How to plan a trip around a concert or festival

1. Lock the show first

The concert is the fixed point of the whole trip, so book it first. Good tickets sell out while flights and hotels stay available for weeks, get the ticket secured, note the exact date and venue, and everything else slots around it. Browse what's on across our cities on the events page and the big public festivals on the festivals page.

2. Decide how you'll get there

For a UK show. Harry Styles at Wembley, Take That in Manchester, Bon Jovi at Murrayfield, it's usually a train or a drive, so you're really just adding a hotel. For an overseas gig like Coldplay in Barcelona, you'll want flights, and that's where building it as a bundle saves time: tell us the city and your budget and we line up the cheapest live flights and hotels together. If you'd rather fly to a UK city too, you can, just add return flights on the trip page.

Build a trip around a show →

3. Stay near the line, not the venue

The hotels right next to a stadium are usually the priciest and the dullest once the show's over. A better move: stay central, one or two transport stops from the venue. You'll pay less, you're near the food and the rest of the city, and getting back after the encore is easy. We compare live hotel prices across 100+ sites so you can see the cheapest near your dates, compare hotels here.

4. Make it more than one night

Most tours and festivals run over several dates, and most cities deserve more than an evening. Turning a single gig into a two or three-night break barely changes the effort and transforms the trip, you get the show and the city. If you arrive on a day-trip plan, you can add a hotel stay in a couple of clicks.

5. Add a couple of things to do, then stop

The trick to a relaxed trip is to pre-book one or two highlights (a skip-the-line attraction, a food tour) and leave the rest open. Our trip builder lets you tick activities on and off so you only pay for what you'll actually do, and the show stays pinned to your plan the whole way through.

Worked examples

• Harry Styles, Wembley, no flight needed; a two-night central London stay near the Jubilee or Metropolitan line, plus a show ticket. See our London guide.
• Coldplay, Barcelona, flights + a seafront hotel, with a Sagrada Família visit the next morning. See Barcelona.
• Oktoberfest, Munich, book the hotel early (they vanish), fly in, and the festival is free to enter. See festivals.

FAQ

Tickets or trip first? Tickets, the show is the thing that sells out.

Where should I stay? Central and near a transport line to the venue, not next to it.

Do I have to fly? No. UK shows are often train-and-hotel; overseas needs flights. Either way, make it a couple of nights.

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