FOMO expands family's World Cup trip to 13 members

A family from Wirral, England, has turned a small World Cup trip to the United States into a 13-person holiday after relatives and friends feared missing out on the experience. Maxine Handford said the idea first emerged while the family was “sat in the pub” three years ago, and they began planning what she described as an “absolute holiday of a lifetime.”

From a small idea to a large group

What started as a plan for a few people quickly expanded as more family members and friends expressed concern about missing out—a phenomenon known as FOMO (fear of missing out). “My husband was doing this with my two boys and my brother, and then from there, I think it was a little bit, ‘I don’t want to miss out on this’ and it just expanded to 13 of us,” Handford said.

The group began saving three years ago, starting with £50 each. “So three years ago when my husband knew it was America hosting some of the games, we started to save,” she said. “We started to save… starting with £50 each.”

Planning around the tournament

Although the family knew the tournament would be held in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, they did not know the exact locations of the matches. “We just knew we wanted to travel to America and hoped that where the games were, we were actually going to be there,” Handford said. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to get into the games because they would be thousands so we planned where we could watch them in bars and fan parks.”

The group arrived in Miami, where they watched the opening ceremony and the Mexico vs. South Africa match in a Mexican bar. They then traveled to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where Handford described the box parks as “bouncing” for the Scotland vs. Haiti match. The family plans to be in Yosemite National Park to watch the England game on Wednesday.

A holiday of a lifetime

“It was something I wanted to enjoy with my children, who are adults now themselves, and we offered it to everyone [in the family] and the saving continued,” Handford said. “As well as sightseeing, we’ve got the privilege of these huge games and with America being the host country as well… we just knew the atmosphere was going to be electric.”