Coming to England in October - General Questions

Hello All,

I'll finally be making my first trip across the pond in October of this year with the wife, brother-in-law, his wife and a couple others. I am beyond excited.

We'll be flying in to London and staying for about one week, and I'm desperately hoping the weekend we're in England isn't an international break    I had a couple of general questions:

1) When are fixtures usually announced? I know they can change, but I'm wondering when fixtures actually come out so I can have a general idea of what I'm facing.

2) Best way to get home tickets? Membership on the official site I'm guessing? I'd be looking to get two (one for me and my brother-in-law). Is it difficult to get tickets sat next to each other at Anfield?

3) If it's an away weekend, how difficult is it to get a ticket with the away support?

4) Travel from London to Liverpool if I'm lucky enough to be in town on a weekend where we're home. Train seems to be the best bet, but what line has the best rates or service?

5) Getting tickets to other clubs in London. I'd like to catch at least one more top flight game that weekend while in London. Which grounds are fun to go to in London? Keep in mind the best football ground I've been to is in F***ing Tijuana, Mexico 

6) Tours at Anfield. If I'm unlucky and there are no matches that weekend, I'm still coming to see Anfield. How are the tours that the club offers? Anyone actually gone on one?

Thanks for any help! I'm beyond excited to visit.

Fixtures are done towards the end of June.

tickets for the first half of the seaon will go on sale sometime in August.

Membership will get you a stab at tickets but not guarentee them, if its a Cat A or B game 50% of tickets go on sale to members with previous attendance the other 50% is a bun fight, you have more chance of getting a Cat C ticket as they dont require previous purchase.

Away games normally dont make it past season ticket holders with previous attendance.

Cheers, Venison. Kinda figured. This whole trip is a crap shoot anyways, but I'm hopeful

Cheers, Venison. Kinda figured. This whole trip is a crap shoot anyways, but I'm hopeful

If nothing else works, there's always people with spare tickets, cause a family member or a friend can't make it or something like that. I'm afraid you would only be able to know about that when its closer to the game though, but all EPL games I watched in England were done this way, thanks to the help from the wonderful people in this forum

5) Craven Cottage is a nice stadium to visit. Not the most awe inspiring but it's quite interesting and a pleasant place to go watch some football. They are the oldest London club in the football league, and their stadium feels like it! They also have a 'neutral' area which is usually a bit easier to get tickets for.
Palace play at Selhurst Park, an old stadium that used to be shared between Palace and the old Wimbledon. It's a little out of the way down in Croydon.
Down in the Championship you have Millwall, Charlton and QPR. I've never been to QPR or Charlton but the Den is an interesting experience.
Brentford and Leyton Orient are the League One teams. Not been to either of theirs.
AFC Wimbledon play at Kingsmeadow, which has a good atmosphere for a small stadium. Don't expect quality football though!
There's a whole lot of Conference and non league going on all over the city.

Haven't mentioned Chelsea Arsenal Spurs or as I thought they are difficult to get tickets for.

6) The tour that I went on at Anfield was well worth going on. Very interesting bits on the history of the club and of course its fantastic coming so close to old Big Ears. Seeing the trophy collection really does remind you of just how successful we have been (especially people of my generation who didnt see it all being won!)

Anyway, hope some of the info helps and you get to see a bit of footy while you're over here. Good luck with tickets for Anfield mate

5) Getting tickets to other clubs in London. I'd like to catch at least one more top flight game that weekend while in London. Which grounds are fun to go to in London? Keep in mind the best football ground I've been to is in f**king Tijuana, Mexico   

6) Tours at Anfield. If I'm unlucky and there are no matches that weekend, I'm still coming to see Anfield. How are the tours that the club offers? Anyone actually gone on one?

I watched West Ham when I was in London and it was quite fun. The game itself was horrible (a boring 0-0), but the WHU fans and the Crystal Palace fans were pretty funny mocking each other all the time. Their stadium is a bit far from the touristic part of the city, but it's very easy to get there by the tube. It was easy to get tickets in their website and collect them before the game in the stadium.

As for the Anfield tours - I did both the 'Anfield Experience' and the regular Museum & Stadium tour. Both are really worth the time and the money spent.
There are regular tours pretty much every day, if I'm not mistaken, so it shouldn't be difficult to find a day to go. It's not expensive either.
The Anfield Experience is different though - it's more expensive (I paid 75 pounds a couple of years back, if I recall correctly) and it only happens on some specific days. But it was worth it: you get there in the morning, visit the stadium and the museum, have lunch in an Executive Box with a view for the stadium, and then meet 2 former LFC players (in my case, David Johnson and Phil Neal).
You should check out the LFC website in the tours section when it's closer to the time of your trip. I think they have some new types of tours now as well.

Charlton is a nice family atmosphere, nearly always tickets available on the day. Not sure about other places.

Hello All,

I'll finally be making my first trip across the pond in October of this year. I am beyond excited. I had a couple of general questions:

Thanks for any help!

1. Middle of June
2. Difficult without memberships/contacts. We still have no outside ticket handler such as viagogo or seatwave, which would help enormously.
3. Impossible, unless you're a regular/from the local region of the venue.
4. Various. You should have no problems.
5. Fulham is generally accepted as the best/easiest.
6. Depends what one you go on and how much time you have.

There are no Liverpool games from 8-19 October.

Cheers to everyone who's answered so far, it's all been very helpful!

Of course, I had no input on the dates we were going, it was pretty much up to my wife who could only get a set amount of time from her office. Of course the dates we've set to be in England are during the F***ing international break   

'Tis OK, though. I'm going to find a way, if it kills me. Spain's a short flight away, so who knows what's in store. I'll know more in June.

Cheers to everyone who's answered so far, it's all been very helpful!

Of course, I had no input on the dates we were going, it was pretty much up to my wife who could only get a set amount of time from her office. Of course the dates we've set to be in England are during the F***ing international break   

'Tis OK, though. I'm going to find a way, if it kills me. Spain's a short flight away, so who knows what's in store. I'll know more in June.

Probably going to be a Liverpool game on the 18th, 19th or 20th, Internationals are the 9th-14th. 
Don't forget to visit bigmick's boozer.
If you do go to Liverpool via train, booking tickets about 8-9 weeks in advance is definitely advisable.  Quite often 2 singles are cheaper than a return. 

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search

Also worth breaking the journey down, London Euston - Crewe & Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street.  Just checked for tomorrow and I can get London Euston to Crewe then Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street for £18.80 single, straight through would be £35.50.  A return straight through was £76.00, only £36.80 when broken down.  You can collect the tickets from Euston.  If you changing at Crewe, you could always have lunch there, a few places within walking distance of the station.

Just to echo Rodders thoughts - book in plenty of advance on the train - they often have deals if you can avoid rush hour.  You can pay on card and then just turn up at the station on the day, stick the card you paid with in, and out pop the tickets.

Only takes a couple of hours these days from London to Liverpool.

London Euston - Crewe & Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street.

How bizarre.  I could have sworn the Euston to Lime St train stops at Crewe - so you could just stay on the train couldn't you!  Thanks for the tip on this

Anyway, as for away games - if you REALLY want to go then there is usually a way of getting to go to an away game in the away end. 

October does sound 'international breaky', but fingers crossed the fixture list works out with your itinerary.

Spain's a short flight away

Probably not much in it between a flight from Spain and train from London to LPL.

Also worth breaking the journey down, London Euston - Crewe & Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street.  Just checked for tomorrow and I can get London Euston to Crewe then Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street for £18.80 single, straight through would be £35.50.  A return straight through was £76.00, only £36.80 when broken down.  You can collect the tickets from Euston.  If you changing at Crewe, you could always have lunch there, a few places within walking distance of the station.

That's a good tip, thanks for pointing it out, next time I'm there I'll try to remember that.
Crewe Alexandra's stadium isn't very far from the train station either, if anyone is interested Been there before, watched the home team vs Accrington Stanley.

You all are the best. Once the fixtures come out I'll really nail down my plan.

Cheers!