A college football road trip is a good-value weekend for a group of guys: a game, a tailgate and a stadium town that's built for visitors on a Saturday. These 12 trips run from Navy in Annapolis and UCLA at the Rose Bowl to Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium and the blue turf in Boise, with a few ways to keep the cost down on an early-career budget.
I've found that the guys trips that get remembered are built around a fixed date and a kickoff time is the easiest date to build a trip around. Annapolis is a compact, walkable historic town on the Chesapeake Bay, and a Navy home game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium comes with the pageantry of the Brigade of Midshipmen. Base the weekend at the Annapolis Waterfront Hotel, the 150-room hotel right on the harbor, steps from downtown's restaurants and bars, and start the night with margaritas at Armada Dockside Cantina before steaks at Marmo Italian Chophouse. Save game day morning for a sail or boat trip on the bay, then have steamed Maryland blue crabs and a local craft beer before kickoff. On the last day, tour the U.S. Naval Academy, where adults need a government-issued photo ID to get on the grounds, and walk the brick streets back to the harbor for lunch. Pasadena, about 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, builds a whole weekend around UCLA home games at the Rose Bowl Stadium, home of the Rose Bowl Game each January. As a Southern California guy, I'd tell any visitor to target the USC rivalry game in a year when UCLA hosts, since it's the loudest day of the season. Spend Friday in Old Pasadena, with a stop at Wild Parrot Brewing before dinner at Arroyo Chop House. On Saturday, tailgate, watch the game, and find dinner and drinks after. Save Sunday for the Rose Bowl's behind-the-scenes tour, which takes you into the stadium's original 1922 locker room and the California High School Football Hall of Fame, then catch the rest of the day's games at a local bar. The Langham, where most visiting teams stay, is the splurge; hotels in Old Pasadena put you within walking distance of the bars. New Haven pairs a Yale program that has played football since 1872 with fall hiking and a pizza rivalry you'll be asked to take a side on. Yale tailgates bring an old-school crowd to the Yale Bowl, and East Rock Park, with more than 2,000 acres of green space, has trails and rock stairs up to a summit view of the city in fall color. The pizza is the other half of the trip. Frank Pepe's and Sally's Apizza are the two old-guard names, with thin, charred crusts that draw people from around the country, so hit both and settle it as a group. For a guys night, Barcade New Haven mixes arcade games with craft beer, and The Study at Yale puts you steps from campus. Charlottesville sits at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Virginia Guesthouse Hotel sits right on the UVA Grounds, which means you walk to the stadium on game day. UVA's More Than The Score speaker series runs before some home games, a smart start to a Saturday that's otherwise all football. Mid-October through early November brings peak color and the heart of the home schedule. Spend a day hiking in Shenandoah National Park or riding the area's mountain bike trails, catch a Sunday polo match at King Family Vineyards while the season runs, then end each night at The Perch, the hotel's rooftop bar, with local drafts and mountain views. Northwest Arkansas offers fall foliage and outdoor adventure at a fraction of New England prices. Fly into Northwest Arkansas National Airport in Bentonville, then drive about 30 minutes south to Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, for serious Razorback tailgating and a round of stops on the Fayetteville Ale Trail. Give the rest of the weekend to the bikes. OZ Trails Bike Park in Bella Vista is Arkansas' first chairlift-served mountain bike park, and it carries riders and non-riders over the Ozarks in fall color, while Coler Mountain Bike Preserve in Bentonville is one of the top places to ride. The Bike Inn has suites from around $125, and Motto by Hilton Bentonville is two blocks from the Square from about $200 a night. Late October is the best window. If you only see one SEC game, make it Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium, which seats more than 100,000. The day starts hours before kickoff on the Quad, the grassy heart of campus that fills with tents, televisions and full cookouts, and it shows a visitor the scale of Crimson Tide football before anyone enters the stadium. Before the game, walk through the Paul W. Bryant Museum on campus, then join the crowd along the Walk of Champions as the team arrives. Tickets for big conference games run high, so look at the non-conference games for cheaper seats. Birmingham is about an hour away if hotel rooms in town are sold out. Notre Dame Stadium sits on a campus of lakes and the Golden Dome, with the "Touchdown Jesus" mural on the library visible from inside. Chicago is about 90 miles west, and the South Shore Line commuter train runs between downtown Chicago and South Bend, so nobody has to drive home. Walk the campus to the Grotto before the game, and see where it lands on the list of college football stadiums worth a road trip. Bryan, the twin city to College Station, gives you the full Texas A&M gameday without most of the students. Friday starts with barbecue at What's Tha Deal Barbecue and a walk around Historic Downtown Bryan, then the Word of Mouth Speakeasy and a Texas two-step at Concrete Rodeo. On Saturday, Gameday on Main lets you watch at The Palace or The LaSalle Courtyard, or take the free shuttle to Kyle Field, where the student section stands for the entire game as the 12th Man. After the game, Hush & Whisper Distilling Co. pours its own whiskey, and The La Salle, a train-themed hotel downtown, has its own speakeasy. Book rooms early for home games. Penn State's White Out puts more than 100,000 fans at Beaver Stadium in white, usually for a night game against a big-name opponent. State College sits roughly between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the tailgate lots fill hours before kickoff, and a stop at the Berkey Creamery for Penn State's own ice cream is a tradition. Rooms in town disappear for big games, so look at Altoona, about 45 minutes away, if State College is booked. Neyland Stadium sits on the banks of the Tennessee River, and on game days the Vol Navy, a fleet of boats that has been tailgating on the water since the 1960s, ties up and walks to the game. Learn the words to "Rocky Top" before you go, and plan an extra day for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, about an hour away. After the game, Market Square and the Old City are where downtown Knoxville goes for a drink. LSU's Tiger Stadium, known as Death Valley, seats more than 100,000 and is at its loudest for Saturday night games. Tailgates here run on jambalaya and boudin, Mike the Tiger lives in a habitat on campus, and New Orleans is about 80 miles down the road for a Sunday. When I visited Idaho, I had no idea how big a deal Boise State football is there. To most of us it's that team with the blue grass, but in Boise the Broncos are the sports heroes of the area, and the blue turf at Albertsons Stadium has been there since 1986. Idaho is one of the country's top hop-growing states, and two of my favorite beers from that trip were Payette Brewing's Rodeo Rye Pale Ale and Sockeye Brewing's Dagger Falls IPA, both from Boise. The Snake River Valley wineries are an easy drive west, and there's more in ManTripping's fall guys weekend ideas for southwestern Idaho. The difference between an affordable football weekend and an expensive one is usually decided months before kickoff. A rivalry game at Bryant-Denny or the Rose Bowl can cost several times what a non-conference game in the same seats does. For a first trip with the guys, pick the stadium you want to see and the cheaper game on its schedule. Bryan for College Station, Bentonville for Fayetteville and Birmingham for Tuscaloosa all take pressure off the hotel bill. A short drive or a shuttle is worth the savings, especially if you're splitting a rental four ways. For football weekends at Notre Dame I know a lot of fans stay in St Joseph, Michigan by where we're based ... it's 30 miles away but you can get amazing beer, wine, beaches and one of the Midwest's best golf courses at Harbor Shores. I decided to make this our home base, so I can't say I blame them for picking a weekend vacation rental St Joe vs staying at a hotel in South Bend :) Television networks often set kickoff times only 6 to 12 days before a game, so a noon kickoff can become a night game with a week's notice. Book refundable rooms early, but hold the flights until the time is announced, especially if you're flying home the same night. If you're newly married or a new dad is on the way, this is the year to put a stadium trip on the calendar. A trip to Death Valley or the White Out is a lot easier to plan now than when the weekend has to work around nap schedules. For even more great ideas, check out ManTripping's picks for a fall football guys weekend. Promoted by FlowAds Hey James Hills wants you to share this!
Annapolis, Maryland - Navy Football On The Chesapeake
Pasadena, California - UCLA At The Rose Bowl
New Haven, Connecticut - Yale Tailgates And The Pizza Argument
Charlottesville, Virginia - A Hotel On The UVA Grounds
Northwest Arkansas - Razorback Tailgates And A Bike Park
Tuscaloosa, Alabama - The Quad And Bryant-Denny Stadium
South Bend, Indiana - Notre Dame Stadium
Bryan, Texas - Aggie Gamedays Without The Campus Chaos
State College, Pennsylvania - The White Out At Beaver Stadium
Knoxville, Tennessee - The Vol Navy On The Tennessee River
Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Saturday Night In Death Valley
Boise, Idaho - Blue Turf And Idaho Hops
How To Keep A Football Weekend Affordable
Target The Cheaper Game On The Schedule
Stay One Town Over
Wait For The Kickoff Time Before Booking Flights
Go Before Life Gets Busier
