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Little kids at the World Cup?! You better believe it! My son had a blast, we saw a few babies, and we sat next to the England team’s family section where it was basically toddler city. Don’t let having small children put off your World Cup dreams; I’m sharing our Qatar World Cup experience and tips for planning a trip to the World Cup with kids.
BUYING GAME TICKETS
The most important and daunting piece of the World Cup puzzle: you need to secure tickets. While not as difficult as getting a hold of non-marked up Taylor Swift tickets, it’s also not a given that you’ll be able to get your ideal game.
The primary ways to get tickets:
- FIFA’S TICKET SALE PHASES: For Qatar, there were three or four of these; some were lottery, some first-come first-served. The first lottery for Qatar had 23.5 million ticket requests (we couldn’t get tickets this way). There were also first-come first-served ticket sales, including a last minute tickets sales phase. Just be prepared to wait in an online queue for quite a while (we couldn’t get tickets this way either).
- FIFA’S OFFICIAL RESALE SITE: We secured our best seats this way. FIFA has their own ticket resale site. You can sell tickets you no longer need, or buy them from someone else for a nominal service fee. The inventory changes by the minute, so you have to be a little obsessive checking this page. The best part of this resale site? People are not allowed to mark up tickets, so you will pay face value, plus the small service fee. The biggest con? It’s harder to plan your trip not knowing when or if the ticket inventory you need becomes available – we got our England/Iran tickets two weeks out!
- FIFA’S HOSPITALITY SITE MATCH HOSPITALITY: We purchased our Argentina/Saudi Arabia tickets this way. The pros: you have guaranteed tickets, there are many more available than through the typical FIFA ticket site, and you can even secure tickets before the general ticket lottery begins. The cons: They are expensive. While the tickets include a prematch hospitality experience with food, entertainment and your own hangout area, by no means are those additional perks worth the price you will pay. You’re really just paying for guaranteed tickets. Another con? You can’t select your seats, and they don’t guarantee tickets together (thankfully ours were). And even though we paid for the best category of tickets, they were still very high up.
- OTHER RESALE SITES: Yes, there are tickets on Stub Hub and other resale sites. This goes against FIFA’s regulations, and you can be subject to whatever FIFA does to punish ticket sales for these sites. FIFA claims these tickets will not be valid. Are these just empty threats? Possibly. But personally I wouldn’t plan a whole trip in hopes the tickets work out. Plus, they are insanely marked up.
- CONNECTIONS: Do you have connections with FIFA, one of the teams, sponsors, higher-ups at the stadiums, etc? If so, be sure the tickets aren’t just empty promises from your neighbor’s uncle’s best friend’s former boss. You need a ticket confirmation number.
A few other things to keep in mind:
- Tickets generally become available roughly one year before the World Cup starts. Be sure to register for emails with FIFA once the next World Cup’s web page becomes available.
- That being said, do not rely on emails from FIFA. I don’t recall getting email communications every single time a new ticket phase was available. Check in on the FIFA website from time to time.
- Do not plan a nonrefundable trip to the World Cup without tickets in hand; you can’t assume you’ll get last minute tickets.
- Everyone needs tickets. Even a two-day old baby would need a ticket. There are no discounts for babies and kids either.
- Be mindful of the game times with young kids. In Qatar, the latest games started at 10pm. Games are 90 minutes, plus half time, plus extra time for stoppages, plus possible overtime, plus possible penalty kicks, plus over a hour wait for the stadium exiting process. Basically a 10pm game for us could’ve meant we would make it back to our hotel at 2:30am, so we wouldn’t even consider a 10pm game, even if the teams were amazing.
BOOKING FLIGHTS
- Don’t count on scoring a major flight deal; hundreds of thousands of people are trying to fly to the same place as you at the same time. Your best bet would be to sign up for fare price alerts through Google Flights, Hopper, or whatever fare tracking website you prefer, to get an idea of when to buy. This isn’t a time to wait until the last minute to book tickets.
- The trickiest part of planning flights is not knowing if you’ll end up wanting to extend your trip if you score some additional last minute match tickets. If you’d like that kind of flexibility, be sure you read your airline’s refund and credit rules for your ticket type. The safest bet would be to fly an airline you fly often where you wouldn’t mind getting a travel credit for a flight change (of course, only if they offer that).
FINDING ACCOMMODATIONS
Unlike most other World Cups, Qatar was a unique experience with all the stadiums in a relatively small area. Because of this, all accommodation bookings had to go through the Qatar 2022 website. I don’t know if future World Cups will require booking accommodations through the World Cup website. But if you try booking your hotel via the hotel’s website or a travel site like Travelocity, and you see everything in that city is sold out, be sure to check the World Cup website on guidance for accommodation. It may just need to be booked through the World Cup website.
Another thing that was unique with booking a World Cup hotel: the hotel’s normal rules were “trumped” by World Cup regulations. For example, our suite at the St. Regis Doha normally allows 4 people, according to their website. But during the World Cup, only 2 people were allowed (thankfully kids were exempt from this). This may have just been a measure to control crowds, but it’s worth pointing out that not everything was normal, and you may be subject to special rules during this time.
GAME DAY
- HOW TO AVOID CROWDS: If you have a small child, worrying about crowds, pushing, etc. may be the biggest fear entering your mind. Obviously you can’t escape 80,000+ people completely, but there a couple ways to avoid the peak crowd times.
- The stadiums opened about 3 hours before game time. The earlier you can arrive the better. Even when we arrived 2 hours early, crowds were nowhere near as bad as 90 minutes early, which seemed to be the arrival peak time. Use this extra time to scope out baby changing facilities if needed, drop off your stroller if needed, buy some water and snacks, etc. I promise time flies during this time.
- Leave the game 2 minutes early if you are taking public transportation. Yes, this sounds like a cardinal sin to leave a World Cup game early. But leaving 2 minutes early was the difference between us getting right on the Metro in Qatar vs. having to wait an hour in line to get on the Metro. And the lines for taxis/Ubers weren’t much better. If you have your own vehicle, this shouldn’t be necessary, since your line waiting to exit will at least be in the comfort of your vehicle.
- LINES: If you have an infant, there were special ticket entry lines that were much shorter. I don’t know the age cutoff (maybe a 2-year-old could get through?). It doesn’t hurt to ask.
- CHILD REGISTRATION: After the ticketing area, there were volunteers holding signs for “child registration.” They’ll provide wristbands for your kids and have you write your name and phone number in case you get separated.
- STROLLERS: After the ticketing area and right outside the stadium, there was a special stroller drop off area.If a stroller is your saving grace still when it comes to long periods of walking and waiting in line, don’t worry about bringing it, because you can drop it off right before you enter the stadium. There is more walking and waiting in line that you may think!
Stroller storage at the World Cup: proof that babies are welcome 🙂
- THE NOISE: This is another big hurdle in bringing a small child. While not as loud as a concert with a constantly blaring bass, the announcers’ noise level was a little startling at the beginning. And of course during the whole game there is cheering, screaming and singing. Don’t forget your kid’s noise cancelling headphones.
- CHANGING AREAS: All bathrooms may not have designated changing tables, so it’s best to scope that out beforehand. And halftime is by far the craziest time in the bathrooms, so avoid changing then if you can.
- READ STADIUM RULES REGARDING WHAT YOU CAN BRING: Stadiums in the USA are far more strict than Qatar was. There were no clear bag requirements, plenty of people had backpacks, and diaper bags were allowed. I don’t know if they’ll be as lenient for the next World Cup, so always check the stadium rules first. Also, baby milk and formula were definitely allowed.
- LEAVING THE STADIUM: We could not leave the stadium and reenter. So if your child needs a break, you can hang in the hallway if needed. You cannot stand on the stadium stairways either if your child is wanting to stand; security will make you find your seat.
- CREATE A GAME PLAN: If you are traveling with a significant other, family member, etc., be sure to create a game plan if your child cannot handle the game. Will you alternate watching your child every 10-20 minutes? Do you have a meet-up area to switch off? My then 4-year-old’s first college football game required lots of hallway time, and I wound up sitting in the filthy hallway while he slept on my lap!
- START SMALL: Is there a local sports team you can visit to see what the experience is somewhat like beforehand? Having a little experience may ease your concerns.
- And if you’re not sure about something on game day, there were more employees walking around than you can even imagine. It never hurts to ask!
WHAT TO BRING TO THE GAME
Two things we couldn’t live without at the World Cup: headphones and a AirTag tracking wristband
My main tip about what to bring: pretend like you’re packing a bag as though you’re stuck on a plane for 4 hours without access to a pharmacy, store, etc. What can you not live without? That being said, take as little as you can get away with. You can store things under seats, but stadium seats aren’t known for being spacious. In addition to your normal necessities, these are the main items I’d recommend bringing along:
- A tracking device like an Apple AirTag or Samsung Galaxy SmartTag for some peace of mind.
- A wristband for the tracking device. These ones worked great for our AirTags.
- Noise canceling headphones. These ones are supposed to be great for babies, but my 8-year-old just used his normal travel ones.
- Your favorite soft baby carrier (this was our personal favorite years ago) to keep baby contained, especially if your seats are uncomfortably high up.
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