Travelling across Spain with football somewhere in the plan tends to change the way the whole trip comes together. You might think of beaches, museums, and restaurants as the starting points for your trip, but as the fixture schedule is released, everything suddenly falls into its own place. Cities are no longer just points on a map but are instead destinations where a game is simply taking place the following weekend. La Liga has made this type of travelling easy without ever realising it because the league is so spread out that it’s almost as if they are encouraging people to move around the country.
The first time we attempted to plan a trip based around the fixtures, we saw just how fast the excitement could build. Instead of flights and hotel bookings, we were suddenly checking kickoffs and train schedules as well as la liga betting odds as we determined which matches were worth the trip. Not because the odds are ever particularly important, but because they help give the trip a structure. One might lead towards Madrid and another towards the coast, and before long, the entire week isn’t just a vacation but an itinerary with football as an afterthought.
Madrid, where everything feels like it starts
Madrid is a place that always looks like the logical starting point, even if there is nothing particularly logical about it. There is just a feeling of being at the heart of things, particularly if there is a match on. The build-up around the Bernabéu is more gradual than sudden. You will hear people discussing the game in the bars hours before it is supposed to kick off, as if the game has been in progress all day.
The thing we like about Madrid is that the game doesn’t feel as though it’s taking place away from the rest of the day. You might spend the day wandering around with no idea what to do with yourself, eat somewhere in the vicinity of the centre of the city, and suddenly realise that everyone else is heading in the same direction at the same time. It happens gradually. A few shirts appear, then more, then suddenly the pavements are full, and you realise the whole city seems to know where it is going.
Atlético’s ground feels different again. Getting there takes longer, the surroundings are newer, but the noise once you are inside makes it clear the move has not changed much. If anything, the distance makes the crowd louder, as if everyone has made a point of being there.
Barcelona and the late evenings
Barcelona is a city that is never in a hurry. The games have later kick-offs, the meals take longer, and the build-up to the game seems to take the entire day. Once, we were spending most of the day near the water without paying much heed to the game at hand, only to realise that everyone around us started talking about the game at roughly the same time.
By early evening, the metro is full of people wearing jerseys from different countries, not just Spain. This is another thing that Barcelona does differently. The crowd is always a mix, as if half the people in the stadium are not from there in the first place. This gives the walk to the ground a strange, festival-like feeling.
You do not even have to be going to the game to realise this. The noise is already coming from a distance before you even get anywhere near the ground.
Seville, where the day revolves around the match
We were surprised by Seville the first time we went there for a game, as the atmosphere seems to start quite early. While in Madrid, there is a steady lead-up, while in Barcelona, there is a relaxed one, but in Seville, it seems that people start discussing the game from the time they wake up.
Even small bars near the centre were quite crowded before lunchtime, and by the time you walk around in the afternoon, it seems that everybody knows where they’re going to watch the game, even though kick-off is still hours away. Going towards the ground later that night is one of those experiences that makes travelling to watch football different from travelling anywhere else.
Every street seems to get narrower, louder, and every corner seems to have someone arguing about the result before it even takes place. The noise is quite close, almost pressed in around you. While not one of the biggest stadiums you’ll see anywhere in Spain, it might well be one where you’ll feel most involved.
Valencia and the parts you do not plan
Valencia turned out to be our favourite place, and it was largely because it was the one we hadn’t really planned properly. The match was on the same weekend as we were passing through, and it felt like the day was less planned and more enjoyable as a result.
We spent the morning near the market, didn’t really pay attention to the time, and then suddenly realised everyone around us was looking at their phones. Within a few minutes, the tables were cleared, people were finishing their drinks, and the streets were filling up in the direction of the Mestalla Stadium without anyone really needing to say where they were going.
That is the part you never really get from a guidebook. The match becomes an excuse for the city to move together for a few hours.
Letting the fixtures decide where you go
After following the La Liga schedule city by city, the travel itself becomes slightly unpredictable. Instead of asking you where you want to go, you ask you where the games are, and the destinations lead you to places you wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. One weekend leads to another, one train to another, and the trip becomes less planned and more memorable.
What stays with us is rarely the score itself. It is the walk to the stadium when the light starts to fade, the noise from a bar you did not mean to stop in, the conversation with someone who assumes you have supported the same team your whole life. Football just gives those moments a reason to happen.
Spain is the best fit for this particular type of travelling than any other place we have ever visited. Each Spanish destination is unique and distinct from one another, enough that it keeps travelling interesting with purpose and things to do for each pit stop. When the trip is over, you feel a sense of fulfilment, because of the way it’s organised and what you got out of each match and fixture result. It is definitely a perfect opportunity for any football lover to combine the love of football and travel.
