Sports travel hotspots

If you’re mad about your sport, it’s great if you can combine one great love with another – travel. There are amazing sports events going on all around the world all year long, but here we sum up some of the highlights that it might be worth building a trip around at some point.

The Fairmont Hotel Hairpin at the Monaco Grand Prix (Creative Commons)

Motor racing

There seems to be racing action going on in one country or another at any given time, but for events worth making the trip for, we’d include the 24 hour race at Le Mans, the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indy500. These three races are dubbed the Triple Crown of motor racing and for many drivers it’s an ambition to win all three. However, only one driver has ever achieved this – Graham Hill, the legendary British race driver. For an out and out spectacle, the Indy 500 would be hard to beat – where the crowd reaches well over a quarter of a million.

Tennis

The four Grand Slams are the tournaments that all tennis players want to win, and all fans want to see in person at some stage in their lives. The year starts with the Australian Open which is held in January in Melbourne, then there’s the French Open, also known as the Roland Garros in Paris during May. Hot on its heels are the Wimbledon Championships, in late June and July, followed later in the year by the US Open at Flushing Meadows just outside of New York. This year promises to be a record-breaking year for Nadal if he wins the French Open for a record ninth time. He’s favourite to do so with bet365 and other bookmakers. Similarly, there’s a chance that Roger Federer will win Wimbledon for the eighth time, which would mean he breaks his own record at Wimbledon, and that of Pete Sampras, as both men have won the tournament seven times.

Football

It goes without saying, of course, that there’s a rather immense football tournament going on this year. Yes, four years have passed since all eyes were on the South African World Cup and this year, the focus turns to Brazil. The host nation is the most successful in the history of the World Cup, having won it five times and been present in every tournament. This year, they are already the favourites to win, with Argentina, Germany and Spain behind them.

However, getting to Brazil for the World Cup requires a lot of planning and the best policy is probably to have already done that or to settle for watching it at home or down in the pub. Maybe you should look forward four years to Russia or to the 2022 Qatar World Cup instead. Mind you, neither of those destinations sounds quite as much fun as Brazil, where the party atmosphere around the World Cup is bound to be as exciting as the games.