How to plan a sports tour abroad for your school or college team
As if sports training and tournaments weren’t exciting enough for the team, the chance to go abroad and play the game they love makes these opportunities even more enticing.
The challenging part is organising the trip. You have to consider budgets and logistics, planning everything from flights and accommodation to transport, training facilities, meals and anything else your team might need.
That is why we have put together this practical, step-by-step guide to help you plan a successful and memorable sports trip for your students.
Define the purpose and scope of your tour
Before diving into the logistics of your trip, you need to determine the purpose of your tour. Is it for a competition, training, friendly matches or team building activities?
This will help you decide on key details such as:
Location and destination - Which country or countries will you visit?
Duration - How long will the tour be? A weekend, a week or more?
Number of participants - How many students, staff and chaperones will be going?
Budget per person - How much will it cost? What can each student reasonably be asked to contribute?
Having a clear purpose for the trip helps to keep the tour focused, ensures participants know what to expect, and helps with the logistics, especially when seeking funding.
Start early to give yourself plenty of time
Timing is one of the most important considerations when booking your sports tour. For large group trips, especially international ones, it pays to start as early as possible. We suggest planning at least 9–12 months ahead, though this might not always be possible, for example, when waiting for qualifiers or being invited to last-minute tournaments.
As best you can, you should give yourself ample time to book flights and arrange transport, accommodation and training facilities, and to get any necessary permissions from school leadership or parents.
Think about funding and budgeting
International sports tours can be costly, so it’s important to get your budgeting right. You need to estimate the total cost per student, including flights, local transport, accommodation, meals, kit and any entry or facility fees. Always be sure to build in a buffer for unexpected costs, too.
You can then determine if there is a budget set aside from your school or college, and if you’ll need to apply for additional funding schemes or grants.
You can then decide if you need to plan school fundraising events, get sponsorship from local businesses or ask for parent contributions.
Choose accommodation, transport and local logistics
Once you have your destination and dates set, you can begin to plan the “on the ground” part of the tour. This will include finding accommodation, looking for group-friendly hotels or hostels that can accommodate your whole group.
You’ll also need to look at local transport, such as minubuses or coaches, the local training facilities and match venues, and if you need to provide your own kit and equipment or if you’ll have access to this when you arrive.
Lastly, decide whether you’ll plan meals yourselves (e.g. self-catering or packed lunches) or if you need to contact local caterers. It helps to use a comprehensive checklist at this stage to make sure you cover all the essentials.
Book your group flights
One of the biggest challenges of planning a sports tour abroad is booking group flights for a large number of students. This is where a group flight consolidator like BTG Travel can transform a headache into a much smoother, stress-free process.
As group flight specialists, they’ll work directly with airlines to secure blocks of seats (often at discounted rates or with access to fares that aren’t publicly available). This stops you from having to make lots of individual bookings and tackling hours of admin, whilst also ensuring that every member of the group is paying the same fare.
Your dedicated flight specialist can handle name changes, last-minute additions, seat assignments and even disruptions, which makes organising and enjoying a stress-free trip much easier.
On top of all this, they’ll be able to help with specialist luggage requests if you need to take large sporting equipment with you on the trip. So, for a school or college team travelling with 10 or more members, using a flight consolidator is often the most efficient and cost-effective way to secure group flights.
Health, safety and risk management
When you're travelling with a large group of students, their safety is your top priority. So, before you go, you need to ensure you have:
An adequate staff-to-student ratio - enough chaperones and coaches to supervise students at all times
All traveller information well in advance, including passports, medical conditions, emergency contacts and insurance details
A clear itinerary with training sessions, matches and free time set out. You can share this with all participants and parents
An emergency plan in place in case of injuries, flight delays, cancellations, luggage loss or other unforeseen issues. Everyone attending needs to know this plan
Communicate with parents, students and staff
Clear and regular communication is vital throughout the planning process. When you first start organising the trip, you should hold an initial information meeting to explain the tour plan, dates, costs and expectations.
Later, you can provide detailed itineraries, packing lists and insurance forms, and clearly outline rules regarding behaviour, curfews, kits and personal conduct. You should update everyone involved if there are any changes along the way.
Final checks and pre-departure
You’re almost ready to head for the airport! With flights booked, accommodation confirmed, and logistics in place, it’s time to run a final checklist.
You need to confirm all passport and visa requirements, check that all participants have paid their fees and distribute a travel pack to everyone including itineraries, emergency contacts and any other key information they may need.
Do you need help booking group flights for your school or college trip?
With so much to think about (as outlined above), working with a group travel agency can help to shoulder some of the burden.
At BTG Travel, we specialise in group sports travel for schools and colleges, offering dedicated support and expert advice at every step.
So, if you’re currently planning your team’s next sports trip, why not get in touch to find out how we can help?