The beginning of our recent trip overseas dropped us off in London for a couple days of walking the city, getting over jetlag, and a rare opportunity to visit the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for Wimbledon.  This is one of the unique big time sporting events where you can actually show up day of, wait in line, and get into the event.  They reserve a number of tickets to the main courts, as well as allowing pretty much everyone onto the grounds in the evening hours. 

Traveling with a 2 month old, we were not allowed into any of the show courts, so we weren’t able to watch Roger Federer’s run at the Grand Slam record or the Williams sisters utter dominance of this years womens draw… but it didn’t matter.  Just being there was an amazing experience.

We learned a lot from the experience and have this list of recommendations for fans traveling to Wimbledon and looking to get last minute Wimbledon tickets.

1. get your queue gear ready – bring a blanket, and umbrella and plenty of food and beverages.  Its likely to be raining or sunny and the umbrella will come in handy either way.  Queue lines can be very long and if you arrive at the wrong time, you could wait up to 5 hours.

2. get there early or late.  I’d recommend arriving at the queue before 9am or after 5pm.  If you are early, you’ll get in quick and get to expeirence the entire day.  If you arrive late, the line moves much faster and they start letting everyone in.

3. get ready to take some pictures.  the grounds are beautiful and the town of Wimbledon is as charming as the UK can muster.

4. take time and watch a match on the side courts.  Its amazing how close you can get to these professionals.

5. pims and lemonade followed by strawberries and cream.  there is a reason they all do it.

Wimbledon is amazingly accessible to the average fan, or tourist.  Our tickets were around 15 pounds.  We will definitely be going back on our next visit.