Just because the 2010 World Cup is in the rear-view mirror doesn’t mean that soccer is off the world stage for another four years. In fact, this summer is when the best women’s teams in the world get their own showcase with the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany.
American fans may recall that it’s the US women’s team who brought home a World Cup trophy on two separate occasions, and they’re always among the teams in contention for the title – for many Americans it was the women’s national team rather than the men’s team that introduced them to the sport. This year, the US women are again in contention, along with a host of other really talented teams. The host-country, Germany, have won the past two Women’s World Cups, and other teams to watch include Brazil, Canada, Norway, and Sweden.
If you’re planning to go to Germany for the 2011 Women’s World Cup, here are some travel tips to help you get there on a budget.
>> The 2011 Women’s World Cup runs from June 26 through July 17, and all the games are in Germany.
One of the good things for budget travelers trying to get to Germany for the Women’s World Cup in 2011 is that there are several airports to choose from. The more airport options you can consider for your flights, the better your chances are of finding good deals.
The first order of business with just about any trip is finding a good price on airfare – and if you’re planning a trip for a big event, that task can be even harder. Add the complication of said event being during the high season and you’ve really got to do your homework to find cheap flights.
You don’t have to be a hard-core budget travel guru to know that this is one vacation where you’ll want to be extra-diligent when hunting for deals. Why? Because tickets to the Super Bowl are always extraordinarily expensive, and since you can’t get around paying for tickets to the game you’ll need to find ways to save money on other aspects of your trip.
One of the things you learn when you start researching the subject is that as maligned as the “vacation package” can be among people who consider themselves hard-core budget travelers, a package deal can often mean huge savings over booking each element separately. Of course, this isn’t always true, but it’s true often enough that it’s always worth looking for 
If you’re a hard-core football fan, then you’ve probably got “go to the Super Bowl” on your lifetime to-do list – whether or not it’s your team in the big game. Luckily, organizers typically give the Super Bowl to cities in the lower half of the United States – so even though the game’s in the winter, fans will get the added bonus of warm weather to go along with the championship game.
Super Bowl XLV – that’s Super Bowl 45 to us non-Romans – is coming up on February 6, 2011. The Super Bowl planners often cleverly schedule the sport’s biggest game in a sunny location, partly because it just makes for fewer game-related hassles and partly because who doesn’t like the idea of a sun-filled trip at the start of February in the United States? And that goes for the fans, too.
Football lovers like just about any excuse to go see a game live and in person, but when you’re talking about a bowl game in the BCS then it’s even better. Sure, it’s always more fun if your school’s team is in one of the bowl games, but even if you’re technically a neutral it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the game anyway.
Traveling for major sporting events has become big business with some tour operators. Booking a package trip used to mean you’d be traveling to somewhere with a beach and staying at a resort, or maybe taking some kind of adventure trip. But with so many people interested in traveling to see their favorite sports teams play in big tournaments, it was only a matter of time before sports vacation packages were more prevalent.
Whatever you might think about the BCS system, there’s no denying the appeal of seeing a college bowl game if you’re a football fan or an alum of one of the schools playing. And when you combine either of those two things with the fact that the games are played in warm places during a very cold part of the year, you have the makings of a fine excuse for a trip.