Hi - We have two boys 10 and 11 and live in Idaho. They have just become the greatest NFL Football Fans. For Christmas they both have asked to go to a "Real" game. My question is....does anyone have information on any package deals - air, hotel, game tickets, shuttle. Dont even know where to start for the best deal. They would be happy going to any game anywhere but, they are big fans of Greenbay and St. Louis. I know it might not be possible this year - but I could start on some awesome plans for next year. Thanks for any suggetions you may have.

Start by contacting travel agents associated with sports--check the Sporting News. Also consider contacting teams directly re tickets and then going to your travel agent for the rest. Teams can be found thru nfl.com and click on favorite team.

All Green Bay games are sold out. I suppose you can find scalper tickets. I am not sure there is a whole lot to do in Green Bay besides the game on a football weekend.

Another alternative is check out college bowl games--held in nice places and tickets/trips planned through the universities involved. The kids would go wild if you told them on Christmas morning that the whole family was leaving in three days for the Rose Bowl!!!!

Teddy- Thank you for your information.
Just want you to know that we dont have to go to Greenbay or St. Louis to watch them play. We are willing to go to any of their games or even see any teams. It probably would be cheaper to fly closer to home. (Idaho) If anyone has been to games and has any do's or dont's once we get there that would be helpful too! Thanks!

Additional info. You can go to nfl.com and then click on the Rams or Packers site to see if they have a game post Xmas (might have one before playoffs). May be easier to get tickets to that game as playoffs may already be decided. Could be an away game for those teams.

Hints. If it is an away game for your kids favorite team (e.g. Packers playing in Seattle) do not advise wearing Packers/Rams gear (shirts/hats) to stadium for game. Too many Bozos hassle opposing fans. Do go to game EARLY to watch practice up close. If possible stay at team hotel--may get autographs easier and can "bump" into players on elevator. Don't go to night games or even 4 pm starts with kids---too much time for "fans" to drink all day and come to game rowdy and drunk. Pick city wisely-if northern city in late fall/winter--should be domed Minnesotta, Detroit, etc).

Good luck.

Thanks Teddy - Great Info. here! Please reply again if you think of anything else.

rg, Why don't you come to San Diego the weekend after Christmas? On Friday, Dec. 27, the Holiday Bowl will be played here and on Sunday Dec. 29, the San Diego Chargers will play the Seattle Seahawks. The weather will probably be good, althought it's very windy and chilly today (by our standards!). You could do both games and your boys would be HAPPY!!! For the Holiday Bowl go to www.holidaybowl.com and for the Chargers, go to www.chargers.com. The Seahawks, who might have packages to suit your needs, are probably www.seahawks.com.

rg, you might want to take a look at ticket prices for upcoming games on ebay to get an idea of what tickets to various games and venues are going for. Tickets for Green Bay home games regularly sell for a MINIMUM of $150 and since they are in playoff contention, that's not likely to become any more reasonable. Even Green Bay "away" games can become very pricey. For example, I carry four season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings and I've never sold them for less than four times face value and sometimes more. St. Louis is probably a relatively tough ticket now that they've won a few games too, but you can check the listings.

It's a lot easier to arrange this kind of thing when you have the whole season to work with, since there are some venues such as New Orleans where the home teams have a much more difficult time selling out their stadiums. You also have better traveling weather and lower demand travel periods to work with since at this point, you're going to begin bumping into holiday period fares for some of the games that are left.

I also think coming to San Diego would be a good call. The Holiday Ball and the Charger-Seattle games would be great. Our weather is usually great around that time. We have a tour agency that we have gone to all the away games in San Diego and could make all your arrangements. It is US Tours - phone number 858-527-0888.

New Orleans is a good choice although it's probably not an easy flight connection from Idaho. The Saints do consistently sell out but the local fans have a knack of waiting until 3 days prior (the TV blackout time) to purchase the last 5-6,000 tickets! This means that by planning ahead it's easy to buy tix. Kids may like the Aquarium, zoo and other good kid-friendly attractions in N.O. I live in Memphis and visit every other month and my kids love N.O.

St. Louis is in the same division as the Seattle Seahawks, so they'll play in Seattle every year.

In fact, this year St. Louis plays in Seattle on 12/22--just a few weeks away. I just checked Ticketmaster, and they've got upper-level seats between the 5 and 15 yard lines for $52 apiece (plus Ticketmaster fees). (These seats are under cover, which in Seattle in December is a good thing.) I sat in the upper level end-zone seats for a game last month, and I could see everything--there really isn't a bad seat in the place. There were lots of people selling tickets outside the stadium--but I don't know what prices they were asking. It'd probably be better just to get the tickets via Ticketmaster so you don't have to worry about it.

If you're near Boise, Southwest often has cheap flights to Seattle. Unfortunately, with this little time to work with before 12/22 (and that's the weekend before Christmas, when empty seats are hard to come by), I don't know that you'll be able to find convenient flights to and from Seattle that would get you home in time for Christmas.

Priceline could likely get you a good deal on a nice hotel in downtown Seattle. See BiddingForTravel.com for info. If you bid on a 4* downtown hotel using the "free rebid" method (detailed in the Hotel FAQs on BiddingForTravel), you can get up to 9 bids to get a 4* hotel. (I notice on BiddingForTravel that someone got the Elliott Grand Hyatt for $40/night for 12/22-12/24. I know these wouldn't match your travel dates exactly, but maybe you can get something similar. I recently got the 4* Westin for $66/night.)

If you're located downtown, you can hop a bus for free--most of the downtown hotels and the stadium are in or within a block or two of Metro's free-ride area. If instead you decided to take a taxi, downtown's pretty compact and it likely wouldn't cost very much.

Anyway, hope this helps...

Thats what my son got for his birthday this fall. Unfortunately he is a Patriots fan, and scalped tickets for NE run about $800. We found it cheaper to buy him a plane ticket to Indianapolis to stay with family and go to a Colts game.

The best way to save money would be to find a losing team in a depressed town .

If you want to give your kids a real treat, find a way to take them to a Packers game in Green Bay for XMAS next year. Lambeau Field is like the mecca of football. I liken it to seeing a Wrigley Field day game in the middle of summer. $150 each is a good estimate. Go when it's wicked cold, get some cheesehead hats, a case of Miller-I mean Coke pop! and bundle those boys up. That would be a real football experience, domed stadiums are like watching arena football, it's just not the same (though I kinda like Metrodome).