city rather than the football.

2 clubs · pub guide

Turku is Finland's oldest city and its former capital, sitting where the Aura river meets the archipelago — a castle at one end, a cathedral at the other, and a line of converted ships moored between them serving as bars. It is smaller and cheaper than Helsinki, and Inter's ground is a 15-minute walk from the middle of town.

1 club · pub guide

Helsinki is small, calm and very easy to get around, with the sea at the end of most streets and daylight until midnight in high summer. It is not a cheap weekend — beer is the priciest in this guide — but the ground is a ten-minute tram ride from the centre and Tallinn is two hours away by boat if you want to make more of the trip.

1 club · pub guide

Tampere is Finland's red-brick industrial city, wedged between two lakes with rapids running through the middle — the 'Manchester of the North', and the country's sauna capital with a dozen public ones. Ilves play at a new, tight little stadium built into a city block ten minutes from the station, and the whole trip is easy on foot.

1 club · pub guide

Tallinn is a walled medieval old town with a tech-startup city bolted onto it, and one of the easiest arrivals in Europe — the airport is four kilometres from the centre and a tram runs between them. Three Estonian clubs stage European ties at the Lilleküla Stadium, so the fixture list here is busy.

3 clubs · pub guide

Riga is the biggest city in the Baltics and the easiest of the three for a cheap weekend — a compact old town, an airport ten minutes from the centre, and beer at four euros. Three Riga clubs are in Europe this season, so there is a decent chance of a fixture whichever week you come.

3 clubs · pub guide

Kaunas is Lithuania's second city and its cheaper, more workmanlike one — a long pedestrian avenue, a well-preserved old town at the meeting of two rivers, and a remarkable stock of 1920s and 30s modernist architecture from its years as the country's temporary capital. Kauno Žalgiris play at a properly renovated 15,000-seat ground a short walk from the centre.

1 club · pub guide

Vilnius has the biggest baroque old town in eastern Europe, an airport six kilometres from the centre, and prices that still feel like a bargain. Žalgiris are the club you will be visiting; their ground is small, so sort tickets before you fly rather than after.

1 club · pub guide

Craiova is a working southern-Romanian city with a handsome pedestrian centre, very low prices, and one of the best modern grounds in the country — the Ion Oblemenco, a 30,000-seat arena rebuilt in 2017 that fills for European nights. It is not a tourist city, which is rather the point: you will be the away fans people talk about.

1 club · pub guide

Cluj-Napoca is Transylvania's capital in all but name — a university city of 100,000 students, a walkable baroque centre and prices well below Bucharest's. Two clubs from here are in Europe this season, playing at two different grounds, so check which one your tie is at before you book.

2 clubs · pub guide

Bucharest is big, loud and cheap — a city of communist boulevards, crumbling belle-époque villas and a compact Old Town packed with terraces. For a weekend away it is hard to beat on price: beer, food and taxis all cost a fraction of western Europe, and the metro will get you to any of the city's grounds.

1 club · pub guide

Thessaloniki is a strong weekend away city: compact, late-night and excellent for cheap street food, with Ladadika the sensible base for visiting support. Toumba is intense and tightly policed, so drink centrally, keep colours covered and use any organised away-fan transport.

1 club · pub guide

Athens is a strong weekend away destination: cheap food, late bars and a metro that reaches all three likely venues. Matchday policing can be strict, though, so base yourselves centrally and expect an escorted coach rather than an independent trip to the ground.

2 clubs · pub guide

Poznań is a proper football city — Lech's ground holds 43,000 and the support is among the most organised in Poland — wrapped around a handsome old market square and a student population that keeps prices down. It is a two-hour flight and a cheap weekend, with a big-game atmosphere you do not get at most qualifiers.

1 club · pub guide

Zabrze is a Silesian mining town of about 160,000 with one of Poland's great old football names attached to it — Górnik, fourteen-time champions and Cup Winners' Cup finalists in 1970. The town itself is small; most visiting fans base themselves in Katowice or Gliwice and travel in, which takes 20 minutes and costs a couple of pounds.

1 club · pub guide

Katowice is the capital of Upper Silesia, a two-million-person conurbation of coal, steel and post-industrial reinvention — brutalist landmarks, a superb tram network and prices well below Kraków's. It is also the practical base for away days across the region: Zabrze, Chorzów and Gliwice are all a short tram or train ride away.

1 club · pub guide

Białystok is a city of 300,000 in Poland's far east, near the Belarusian border — a baroque palace at its centre, a strong Podlasie food culture, and one of the loudest crowds in Polish football at Jagiellonia's Stadion Miejski. There is no useful airport, so the trip is a flight to Warsaw and a train across.

1 club · pub guide

Lublin is eastern Poland's biggest city — a genuinely lovely Old Town, a large student population, and prices well below Warsaw's. For European football it matters as a host in exile: Dynamo Kyiv stage their home ties at the Arena Lublin, 100 km from the Ukrainian border, because they cannot play them at home.

1 club · pub guide

Bratislava is compact, relatively affordable and easy to manage over a weekend, with the Old Town providing most of the useful pubs and food within walking distance. Tehelné pole is a short tram ride away, but visiting fans in colours should drink centrally and follow the official away route rather than using the home pubs beside the ground.

1 club · pub guide

Graz is a compact, walkable away trip with a good-value student-bar scene and a direct tram from the old town to Merkur Arena. Base yourselves around Hauptplatz or Lend, then follow the visiting club's matchday instructions rather than approaching through Sturm's home-fan forecourt.

1 club · pub guide

Vienna is easy to handle on a short away trip: the U1 runs directly from the centre towards the Generali Arena, while central pubs and the Favoriten district provide cheaper food before the match. Drink in town and follow the designated away route rather than heading for Austria Wien’s home-fan forecourt.

2 clubs · pub guide

Salzburg is compact, easy to walk and simple to reach from its airport, though accommodation and Old Town drinking can be expensive. For football weekends, base yourself near the centre or Hauptbahnhof, use the S-Bahn or trolleybus for the ground and head to brewery halls or Rudolfskai rather than paying peak tourist prices everywhere.

1 club · pub guide

Linz is Austria's third city, strung along the Danube between Vienna and Salzburg — an industrial town that spent the last two decades turning itself into a design and technology city, with a compact old centre and a proper new ground. LASK's Raiffeisen Arena, opened in 2023, replaced the old Gugl bowl and is a much better place to watch a European tie.

1 club · pub guide

Lugano is compact, scenic and easy to cover over a weekend, but Swiss prices mean away fans should book beds early and use supermarkets, day tickets and hotel-issued Ticino Tickets. AIL Arena lies north of the centre at Cornaredo, around 15–20 minutes away by bus.

1 club · pub guide

Gothenburg is Sweden's second city and a much easier away day than Stockholm: everything is within walking distance, the ground sits in the middle of town, and the bars along Andra Långgatan are as close to cheap as Sweden gets. Two of the city's clubs are in Europe this season and both play at Gamla Ullevi.

2 clubs · pub guide

Stockholm is spread across fourteen islands and is one of the most expensive cities you will ever follow your club to — but the transport is superb, the water is everywhere, and in July it barely gets dark. Hammarby are the hosts this season, and their ground is three metro stops from the centre.

1 club · pub guide

Ljubljana is a small, green capital built around a river lined with terraces, with a castle on the hill and the Alps an hour away. It is easy, safe and pleasant rather than wild — a good trip to bring a group to, and cheap enough once you are off the riverbank.

1 club · pub guide

Braga is compact, reasonably priced and easy to manage over a weekend, with most drinking areas between the railway station, Sé and Campo da Vinha. The unusual quarry stadium is walkable from the centre, but away fans should allow extra time for hills, segregation and any police escort.

1 club · pub guide

Lisbon is an easy away weekend: the airport is close, both major grounds are on the Metro and central food and drink can still be done cheaply. Base yourself around Baixa, Rossio, Bairro Alto or Cais do Sodré, then follow the match-specific away route rather than drinking beside the ground.

2 clubs · pub guide

Porto is compact, affordable and easy to handle over a weekend, with the airport metro, central nightlife and Estádio do Dragão all on straightforward public-transport routes. Ribeira is the usual base for visiting supporters, while the Antas and Praça Velásquez areas are strongly FC Porto-oriented on matchday.

1 club · pub guide

Lens is a compact, football-first city where the station, central bars and Stade Bollaert-Delelis are all walkable. It makes an easy match trip, though European fixtures can bring strict away-fan movements and a fairly limited choice of late-night venues.

1 club · pub guide

Marseille is an excellent away weekend for harbour bars, North African food and a properly intense football atmosphere. The centre is easy enough to navigate, but UEFA away arrangements can be strict, with compulsory meeting points and escorted transport common at the Vélodrome.

1 club · pub guide

Paris is straightforward for an away weekend once you get your head around separate airport and city transport fares. Drink centrally, leave plenty of time for Parc des Princes security and follow the visiting club’s instructions rather than heading independently towards the Auteuil end.

1 club · pub guide

Lyon is straightforward for a weekend away, with strong public transport, busy pub areas around Vieux Lyon and plenty of food that goes beyond the usual matchday kebab. Groupama Stadium is well outside the centre, and European away support can be tightly controlled, so follow your club’s transport and colour advice.

1 club · pub guide

Lille is the easiest continental away day there is from Britain — 90 minutes from St Pancras by Eurostar, straight into the middle of town. It is a Flemish city in France: gabled brick houses, estaminets serving beer and stew, a student population of 100,000, and a 50,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof at the end of the metro line.

1 club · pub guide

Rennes is Brittany's capital: a half-timbered old town, a hundred thousand students, and — thanks to the LGV line — an hour and a half from Paris by TGV. It is a cheap, lively city with a famous bar street, galettes and cider on every corner, and a well-supported club at the Roazhon Park.

1 club · pub guide

Rome is a superb weekend away trip, with cheap street food, late bars and most sights reachable by metro or on foot. Stadio Olimpico is awkward compared with the centre, so leave early and follow fixture-specific police and club instructions.

1 club · pub guide

Milan is straightforward for a weekend away: the centre is compact, public transport reaches San Siro cleanly and there are plenty of cheap pizza and panzerotto stops. Accommodation and drinks can be dear, so stay near a metro line and do most of your eating and drinking away from the Duomo and the stadium gates.

2 clubs · pub guide

Naples is brilliant for a compact away weekend: inexpensive street food, loud central nightlife and several rail routes towards the Maradona. Matchday arrangements can be strict, however, so keep plans flexible and follow the visiting club's instructions on colours, meeting points and escorted transport.

1 club · pub guide

Turin is compact, good for food and usually cheaper than Italy’s biggest tourist cities, but Juventus’ stadium sits well north of the centre and needs proper matchday planning. Base yourself around Porta Nuova, San Salvario or the historic centre for easy trains, pubs and late-night food.

1 club · pub guide

Como is the away day the rest of Europe will be jealous of — a small lakeside city under the Alps, forty minutes by train from Milan, with a ground that sits on the waterfront. The city is tiny by top-flight standards and the football infrastructure with it, so plan the practicalities carefully and enjoy the rest.

1 club · pub guide

Belgrade is cheap, lively and easy to enjoy over a weekend, with free public transport and both major grounds south of the centre. The football atmosphere can be intense, so drink centrally, keep colours covered and follow the visiting club's police and escort instructions rather than wandering around either stadium.

2 clubs · pub guide

Copenhagen is an easy but expensive away trip: the airport transfer is excellent, the centre is walkable and the metro runs all night. Save money by drinking and eating in Nørrebro or Vesterbro, then use the City Circle metro for Parken if that is the confirmed venue.

1 club · pub guide

Madrid is an easy away trip once you accept its late hours: the Metro covers all three major grounds, central neighbourhoods provide plenty of affordable food and drink, and airport links are straightforward. Stadium arrangements differ sharply, so wait for the visiting club's final instructions before choosing a matchday meeting point.

2 clubs · pub guide

Barcelona is straightforward for a short away trip: the airport is close, public transport is extensive and central districts have plenty of late food and drink. The main complication is matchday policing around Camp Nou, so use the visiting club’s nominated meeting point rather than assuming the usual central pubs or nearest metro station will apply.

1 club · pub guide

Seville is compact, good value away from the Cathedral streets and well suited to a one- or two-night football trip. La Cartuja sits north of the main nightlife areas, so drink centrally, allow a generous matchday transfer and follow the club's away-supporter route.

1 club · pub guide

Vila-real is a small, walkable football town where the station, Plaça Major and Estadio de la Cerámica are all within roughly 25 minutes of one another. Valencia usually offers the easiest flights and nightlife, but staying locally makes matchday simple and keeps taxi costs down.

1 club · pub guide

Vigo is Galicia's biggest city and one of Europe's great fishing ports — a steep, working Atlantic town with the best seafood you will eat all season and the Cíes Islands an hour offshore. It is cheap by Spanish standards, the beer comes with free food, and Celta's Balaídos gets loud on a European night.

1 club · pub guide

San Sebastián — Donostia in Basque — is a belle-époque resort wrapped around one of the best city beaches in Europe, and the pintxos bars of its old town are arguably the finest bar food anywhere. It is the most expensive city in northern Spain and worth every euro; Real Sociedad's Reale Arena is a 25-minute walk from the bars.

1 club · pub guide

Munich is easy to navigate and excellent for beer halls, but accommodation and central drinking can be expensive. Base yourself near an U-Bahn or S-Bahn station, eat before heading to the Allianz Arena and leave extra time for the long walk and away-end checks.

1 club · pub guide

Dortmund is one of Europe's easiest football weekends: a compact centre, direct public transport to the ground and no shortage of beer or late food. Alter Markt works well for visiting groups, while the stadium-side and Kreuzviertel pubs become much more BVB-heavy on matchday.

1 club · pub guide

Leipzig is an easy away trip: the centre is compact, the stadium is walkable and trams cover the main drinking areas. Base yourself around Hauptbahnhof or Markt for convenience, or Südvorstadt for cheaper food and a later night.

1 club · pub guide

Stuttgart is Germany's car city, built in a bowl of vine-covered hills with the state's wine country running right into the suburbs. It is prosperous rather than pretty, but the transport is excellent, the Swabian food is heavy and cheap, and VfB's MHPArena in the Neckarpark is one of the better big-club away days in Germany.

1 club · pub guide

Leverkusen is a company town — 165,000 people, the Bayer chemical works, and a football club that has outgrown both. The BayArena is excellent and the welcome is friendly, but the town has little for a weekend, so most visiting fans stay in Cologne or Düsseldorf and travel in, which takes about twenty minutes.

1 club · pub guide

Sinsheim is a town of 35,000 in the Kraichgau hills with a 30,000-seat Bundesliga ground and a museum full of aircraft next door — including a Concorde and a Tupolev Tu-144 you can climb inside. Hoffenheim, the village the club is named after, has about 3,000 people and no stadium, so this is where the football happens. Nearly everyone stays in Heidelberg.

1 club · pub guide

Prague is an easy away trip: compact, well served by late-running trams and still good value once you leave the Old Town tourist streets. Base yourself near the centre or Žižkov and allow extra time for police-controlled access at either major ground.

2 clubs · pub guide

Istanbul is a brilliant but logistically demanding away trip: grounds are scattered across two continents, traffic is heavy and police transport can replace the route you planned. Base yourself around Taksim, Sirkeci or Karaköy, keep matchday flexible and treat the visiting club's final instructions as compulsory.

4 clubs · pub guide

Bruges is compact, easy to do over a weekend and excellent for beer, though the postcard centre can be dear. European away support is normally kept in the historic centre before a controlled shuttle to Jan Breydel, so follow the visiting club's match-specific briefing rather than heading to the ground early.

1 club · pub guide

Brussels is straightforward for a short away trip: the centre is walkable, public transport reaches Anderlecht and Forest, and Bourse or Saint-Géry make practical neutral bases. The main complication in 2026/27 is that Union Saint-Gilloise's Champions League qualifiers are in Ostend, so check the confirmed venue before booking travel.

2 clubs · pub guide

Monaco is compact, steep and expensive, but Stade Louis-II is easy to reach on foot from La Condamine and the railway station. Base the pre-match around Fontvieille or Port Hercule, budget more than you would in Nice, and take ticket, ID and colour restrictions seriously.

1 club · pub guide

Sarajevo is the most atmospheric city in this guide — an Ottoman bazaar running into an Austro-Hungarian high street, minarets and church spires on the same skyline, and a recent history that is impossible to miss. It is also very cheap, and FK Sarajevo's Koševo is a proper old European ground.

1 club · pub guide