Premium guide
WC2026 Survival Kit
Sixteen host cities, 104 matches, offline maps. A 60-page PDF for when the site is harder to load than the kiosk turnstiles.
What's inside
- ▸ Sixteen host city briefings. Where to stay (with a cheaper neighborhood one stop over), where to eat (not the chains), how to get from your hotel to the stadium on match day.
- ▸ Every match preview, all 104. Kickoff time in 6 local timezones, projected weather range, stadium bag policy, and the closest transit stop.
- ▸ Offline-compatible. Save it on your phone before you board. No signal needed at the airport, on the train, or in the stadium concourse.
- ▸ Updated through the Final. Group stage refresh after matchday three, then a new edition after each knockout round. Re-download free, same link.
- ▸ Offline maps for all 16 stadiums. The route you actually walk after the final whistle, not the route Google sends you on at 4 a.m. on a Sunday.
- ▸ Standard PDF, no DRM. Reads on iOS, Android, Kindle (sideload), and any laptop. Internal links jump straight to the city you need.
Why a PDF when the site is free
Honest answer: connectivity. The website is great when you have signal. On a 14-hour flight to LAX, in the Mexico City metro tunnels, or at MetLife on a sold-out night when 80,000 phones are sharing the same antenna, the website is a coin flip. The PDF works regardless.
The other honest answer: no banners on a plane. The site has to load fonts, a consent banner, an analytics script, and a couple of affiliate trackers. The PDF has none of that. It's text and maps. It opens in under a second and runs in airplane mode.
The third answer: it lets the website-side stay ad-light. Right now the only revenue is hotel and flight affiliate links, which fans skip past most of the time (and they should — if those aren't the best option, don't book them). A small PDF gives the project a second revenue line that doesn't dilute the editorial.
We'll mail you once, when the PDF is ready. No newsletter. Read the privacy policy.
Price
Pay what you want — $5 minimum for fans on a budget. The full price funds research and keeps the website ad-light. The minimum keeps the door open for everyone showing up to the tournament. Either way you get the same PDF and the same updates through the Final.
About the editor
Written and maintained by Sam Halloway, a soccer fan who's been to two World Cups in person and watched the rest religiously. The PDF is built from the same research and the same source files as the website — same voice, same calibration, just laid out for the page. More about how the guide is researched.
FAQ
Will the PDF be updated as the bracket fills in?
Yes. The group stage gets one update after the third matchday, then a knockout-bracket refresh after each round. Buyers re-download from the same link. You'll get a short mail when a new version is up.
How does this compare to Lonely Planet?
Lonely Planet has a hundred more pages and twenty more years of editorial. This guide is narrower: World Cup 2026 only, kickoff times in 6 timezones, stadium parking lot by lot, transit after the final whistle. Use both if you can. If you can only carry one for the road, this one fits the tournament.
Why not just use the website?
Use the website when you have signal. Use the PDF on the plane, in the immigration queue, in the rideshare with no LTE, at the stadium where the network is choked. Same content, no banners, no consent prompts, no rebuffering.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. Mail us within 7 days of purchase and we send a full refund, no questions. We'd rather have a fan who's happy than a fan who's stuck with a PDF that didn't work for them.
Will the PDF run on my Kindle / phone / laptop?
Standard PDF, no DRM. Reads on iOS Files, Android Drive, macOS Preview, Windows Edge, Kindle (sideload), and any e-reader that opens PDFs. Internal links work everywhere; some readers ignore the bookmark sidebar, which is fine.
Updated 2026-06-12.