the big event of the summer. It's the World Cup. The world's getting together. It's regarded as going to be one of the most expensive World Cup ever. So, if you've been looking at flight tickets the last month or so, you've noticed they've skyrocketed. We're here to give you some tips on how to avoid these. Maybe all the holiday ends are booked up. The biggest thing is what sell service are you going to use? Restaurants tend to keep the restaurant prices the same. We're talking like 40 plus Celsius, 100 plus Fahrenheit. plus humidity. Hey fellow travelers, Mark here with Walter World on the Honest Travel podcast and today we're

talking the World Cup. I'm here with my buddy Shs the Wanderers. Say hi, Cheves. Hello everyone. Great to be back on the show. This is my favorite part of the month when we record this travel podcast. It's been great getting some views and comments from everyone from our last episode, which is obviously a big episode, Mark, cuz it was to do with what's going on around the world. And it's it was very it was resonated with so many people because we had so many comments and I'm sure you read them all. There's so much to go through and we'll go through some of them at the end of the show. But how are you in general? How's how's life?

Doing good since last time. Let's see. I went down to Savannah, Georgia. We did about 10 days in the Caribbean. Saw a bunch of places there. Filmed some really good stuff. So watch out for that coming here in a little while. But it was it was a good month. Ready for another month of travel. Getting ready for the summer. And I think that's what we need to talk about. We just get right into this. The big event of the summer. It's not somebody's, you know, party. It's not a wedding. No, it's the World Cup. The world's getting together. For my American friends, take the Super Bowl, ties it by 10, multiply it by seven, and then add like 17,000 more crazy fans.

That is the World Cup. Everywhere in the world is going to be watching all the matches, celebrating, having fun, crying when their team goes out, cheering when Messi scores. It is a fantastic thing. and it's in Canada, the US, and Mexico this year. And it's from June 11th through July 19th. And there will be parties and fun all over. But we need to talk about what travelers need to know when they're coming to the US for a World Cup. So, CheeS, spread some light on what we're going to be talking about today. Well, we're going to give you some hints and tips actually because it's regarded as one going to be one of the most expensive World Cup ever. We're here to give you some tips on how to avoid these

accommodations that are going to be skyrocketed because of the fact that there's going to be so many people demanding these hotels. So, I think Mark, I think you're going to be the expert because you live in the US, you've been around Canada as well. I think your videos that you've done for your channel in general actually has covered a lot of these topics in terms of what to do and what to not. We have videos on every single host city except for Guadalajara, Houston, and Monterey. Otherwise, we've got videos from Vancouver to New York, Boston, Atlanta. We've got videos for all those places to help people travel to really

have a good time. Because here's the thing, the match, it's 90 minutes of fun, but when you go there, you have so many other things going on. So, we want to kind of talk about that. But I think with the conflict of the Middle East, you have very much the price of oil has gone through the roof. And that right there means gas prices, jet fuel prices have soared. And that means when you're looking at airlines, they buying their gas farther out. and they know that, hey man, this new price, higher price is going to hit us hard. So, if you've been looking at flight tickets the last month or so, you've noticed they've skyrocketed. Jebs, I mean, you have some numbers on this.

The airfares for June 20 2026 going forward is trending at 350% higher than usual market. This is why they're saying it's going to be one of the most expensive World Cups ever. Cuz if you think about it, everyone's going to be coming to this part of the world. So all over from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America. So everyone's heading over to the North American territories and obviously Mexico as well. So it's going to be very expensive for a lot of these fans. Now there could be fans that might not be able to afford it. Mark, that's the real sad thing because parts of the world where currencies, this is the thing as well, the currency exchange rate as well is not going to be great.

Yeah. And this is a once in a lifetime event for people to get to go. And that's one thing is I was super excited for this but now the prices and the thing is it's not just because of what's going on in the Middle East where price went up for that flights you have to realize is whenever there's a big events like an Olympics like a World Cup there's a lot of people that want to take advantage of it. So like hotel prices were through the roof Airbnb prices through the roof like all these things people like hey this is our chance to make money I'll leave LA for a month and I can pay my mortgage for a year. I mean you have people that have done that. the prices were skyhigh. And

I will say a few months ago, uh, some of these cities were really like trying to drop the prices because people were not booking there. I mean, I was talking to fans from Oklahoma, they're going to drive like 6 hours from Oklahoma to Dallas to watch the game. And in the US, we'll do that. We'll drive six hours in a day, watch the match, and drive home. Not to spend $500, $600 in a hotel room. That's usually $150. So, that's one of the things I think it's really we're going to talk about is like how what are some things you can do to kind of mitigate the cost once you're here cuz

once you're in the stadium, uh I have a video about the don'ts of going to World Cup matches going to come out in about a month which will get you ready and give you all the information for there. Previous World Cups and previous tournaments obviously it's been held in one country so it's easier. So, for example, Qatar when it was held in Qatar you just had to or when it was in Germany it was easier. So, everything was easy to navigate. we had the Euros, the European Championships here in the UK, England back in I think unfortunately it was during the pandemic time. So we didn't get as many influxes as we would like to have done. But it and it was a lot more

cheaper as well actually because a lot of the hotels, a lot of the logistics and stuff were just really cheap because at the time no one was going to be spending and there was hardly any people coming through. But with it being in the US, being in Mexico, being in Canada, the one of the big things is going to be logistics for people. And I think this is where the distance, the sheer volume of distance, Mark, is going to be a bit of a problem for a lot of the fans cuz you might have one match in the States, but then your next match could be in Canada. My question to you, Mark, is as you are in that part of the world, what are the tips when it comes to maybe getting some cheaper flights or what have you got any

ideas on what people can do if you've got a flight? If you got a match, sorry suppose in the US and then you have to go to Canada then you have to go to Mexico. What would you say is your biggest tip there? Here's one thing to realize. You might not even be going to Canada. I'll be honest with you. Sometimes it's cheaper for me to fly to Mexico City from Chicago than it is for me to go to Atlanta. I mean there are like don't think that the closer distances are going to make a difference in the prices. It's demand. So be aware of that. But the thing is it's the sheer distances cuz I'll meet fans from Europe saying, "Oh yeah, we're going to fly in New York. We're just going to drive down

to Miami for the next game and then we'll head over, you know, to Dallas. I'm like, you realize that's like a 18-hour drive straight. Not like stop. And this isn't the we stop every 2 hours to take a break. This is in the US, we drive 11 hours straight because here's the thing. We don't have Well, we do have some cheaper airlines, but we don't have like the Easy Jets, the Ryan Airs kind of stuff. We have Spirit, Allegent, Frontier. These are a little bit more affordable airlines. Breeze that go to more, you know, vacation destinations and they could be helpful because maybe they're not flying directly into Houston. They might be flying to a city near Houston you can do and that could

be a big saver if you're going to a place nearby. So when you're searching for your flights, do that and nearby airports. That could really kind of save you quite a bit cuz you, you know, you're flying to LAX. Well, maybe the flight to San Diego might be cheaper instead. Just flying around the US itself, I'll be honest, I'm jealous of my friends in Europe that they get to go, they live in Portugal and I'm going to fly over to Rome for €35. In the US, that's even on the cheap airlines, it's like $350. So, €300, you know, so you're going to be spending a lot. So, what might be good is if you're going to go to a place, maybe if you're going to see your country or your team play, you do

that and then try to get tickets for another one in that same city or a nearby city. So, you could rent a car and drive between cuz that could be a little bit more uh feasible out there. But, I will say the cheap airlines in the US are just like the ones in Europe. They nickel and dime you for everything. You want a seat, you want luggage, you want a carry-on, they'll nail you. For a lot of Europeans, they probably never might have flown over to the US or Canada. So, this is going to be a real big hit to them and thinking, "Oh, it's going to be as cheap as flying from the UK to Spain. It's going to be £60 or whatever or 60 $60 or $60." It's not. So, you're going to be expecting to be hit with like $400 to

$600. If it's going to be flying from one end to another, then you're going to need a lot of money for it. So, it's not going to be £60 or £60. How do you go about it? So, things like train perhaps. I was looking $150. Is that right? The best train system in the US is on the east coast like New York to Philadelphia DC. That is a great train line. The Amtrak there. I've taken it multiple times. And so I mean you can go Boston, New York, uh Philadelphia, DC's on there. And you know what's cool is you can get those. These are like 2 hours in between. The prices aren't bad. They're comfortable trains. They're not like super nice European trains.

Think about like if you go to Germany, you got the IC nice trains and you got the IC's which were the nice trains 20 years ago. Think like that and that's what you're going to get. That's going to be a really affordable one. But remember their prices go up and they do sell out. So you got to be careful with that. But the thing is when you start getting the longer distances and the overnight trains like I mean I know there's not games in New Orleans and Chicago, but it's cheaper for me to fly from Chicago to New Orleans than it is for me to take the train a lot of times. For example, when we have a match here, if it's in London or if it's in Manchester, you know, it's going to be

in the city itself. It's not going to be far from the city. But if it's going to be actually away from the city, you think, oh, it could be in the city. It's not. You're looking at spending a bit more money getting a coach or maybe driving out there. So, this is going to be an extra cost that you need to think about. So, Atlanta, you're going to be in town. That's downtown. You'll be fine there. Mexico City is easy enough to get to. Boston's fine. Dallas. One thing to realize Dallas don't even bother with public transportation. It is a city of driving and the metroplex what they call Dallas is a living hell to drive

through. So just don't not going to be fun on that one. Um Houston also big drive. Kansas City. Here's the thing with Kansas City where they're playing the games. I actually went to a Copa America game two years ago there. This where I was filming some like USA Uruguay to get some like highle soccer b-roll and literally to get the Ubers out of the stadium. You had to leave the stadium, go across the street and stand in a Taco Bell parking lot. I mean it was so poor. Like it was I understand why the team that plays there is going to leave cuz they're like I mean it's it's such a relic of the you know 60s or 70s. So there's that. Uh New York New Jersey that the New York games they're

nowhere near Manhattan. You're going to have to go out for that. Philadelphia is not too bad. San Francisco, it's not in San Francisco. It's outside, so a little bit farther. Seattle's not too bad. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's you're gonna have to look and see where you are. And the thing is, a lot of times we have these things in the US where some stadiums are built like on the waterfront to look really nice, you know, like if you're looking at baseball stadiums, a lot of those are like in the downtown area and sometimes the football stadiums right downtown, so it's part of the skyline. And other ones like, oh wait, we got all this land out here. we could, you know, build a new stadium with all the fancy boxes and everything.

We're going to do that. So, you really need to research which one's going to be like that for you. Another thing is getting to the event. Some will have public transportation, but I'm going to guess pretty much everyone will have all the states will have some form of public transportation just because of the World Cup. So, you want to look that up. But, if you're going to drive on your own, hey, what's the theme of today? High prices. The infrastructure, they are big cities. So, Los Angeles, Toronto, they are expanding and they are expanding their bus rail services and the rail lines because they know there's going to be demand for it. And also, it says here stadium parking expected to cost

upwards of$100 to $200 per match. So, if you are driving, expect to fork out a lot of money as well. So, this is where I suppose public transportation is going to be easier to use. Would you not say, Mark? Well, here's the thing though. driving in. So, going to any sporting match in the US is a very different experience because we do have this thing called tailgating where you party before the game. And I know some place you meet with your friends, maybe go to a restaurant, maybe have a few drinks outside, but know in the US like people put out barbecues and they'll grill out and drink and celebrate and all kinds of stuff for like hours before the matches. And that's one of the great things to

like meet people because we do that for football, we'll do that for soccer, we'll do that for, you know, baseball and stuff. And so you'll have these kind of events that are there. And I'm really hoping we have some of these in the US because we do like that's kind of the plan. But here's the thing. Even if you can't go to matches if you're here in the US at the same time in those host cities, they have the fan zones which are always great. The US is not known for its super love of soccer except for women's. We love our women's team because they win really well. And all like tons of little kids play until about 8th grade and then it kind of disappears. But uh for the World Cup, we

get very excited. So people come out. So people want to watch it. It'll be on TV in the bars and stuff like that, which is nice. Uh so you can enjoy it. Even if you can't get to all the games, you can still go and enjoy the experience as well. So that is something to kind of think about. So one of the gift solutions for the flights. My biggest tip is Sky. The one I use is Sky Scanner. You can get really good deals on there. If you go on there now, you might be able to get some cheap tickets because it will measure various different flights from various different airlines and it will try and give you the best ones. And it does have options where it will say be best routes or cheapest or the fastest. So that's one.

Have you got any Mark that you can suggest? Cuz another one that I would say is cheap flights. That's another one to look out for. What I do is I actually I mean Sky Scanner and Kayak are the two ones I use the most to look for the best prices. And then what I'll do is if I can find the deal like the flight on Skyscan or a kayak and then I'll actually go to the actual airline and then I usually can find that same price and I'll book it myself with the airline directly because if you book with a third party sometimes you don't get your miles or your status but also you book through a third party if the flight is full.

Sometimes you're the first one that's getting off. You book directly with the airline. And here's the thing even if you only come to the US for this one time and you're going to fly Southwest. you're going to fly Delta. This is the only time you're ever going to fly it. I recommend you sign up for their like loyalty programs. And so when you book your ticket, put your loyalty programs in because people in the loyalty programs are the last ones they're getting kicked off the plane. They're going to kick out the pe people with no loyalty program and third party stuff. They're the ones when they're they've oversold the flights, which they do often.

A lot of people watching our shows as well that don't necessarily listen to our show, I should say, might not want to do it themselves. Is there a solution for maybe going to a travel agent? Is that an option? Do you think? Well, here's the thing. Not every travel agent will take commissions on certain things and some things they can't. Uh but I would say if you're worried about this, if you're like if it's too much cuz remember if you're coming to the US from certain country, you got to get your ESTA, you know, your ESTA visa, you know, going to go to Canada. Same deal. We have these things

you might want to do and it could be a bit overwhelming, especially when you think about all you're paying for the tickets, the flights, the hotels. Sometimes better to go for a package deal and go through a travel agent because they might have better connections than you do because I know I tried to get tickets to games. Like I used the Visa pre-sale. I did I signed up all these things and the only thing I could get was like $3,000 per person for a Houston experience and I'm like I can't afford four family members at three grand. I'm sorry. And so sometimes you want to kind of look at those

because traveling can be very helpful especially when you're dealing with an event like this cuz like whether it's the Olympics and in 28 in LA or whatever destinations we'll work with travel agencies and travel tourism boards to help people say hey look we have these things to help out. We have these you know facilities and we have these people and so there's where the travel agent can come in and help. So this is one of those times if it gets a little overwhelming it might be a good idea to talk to a travel agent. They will be able to tell you as well. You just meant you just touched up on it as well there that you might need to get different types of visas. So the US,

Canada, definitely Mexico, you may also need one as well. You need to look online and look at so we have the state department, you have the foreign office, your foreign office, your country, state department. You have to look and see, do I need a visa for that country? And the thing is, for example, going to the UK, I don't need a visa, but I need eta, which is a preclarance. Same kind of thing. And you do not want to wait till like the day before you fly. You got to do these at least 72 hours or longer ahead to make sure you have permission to go. So do be aware of that because they will send you back just like ETA will send you back from the UK and if you don't have your stuff filled out. So do be aware of

that. Don't let Don't think they're hard to do. Don't think they're hard filling stuff online, give them your passport, your flight information, some info, and of course send them some money. Definitely our suggestion is definitely try and go and get those visas now because they could be you might have issues cuz I've had issues problems going getting visas for other countries in the past. So you don't want to leave it to the last minute and you think oh I've booked all these flights booked all these accommodations and I haven't got my visa so what do I do now? You may have to cancel. And the thing is sometimes you're putting you have to book your tickets and book your accommodation beforehand.

One of the big things, make sure where with your accommodations, you have a, you know, refund policy. Like if you cancel, you get all your money back or like know the dates like, hey, cuz some hotels like, oh, up to 24 hours before. However, when it's big events, sometimes it's a longer, hey, no, you got to let us know a month in advance or 6 weeks in advance or something. So, make sure you check and see. But I think we should probably talk about uh, you know, accommodation or at least alternate housing cuz maybe all the holiday ends are booked up. Let's talk about that. Chef, I'll let you get started on some of these. When I wanted to go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and that was back in 2019, I remember the hotels

were so expensive because all the A-list Hollywood stars were coming and everyone wanted to see that like that. Oh, look at you. However, the hotel accommodation was through the roof. So, I used something called homeay. Now what it meant was I stayed slightly away from the city but it was a lot more cost effective. So instead of paying I worked I remember this was like a bargain and a half. So I paid $360 Canadian. If I was to book the hotels for the whole week for that time period when the festival was going on it was around about $2,000 to $2,500 to $3,000 Canadian dollars for the whole week. So,

I saved myself effectively. We're looking at a thousand more than nearly $2,000, but not everyone's going to be thinking about home stays. Now, there are so many houses or accommodations they are looking to. I think Airbnb is obviously the common one, Mark. I'm sure you've used Airbnb in the US. Airbnb and Verbbo VBO, those are two big ones here, but homeays are also in the US as well, but not many people know about it. Now potentially they might put the prices up but it will be still a lot more cheaper than maybe going to a hotel. But if you can afford the hotels then obviously yes you can afford the I think it will also mean Mark I think we talked about it in our last podcast where if you were

with third party groups like Booking.com they might give you genius deals or discount deals and stuff so you can look at those. But what other solutions would you say Mark because you again you've been to all these places. what from your experience what would you say people can look at? So this isn't everywhere, but some places in the US when there's big events like in LA and stuff, so it's in the summer and the universities now, they don't really if they do summer school, it's online, so there's nobody staying in the dorms. So honestly, like dorm stays, university dorm stays can be quite affordable. And what you'll have, it'll be very basic. I mean, it's like a rectangle room with a bunk beds and the

bathrooms down the hall. Though, I will say life's gotten better in the US for the dorms. A lot of them have their own bathrooms, but you can actually stay there. And that's one I've had a lot of friends that have done that over the years. I used to do it when I was younger. I used to do it quite often really can be a very affordable option. What's nice is the universities where they're at usually has a lot of like places to eat that are affordable because the college students. So it might help you save some money when you're there. Also, a lot of universities have public transportation that takes students around but also takes them into town. So that could help out. That's a nice one. And the one I was talking to people about in Oklahoma

is the secondary cities. Like this is one of those things like I mean I visited Manchester but I stayed in Liverpool, you know, it was like it was cheap for me to stay there versus staying in Manchester. And so that might be something you look at, you know, like you know, we were talking about this earlier. You're like, hey, you know, San Jose for rather than San Francisco. Yes, it's a bit far, but the drive if you're driving it yourself, you're doing that, you can save it. It'll save the money in that way. Marriott from the 13th of April are doing this new scheme for points. So if you got if you're a Marriott client, you can get these points and stuff. Now points and stuff generally in Europe and UK and

stuff, we're not a huge we're not huge players on it, but however, it will make a difference when it comes to booking your hotels. And I think in the US you guys have a system where if you do have a lot of credit card points and stuff, you can potentially put those towards hotel stays. And sometimes I think I think you can get it for free, can't you? Sometimes. Is that how it works sometimes? Yeah. So whenever my mother-in-law comes or whatever, I have so many points with Hilton. There's a Hilton down the road.

It was a Hampton in but a Hilton. I'll just put her up in there. I'm like, "Look, then you have your own place. You got your own bed. You don't have to worry about the kids screaming, waking you up." And so that could be nice. And here's the thing. They have their own statuses and stuff and Hilton Mar Hilton Marriott IHG which has the holiday unbrand they have tons of properties all over the country. So honestly if you're going to all these matches you might actually get like silver status just for like going to a few games because the prices are so that is one of those things and you're right like in Europe now people don't play the points game. Here in the US people love the points game. Like people

be like, "Okay, I'm going to use my Marriott Bonvoy credit card that I'm going to pay for this cuz I get bonus points and says I book my Marriott with my Marriott credit card, I get triple point." Like people love that. Like a lot of those people that play that like travel for free game, they use those points. And so that might be something you look into. But I will tell you your points, you can't always use them. Okay? some of the hotel chain just like some of the airlines if you want to use award travel if there's only so many award travel tickets per flight they have just like there's maybe only so many award travel things you can do or you know rooms you can book and the thing is

sometimes you want to look at that price of hey how many rooms how much am I going to pay for that room versus how many points it's going to be and you'll see like sometimes I'll look at going to Europe and I'll be like oh 120,000 points will get me to Europe in like a first class cabin oh my goodness other times It's half a million points. So, don't just go, I'm gonna use my points on it. You want to be judicious with this. Okay. One thing I want to point out to you, Mark, is we've talked about accommodations. In the UK, sometimes people when they come across, people camp out and they get the camping kits and they go to local parks and because it's there's you don't need any

permits or anything. People get the camps and people camp out. We do it for Wim people do it for Wimbledon here. When the Wimbledon's on every single year, people will camp out, look for tickets, and it's an easier way. you save accommodations and stuff. In the US, can you camp out? Are do you have to have permit? What can you do? Okay, you can camp out, but in the US, camping is more when you're going out into the forest. If you're going to do the camping, this would be you're going to go stay at a national park and something like that. You're going to be staying out there and then you're going to drive into the matches because like in cities, there's no camping in the cities. Like there's a lot of

encampments which might see for like homeless encampments kind of stuff, but for like travelers, you're going to be staying more out way far away. Like I wouldn't know any I wouldn't really recommend for the uh the camping stuff uh for any of the places just because the lack of options. But if you're doing a road trip though, let's say you're going to Hey, we got a game in LA and then we've got a game in, you know, Houston. when you're going across, there's a lot of great RV spots and, you know, there's RV parks. And remember, RV parks sometimes have cabins as well and camping grounds. So, you could actually do that while you're going. So, maybe you don't get to use the camping when

you're like by New York or by Houston, but on the way, you can use it and save yourself some money. Instead of paying that $200 a night for a hotel, maybe you can get the $50, you know, camping fee that's there. So, that is something to kind of think about. I would say book everything on a flexible ticket because then that way you might be saving yourself a lot of money in the long run. I think that would be a good way to do things. The thing to also to stay in touch with everyone is how you going to communicate with people. And I think the biggest thing is what cell service are you going to use? Now, one of the biggest

things for myself when I travel is you've got the eims now. So, you don't necessarily have to now change SIMs. So, this is a great way of potentially saving yourself money. Now, is that something that you do, Mark? Do you get yourself an EIM when you go or does your network cover it? I don't, but I know people that do that swear by them, but I mean I cuz my phone line is my business line and all my stuff. If something happens to my parents, I'm like I don't cuz I remember back in the day I had different phone numbers for every country I went to and my mom literally had 20 different phone numbers for me. So, she needed to know what country I was in to know who to call. And so, that's why sometimes eims can be good. But look at your

provider because some providers like T-Mobile like some of their some of their programs if I'm from the US a T-Mobile subscriber I go to Europe I don't have to pay anything. Other ones it's like $105 a day sometimes 20. Make sure you check and see that every country you're going to go to is included cuz some are just the US some are just Mexico. So do be aware of that cuz that can be extremely expensive surprise. The UK the biggest network to use is O2. O2 they have a very good network. So when I come to the US or Canada, I'm able to use my service provider in those countries. The eims that do because it has changed over the years

now where you do keep your number by the way. So if you have WhatsApp or anything like that, you can use companies like Aerot or Hollifi. My friends Matt and Nat uh they like them. Where you keep your number, you keep everything and you could use it as a local SIM or you can get like a regional one where it will be like North America and South America. So, it can work out that way, but we aren't, as I said, as we're not sponsored by any of the eims. This is a stuff that we've used. I've used Aerolo and they're really good. So, that's something to maybe look at. A safety thing I want to talk about,

cuz I've seen this with uh especially younger travelers. Uh they're like, "Oh, I'll just use Wi-Fi everywhere I go, so I don't need to get a data package." Here's the thing. In the stadiums, okay, Sofi, you'll be fine. San Francisco, you'll be fine. Kansas City, I got no signal. I got no internet because there's so many people on the system because everyone's want to film the goals and film the stuff and send pictures and selfies of all the stuff. You might not get a signal. So that's or they might not have Wi-Fi. So that's one of those things you need to make sure you have some way that you have the cell service and not just betting on Wi-Fi

because even though in the US we think it's a god-given right that we have Wi-Fi, you still got to get the Wi-Fi password. And if the restaurant's closed, you don't get the Wi-Fi password. The other thing as well is if you're navigating around, get those Google Maps offline service because otherwise if say if your Wi-Fi goes down or your net cell network service goes down, you've got something there for you to navigate. I've done it before in the past where I'll just save where I'm going and you could do like a big block. So, I would say that's another good tip to use because otherwise, let's say if you're lost and you don't you've got no network, no nothing. You've got something on your phone already that is saved and you'll be able to

navigate yourself. Yeah, Google Maps is good. I also do Maps.me. The Google Maps and Maps. Me are my two favorite ones to use. And like if I'm going someplace that I'm not really familiar with, I'll, you know, I'll zoom in and out all of them. So, it saves it on there and all these things, make sure I got the stuff. Maps. me. I'll like pin the things I want to see. So, it's saved on the map. So, whenever I go up, I don't have to like search for Eiffel Tower. It's like, oh, it's already there. I can zoom in. So, that would be very helpful. And here's the thing, cuz you're not just going to go to matches when you're here. You're going to go to national parks and stuff. And I would tell you, national parks in

the US are famous for people disappearing and not having a cell signal. So, don't think you're going to get a cell service in all the national parks. So, it's a good idea to have that because your GPS will still work, but the signal might not. Now, Matt, this is our favorite topic to always talk about, and it's food and where to go to eat. Where can you get bargains and stuff? So, what where are your tips, would you say, for when it comes to eating out? Eat in the US is cheaper than a lot of places. So, that's one of the nice things. You can eat well and not blow your budget. So, that's a cool thing because in the US, we have the full range of prices. And the thing is, whereas hotels and airports like bump up

their prices a lot, restaurants tend to keep the restaurant prices the same, which is nice, or relatively close. So, you're not going to get gausian prices there. And one thing I want to tell you, every city you go to has different food. I know a lot of people say America has no coast or they all eat the same stuff. Oh, no, no, no. Having that brisket or country or chicken fried steak when you're in Texas is amazing. You're going to Boston, get your canoli, you know, get your clam chowder. Or you're going over to Oh, you're going to San Francisco, get, you know, burrito when you're there. It sounds slippy. Yes, you want to get a burrito in San Francisco, going to Mexico City. Honestly, street

tacos, you'll be fine. Go to the one with the line. There's a reason why the locals go to it. If there's a line, it's good. Uh, but do be aware that if you're back home, you're used to like, oh, the red sauce is mild and the green salsa is hot. In Mexico, you never know which one's the hot one or which one's the not. So, be aware of that. But just like anywhere, you know, you could like the fast food joints around the US. I mean, they're they're not changing their prices that you can always do that. Um, you know, we have Aldi, you know, we have if you want to go for the cheaper stuff, Walmart, Walmart, you think it's like people buy clothes and toys and all kinds of stuff there. They also have

grocery stores in there, too. So, you can save a lot of money that way. Like, when we travel, we'll hit up Aldi or Walmart and save a ton of cash. If you're coming from Europe, you'll be like, "Hey," you walk into Aldi in the US, you still need a quarter to get the uh need the coin to get the card, just like in Europe. Same stuff when you're there, which is cool. And yes, you do bag your own stuff at Aldi. Everywhere else in the US, they bag your stuff. One of the best things about going to games in the US. So, I've gone to soccer matches all over the world. And usually when I go to soccer matches around the world, the food is very

basic. Like, oh, we have chips and a hot dog or, you know, or we have like or a slice of pizza like very simple. Like in the US, it's a game. The stadiums, they want to have the craziest food there. WE'VE GOT THE TACO HAT. IT'S LIKE A hat that has nachos. Like it's made out of corn tips and you dip in there and eat the sauces from your hat. Oh, we've got, you know, like, you know, like muscles and all kinds of things. You get really crazy food at these stadiums, but you also get like normal like stadium food like hot dogs and hamburgers and stuff and pizzas, but they'll have vegan food.

They have all kinds of stuff. But I will tell you in the stadiums except Atlanta, Atlanta, the owner of that stadium is very much like, "Hey, I want to make sure it's they have affordable food." A lot of these stadiums that the food is going to be expensive, but it's going to be very creative and it's worth it. And I will tell you, here's one thing. I have a preview for the don'ts when you're going to the stadiums. One, don't forget to see the rules about the bags. There's a lot of stadiums in the US, it's it's a clear bag policy, so you have to have a clear bag that they can look into. Okay. Another thing, this is my Copa America from a couple years cup.

I got two of these. I'm like, "Oh, great. This is a souvenir I'll have. I'll get a t-shirt later." Look, they make limited quality quantities of the t-shirts and all the gear. When you get in, you'll notice the lines and all of the souvenir things. Find a souvenir place, get it early, cuz once they sold out, they don't have anything else. And if you're used to buying the knockoff jerseys, like when I was in Brazil, I wouldn't go buy the real jersey. walk around the corner of the stadium and buy my Brazil jersey or S Paulo jersey there for like onetenth of the price. They crack down a little bit harder in the US for those fake jerseys. So just be aware of that.

They're a little bit harder to get. A lot of these stadiums are actually cash free. I do not know how it's going to be for the World Cup. I have to check it out. But a lot of these stadiums have become cash free. So make sure you have your tap and go card. Visa, American Express, uh, Discover, um, all but the thing is since I think Visa is the sponsor of the World Cup, do be aware might be better to have a visa when you're going to these places. Whichever country you're coming from, look to see whether your country has a card or something very specific that might be able to save you money in the long run. I know the one that is international is called Wise. Again, it's it's very easy to get. I

think it navigates in like 180 countries, I believe. I use it to pay some of my editors because they're in other countries. So, I've used Wise before. Now, I will say Mexico, you will need cash. Mexico, your cash is still more popular there. Stadium might be different, but like out and about, cash is still very important in Mexico. And in the US, technically the US, they have to accept cash. They might say, "We don't really take cash." Now, like look, it's the US, you're supposed to take cash everywhere, so you can have cash. But they might say, "We don't take 50s. We don't take like hundreds." Don't even bother bringing hundreds. Nobody takes that anymore

because of safety kind of stuff. So be aware of that. One thing if you want to feel more comfortable, I mean the US dollar, Canadian dollar, and Mexican peso are relatively easy to get from a currency exchange place. So if you're flying in from a country or go to your local bank and ask them, could you get me some cash? I mean, I'll be honest with you, you're coming to the US. I mean, you're going to use card everywhere. If you have a couple hundred bucks, 200 $200, $300 in cash, you'll probably go home with like $150 in cash, you know, like because that's how much we use card. Mexico, I'd have some more because you're going to be spending that cash. Canada, same deal as the US. Cards

are accepted pretty much everywhere. You'll be w you'll be taking that cash home. Uh, and the thing is some banks in the US do not exchange. They but they'll be like, "Hey, our branch doesn't, but if you go to our branch on Main Street, they take currencies." Since you're going to be in cities like New York and Philadelphia, they do have currency exchange places. Look for Western Union. A lot of times they'll do that. That's more anybody can walk in and send money home because I got all this cash. I can send it myself back home in Germany or wherever.

One of the things obviously to make sure people are aware of, Mark, obviously you'll know this, the weather is going to be quite warm. So packing as well. Packing making sure you pack light for these sort of destinations. Yeah. So, I will tell you like the games in Dallas, Houston, Miami, you can have serious heat. We're talking like 40 plus Celsius, 100 plus Fahrenheit, plus humidity, which is way worse than the heat. Okay. And I know like they'll have, oh, we have a heat wave in the UK. It's 27. Like I'm like, oh, I might put some jeans on. It's a little cool. Like we like it gets like unbearably hot in some of these places.

You want to be careful. So sunscreen is going to be important. By the way, sunscreen is going to be hugely important. If you're going to be cheering for your country, get a hat that has your country's flag on it. So I'm cheering for England or I'm cheering for Scotland. I'm cheer cheering for whoever's going to be whatever country you're for cuz these stadiums like some are domed, but a lot of them are open air and if you're in the wrong side, you'll literally be sitting in that sun for three or four hours and get fried. Like when we went to the USA Uruguay game in Kansas City, we I personally got his tickets on the shadow side cuz when I looked the other side, you could literally see the people turning red

during the game because it was like during the hottest part of the day. So be aware of that. So coverage, you know, sunblock, these kind of things can be very good to have and bring with you. Also, if you're going to be going to the game, don't forget to bring like a little battery backup charger because you're going to take pictures. I mean, we took so many pictures with fans from Uruguay and other people like we're just chatting and stuff and we like made friends. I burned through my c my battery. So, luckily I had my backup to charge it up because you don't want to be like, "Oh, the battery's dead and we're at the 89th minute and now there's

a penalty and my phone's gone. Oh, and how am I going to get that Uber when your phone's dead?" Like, that's one of those things you got to think about for it's a safety thing. Really think about those things. Think about your health. I think that it's really really important to make sure you do block yourself out with the sun. In the US, I from Mexico and Canada, I don't know how they are, but in the US, in our stadiums, we have free water fountains everywhere. It's like at the airport, you just walk up and some people go, "What's that on the wall?" It's a water fountain. You can go and drink that water. It is fine to drink. All of our stadiums, you can drink the water just fine. If you have like a w like let's

say I buy my one beer because it's like a bajillion dollars. I'm like, I don't want to spend any more. I can take this glass, go fill it up with the water thing, and I don't have to buy the bottled water. And that's the thing. You want to stay hot. And if you're going to be drinking like big glasses of beer like this, you might want to fill up a drink and do between so you're not a mess at the end of the game. Hydration is very important. So make sure you're hydrating yourself. Simple stuff here. But again, I've met so many people who haven't hydrated before a game or haven't done this. And guess what? They pass out.

Passing out. Like you said, we saw like the paramedics came when we were at that Uruguay Kansas City game. They were getting people. That's what say you're not feeling good. Get out of that sun. And what's nice in the US, all these stadiums, account, all these stadiums, they have TVs inside, too. So, if you got to go to the bathroom, there might be TVs in the bathroom. You're like, "Wow, this is better than the view from my seat." You know? So, don't think if you're going to leave, you're going to miss the action. They'll have screens around for you to take it in, too. So, if you're getting overheated, you're not feeling good. There's going to be people to help.

I think we've covered quite a lot there. It's a slightly longer episode than usual, but we wanted to make sure we cover everything. I think it's important to do because a lot of the stuff that's put out there is so controlled by FIFA and the truism boards and everything looks great. We just want to give you advice that can help. And honestly, we'll link in the show notes on if you're wherever you're listening to this, I'll have down below. I will have the don'ts videos. If I have an eats video for those cities, I will put all those down there. like the don't of Kansas City, what to eat in Kansas City, don't of New York, what to eat in New York, don't of LA, what to eat in LA, don't of San Francisco, what to eat in

San Francisco, don't of Mexico City, eat I will put those all down in the show notes below. So you can check that out. Also, we're going to have a playlist on our YouTube channel, Walters World, uh which will have all the host cities and all their videos there. So you can see everything we have for all the host cities. So you can go through and see things that are there to help you be better prepared to enjoy your team being successful at the World Cup 2026 in the US, Canada, and Mexico. So usually when we finish this, we like to read off a few uh comments from our followers and stuff. So chefs, I'll let you do the first one.

Promise you we'll go through we've discussed this. We might do an episode where we're going to go through a lot of these comments and stuff, but we'll do a couple. One of the comments that came from they actually DM'd me personally was someone from plane ticket away and this was to do with our last episode where they had to pay because of what's happening within the Middle East and someone wrote to me saying instead of getting my return flight from India to the UK via Bahrain and a nice hotel and resort layover I had a 10-hour airport layover in Baku with Azabaijan Airlines. So, we had to book a new one-way ticket via Baku in Azaba and it was £1,600 for me and my partner. Hopefully, we'll

be able to make a claim with our travel insurance. Waited to hear back or we can get it through section 75 on the credit card and get them to pay. Now, section 75 for people who don't know is a consumer credit act in 1974 that was introduced here in the UK. So, which allows anyone who spent over £100 to £30,000 to potentially get their money back if they're not liable. However, Mark, from your experience, if you've booked it yourself, we spoke about it in the last episode. It's quite unlikely, isn't it, that person's going to be able to get their stuff back for all their money back from the insurance or the credit cards.

You might be able to get a little. That's why it's important when you're booking your tickets, look at the insurance that's on your ticket, like the credit card as well, because some credit cards might give you insurance just because you bought with them. So, something happens, that can help you out, whereas other credit cards might not have any extra protection. So, that's something to kind of think about. Um, I would still go through the process of sending your claim in. If they give you something, it's better than nothing. And I mean that's why we have like one another one of our fans wrote American English Brent said had flights to China

Beckistan Kazak and Dubai this summer. I cancelled them all. Lost most of the money and got some credits for others. Better than being stuck in a war zone. The Dubai one was what I was worried about most. We'll do it next summer. That's one of those things like I've had this before where literally like we the first time we were supposed to go to Israel, missile strikes hit like right where we're going to stay and we're like, "Hey, we're not going." and one some place like hey we completely understand gave us credit others gave us our money back one it's like um next time you come to Israel let me know I'll

give you a discount next time like he's like I can't rebook so I mean you might have different things so how you book your accommodation how you book with tickets can have a big impact so one thing I would look at is when you're looking at your airlines you know they'll offer you the refundable ticket and then non-refundable is a lot cheaper they do that because they get to keep the money look and see if they have a program if I cancel my tickets it's not refund, but I still get e- credit cuz some are like Delta, no matter what you cancel your flight, you still get the e- credit because you get to use it later.

Check those things out. But sometimes when you cancel, some there's nothing you can do because sometimes it's just too late, especially with hotels and stuff. So that kind of sucks. So that's one of those things I always worry about. We have another one. Luke Luke the 13th says, "My family's going to France in May and the conflict drove price up so much that we decided to just bite the bullet and pay $1,500 per ticket. Whereas if there was no conflict, it would have been about 700 bucks per ticket. Yeah. This is one of the things you have to think about is I can't like I when we were buying our tickets for our trip to Europe this summer, I mean I

couldn't believe how cheap they were. Like I'm like, "Oh, I don't are people just not going to Europe?" And then all of a sudden with the conflict, the prices just went up super high. So what I recommend for anybody if you're looking to travel in the summer, you haven't got your ticket yet, I would look at booking your ticket, okay? But make sure you can get e credit because what'll happen is let's say the prices do drop later on you can use that cancel that ticket get the e credit with that e- credit and have that leftover credit so you can do another vacation trip later on so you have that cuz you know what if the conflict starts up again those prices might go even higher. So that's why I've actually seen

a lot of people actually, you know, they're like, we're not going to we're going to stay more around the US. We're going to enjoy the World Cup because the US, we've got Route 66 has a 100th anniversary. It's the 250th birthday anniversary of the US being born. Sorry Chevs, but you know, we won. Yeah, you got the World Cup here. So a lot of people the US is going to are staying around here. So there's a lot of different things. So something to kind of think about. But one of our next couple podcasts is just going to be us answering your questions like a you know a fan stream of just Q&A travel stuff. So please in the comments below put as many like any questions you have and put it in separate ones because it's easy

for us to like kind of put up on the screen if it's separate. So if you have three questions have three different comments just because it's easier for us to show it on here so we can really focus on that and we can do that. So please we want to say thank you for jumping off chevs. I'll let you uh let you kind of wrap things up here and then we'll head out. Again, people make sure leave your comments. We'll love to see love to hear what you think. If you are going, let us know and we'll we'll cheer you on where whoever you're supporting. And thank you for me, Mark. And great to see you as always,

Mark. And final words from you before we go. Yeah. So, I just want to wish one happy travels. Be safe. I hope your team does well at the World Cup. Remember your questions. It's going to be one of the next couple podcasts. if you have topics you'd like to really focus on like, "Hey, we want to talk because we've got we've been talking with Jocelyn and a couple other people about doing about travel with kids. We have some other things we're trying to work on, but some big event or something that you'd really like to know, please put in the comments below. You have your questions, but hey Mark, hey chefs, this is a really big topic I think you should do. Let us know cuz we want this podcast to be there to

help you travel better. So, we need to have your questions so we know how we can help." Anyway, I wish you all the best. I'll say bye for here in my office and I'll say bye for Chev and his and we wish you all great travels wherever you are in the world. Be safe until next time. Bye.