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Spectator sports

Spectator sports are those where the players are greatly outnumbered by their audience, often a thousandfold and sometimes a millionfold for the biggest events. These usually involve travel, often long-distance, so there is a distinct experience of sports travel for those crowds, covered on this page.

See Sports for those you participate in yourself, watched (if at all) by a few family members or ex-players. See Activities for the broader sphere of mostly non-competitive pastimes such as bird-watching.

Understand
Spectator sports have a long history - in the western tradition this is exemplified by the ancient Olympic Games. But mass travelling audiences only emerged in the 19th century, with the development of leisure time, disposable income, and public transport. Indeed the Olympics are a 19th century reinvention, with the ancient event lapsing around 400 AD and the modern version launching in Athens in 1896.

The 19th / 20th centuries saw three tribes emerge: an elite of professional players, an audience watching them direct or on TV / internet, and the "grassroots" playing at amateur or junior level. Of course there is overlap, but the stark feature today is how different those worlds have become - certainly their travel experiences could not be more different. The divergence caused great soul-searching in sports associations, and sometimes acrimonious splits. It's no spoiler to say that big money and big business won, and spectator sports are designed to extract their followers' cash not only by gate receipts, but by advertising / sponsorship, by merchandising, by broadcasting rights, and by gambling. Spectator sports are also a matter of national prestige and policy - countries market themselves as sports destination, and by "sports-washing" deflect attention from their unattractive regimes.

The live audience for big events is nowadays greatly outnumbered by TV and internet viewers, and developments in virtual reality promise to take this further. But for the time being, the crowd is essential to the event. They descend in partisan masses upon the host city, throng the pubs and transport hubs, and book up accommodation. Their chants and slogans, team regalia, cheers and boos, all create an intense atmosphere. Alcohol-fuelled violence has too often been a by-product.

Early spectators simply milled around the playing area, craning to see the action. It's still like that in golf, where crowds follow their favourite player from hole to hole, and in on-road races for cycling and motor sports where the biggest audience is close to the finish line but people find vantage points all along the way. But larger crowds made this unmanageable for most sports, so embankments then stadiums were built: modern examples are huge and architecturally exciting. Stadiums may be multi-purpose or dedicated to one sport, and a big division is between those for ball games, and those incorporating a running track, which makes them suitable for Olympics but distances the crowd. They may be "borrowed" for events, for instance international rugby matches may use a soccer stadium simply for extra capacity. The upkeep of a stadium (even a small one) is usually part-financed by a sponsorship deal, so they change their names for the length of the deal, sometimes just for a specific event. Signage on streets and public transport can't keep up with this so be sure to check not only which stadium you're going to, but any other names it's locally known by.

Every big city has a sports or other mass event at least once a week, so they are well-practised in signage, stewarding and crowd safety, extra / diverted transport, and policing. See individual city pages for accommodation, and other things to see and do there. See Events for the very largest, which embroil entire countries for days on end. These draw a travelling army of fans following their teams from city to city as the tournament progresses, so even if you don't plan to attend, you have to factor the event into your travel plans.

Articles about watching sports

 * American football
 * Association football
 * Association football in Europe
 * Australian rules football
 * Baseball
 * Baseball in the United States
 * Basketball in North America
 * Boxing
 * Bullfighting
 * Cricket
 * Field hockey
 * Formula One
 * Golf
 * Handball in Europe
 * Horse racing
 * Ice hockey in Europe
 * Ice hockey in North America
 * Martial arts
 * Motorcycle speedway
 * Olympic Games
 * Rugby football

African Games
The African Games are held among the countries of Africa.
 * 2027: Cairo, Egypt, 20 January–7 February.
 * 2031: Kinshasa, DR Congo (dates TBA).

Asian Games
The Asian Games among the countries of Asia; the second largest multi-sports games after the Summer Olympics. Features some sports that are popular in Asia but not contested at the Olympics such as wushu (Chinese martial arts), kabbadi, sepak takraw and dragon boat racing, as well as some globally-popular non-Olympic sports such as tenpin bowling and squash. The Winter Asian Games are operated by the same body but feature only winter sports. Normally held in the year before the Winter Olympics.
 * 2026: 19 September–4 October, Nagoya, Japan
 * 2030: Doha, Qatar
 * 2034: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Bolivarian Games

 * 2024: Ayacucho, Peru

Central American Games
The Central American Games, only involving the seven nations of Central America.
 * 2026: Dates and host TBA

Central America and Caribbean Games
The Central America and Caribbean Games — the second oldest international multi-sport games.
 * 2026: Dates TBA, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games among the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations; the fourth-largest multi-sports games. Unlike other multi-sport events, para-sports events are held as part of the main games with the able-bodied sports events. Features some non-Olympic sports that are popular in the Commonwealth such as lawn bowls, squash and netball. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland send separate teams to the Commonwealth Games, in contrast to the Olympics where they send a unified Great Britain team.

The next games in 2026 were originally scheduled for the Australian state of Victoria, but the state government pulled out in July 2023, citing financial concerns. No new site has been announced as of April 2024.

Deaflympics
The Deaflympics is an IOC-sanctioned event for athletes with hearing impairments. Although the sports are largely the same as the Olympics, modifications are made to not rely on sounds such as starter's guns, spoken commands or referee whistles. Separate summer and winter games are held.
 * 2025 Summer Deaflympics: 15–26 November in Tokyo, Japan

European Games
The European Games among European countries. The newest continental-level multi-sport event, with its first edition in 2015. Also in the year before the Summer Olympics.
 * 2027 in Istanbul, Turkey; dates TBA

Gay Games
The Gay Games attract mostly LGBT athletes, though are open to all.
 * 2026: Valencia, Spain
 * 2030: Host to be announced in November 2025

Jeux de la Francophonie
Jeux de la Francophonie among the countries of La Francophonie. The Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick send separate teams from the Canadian team, and the Belgian team is restricted to sending Francophone athletes. Held in the year after the Summer Olympics.
 * 2027: Dates and host TBA

Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah Games for Jewish athletes from 85 nations, and Israelis regardless of ethnicity or religion, are the third-largest multi-sports event by number of competitors after the Summer Olympics and Asian Games. Always held in Israel.
 * 2025: July, Israel

Olympic Games

 * See Olympic Games.

 * 2024: Summer Olympics, 2-18 Aug, Paris, France
 * 2026: Winter Olympics, dates TBA, Milan and Cortina, Italy
 * 2028: Summer Olympics, 21 Jul - 6 Aug, Los Angeles, USA
 * 2032: Summer Olympics, 23 Jul - 8 Aug, Brisbane, Australia

Pacific Games

 * The Pacific Games among the countries of Oceania except Australia and New Zealand.
 * 2027: Pīraʻe, Tahiti

Pan American Games
The Pan American Games among the countries of the Americas.
 * 2027: Host and dates TBA. Barranquilla, Colombia had originally been announced as host, but didn't meet contractual obligations and was stripped of hosting rights in January 2024.

Southeast Asian Games
The Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), held every two years in odd-numbered years, among the countries of Southeast Asia. Features some sports that are only popular in Southeast Asia such as sepak takraw and silat.
 * 2025: 7-19 December, Bangkok, Thailand
 * 2027: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
 * 2029: Singapore
 * 2031: Laos
 * 2033: Philippines

Special Olympics
The Special Olympics are IOC-sanctioned events for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities.

Special Olympics World Summer Games

 * 2027: Dates TBA, Perth, Australia
 * 2031: Dates TBA, Hangzhou, China

Special Olympics World WInter Games

 * 2025: Dates TBA, Turin and other venues in the Piedmont region, Italy
 * 2029: Dates TBA, Chur and other venues in the Graubünden canton, Switzerland

World Games
Held every four years in the year after the summer Olympic Games. No events overlap with any contested in the Olympics. Many of the sports are not part of the Olympic program at all; the World Games also feature many non-Olympic disciplines and/or events within Olympic sports. The events are organized by the International World Games Association, which is recognized by the IOC.
 * 2025: 7–17 July, Chengdu, China

National Football League

 * Super Bowl LIX is set for Caesars Superdome in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana (home of the New Orleans Saints) on 9 February 2025.
 * Super Bowl LX – 8 February 2026 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California (home to the San Francisco 49ers).
 * Super Bowl LXI – 14 February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California (home to the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams).

NFL International Series
At least three regular season games, all held in London (England). The NFL has contracts with the following venues for future games:
 * At least one game per season through 2024 at Wembley Stadium.
 * At least two games per season through 2027 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The nominal home teams for the 2024 games have been announced (the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley, and the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings at Spurs), with the exact dates expected to be announced in spring 2024.

NFL games in Mexico
The NFL first held a regular season game in Mexico in 2005. Despite good attendance, the league did not return until the 2016 season, the first of what was meant to be a three-year deal to hold one game each season in that country. With both the 2016 and 2017 games selling out, the deal was extended through the 2021 season with an eye to possibly play more than one game per season in future years. All Mexico games thus far have been held in Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

The most recent Mexico game was in 2022. With Estabio Azteca being renovated for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, there will be no Mexico games until at least the 2025 season.

NFL games in Germany
In February 2022, the NFL announced a four-year agreement to expand the NFL International Series in Germany. The games will be split between the Allianz Arena in Munich and Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt. The first game was held in the 2022 season. With the Mexico game being put on hold due to stadium renovations, there were two Germany games in 2023, both in Frankfurt. A 2024 game has been announced for Munich with the Carolina Panthers as "host"; the opponent and date have yet to be announced.

NFL games in Brazil
The NFL announced in November 2023 it would extend its International Series to Brazil. The first game in that country will be held on September 6, 2024, with the Philadelphia Eagles "hosting" the Green Bay Packers at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo.

NFL games in Spain
Shortly after announcing the expansion to Brazil, the NFL extended the series to Spain. The first game in Spain will be held in 2025 at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid.

US college football

 * College Football Playoff National Championship
 * 2025: Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (home of the Atlanta Falcons); January 20
 * 2026: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida (home of the Miami Dolphins); January 19

Each of these games is the championship for the previous calendar year. The bulk of the American football season takes place in the northern hemisphere fall/autumn.

European League of Football

 * ELF Championship Game – 2024 edition at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on 22 September

German Football League

 * German Bowl – 2024 host TBA

Australian Football League

 * 2024 AFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground – 28 September

Badminton
Badminton is generally most popular in Asia, with East and Southeast Asian nations generally dominating the international tournaments, the sole exception being Denmark. The BWF World Tour is the premier international badminton tournament circuit, with the following tournaments being the most important ones on the circuit:

 * All England Open — the oldest international badminton tournament in the world, and the most prestigious tournament on the circuit. Held in March every year at the Arena Birmingham in Birmingham, England.
 * China Open — held in September every year, with the venue often changing between different Chinese cities.
 * Denmark Open — held in October every year at the Odense Sports Park in Odense, Denmark.
 * Indonesia Open — held in November every year at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The World Championships are held every year except in Olympic years. Badminton has been an Olympic sport since 1992, with the Olympics generally being considered the premier tournament in the sport. There is also the Thomas Cup for men's national teams, and the Uber Cup for women's national teams, which mostly operate as multi-level leagues.

Baseball
see also Baseball and Baseball in the United States

 * World Baseball Classic
 * Little League World Series – Held over 10 days, ending on the last Sunday of August, in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA.

NBA
See: Basketball in North America

US college basketball
The biggest event in US college (university) basketball is the NCAA Division I men's tournament, featuring 68 teams. The Division I women's tournament draws considerably less interest, but is still the biggest event in American women's college sports. The men's tournament begins on the Tuesday preceding the third Thursday in March (in terms of dates, no earlier than March 13 and no later than March 19) in Dayton, Ohio with an eight-team round marketed as the First Four, featuring two games on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. The winners of these four games join the remaining 60 tournament teams for the first round, which starts on the third Thursday in March. The women's tournament expanded from 64 teams to 68 starting in 2022, with its own First Four; it starts the day after the men's tournament.

The four-team final rounds of these tournaments are known as the Final Four. Future Final Four sites are:
 * Men
 * 2025 – April 5 and 7 at the Alamodome in San Antonio
 * 2026 – April 4 and 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis
 * 2027 – April 3 and 5 at Ford Field in Detroit
 * 2028 – April 1 and 3 at Allegiant Stadium just west of the Las Vegas Strip
 * 2029 – March 31 and April 2 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis
 * 2030 – April 6 and 8 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth

 * Women
 * 2025 – April 4 and 6 at Amalie Arena in Tampa
 * 2026 – April 3 and 5 at Footprint Center in Phoenix
 * 2027 – April 2 and 4 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio
 * 2028 – March 31 and April 2 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
 * 2029 – March 30 and April 1 at the Alamodome in San Antonio
 * 2030 – April 5 and 7 at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon
 * 2031 – April 4 and 6 at American Airlines Center in Dallas

EuroLeague
The EuroLeague is basketball's equivalent to the UEFA Champions League in association football (soccer), featuring top club teams from throughout Europe (note that in sports, "Europe" includes several countries either partly or totally in Asia, most notably Russia, Turkey, and Israel). The season starts in October and ends with the EuroLeague Final Four in May.
 * 2025 – May 23 and 25 at a location to be announced

Canadian football

 * 111th Grey Cup at BC Place in the False Creek neighbourhood near central Vancouver, British Columbia (home of the BC Lions); November 17, 2024
 * 112th Grey Cup at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba (home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers); date TBA in November

Men's
Three of the four men's major championships are held in the US. The only exception is The Open Championship, also known as the "British Open". Each tournament is played from Thursday through Sunday, barring weather-related delays, and has a fixed weekend on the calendar. Although golf has been an Olympic sport from 1900-1904, and since 2016, the Major championships are regarded as more prestigious than the Olympics, and most top players choose to skip the Olympics. A golfer who wins all four majors in the same calendar year is said to have completed the Grand Slam, which has yet to be achieved (Tiger Woods won all four consecutively, but spanning two calendar years starting from the 2000 U.S. Open to the 2001 Masters Tournament; at the time, the PGA Championship was the year's final major, instead of the second).
 * Major championships
 * Masters Tournament (always held at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia) – ends on the second Sunday in April, with the next edition set for 10–13 April 2025
 * PGA Championship – ends on the next-to-last Sunday of May; next edition to be held 15–18 May 2025 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
 * Sites have been set through 2031, as well as for 2034.
 * U.S. Open – ends on the third Sunday in June; next edition to be held 12–15 June 2025 at Oakmont Country Club in the Pittsburgh suburb of Plum, Pennsylvania.
 * Sites have been set through 2042, as well as for most subsequent years through 2051.
 * The Open Championship – played during the week containing the third Friday in July; ongoing through 21 July 2024 at Royal Troon Golf Club in South Ayrshire, Scotland, very near Glasgow Prestwick Airport. The next edition will be held 17–20 July 2025 at Royal Portrush Golf Club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland (about 60 mi/100 km from Belfast and 35 mi/60 km from Derry/Londonderry.
 * Sites have been set through 2026.

 * Other significant events
 * Ryder Cup (USA vs. Europe team competition) – Held in odd-numbered years; alternately hosted by the US and Europe
 * 2025 – September/October (exact dates TBA) at the Black Course of Bethpage State Park on Long Island (about 35 miles/56 km east of Midtown Manhattan)
 * 2027 – September/October (exact dates TBA) at Adare Manor in County Limerick, Ireland

 * Presidents Cup (competition between a USA team and an "International" team of non-Europeans) – Held in even-numbered years; alternately hosted by the US and a non-European country
 * 2024 – 27–29 September at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec, Canada
 * 2026 – Dates TBA at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota (a western suburb of the Twin Cities)

Women's
Three of the five women's major championships are held in the US. As with the men's major championships, all are held from Thursday through Sunday (barring weather delays).
 * Major championships
 * Chevron Championship (held at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, about 30 mi/50 km north of Houston) – Next edition to be held 17–20 April 2025.
 * U.S. Women's Open – Next edition to be held 29 May–1 June 2025 at Erin Hills, about 40 mi/65 km northwest of Milwaukee.
 * Future sites have been set through 2036, and for several subsequent years through 2048.
 * Women's PGA Championship – Next edition to be held at an undetermined date in 2025 (likely in June) on one of the two courses at PGA Frisco, the new headquarters of the PGA of America in the Dallas–Fort Worth suburb of Frisco, Texas.
 * The Evian Championship (always held at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains, France) – Typically ends on the last Sunday of July. The next edition is expected to be held from 24–27 July 2025.
 * Women's British Open – Typically held two weeks after The Evian Championship, but both events were rescheduled for 2024 due to the Olympics in Paris. The 2024 edition will be at the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland from 22–25 August.

 * Other significant events
 * Solheim Cup (USA vs. Europe team competition) – Held in even-numbered years (from 2024) in August or September; alternately hosted by the US and Europe
 * 2024 – 13–15 September at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia ((about 40 miles/64 km west of Washington, DC and about 25 miles/40 km from Dulles International Airport)
 * 2026 – Dates TBA at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, Netherlands (just south of Den Bosch)

Men's

 * IIHF Men's World Championship
 * 2025: 9–25 May, Herning, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden
 * 2026: 15–31 May, Zürich and Fribourg, Switzerland
 * 2027: 14–30 May, Düsseldorf and Mannheim, Germany
 * 2028: 12–28 May, Paris and Lyon, France

Women's
Since 2022, the top level of the Women's World Championships has been held annually, even in Winter Olympic years. From 1997–2021, the top level was an annual affair, but Winter Olympic years were skipped.
 * IIHF Women's World Championship
 * 2025: České Budějovice, Czech Republic, dates TBA
 * 2026: Canada, dates and sites TBA

Formula One
See the dedicated article.

NASCAR
A U.S. stock car racing organization, and the country's most popular form of motorsport. The term "stock car" is a historic reference; when NASCAR first organized races in the years immediately after World War II, the cars were in fact "stock"—exactly as purchased from dealers, with minimal safety-related changes. Over time, the cars changed to the point that they are only vaguely similar in external appearance to current street vehicles, with much more powerful engines and far more safety equipment. NASCAR now operates three national touring series:
 * Cup Series, the top series
 * Xfinity Series, the second level
 * Craftsman Truck Series, the third level, which races pickup trucks instead of cars; usually called simply the "Truck Series"

Most races are held on oval tracks. For many years, no more than one or two Cup Series races were held on road courses, but since 2021 that number has gone up to six. Five Xfinity Series races and three Truck Series are also held on road courses. Before COVID-19, the Truck Series held one race in Canada, but border restrictions led to that date being transferred south of the border, and NASCAR has yet to return any of its U.S. national series to Canada (although it runs a separate Canadian series).

The sport used to be centered in the Southeastern U.S., but beginning in the 1990s it expanded to become a national spectacle. A typical NASCAR event spans a long weekend, with two or even all three series holding races at one site. Unlike most sports, NASCAR's biggest event is the first race of the season:
 * Daytona 500, held on the day before the Presidents Day holiday (which falls on the third Monday of February) at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida

IndyCar
A U.S.-based open-wheel racing series. It was established in its current form in 2008, when the IndyCar Series (launched in 1996) merged with the former Champcars series. The merger is a story in itself—as late as the early 1990s, open-wheel racing, governed by a body known as CART (which later became Champcars), was the most popular form of motorsport in the U.S. However, in 1994, the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the series' marquee event, the Indianapolis 500, had a bitter falling-out with CART, leading to the creation of the competing IndyCar series (which took the Indy 500 with it). The feud led many former open-wheel fans to abandon the sport, often for NASCAR. By the time the feud ended, attendance and sponsorship money for the sport were a fraction of what they had been only 15 years earlier, and only in the late 2010s had it begun to recover some of its original prominence.

All of the series' races are held in the U.S. except for one on a street course in Toronto. The tracks are a mixture of ovals, road courses, and street circuits.

The series' marquee event, as mentioned above, is:
 * Indianapolis 500, held the day before the U.S. holiday of Memorial Day (which falls on the last Monday of May) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana (a community completely surrounded by the city of Indianapolis)

Motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway is a sport where lightweight motorcycles race each other on an oval-shaped track. It is most popular in Poland but also has a major presence in Australia, Britain, and Sweden.

Important events

 * Speedway Grand Prix, held annually in the Northern Hemisphere's late spring, summer, and early fall.
 * Speedway of Nations, held annually in the Northern Hemisphere's summer (usually June or July).

Rugby
see also Rugby football

Rugby union

 * 2024 Rugby Championship, various locations in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Normally held August–October, with an abbreviated and time-shifted version held in years of the men's Rugby World Cup.
 * 2025 Six Nations Championship, February–March:
 * Cardiff, Principality Stadium (Millennium Stadium)
 * Dublin, Aviva Stadium
 * Edinburgh, BT Murrayfield
 * London, Twickenham Stadium
 * Rome, Stadio Olimpico
 * Saint-Denis (Paris), Stade de France
 * 2025:
 * British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, June–July
 * Rugby World Cup (women's) in England, 22 August–27 September
 * Note that World Rugby, the governing body for union, uses the "Rugby World Cup" name for both its men's and women's championship events.
 * 2027 Rugby World Cup (men's) in Australia, dates TBA
 * 2029:
 * British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, June–July
 * Rugby World Cup (women's) in Australia, dates TBA
 * 2031 Rugby World Cup (men's) in the United States, dates TBA
 * 2033:
 * British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa, June–July
 * Rugby World Cup (women's) in the United States, dates TBA

Rugby sevens

 * World Rugby Sevens Series and World Rugby Women's Sevens Series: A series of 8 tournaments for national men's and women's sevens teams held at various locations around the world. In the current format, all events see both sexes compete on the same weekend. Marketed as the HSBC SVNS (with HSBC being the main corporate sponsor).
 * Dubai Sevens – The traditional season opener, held on the weekend including the first Saturday in December at a stadium known as The Sevens.
 * South Africa Sevens – Held on the weekend after the Dubai Sevens at Cape Town Stadium.
 * Australian Sevens – Held on the last weekend of January at Perth Rectangular Stadium (commercially HBF Park).
 * Canada Sevens – Held on the last weekend of February at BC Place in downtown Vancouver.
 * USA Sevens – Held the weekend after the Canada Sevens at Dignity Health Sports Park in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California.
 * Hong Kong Sevens – The most famous men's event. Held in early April at Hong Kong Stadium in So Kon Po, in the east of Hong Kong Island.
 * Singapore Sevens – Held in early May at the National Stadium in Kallang, a district just to the northeast of the Downtown Core.
 * Madrid Sevens – The final event, held at Estadio Metropolitano in the city's northern San Blas district.
 * The next Rugby World Cup Sevens, with men's and women's national teams competing in separate tournaments at the same site and time, will be held in 2026 at a site to be determined.

National Rugby League

 * NRL Grand Final – The first or second Saturday of October at the Sydney Cricket Ground, just east of the city centre.
 * State of Origin series – three matches in all in May–July, with at least one at each of the following venues:
 * Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park) in Brisbane

Super League

 * Super League Grand Final –

International

 * 2025 Rugby League World Cup - Canada and the United States

Men's

 * 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup, dates and host TBA
 * 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup, dates TBA in several cities in Chile (final most likely in Santiago)
 * 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico; 11 June–19 July (final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, near New York City)

Women's

 * 2024 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in the Dominican Republic, 16 October–3 November
 * 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia, 31 August–22 September
 * 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil, 24 June–25 July

Tennis
Tennis has events throughout the calendar year. The top-level men's tour is the ATP Tour, with the WTA Tour as the women's counterpart. The men's and women's tours come together for the four Grand Slam events and a few other select tournaments throughout the year. The only players to have ever completed the grand slam are Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962 & 1969) in the men's event, and Maureen Connolly (1953), Margaret Court (1965) and Steffi Graf (1988) in the women's event. In addition to these, the Davis Cup (men) and Billie Jean King Cup (women) are the top events for national teams; these operate as multi-level leagues. The top levels (now known as the "Finals" in both events) were traditionally conducted as knockout tournaments, but now use a format similar to that of the FIFA World Cup, with all qualifying nations meeting at a single site for a group stage followed by a knockout stage. A player who wins all four grand slams and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year is said to have completed a golden slam, and the only player to have done so to date was Germany's Steffi Graf in 1988. (The doubles partnership of American identical twins Bob and Mike Bryan, aka the Bryan Brothers, won all of the required events consecutively, but their streak started with the 2012 Olympics, thus spanning two calendar years.)

Grand Slam events
All four of these events are held over two weeks. They are considered to be the pinnacle of the sport of tennis, and are even more prestigious than the Olympics.
 * Australian Open: Ends on the last Sunday in January at Melbourne Park just outside the city centre. Frequently suffers from hot and humid weather in the southern summer, although this has been alleviated by retractable roofs on the three main courts. The final is held in the Rod Laver Arena, which is named after Rod Laver, the only player to have completed a grand slam twice, and the last man to achieve the feat when he did so in 1969.
 * French Open (also known as Roland Garros): Held in late May and early June at Stade Roland Garros in the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arondissement of Paris. Most notable as the only Grand Slam event still held on clay courts.
 * Wimbledon: Begins on the first Monday in July and ends on the second Sunday following at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in the Wimbledon neighbourhood of southwest London. Notable for being the only Grand Slam event held on grass courts, requiring all players to dress only in white, and many other traditions. The most prestigious of the Grand Slams.
 * US Open: Begins on the last Monday in August and ends on the Sunday after the US holiday of Labor Day, celebrated on the first Monday of September. Held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the northern part of the New York City borough of Queens.

Season-ending championships
Both the ATP and WTA have season-ending events for the very top players, with eight players qualifying for the finals in singles and eight teams in doubles. The competitors are divided into two groups of four, each playing a round-robin within the group. The top two finishers in each group advance to the semifinals, with the winners of each semifinal contesting the final.
 * ATP Finals: Mid-November at Pala Alpitour (aka Palasport Olimpico) in Turin, Italy.
 * WTA Finals: Late October–early November in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In the mid-2010s, the WTA Tour launched the WTA Elite Trophy, a second season-ending event for players immediately below those who qualify for the WTA Finals. However, after the 2019 edition, it became a COVID-19 casualty, not resuming until 2023.

Other top-tier events
Both the ATP and WTA have a multi-level hierarchy of events, with the Grand Slam at the top, followed by the season-ending championships and then the events shown here (with other levels below these in both cases). The two tours have differing terminology for this level:
 * ATP: Nine events known as the "ATP Tour Masters 1000". All top players are required to enter these events (barring injury or other misfortune), with the exception of the Monte-Carlo Masters.
 * WTA: The "WTA 1000" was established in 2021 by the merger of the former "Premier Mandatory" and "Premier 5" events. However, the former split between those two categories is still maintained, with only the four former "Premier Mandatory" events requiring that top players enter.
 * Olympics: The tennis event at the Olympics is less prestigious than the Grand Slams, and many top players choose to skip it, while those who compete often do not take it seriously and lose to little-known lower-ranked opponents. That said, players who win all four Grand Slams and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year are said to have completed a golden slam, which is an extremely rare and difficult feat; only one player, Steffi Graf, has managed to do so to date. One doubles team, the Bryan Brothers (American twins Bob and Mike Bryan), won all of the events consecutively, but during a span of two calendar years.

With that in mind, here are the ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 events:
 * Qatar Ladies Open: Mid-February at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha. Non-mandatory; alternates yearly with Dubai between WTA 1000 and lower-level WTA 500 status.
 * Dubai Tennis Championships: Late February at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre. Non-mandatory; alternates yearly with Qatar between WTA 1000 and lower-level WTA 500 status.
 * Indian Wells Masters (men) and Indian Wells Open (women): Early March in Indian Wells, California (near Palm Springs). ATP Masters 1000 and mandatory WTA 1000.
 * Miami Open: Late March–early April at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida (north of the city of Miami). ATP Masters 1000 and mandatory WTA 1000.
 * Monte-Carlo Masters: Mid-April at Monte Carlo Country Club in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, next to Monaco. ATP Masters 1000.
 * Madrid Open: Mid-May at Caja Mágica in Madrid. ATP Masters 1000 and mandatory WTA 1000.
 * Italian Open: Week following the Madrid Open at Foro Italico in Rome. ATP Masters 1000 and non-mandatory WTA 1000.
 * Canadian Open: Early August at Stade IGA in Montreal and Aviva Centre in Toronto. In odd-numbered years, the men play in Montreal and the women in Toronto, and vice versa in even-numbered years. ATP Masters 1000 and non-mandatory WTA 1000.
 * Cincinnati Masters (men) and Cincinnati Open (women): Week after the Canadian Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, northeast of Cincinnati. ATP Masters 1000 and non-mandatory WTA 1000.
 * Wuhan Open: Last week of September at Optics Valley International Tennis Center. Non-mandatory WTA 1000.
 * China Open: Start of October, immediately following the Wuhan Open, at the National Tennis Center in Beijing. Mandatory WTA 1000.
 * Note that the ATP Tour plays here at the same time, but the men's version of the China Open is a fourth-tier 500 Series event.
 * Shanghai Masters: Week after the China Open at Qi Zhong Stadium in the southwest of the city. ATP Masters 1000.
 * Paris Masters: Late October–early November at AccorHotels Arena in the 12th arrondissement. ATP Masters 1000.

Handball
Olympic or team Handball is a fast paced team sport that is mostly played indoors and enjoys considerable popularity in most of continental Europe. The world cup as well as the European championship are major events, second only to soccer. The best national leagues (found in Germany, France and the Nordic countries) battle out a club champion every year. There is also the EHF Champions League which battles out Europe's top club team every year.

Cycling
Road bicycle racing is broadly divided into two race types:
 * Single-day races — Exactly as the name implies, these races are held on a single day at around the same time each year. Some have fixed courses; more have fixed starting and end points with courses varying slightly from year to year. The most prestigious races of this type are often called "classics", but the term is poorly defined.
 * Stage races — Held over more than one day, with one race each day known as a "stage" (though some races, notably the Grand Tours, will include one or two rest days). While there is an award ceremony at the end of each stage, the overall winner is determined by "general classification"—the cumulative time for the entire race.

The most famous road racing events for bicycles in the world are the three stage races known as Grand Tours. They are raced in Italy, France, and Spain but commonly also include legs in other countries. These tours, each featuring 21 stages, involve only men's races, and are even more prestigious than the cycling events at the Olympics.
 * Giro d'Italia - around Italy, usually takes place in May.
 * Tour de France - around France, usually takes place in July. The most prestigious of the three.
 * Vuelta a España - around Spain, usually takes place in August.

While countless single-day races are run, both throughout Europe and worldwide, the most famous are the five races known as "Monuments", all of which were first held between 1890 and 1915.
 * Milan–San Remo (Italian: Milano–Sanremo) – The first major classic of the year, usually on the third Saturday of March on a course between the two named locations. It's considered "the sprinters' classic" because its mostly flat course favors that type of rider.
 * Tour of Flanders (Dutch: Ronde van Vlaanderen) – Held in early April through Belgium's Flanders region between Antwerp and Oudenaarde. The first of the "cobbled classics", with many key sections (including several short but very steep hills) paved in cobblestones.
 * Paris–Roubaix – Probably the most famous single-day race, it's known as the "Queen of the Classics" and l'Enfer du Nord ("The Hell of the North [of France]"). Held one week after the Tour of Flanders, it features even longer stretches of cobblestone roads, making it arguably the hardest single-day race on riders.
 * Liège–Bastogne–Liège – Held in late April in Belgium, this race is nearly as hard on riders as Paris–Roubaix, but for different reasons, namely a long course with numerous short but steep hills in the Ardennes region, as well as an uphill finish in Liège.
 * Giro di Lombardia (officially Il Lombardia) – The year's final Monument, held in October over a course that varies from year to year, with only a few fixed locations, most famously the arduous climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo church in Magreglio near Lake Como. The race ends in either Bergamo or Como. Known as "the climbers' classic" from its many significant climbs.

Cycling is also featured at the Summer Olympics in 4 disciplines; track cycling, road cycling, mountain biking and BMX. With the exception of the men's road cycling discipline, these are generally considered to be the pinnacle of the sport of cycling.

title: Spectator sports


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Internet access

Internet access has become a basic need for many travelers. You may be glad to be free of it for a while, but keeping in contact with family and friends can be cumbersome without it. It is essential for most business travellers and for digital nomads who work while travelling. It may also be useful to access Wikivoyage and other travel-related sites wherever you are in the world.

Understand
Travellers have a wide variety of expectations and expertise regarding the Internet. Some need to be online as much as possible, others not so much. This article gives an overview of what options there are for travellers to connect to the Internet while traveling.

Wi-Fi

Availability of Wi-Fi, especially free Wi-Fi, varies very much by region. In cities in developed countries there are usually lots of Wi-Fi access points, but finding free access points open to the public may require quite some searching. Local laws can hamper accessibility. In Germany a law that was worded in such a way that it could mean the owner of a Wi-Fi connection was liable for any illegal acts done with it and only when this law changed did free open Wi-Fi become common.

Wi-Fi wireless access come in different types:

 * Free and open public access points permit any device to access the Internet via Wi-Fi. These are sometimes provided by hotels, airports, restaurants, malls, libraries, or transportation networks. They are even sometimes available across entire city centres, such as Bristol, Cadiz, and Marseille. Often these require you to start up a browser to accept some terms and conditions before you can access the Internet. They may impose limits on the amount of time for which you can connect or the amount you can download in a day. They may limit access to browsing and email only, and may require registration.
 * Free but secured public access points work in the same way as free and open-access points, require a password to discourage non-patrons of the establishment from using it. These are more likely to be found in restaurants, hotels and airports. If you are a customer, just ask for the password.
 * Private open access points left open by their owners, usually as a friendly gesture to the community.
 * Commercial public-access points. They usually charge per hour or day. Fees can be cheap, reasonable or very high, and can vary widely even within the same locale – even occurring alongside completely free service. A provider may provide free and fee-based Wi-Fi access at the same access point at the same time, with the fee-based access being faster. Such commercial access points are growing increasingly common, especially in areas where travellers are 'trapped' (airports for example). Payment can be by credit card at the time of use, or by prepaid card/voucher, or through an arrangement with your mobile/cell phone carrier.
 * Roaming gives you guest access to private or commercial access points on the basis of some contract or relationship that you have with an institution or company at home. An example is Eduroam, a service that gives members of universities access to the wireless networks of other universities (and sometimes those of cooperating institutions around the city).

Wi-Fi access schemes
Many universities are part of the Eduroam network, allowing Wi-Fi access to their campus networks to students and staff of participating institutions. Get the key and test your configuration before your travel.

Some commercial public-access points participate in a Wi-Fi access scheme such as Boingo, where subscription access can be purchased for a fee, or is included with a credit card. These schemes oftentimes cover a variety of access points. For example, Boingo Wi-Fi includes in-flight Wi-Fi on WestJet and Delta (in addition to other Panasonic systems), and Wi-Fi access to a variety of commercial access points at US Airports and international hotels.

Credit card access to Boingo is the most generous, and almost all Mastercard World Elite tier (and some Mastercard World tier) cardholders can gain free access using Mastercard's partnership with Boingo. Business and Corporate Cards from American Express US sometimes also include free access to GoGo in-flight Wi-Fi, which activates upon entering an American Express credit card number within payment details.

Wi-Fi plans are occasionally offered as niche products by major telecom carriers, such as the US Mobile Wi-Fi access scheme. They are frequently sold out and rarely go on sale. Multinational corporations sometimes subscribe to a Wi-Fi access scheme called iPass for their traveling employees.

Public-access computers

The simplest form of access for the broadest range of users are computers made available to the public, usually for a fee or included as a service for patrons of a hotel, restaurant, or café. These are often available even in the most remote regions of the world, often driven by local demand for access to the Internet. In fact, they are often most common in areas where private, individual access to the Internet is least common. However, there can be difficulties:

 * The only application you can generally count on being fully functional is a web browser, and sometimes some of their plug-ins are disabled. They may lack support to connect your camera, to use Skype, or to read IMAP/POP based email. You will want to make sure your email is accessible with a web interface.
 * In many places, language is an issue. Even if you know your own computer well, using software in Arabic or Chinese will probably pose problems. Usually you can get a web browser to work, but not much else. It's worth being familiar with the keyboard layout of the country you are in (and your own), since the position of some punctuation keys differ, even if their writing system or language is the same as in your home country. You may be able to switch to a keyboard layout where you find the keys you need, but at the cost of not having the engravings on the keys match.
 * Security is an issue, as café computers could have keyloggers and other nasty forms of spyware to capture passwords, or temporary files may be left for other customers to find. See Security concerns below.

Cellular phones
For GSM phones, the worldwide standard pretty much everywhere except Japan and South Korea, GPRS (packet data) is common. The newer UMTS standard and its enhancements HSDPA and HSPA+ are also widely available. Yet another, even faster standard named LTE has become widespread since 2013. While GPRS offers basic modem speeds suitable for email and some browsing (particularly text-heavy rather than graphics-heavy sites), the newer technologies offer speeds comparable to fixed-line broadband. Most modern GSM phones, even very cheap models, are GPRS enabled, and current smartphones are at least HSDPA enabled. Using mobile internet services may require activation with the provider.

International mobile Internet roaming can be ludicrously expensive, so check with your operator at home before you start downloading those multi-megabyte attachments (or enable roaming data connections at all). In EU there are maximum prices, as long as you use an EU based SIM card and network (be careful in border regions and at sea).

Smartphones can use Wi-Fi when in range of an access point, thus reducing costs.

Smartphone apps may generate quite a lot of Internet traffic on their own, such as by checking status or downloading updates. Thus, if you enable roaming Internet access, you are not going to pay only for your conscious Internet use. It may be worth checking how to minimize the "extra" Internet access. When using the phone as gateway, this applies also to programs on your laptop. Some web sites have the web browser downloading content never actually shown (to make the site seem responsive in case you need it), some sites update the content in the background. Check your options to avoid unnecessary traffic.

There are two basic ways of using Internet with your phone:

 * Use mobile Internet to download mail directly to your phone and surf the web. While this can be done on most any modern phone, you will want an iPhone/Android/Windows Phone-type device with a large screen to make this practical.
 * Use mobile Internet to connect another device, typically a laptop, to the Internet. This is normally done with a USB link ("tethering") or a Wi-Fi link ("hotspot"). Be sure to shut down any PC apps which download pointless and costly "updates" in the background; what's tolerable on a fixed broadband connection quickly gets annoying on a dime-a-megabyte local prepaid SIM or a roaming handset.

Using Internet with the phone itself will come in handy if you have a smart phone with apps that help you navigate around the city or check social messaging sites.

The frequencies in use in the Americas, in general, do not match those in the other ITU zones. 850/1900 MHz are common in the Americas, while 900MHz along with 1800 or 2100 are common elsewhere. Unless your handset has the local frequencies, it will not work even if unlocked.

In the US, 4G LTE is widespread and 5G is being rolled out. CDMA is in the process of being discontinued. Of the remaining larger CDMA carriers, Verizon is shutting down CDMA at the end of 2022 and US Wireless is shutting down non-voice call functionality at the end of 2022. AT&T and fourth-ranked T-Mobile use GSM There is also a confusing array of regional carriers and mobile virtual network operators (branded resellers).

Prepaid mobile Internet
Prepaid Internet plans on mobile devices are increasingly becoming more affordable and a local one may be far cheaper than roaming Internet access by your normal provider. With two providers you will have two SIM cards, which means you need to change back and forth to be reachable by your normal phone number, unless you have two devices or a dual SIM phone.

If you have a laptop, you can buy a mobile broadband modem ("connect card", "USB dongle" or similar; see Wireless modems below) for the 3G SIM and leave the phone alone. Some smart phones may also be able to use such an external device for Internet connections. Otherwise you might consider buying a cheap second phone to use for calls from people at home (or all calls). In that case you want to find out how to transfer contact information between the phones (maybe by storing it on the SIM card).

For best results, purchase a prepaid SIM card in the country you are visiting. The prepaid Internet plans come in the form of purchasing data bundles for a fixed price good for a certain number of days. An example of a plan is 200 MB for 3 days available for US$4. You usually need to key-in something on your mobile phone (via the dialling keypad) or send an SMS. The cost is immediately deducted from your prepaid credits and service becomes active instantly. Check with the mobile provider if one day is equivalent to 24 hours or is good until midnight. If the latter, you might want to wait until after midnight before you activate it, or purchase the plan first thing in the morning. If the data plan incurs any recurring charges, be sure to cancel it when you're done.

Most plans that feature more than 30 MB for at least one day is more than enough for mobile Internet surfing, just make sure you go easy on the graphics. Modern phones use a nano-SIM card, with older smartphones using a micro-SIM card, ancient devices using a mini-SIM card (originally the full credit-card sized SIM card was used). These are all compatible except for the size and shape of the plastic. New SIM cards you buy will usually be the 3-in-1 (slightly thinner) kind with perforations so you can tear off the right amount of plastic to make the SIM card the sight size for your phone, but check first.

Public-access phones and tablets
Many shops that sell smartphones and tablets now have a selection of these devices available to the public to try out. Often they are connected to the Internet, allowing you to do a quick web search or two absolutely free, without a device of your own. Just remember not to use any sensitive private information (user names, passwords, credit card numbers).

Wired Ethernet
Wired Ethernet is seldom used by travellers, due to widespread Wi-Fi deployment and because many modern devices lack Ethernet ports. However, USB Ethernet adapters and Ethernet cables can be purchased from computer stores. A wired connection may be more reliable and is potentially faster if you do have access and the upstream connection is by optical fibre.

Some hotel rooms and some other locations will provide standard RJ-45 Ethernet jacks which you can plug your computer into, although these are becoming less common due to widespread Wi-Fi deployment. Usually a local DHCP server will tell your computer its IP address and other connection details, so that the connection is set up automatically – if the connection is allowed.

Internet cafés and libraries often do not allow this kind of access, instead offering public access computers or Wi-Fi (see above).

Wireless modems
Wireless modems for computers are unnecessary if you have a smartphone. Your smartphone can act as a wireless modem either by USB tethering or Wi-Fi hotspotting your laptop or other devices.

Wireless modems are plugged to a desktop or laptop computer via a USB port and will receive a signal from a mobile phone provider, in the same way as if you were using your mobile phone as a modem. A program to connect to the Internet usually starts-up automatically after plugging. If not, printed instructions to install software are provided. These modems should use standard USB protocols, though, and thus be usable with the operating system support alone (but you may have to explicitly enable the connection).

Oftentimes modems are locked to a particular mobile provider and you must purchase the modem and a data SIM card (either prepaid or plan) as a bundle. SIM cards and top-up/recharge chards are usually available at convenience stores, from the provider's service centre or authorised dealer. Mobile broadband plans on a PC are generally affordable and can come as either time-bound or data-bound plans or both. For instance time-bound plans will last you for several hours or days while data-bound plans give you allowance of several hundred megabytes or a few gigabytes. Once your time is up or you have consumed the allowed data of your plan, the service is terminated or you may be charged at the "pay as you go rate" which is much more expensive than the bundled rates.

If you have a modem from before (and it is unlocked or you can unlock it), you can use an ordinary SIM card with a generous enough data plan. In places like Finland you can get prepaid limitless 3G/4G data access for a week for €8.

Satellite
Internet access via satellites has been available for decades, but because of the costs, the use has mostly been professional or very low-volume. Capacity of these systems vary from 2.2 kbit/s to 150 Mbit/s. Costs vary from place to place and are sometimes reduced by special offers, but expect to pay $500 or more for the equipment and from $100 a month or per byte for the data. Latency is an issue, especially for some applications, and varies depending on the satellite configuration and connection strategies.

Accessing email

In many countries it is easier to use email to keep in touch with friends and family back home than it is to call home regularly. Email has advantages over phone calls: it doesn't require you to account for time zone differences before contacting your family, it doesn't cost any more to send e-mail around the world than down the street, and it's possible to contact many people with a single email. Just make sure that the recipients check their email regularly or let them know you will be sending them email from time to time.

Another advantage of email is that messages are easy to document. This comes in handy when you need a written record of accommodations or other arrangements as you can just print it out from a shop or save it on your smart phone.

Webmail provides access to your email over a web interface, and is necessary if you are going to be accessing email from a variety of locations and equipment. An increasing number of email providers such as ISPs are setting up webmail interfaces for their users so that they can check their mail on the road. But many people choose to use one of the dedicated webmail providers, many of whom provide a free service. You may want to set up a separate account also for security reasons, see below.

Network security
Although eavesdropping or tampering of content should not be possible with encrypted connections (https, VPN etc.), they do not hinder an intruder from blocking the connection. If encrypted connections cannot be established and you resort to unencrypted ones instead, that may be exactly what the intruder wanted. Do not send sensitive data over such a connection.

HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)

If you are using your own device, but connecting to a public wireless or wired network (any unfamiliar network) the provider of the network can eavesdrop on any unencrypted communication and read confidential data, or steer the connection to their own servers. However, many websites where this might be a concern — such as banks and corporate sites — make use of encryption to prevent eavesdropping and make it possible for you to notice connection hijacking.

Your web browser does not know where you want to connect, so note the real address at home and look out for similar-looking but different ones, such as banking.example.net instead of banking.example.com or any misspellings in the name (including similar letters in foreign scripts, which may look like being in an odd font).

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

One way to avoid local eavesdropping and manipulation of the connection is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service which changes your global IP address and often the country which websites perceive you to be visiting from.

There are many VPN services available, both free and paid. Carefully scrutinise VPN providers before using one and remember that often free VPNs earn their revenue from selling user activities to advertisers. Also, many universities and bigger employers provide the service for their students and staff to access resources externally.

The Onion Router (TOR)
The Tor project provides Internet connections which are encrypted, and designed to be anonymous and untraceable. Ways to use this service include the project's own Tor browser (Windows, Mac, Linux or Android), an app called Whonix (Windows, Mac, Linux or the security-oriented QubesOS), or a Linux distribution called Tails which boots from USB. The Brave web browser also supports TOR, but this isn't a recommended way to use it.

Public computer security
If you are using a public computer, a common threat to a traveler's Internet security is key loggers and other programs designed to monitor the user's activity for information that can be exploited, such as online banking passwords, credit card numbers, and other information that could be used for identity theft. For this reason, public Internet terminals (such as those found at libraries, hotels, and Internet cafés) should preferably not be used to make online purchases, or access banking information.

Avoid using important passwords on a public computer. Online banking on a public PC is particularly risky, and you should think twice before having your TANs or other security-sensitive data be visible as not only can the computer be unsafe, but there have also been cases of security camera footage being used to spy PINs and TANs. Public libraries are a good source of public-access computers that should be generally trustworthy.

If you have to have access to potentially sensitive information on your journey, such as your professional email account, discuss it with the security staff. Probably you have to carry a trusted device for the purpose. One-time passwords or a temporary account can help with some of the problems.

If you're saving or downloading private files, transfer them directly to your memory stick/thumb-drive if possible and delete the files on the computer's hard drive after use; while some computers automatically do this, others don't. This does not save you from spyware, but avoids having the files accessible by later customers.

If you absolutely must use your online banking or send credit card information using a public terminal, the following precautions should be taken:
 * Check for virus and spyware scanning software on the computer, and ensure it is enabled (this is difficult if the operating system is unfamiliar or the computer is set up not to show such security-sensitive information to visitors).
 * Talk to your bank ahead of time, many banks can enable limits on your online banking profile that, for example, restrict the ability to transfer money to third parties who have not been pre-approved – and if you didn't tell about your journey, they may lock your account when you log in from some unanticipated country.
 * Obtain a credit card with a provider that can issue you temporary, one-shot credit card numbers specifically for use in online purchases.
 * Always be certain you have logged out of your online banking, and shutdown or restart the computer (or the user interface, as visitors may not have the privilege needed for shutdown) before walking away.

Content filters
Some Internet cafés and Internet providers may restrict access to certain websites based on content. Common restricted content includes: sexual content, content unsuitable for children, commercial competitors and political content of certain types. The blocks can be wide-ranging, blocking for example, any site that includes the word "breast". With some misfortune any site might be blocked by mistake. They may also block access to certain types of traffic, for example web (HTTP or HTTPS), e-mail (POP or IMAP), remote shell (SSH).

Political firewalls
Several countries (for example China) have a policy of blocking access to different areas of the Internet at a country level. The description below is based on China's access policy, but applies to several other countries (such as Cuba, Myanmar, Syria, South Korea, North Korea, Iran, Thailand, Singapore, the European Union...).

Typically the following sites may be blocked: human-rights NGOs' sites; opposition sites; universities; news outlets (BBC, CNN, etc.); blogging or discussion forums; webmail; social media; search engines; and proxy servers. Often they will duplicate the sites that have been blocked but (not so) subtly modify the content. Websites, pages, or URLs containing certain banned keywords may also be blocked. The firewalls may block non-political content such as pornography, and may also block some foreign websites as a form of economic protectionism to help domestic competitors. Some sites may not be blocked completely but instead slowed down to the point of being virtually unusable.

Due to Russian's invasion of Ukraine, access to Russian news sites like RT and Sputnik News is blocked in the European Union, as are posts from these outlets on social media sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

IP geofiltering
An increasing number of services on the Internet are restricted to IP address ranges corresponding to a certain country/countries. If you try to access those services from outside that country, you will be blocked. Examples include video-on-demand (Movielink, BBC iplayer, Channel 4), web radio (Pandora), and news. Content providers want to make sure their service is only available to residents within the right jurisdiction, often to avoid possible copyright breaches or data privacy regulations in other countries. IP geofiltering is a simple, if somewhat crude way of achieving this. For travellers this can be very frustrating, since the system discriminates based on where your computer (or a proxy you use) is located, not on who you are and where you live. So even if you have legitimately signed up for a movie rental service in the US, you can no longer use it while you are spending a week in the UK. YouTube also blocks a lot of its content based on the location of its users.

Fortunately there are straightforward ways of getting around IP-geofiltering. Your best option is to re-route your Internet traffic via an IP address in your country of origin, typically by using a VPN or a proxy configured to hide the original IP address (see below). The service will then think that your computer is located there and allow access.

VoIP blocking
Certain Internet providers and hotels around the world have started the practice of blocking all VoIP traffic from their networks. Though they usually justify this with esoteric explanations such as "to preserve network integrity", the real reason is normally much simpler: VoIP allows travellers to make free or very cheap phone calls, and the authority/company in question wants to force the user to make expensive phone calls over its plain old telephone land line. In the worst case, VoIP traffic can be blocked in a whole country (this tends to happen in countries with a state telephone monopoly). Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are known for blocking VoIP services.

The best anti-VoIP-blocking measure available to the average traveller is a VPN provider (see below). Make sure that you choose a VPN provider with sufficient bandwidth, otherwise your phone calls may suffer from poor quality, disconnects, or delays.

Signal jamming
Some venues attempt to interfere with mobile telephones and their associated data services by willfully transmitting interference on the same frequencies. A more subtle variant transmits fraudulent data packets; a handset can be tricked into connecting to a bogus base station instead of a real carrier's towers, or a client-owned mobile Wi-Fi hotspot may be disrupted by sending bogus "dissociate" packets to disconnect the user. By their nature, the interfering signals don't abruptly stop at the edge of the offending vendor's property but fade gradually into free space at a rate based on the square of the distance to the interference source. For this reason, jamming devices are illegal to operate (and often illegal to sell) in most industrialised Western nations, with rare exceptions granted for prisons or sensitive government installations. In 2014, the US Federal Communications Commission levied a $600,000 fine against the Marriott hotel chain for jamming client-owned mobile Wi-Fi hotspots on the convention floor of one of its hotels in Nashville.

If the Wi-Fi connection between a mobile handset and a portable computer is being subjected to unlawful interference, replacing the wireless link with a USB "tether" cable will mitigate the problem; the same is not true if the signal from the upstream cellular telephone network is being jammed. In developed nations, complaints to federal broadcast regulators will usually get the interference shut down... eventually. By then, the traveller who reported the interference has most often already left. Putting as much distance as possible between the affected device and the interference source is the only effective solution in the short term.

Internet shutdown
Particularly during large demonstrations and contingencies, governments may shut down the entire Internet for security reasons. Iran and India did it in 2019 to suppress local protests, while the same was also observed in Myanmar in 2021 during the coup. In such case, even the best VPN can't help with such situation, and you may have to rely on other communication methods.

Mesh networking mobile applications like FireChat and Bridgefy may be useful, but their short-transmission distance is limited, and data sent by these applications can be insecure.

Apart from politically motivated shutdowns, domestic Internet services may also be suspended due to natural disasters, improper operation of ISPs, or simply accidental damage to Internet cables.

Getting access
In general, if using someone else's connection you will need to be careful about evading their filters. Doing so will almost certainly end your contract to use it if you're discovered evading a firewall through a connection you're paying for, and might upset someone even if you aren't. In some areas evading firewalls may be a criminal offence; this even applies in some Western countries when evading content filters aimed at blocking pornographic content.

In addition, unintentional disclosure of your personal information can make circumventing censorship dangerous. Especially for political censorship, there could be government officials tapping on the censored website watching for unwelcomed opinion and hints of the speaker. Political activists could also take advantage of doxxing to harass adversaries. See for privacy tips.

Proxy servers

The most common (and straightforward) way to avoid blocks on certain websites is to connect to a proxy server and have that proxy server connect to the blocked site for you. However, the organisations doing the blocking know this, and regularly block access to the proxy servers themselves. If you are likely to need access to sites which are commonly blocked at your destination, it is most likely that you will be able to get access through an unadvertised proxy server you set up yourself or have a friend set up for you. There is a risk if you search for too many 'naughty' keywords (like 'counter revolution') you'll get the proxy taken down or blocked. Proxies that use an encrypted protocol (such as https or ssh) are immune to this, but the protocols themselves are sometimes blocked.

Some gateways (for example, those in China) monitor not only where you connect but also the data transferred: thus many sites are not accessible at all with an unencrypted connection. One workaround is to use an ssh tunnel to connect to a proxy server outside the country via an ssh server, from a local port (e.g. 4321), then to connect to the proxy server like that.

If you're interested in seeing what might be blocked from inside the firewalls before you leave, it is sometimes possible to surf through a proxy server in the country you're going to be going to.

VPN providers
A VPN ("virtual private network") creates an encrypted tunnel to your provider and by default directs your internet traffic to go via them, thus not showing the real endpoint to local routers and firewalls. They are an excellent way of circumventing both political censorship and commercial IP-geofiltering. They are superior to web proxies for several reasons: They re-route all Internet traffic, not only http. They normally offer higher bandwidth and better service. They are encrypted and thus harder to spy on. They are less likely to be blocked than proxy servers.

Many people have access to a VPN of their employer or university. If you don't, or don't want to use it, there are commercial VPN providers, whom you can sign up with. Most work like this: You sign up with the provider who gives you an account name and password. Then you use a VPN program to log on to their server. This creates an encrypted tunnel that re-routes your Internet traffic to that server. Prices range from €5 to €50 per month (US$7–70), depending on bandwidth, quality, and security. Routing all traffic through the tunnel requires admin access, so unless you configure that yourself, you have to use a provider you trust.

Logging on to a VPN is very straightforward on Windows machines since their built-in VPN program is usually available to ordinary users. As long as you know your username, password, and server address, you are likely to be able to use VPN from most Internet cafés. Since VPN is encrypted, there is no way for the connection provider to filter the sites you are accessing. However, VPN offers no protection against snooping software installed on the computer itself, so it's always a better idea to use it from your own laptop.

VPNs are routinely used by millions of business travellers to connect securely to their office computers or to access company documents. Therefore, they are tolerated in all but the most repressive dictatorships. It is unlikely that simply connecting to a VPN will attract attention in China for instance. However, in a small number of autocratic regimes (Cuba, Iran) the mere usage of VPN is illegal and can land you in prison, although this penalty may not be applied to tourists.

Tor
Tor is a worldwide network of encrypted, anonymizing web proxies. It is designed primarily for the purpose of making an internet user untraceable by the owner of the site he/she visits. However, it can also be used for circumventing filters and firewalls. Unlike other methods explained in this section, Tor automatically rotates the servers used to access the internet, making it harder to discover your identity. However, there are only around 3000 Tor servers in the world, and their IP addresses are public knowledge, making it easy for governments and organizations to block them. Even so, new Tor servers join the network all the time, and if you wait patiently, you may connect to one that isn't blocked yet. The Tor Project has introduced a function which allows for connection to unlisted bridges (no public database), intended to circumvent oppressive governments, but this feature is difficult to use.

Using Tor requires installation of software and usually also a plug-in for the browser.

SSH access
SSH (Secure Shell) is a good way of tunneling traffic other than http. However, you will normally need access to a server to use SSH. If not provided by your university or employer, this can be expensive. Using your or your friend's home PC is not too difficult, but requires either a static IP address or a way to figure out the current dynamic one. The home PC should be on at any time when you want to connect (also after a power outage; have someone check it from time to time). See also below.

 * If you control the server via which you want to connect, you can have your processes listen on ports that are unlikely to be blocked. A common technique is to have an SSH daemon listening on port 443, the secure HTTPS port, which is rarely blocked. This must be set up before going to the location with blocks on usual connections.
 * If you have SSH access to a third server, connect via SSH to that server, and utilise SSH port forwarding to open up a tunnel connection to the target server.

Filtering junk
As your connections will be slow or expensive, at least from time to time, it may be worthwhile setting up some filtering mechanism, so that you get just the data you want. Some of the advice is easy to heed, some requires quite some know-how.

E-mail
For e-mail, most servers have junk mail filtering software in place. Often you can choose the level of filtering, sometimes set up your own filters. A common setup is that obvious junk is denied or deleted on sight, while probable junk is saved in a separate junk mail folder. If much junk gets through with your current settings, you could change the threshold, such that only real mail gets through, and check the folder for probable junk only when you have a good connection. You might want to temporarily unsubscribe from some high volume email lists.

With more elaborate options, you can direct non-urgent mail (such as that of many mailing lists) to separate folders, to be checked later. If you are downloading all of the message when reading it (mostly, unless using a web interface), you could filter away large attachments (keep an unfiltered copy in a separate folder for later viewing). There is software to convert most documents to plain text, you might be able to use it to convert attachments so that you can view some of them without downloading the original versions. Ask your friends to send only plain text email, configuring their e-mail software to not send HTML, if possible.

Any setup which uses amateur radio as a gateway to transfer e-mail from the open Internet will by necessity use a "whitelist" approach; any mail arriving at the Internet side from anyone not in an address book at the gateway is rejected. A "ham" radio gateway is an inherently-slow connection which is effective for getting small amounts of mail to disaster areas or watercraft at sea, but its operators are legally prohibited from sending commercial traffic on amateur frequencies – hence their zero-tolerance on gating advertising or spam.

If you use a web server for reading mail, you might want to limit the bells and whistles of the web interface. If this is impractical and you can filter your e-mail, you might want to use the web service only when normal e-mail access is blocked – but many providers do not advertise or even provide normal (IMAP) mail access.

Proxies
There are proxy services providing filtered web content, mostly intended for web access with mobile phones, where heavy graphics, javascript and untidy HTML code were a big problem before 3G and powerful smartphones. Some filters are available specifically for personal computers, often targeted at removing advertisements and big brother features. With some browsers you can turn off loading third party content (mostly advertisements) and in some other ways restrict what pages are downloaded. A proxy is needed to filter unwanted content of the file to be downloaded, such as inline junk. To use a proxy is easily configured in the browser, but to choose and configure a proxy to your needs is more work.

The extreme lightweight solution is to use text based access (terminal emulator + SSH) to a computer with good connections (at home or wherever) running the e-mail and browser programs (e.g. alpine and elinks). This was the standard way to have Internet access in the old days of 14.4 kbit/s, and still works at least for e-mail (some configuring may be necessary if you have friends writing their e-mail with office suites – and images might have to be explicitly downloaded before view).

Servers
For some travellers, it may be worthwhile to set up a server in your home country or a third country (or perhaps just arrange access to an employer or client's server) before hitting the road. Management and use will be easier if the server has a static IP address or proper DNS records; most ISPs can provide this, but they may charge extra for it.

Among the possible advantages: There are many ways to set up such a machine.
 * off-site backups for your portable machine
 * some data may be more secure if it is not kept on a portable machine, and is accessed only via encrypted network connections
 * having more computing power available than a portable machine can reasonably provide
 * the ability to run services that would be difficult to manage on a portable machine, such as Git for source code management, Mastodon for social networking, or your own email server
 * run your own proxy service which hides your location and can protect the portable machine from various attacks and annoyances
 * access to media that have geographic restrictions (many files and some entire sites); for example if an online movie or TV channel is available only in the US, you can view it anywhere if you have a server in the US
 * having your own VPN or Tor server, needed in countries like China where the Great Firewall blocks most public VPN servers. This will give you access to other sites that the firewall blocks, notably many social networking sites and Western media. China is by no means the only country with such restrictions; see the Connect section of the article on your intended destination(s) to check.

Many companies (especially the smaller local ISPs) will happily host a server for you, though some can accommodate only rackmount machines. This gives you the advantages of their infrastructure – high-speed net connection, clean power with backup, air conditioning, a firewall and likely an intrusion detection system, often backup of your data to one of their machines (but perhaps you need to encrypt the backups). Most will rent you a suitable machine too, and provide service in the event of hard drive failures or other problems. They may also offer a virtual server, i.e. something that looks like a server regarding functionality, but shares hardware with other virtual servers. The latter has most of the advantages of having your own server, and is more flexible than a physical server. If you find you need more resources, those can be provided just by changing the configuration of your virtual machine.

Also many cloud companies (including small ones) can provide a virtual server. Some can offer the services you need without your having to take any responsibility for technical administration.

If you go for your own, you need to arrange for somebody to have physical access to it. Ideally it has backup power (an UPS, in essence an external battery), closes down during extended power breaks and boots up cleanly. But if there is some kind of failure, you don't want to travel overseas to fix it. It is also good if somebody exchanges external disks once a week or something, taking backups elsewhere, as a power surge – or a cracker – could destroy any backup media that is electrically connected. Unauthorised access could have been granted through a trojan on your laptop, in which case both it and the server may be compromised simultaneously. In any case, you need to take care (or have somebody else take care) of the security of the server, such as configuring firewalls and installing security updates.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Internet access


text:
Introdacqua

Introdacqua  is a town in the Italian Province of  L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region.

Get in
The best way to get to Introdacqua is to take the train to Sulmona (the closest town with a station). From Sulmona take a 15 minute cab ride into Introdacqua. You can also catch a bus from Sulmona (tickets from tobacconist, timetables from the Information Centre, departing from the bus-stop beside the park). It's only a few km from Sulmona, so you could walk.

Get around
If your not brave enough to rent a car (I wasn't) then just use your feet. The town is so small you can cover all the hills in one day at a very steady pace.

See

 * Sagra della porchetta e del prosciutto (Feast of Pork Sandwiches and Prosciutto)

Do
What to do? Relax, Enjoy, Breath! That all there really is to do here. Visit the town square, the church, the cemetery, and the tower. Meet the local Italians!

The high part of Introdacqua is old (10th Century) and a mix of ruins and renovated apartments. Check out the square tower. In the lower part of the town is the Palazzo of the Trasmondi Marquises and a lot of quaint 18th century houses with iron balustrades.

Buy

 * Be sure to go to Sulmona and purchase some confetti (Italian almond candy).

Eat

 * La Trota (The Trout) - not just fish. Some seriously good food. Bring your appetite but not much $.

Carlo will make you anything you wish, he is kind of like a genie! Beyond great food, seriously

Sleep

 * Hotel La Trota - 16 nicely outfitted rooms +39 0864 47154

Go next

 * Make a visit to Pacentro family home of Madonna and the Ciccone family.

title: Introdacqua


text:
Inuktitut phrasebook

Inuktitut (ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ) is the name for the varieties of Inuit spoken in Canada. It is an Eskimo-Aleut language that is known for having lots of very long agglutinative words, owing to the fact that there are a very large number of infixes (parts of speech which modify the meaning of a word), but it does not have the same irregularities as Indo-European languages. There is also a rumour that the language has hundreds of different words for snow; in reality there are only four (these four are: spread-out snow - aput, snow like salt - pokaktok, newly-drifted snow - akelrorak and soft snow - mauyaôlertok). There are a few (not hundreds) of words relating to snow eg. snow block (auverk), igloo (iglu), snow knife (panar), snow on clothes, boots etc. (ayak). It is primarily spoken in the territory of Nunavut, as well as in the northern regions of Quebec province.

Vowels

 * A a : Like "a" in "cat".
 * E e : Like "e" in "bet".
 * I i : Like "ee" in "feet".
 * O o : Like "o" in "hot".
 * U u : Like "u" in "put".

Consonants

 * D d : Like "d" in "dad".
 * G g : Like "g" in "get".
 * J j : Like "y" in "yet".
 * K k : Like "k" in "oak".
 * L l : Like "l" in "let".
 * M m : Like "m" in "man".
 * N n : Like "n" in "no".
 * P p : Like "p" in "pan".
 * Q q : Like "c" in "car" but deeper in the throat.
 * R r : Like "r" in "road".
 * S s : Like "sh" in "shot".
 * T t : Like "t" in "stop".
 * W w : Like "w" in "wet".
 * Y y : Like "y" in "yet".

Common diphthongs

 * kr : Like "k" in "king" but pronounced deep in the throat. Like "cr" in "cream".
 * ng : Like "ng" in "sing".
 * dlerk : Like "ts lurk" in "cats lurk".

Phrase list

 * Hello. : Ai. (Ey)
 * How are you? : Qanuipit? (Kan-oo-ee-peet)
 * Fine, thank you. : Qaniungi. (Kan-ee-oo-ngee)
 * What is your name? : Kinauvit? (Keen-a-oo-veet?)
 * My name is ______ . : Uvanga _____ativa (Oov-a-nga _____at-ee-va)
 * Nice to meet you. : Nice to meet you. (NIGHSS t' meet YOO)
 * Please. : Please. (pleez)
 * Thank you. : Naqurmiik. (Nak-urm-eek)
 * You're welcome. : Ilaali. (Eel-a-lee)
 * Yes. : Î. (Ee)
 * No. : Nakka. (Nak-a)
 * Excuse me. (getting attention) : Excuse me. (ehkz-KYOOZ mee)
 * Excuse me. (begging pardon) : Excuse me. (ehkz-KYOOZ mee)
 * I'm sorry. : Ogguarpunga. (Og-oo-ar-pu-nga)
 * Goodbye (to one person): Tavvauvutit. (Tav-a-oov-oo-teet)
 * Goodbye (to many people): Tavvauvusi. (Tav-a-oov-oo-see)
 * I can't speak Inuktitut [well]. : I can't speak Inuktitut [well]. (IGH cant speek IN-ook-tee-toot [wehl])
 * Do you speak English? : Do you speak English? (doo YOO speek ING-lush?)
 * Is there someone here who speaks English? : Is there someone here who speaks English? (IZ thayr SUM-wun heer hoo speekz ING-lush?)
 * Help! : Ikajunga! (Ee-ka-yu-nga!)
 * Look out! : Look out! (look OWT!)
 * Good morning. : Ulaakut. (Ool-ak-oot)
 * Good evening. : Good evening. (guhd EEV-ning)
 * Good night. : Unnukkut. (Oon-oo-koot)
 * Good night (to sleep) : Good night. (good NIGHT)
 * I don't understand. : Tukisinngittung. (Too-kees-ee-ng-toong)
 * Where is the toilet? : Where is the toilet? (WAYR iz thuh TOY-leht?)

Numbers (system in the Greenlandic)
½ - helvä

0 - nul

1 - äts

2 - mare

3 - pen

4 - sisa

5 - tela

6 - arit

7 - arimare

8 - aripen

9 - arisisa

10 - gelu

11 - aqnat

12 - aqnamare

13 - aqnapen

14 - aqnasisa

15 - aqnatel

16 - asut

17 - asumare

18 - asupen

19 - asusisa

20 - marghi

30 - marghâtgelut

40 - penghi

50 - penghâtgelut

60 - sisughi

70 - sisughâtgelut

80 - telaghi

90 - telaghâtgelut

100 - hontrat

200 - mare-hontræt

500 - pen-hontræt

1000 - tuszint

2000 - mare-tuszænt

5000 - pen-tuszænt

10000 - gelu-tuszænt

100000 - huntrat-tuszænt

1000000 - äts-milyin

Colors

 * Orange aupajaangajug
 * Blue - tungujuqtag
 * Purple tungujuangajug
 * Pink aupajaattug
 * Brown kajug
 * Black girni taq
 * White qakuqtaq.

title: Inuktitut phrasebook