Mexico City opens the tournament tomorrow. The final is July 19 in New Jersey. In between: 104 matches, 16 cities, 3 countries, and a projected 1.24 million international visitors who are already there or on their way. This is the travel guide to all of it.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the first with 48 teams, the first with three co-hosts, and the first with more than 100 matches. It is also, by almost every measure, the largest sporting event ever staged. A 5 billion television audience is projected for the final. The tournament runs 39 days — a week longer than any previous World Cup. And the host cities span a continent: from Vancouver in the northwest to Mexico City and Guadalajara in the south, with eleven American cities in between covering everything from Miami to Dallas to Boston.

For the traveller, this creates something genuinely new: a mega-event that rewards city knowledge across sixteen different places, each with its own character, food, transport system, and things to do outside the stadium. Most match guides tell you how to get to the ground. This one tells you what to do with the other 22 hours.

The US carries the tournament’s weight: 11 cities, 78 of 104 matches, all games from the quarterfinals onward. Mexico hosts the opening match and provides three cities. Canada has two. The combination creates a travelling circus that crosses four time zones and three very different travel cultures — all within a single tournament.

For the first time, 48 teams are split into 12 groups of four. The top two from each group advance automatically to the round of 32, along with the eight best third-placed teams. Defending champions Argentina open in Group J. England is in Group L. The United States opens against Paraguay. Mexico hosts the opening match against South Africa at the Azteca — the first stadium to host matches at three separate World Cups.

The match is 90 minutes. The city is the rest of the trip. Every World Cup host this year has a Wingman itinerary — here are the highlights for the cities where most international visitors will land.

Mexico City — the tournament’s spiritual home

The Estadio Azteca becomes the first venue to host matches at three separate World Cups tomorrow. Mexico City has 22 million people, 7,000-year-old ruins within the city limits, and a food scene that has been ranked among the world’s best for fifteen consecutive years. The Centro Histórico around the Zócalo, the floating gardens of Xochimilco, the Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacán, and the Templo Mayor archaeological site in the middle of the city are all within a Mexico City Wingman itinerary. The city runs at altitude — 2,240 metres — which affects everything from beer strength to walking pace.

New York / New Jersey — the final on July 19

MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford is 30 minutes from Midtown Manhattan by train. The final is July 19. New York City requires no introduction, but it does require a walking itinerary — the distances between things that look close on the map and the things that are close on foot are often very different. Wingman’s New York routes cover the five boroughs with neighbourhood-level detail. The High Line, the Brooklyn Bridge walk, the Whitney Museum, the East Village food circuit, and the ferry to Staten Island and back (free and one of the best city views available) are all in the app.

Los Angeles — 8 matches, SoFi Stadium

LA does not have a walkable centre in the European sense, but it has walkable neighbourhoods that reward the traveller who commits to one area per day. Silver Lake, Echo Park, Venice Beach, Koreatown, and the Arts District each have their own character. Wingman’s LA itinerary includes audio context at the Getty Center, the Griffith Observatory, and the Grand Central Market — all reachable on the Metro, all in the app.

Miami — third place match

Miami in July is hot and humid, but the city is designed for it. South Beach, Wynwood’s street art district, Little Havana, and Brickell are all distinct enough to fill separate days. The Wynwood Walls alone justify an afternoon. Wingman’s Miami itinerary covers food recommendations in Little Havana that the tourist guides have not caught up with yet.

Dallas — the most matches of any US city

Nine matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, including a semifinal. Dallas proper — Deep Ellum, the Bishop Arts District, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science — is 25 minutes from the stadium and significantly more interesting than the stadium’s surrounding area. Wingman’s Dallas itinerary covers the city’s arts and food scene with audio context at the key cultural sites.

Arriving in a city you have never visited, during the most attended sporting event in history, with 50,000 other fans who have the same questions about where to eat, how to get to the stadium, and what to do the next morning — this is exactly the situation a city guide app is built for.

The 39 days ahead

The group stage runs June 11 to June 27. The round of 32 follows immediately. The final is July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, with Coldplay confirmed for the half-time show — the first World Cup final to feature one, modelled on the NFL Super Bowl format.

Between the opening match tomorrow in Mexico City and the final in New Jersey on July 19, sixteen cities across three countries will be the most visited places on Earth for their respective match days. Most fans arrive a day or two early, explore for a few hours, and leave knowing almost nothing about the city they were in. The ones who use the time well come back with a different relationship to a place they had only seen on television.

Wingman has itineraries for every host city. Type any one of them. Pick your days. 45 seconds and you have a plan that covers the match, the morning before it, and everything after the final whistle.