Top 10 NFL Road Trips on the 2026 Schedule

Every May, the moment the NFL schedule drops, my inbox lights up with the same question from fans across the country: which road trip should I build my fall around? After years of sending fans to stadiums in every corner of the league, I have learned that the best NFL road trips are about more than the final score. These are my top NFL road trips for the year, the ones I would build a fall around. They are about the city, the tailgate, the walk to the stadium, and the stories you bring home. So I went through the full 2026 schedule, game by game, and pulled the ten road trips I would book myself. Some are bucket-list rivalries, some are brand-new international adventures, and a few are cold-weather classics that every football fan should experience once. Every game below is real and confirmed on the 2026 NFL schedule, and every one of these top NFL road trips makes for a weekend worth the airfare.

A quick note before the list. At Elite Sports Tours, we bundle game tickets, hotel, and the game-day logistics into NFL travel packages so you are not stitching together five browser tabs at midnight. Our NFL travel packages are built around exactly these kinds of road trips. I will point out where that matters most as we go, because some of these trips need more planning muscle than others. Let us get into it.

1. Dallas Cowboys at Green Bay Packers, October 18, 2026

If you only take one NFL road trip in 2026, make it this one. The Cowboys visiting Lambeau Field on a Sunday night in mid-October is about as close to a perfect football weekend as the schedule gets. Lambeau is the oldest continually operating stadium in the NFL, and the experience of watching a marquee game under the lights in Green Bay, with the whole town turned into one giant tailgate, is something every fan should do once. The Cowboys travel better than any team in the league, so expect a real split crowd and an electric atmosphere from the parking lots to the final whistle.

Green Bay is a small market, which is exactly why this trip needs early planning. Hotel inventory around Green Bay is genuinely limited, and a primetime game against Dallas will fill rooms months out, with a lot of fans ending up in Appleton or even Milwaukee if they wait too long. This is the trip where NFL travel packages earn their keep, since locking your Lambeau tickets and a hotel close to the stadium in one NFL travel package beats scrambling for a room two hours away. Pack for cold and embrace the bratwurst. Start with our Green Bay Packers Travel Packages to lock in Lambeau.

2. Kansas City Chiefs at Seattle Seahawks, October 25, 2026

Sunday Night Football at Lumen Field is one of the loudest environments in all of sports, and in 2026 the Chiefs come to town to test it. Seattle fans have set Guinness World Records for crowd noise, and the energy when a championship-caliber opponent like Kansas City visits on a national broadcast is genuinely something you feel in your chest. Beyond the stadium, Seattle is one of the best football travel cities in the country. Pike Place Market, the waterfront, the coffee, and the short walk from downtown hotels to the stadium make this an easy weekend to sell to a group that includes non-football fans.

Because Lumen Field sits right on the edge of downtown Seattle, you can stay in the city core, walk to the game, and never touch a rental car. That walkability is a big part of why I recommend Seattle to first-time NFL travelers. Get your Chiefs tickets on the visiting side and a downtown hotel within walking distance, but honestly, there is not a bad seat in the building when the noise gets going. Browse our Seattle Seahawks Travel Packages to build the weekend.

3. Baltimore Ravens vs Dallas Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro, September 27, 2026

This is the wild card on the list, and I love it. For the first time ever, the NFL is playing a regular-season game in Rio de Janeiro, with the Ravens hosting the Cowboys at the iconic Maracanã Stadium. If you have ever wanted an excuse to combine an NFL game with a genuine international trip, this is the one. Rio in late September means beaches, Sugarloaf Mountain, Christ the Redeemer, and a football game inside one of the most famous stadiums on the planet. Two of the NFL's most popular franchises meeting in Brazil is the kind of event that does not come around twice.

I will be straight with you: an international trip like this has the most moving parts of anything on this list, which is exactly why fans lean on us to handle it. Flights to Rio, a hotel in Copacabana or Ipanema, game tickets, and the on-the-ground logistics all need to line up, and our NFL travel packages take the stress out of an overseas football trip. If a bucket-list adventure is what you are after in 2026, start here. Our Baltimore Ravens Travel Packages are the easiest way into this one.

4. Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys, Thanksgiving, November 26, 2026

Cowboys and Eagles is one of the fiercest rivalries in the NFL, and in 2026 it lands on Thanksgiving afternoon at AT&T Stadium. There is no NFL experience quite like the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, a tradition that goes back decades, and getting the Eagles as the opponent turns the temperature all the way up. AT&T Stadium itself is a destination, a glass-and-steel palace with the largest video board you will ever stand under, and it is worth arriving early just to take in the building. For NFC East fans, this is the rivalry road trip of the year.

Thanksgiving travel is the catch. You are booking flights and a hotel on one of the busiest travel weekends in America, so this is not a trip to leave to the last minute. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has plenty of hotel options near Arlington, but holiday demand moves fast. Bundling the game ticket with a hotel and your travel dates well ahead of time is the difference between a smooth Thanksgiving weekend and a stressful one. Plan it with our Dallas Cowboys Travel Packages.

5. Pittsburgh Steelers vs New Orleans Saints in Paris, October 25, 2026

The NFL's first-ever regular-season game in Paris is on the 2026 schedule, with the Steelers facing the Saints at Stade de France. Steelers fans are some of the most loyal travelers in the league, the kind who turn any road stadium into a sea of black and gold, and pairing that fan base with a debut game in Paris is a recipe for an unforgettable weekend. Imagine a morning at the Louvre, an afternoon along the Seine, and an NFL game in one of the world's great cities. This is European football travel at its finest, and the early kickoff time even leaves your evening open to explore.

Like Rio, a Paris trip rewards planning. Hotels in central Paris, flights timed to the Saturday or Sunday around the game, and game tickets in the right section all come together more smoothly as one NFL travel package than as separate bookings across currencies and time zones. If your fall travel budget has room for one international football trip, Paris in October is a strong call. Anchor the trip with our New Orleans Saints Travel Packages.

6. Buffalo Bills at Los Angeles Rams, October 12, 2026

Here is a trip that gives you the best of both worlds: one of the NFL's most passionate fan bases visiting the league's most spectacular stadium. The Bills travel to SoFi Stadium for Monday Night Football in October, and SoFi is simply a must-see building. It is the most technologically advanced stadium in the world, the same venue hosting Super Bowl LXI in February 2027, and a Bills Mafia road game brings a tailgate energy that travels well to Southern California. A Monday night kickoff means you can build a long weekend in Los Angeles around it.

Los Angeles is a sprawling city, so where you stay matters more than at most stops. Inglewood, the area immediately around SoFi, has limited hotel inventory, which means most fans base themselves elsewhere in the LA area and plan their game-day transportation accordingly. That is the kind of detail we handle inside our NFL travel packages, matching your hotel to the stadium and the rest of your LA itinerary so the logistics do not eat your weekend. See our Los Angeles Rams Travel Packages to get started.

7. Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears, Christmas Day, December 25, 2026

Packers at Bears is the oldest rivalry in the NFL, and in 2026 it is the Christmas Day headliner at Soldier Field. There is something special about this matchup in the cold of late December on the shore of Lake Michigan, with two storied franchises and two passionate fan bases meeting on a holiday. Soldier Field is a piece of NFL history, and Chicago in December has a charm all its own, from the Magnificent Mile to the holiday markets to the deep-dish pizza you will absolutely earn after sitting through a December game on the lake.

Be ready for the weather, because December football in Chicago is the real deal. Layers, hand warmers, and a hotel close to transit are your friends. The upside of a holiday game is that you can fold it into a Christmas trip to Chicago, and that is exactly the kind of dual-purpose weekend our NFL travel packages are built to handle, with tickets and a downtown hotel locked in together. Our Chicago Bears Travel Packages make the Christmas Day trip simple.

8. San Francisco 49ers at Kansas City Chiefs, December 27, 2026

Few matchups carry the recent history that the 49ers and Chiefs do, and the 2026 schedule sends San Francisco to Arrowhead Stadium two days after Christmas. Arrowhead is a bucket-list venue for any NFL fan, holding its own Guinness World Record for the loudest crowd, and a late-December game against a marquee NFC opponent is exactly the kind of atmosphere that makes the place famous. The Kansas City tailgate scene is legendary, and the barbecue alone is worth the trip. This is championship-pedigree football in one of the league's true cathedrals.

Kansas City is an underrated travel city, with a walkable downtown, a great food scene, and friendly prices compared to the coasts. Arrowhead sits in a stadium complex outside the core, so game-day transportation is the main thing to plan around. A travel package that pairs your Chiefs tickets with the right hotel and a transportation plan to the stadium takes that worry off your plate so you can focus on the burnt ends. Build it around our Kansas City Chiefs Travel Packages.

9. Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings, December 20, 2026

The Lions and Vikings have become one of the most entertaining rivalries in the NFC North, and the 2026 schedule gives us a Sunday Night Football meeting at U.S. Bank Stadium in late December. Here is the genius of this trip: U.S. Bank Stadium is a climate-controlled dome, so you get the energy of December football without the frostbite. The building is a stunning piece of modern architecture, all glass and angles, and the Vikings crowd brings serious volume on a primetime stage. For Lions fans riding the wave of the team's recent rise, this is a road trip that should be circled.

Minneapolis makes this an easy weekend. The stadium sits right downtown, connected to the city's skyway system, so you can stay, eat, and walk to the game without ever stepping outside in the cold. That walkability and the indoor comfort make this one of the most accessible cold-month road trips on the entire schedule, and an easy one to bundle into a tidy two-night travel package with tickets and a downtown hotel. Our Minnesota Vikings Travel Packages cover it end to end.

10. Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles, October 26, 2026

We started the list with the Cowboys at Lambeau, and we will close it with the other side of America's Team's travel appeal: the Cowboys visiting Philadelphia for Monday Night Football in October. Lincoln Financial Field is one of the most intense road environments in the league, and Eagles fans bring a passion that makes this rivalry must-see television, let alone in person. A Monday night kickoff in Philadelphia gives you a full weekend in one of America's great historic cities, with the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the art museum steps, and a cheesesteak debate that will outlast the game itself.

Philadelphia is a tremendous walking city, and most downtown hotels put you within reach of both the history and a manageable trip to the stadium in South Philadelphia. For fans who want the rivalry intensity without an international flight, this is the domestic road trip that brings it. Pair the ticket with a center-city hotel and you have a weekend that is equal parts football and Americana. Our Philadelphia Eagles Travel Packages tie it together.

How to Turn Any of These Into a Trip

That is my list of the top NFL road trips for 2026, and the honest truth is you cannot go wrong with any of them. Whether you want the frozen-tundra romance of Lambeau, the once-in-a-lifetime pull of Rio or Paris, or the holiday tradition of Cowboys on Thanksgiving, the 2026 schedule is loaded with top NFL road trips worth taking. My advice after all these years is simple: pick your game early, because the best matchups and the best hotels go first, especially for primetime, holiday, and international dates.

When you are ready to turn one of these into a real trip, that is what we do at Elite Sports Tours. We build NFL travel packages that bundle your game tickets, your hotel, and the game-day logistics into a single booking, so you get one point of contact and one clean plan instead of a dozen separate bookings. Whichever of these top NFL road trips you pick, our NFL travel packages handle the heavy lifting. Tell us the game and the city you want, and we will line up the tickets and the hotel around it. I hope to see some of you on the road in 2026. It is going to be a great season to travel.

Editorial Note & Travel Expertise

Every game referenced in this article is confirmed on the official 2026 NFL regular-season schedule released on May 14, 2026, including dates, host cities, and venues. The three international games (Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and the London slate) and the holiday games (Thanksgiving and Christmas Day) are drawn directly from the NFL's published 2026 international and holiday schedules. Kickoff times and broadcast windows are subject to the NFL's standard flexible-scheduling adjustments later in the season. Elite Sports Tours builds NFL travel packages for fans attending these top NFL road trips, with a focus on pairing the right game ticket with the right hotel and a clear game-day plan for each destination.

Travel Information Disclaimer

NFL game dates, kickoff times, and broadcast assignments are subject to change, including through the league's flexible-scheduling policy for primetime windows later in the season. Ticket availability, hotel rates, and flight pricing vary based on demand and the profile of each matchup, with primetime, holiday, and international games tending to move fastest. International game travel involves additional planning around flights, passports, and accommodations. Travelers should confirm current game details and travel requirements with Elite Sports Tours and official sources before finalizing any 2026 NFL travel plans.

Updated May 2026