In 2027, the Rugby World Cup comes to Australia, and for the first time it brings 24 teams. From the opening match in Perth on 1 October to the final in Sydney on 13 November, six weeks of rugby play out across the country, in stadiums from the west coast to the east. For anyone who has ever wanted a real reason to see Australia, this is it.
Here’s the part most fans miss, though. The matches are only a few hours of a six-week tournament. The rest is Australia itself, sitting right outside the stadium. So rather than fly in for a game and straight out again, we build the rugby into a proper trip, with the days between matches spent seeing the country that’s hosting it. Travel between cities handled, the right places to stay, and the best of each region folded in around your fixtures.
The matches are the start, not the whole trip
Once you’ve sorted your match tickets, that’s where we step in. We’ve already started building Rugby World Cup trips for fans, and no two look the same. One traveller is flying into Adelaide for a match, so we’re turning it into a proper Australian journey: a few days in South Australia’s wine country, a private day on Kangaroo Island, then the drive back towards Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road, timed to reach the stands for the next game.
That’s the point of a custom trip. The days between matches are yours, and there’s no end to what you can do with them. You tell us which games you’re going to, your team’s pool matches, a quarter-final, or the final itself, and we’ll shape the journey around them, handling the accommodation, the travel between cities, the timing and the local experiences, so all you have to think about is the rugby and the country around it.
Insider tip: You don’t have to be a lifelong fan to feel it. Maybe you’ve always wanted to see a haka in the flesh, and it isn’t only the All Blacks who bring one: several Pacific nations have their own pre-match challenge, every bit as stirring. Tell us what you’re after and we’ll point you to the matches worth building a trip around.
1. Perth: where it all kicks off
Where: Western Australia
The tournament opens here on 1 October, under lights at Perth’s 60,000-seat stadium on the banks of the Swan River. Perth is the most relaxed of the host cities, all wide beaches and long evenings, and it makes an easy, unhurried place to begin. A short ferry offshore lies Rottnest Island, home to the quokka, the small, permanently cheerful-looking marsupial that has become the most photographed animal in the country. Inland, the Margaret River region pours some of Australia’s best wine within easy reach of the coast.
Insider tip: Give yourself a couple of days either side of the opening match. Perth sits a long way from the eastern cities, so it rewards a proper stop rather than a flying visit, and a day on Rottnest, all white sand and clear water, is the gentlest possible way to ease into the trip.
2. Brisbane: rugby in the sunshine
Where: Queensland
Brisbane brings matches to a stadium that has staged some of rugby’s biggest nights, in a city built for the outdoors. It’s also the gateway to the best of Queensland. Close to the city, you can hold a koala and hand-feed kangaroos at a riverside wildlife sanctuary, reached by an easy cruise up the Brisbane River. North of here, the coast unspools into the Sunshine Coast’s beaches and, further up still, the Great Barrier Reef, an easy add-on for the days when there’s no rugby to be at.
Insider tip: If your fixtures bring you to Brisbane, it’s worth turning the trip north. A few days on the reef or the Sunshine Coast turns a match weekend into the holiday, and it’s all on the same side of the country, so the travel stays simple.
3. Melbourne: the city that lives for sport
Where: Victoria
Few cities take sport as seriously as Melbourne, and its matches are played under the only roof in the tournament, so the weather never gets a vote. Off the field, Melbourne is Australia’s food capital: laneway coffee, hidden bars and some of the country’s best eating, most of it found by wandering. When you’re ready to leave the city, two of Victoria’s great days out are close at hand: the Great Ocean Road, where the limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles stand offshore, and Phillip Island, where little penguins come ashore at dusk.
Insider tip: Build in a few days on the Great Ocean Road between matches. Time the Twelve Apostles for late afternoon, when the tour buses thin out and the low sun lights the stacks gold, and you’ve got one of the country’s great coastal drives almost to yourself.
4. Sydney: where it ends
Where: New South Wales
It all comes down to Sydney. The final is played here on 13 November, at the 82,000-seat stadium that hosted the 2003 decider, and there’s no better city for the climax of a tournament. Even if your trip doesn’t end with the final, Sydney is the one host city no first visit should skip: the Opera House and Harbour Bridge framing the water, ferries crisscrossing the harbour, and the Blue Mountains rising an easy day trip to the west. Our favourite way in is from the water, on a cruise that traces the foreshore with the Opera House and bridge always somewhere in the frame.
Insider tip: If a seat at the final is part of your plans, build the whole trip around it. Tell us early and we’ll shape the route so you arrive in Sydney with the best of the country already seen, and nothing left to do but enjoy the day.
Help Without the Hassle
A trip like this has a lot of moving parts: flights between host cities, the right place to stay on a busy match weekend, and the days in between to fill. That’s quietly what we’re for. We handle the timings, the travel between cities and the places to stay, so you can turn up to each match without a logistics worry in sight, then make the most of the country around it. You watch the rugby. We’ll take care of the rest.
Start planning your 2027
The Rugby World Cup is more than a year out, which makes now the right time to start. Once the draw is released, the best places to stay near the host cities go quickly and match weekends fill fast, so an early start lets us secure the right accommodation and smooth the route. Tell us your team, the matches you’ll be at, and how much of Australia you’d like to see around them, and we’ll build a private trip that makes the most of every day you’re not at the ground.
