How to handle the downtime in a town you don’t know — without winging it
The schedule drops and there it is: 8am and 10am Saturday, then noon and 2pm Sunday. If you’re a club lacrosse parent, you already feel it — two nights in a hotel, leaving work and school early Friday, and a real shot at not getting home until after 10pm Sunday night.
But here’s the part nobody warns you about: it’s not the games that wear you down. It’s the downtime. Twenty kids loose in a hotel from the final whistle until lights-out is a recipe for chaos — and for a parent, it’s the hours you never quite know what to do with, in a town you’ve probably never set foot in.
We’ve done this for seven-plus years and more tournaments than I can count, and we’ve come to believe tournament weekends are absolutely worth it. The trick is knowing how to fill that downtime so the weekend becomes the memory — not the grind. After enough years of figuring it out the hard way, we finally did something about it.
So We Built the Tool We Always Wished We Had
After enough weekends of scrambling — hunting for a decent dinner spot at 9pm, guessing at parking, refreshing a weather app in a parking lot — we built the Tournament Travel Planner: a free tool where you plug in where you’re headed, and it hands you everything you need for the weekend in one place. Food, things to do, hotels, weather, directions, and the kind of insider tips you’d only know if you’d been there before — for any tournament town in the country.
We didn’t build it from a spreadsheet. We built it from seven years of doing this in towns we’d never heard of. Here’s what it actually helps you handle — starting with the part nobody tells you about.
The Stuff Nobody Tells You
Before you even think about food or downtime, the weekend goes smoother when you walk in already knowing the lay of the land. Is parking a nightmare? Are the fields full sun all day, or is there shade to set up under? Where do you actually go when it rains?
This is the kind of inside knowledge you’d normally only have if you’d been to that exact tournament before — the stuff that makes you look like the Pro Parent who’s done it a dozen times. The planner generates these Pro Tips for whatever tournament you’re headed to, so you’ve got it before you load the car.
Where You’re Sleeping
Let’s be clear up front: book the team hotel if you can. It’s where the bonding happens — the lobby hangs, the kids running between rooms, the parents getting to know each other. But it seems like once a year it falls apart. Either we missed the booking window, or the team never sent options, and suddenly you’re scrambling for a room two days out in a town you don’t know.
That’s where the app earns its keep — it surfaces local hotels that are actually decent. Not a dumped list of every roadside motel, but the kind of place we’d book ourselves when we’re stuck finding something last-minute.
Team Pizza in the Hotel Lobby
Some nights nobody’s leaving the hotel — and everyone, kids and adults, still have to eat. Ordering pizza for the whole group is a regular move. The only real trick is getting decent pizza. The kids don’t much care, but after a full day of vendor food, the last thing I want is generic chain delivery. The planner pulls the best local pizza options for wherever you are, with GrubHub and Uber Eats links to make ordering painless.
The Team Dinner
One that still makes me smile: a Saturday night at a hibachi place near one of our tournaments. Fifteen boys crammed around the table, the chef flicking shrimp and vegetables into the air for them to catch in their mouths — most of it ending up on the floor. The laughter went on long after their food went cold. Meanwhile the adults were at the table right next to them, finally sitting down to a decent meal, half-watching the chaos and laughing at our kids having the time of their lives. That’s the night I remember from that weekend — not a single goal.
I know — organizing 15 to 20 kids and their families sounds like a monumental headache. But done right, and booked in advance, a team dinner is some of the best time you’ll spend all weekend. The planner gives you local dining options and flags the ones that actually work for big groups, so you can lock in the reservation before you even hit the road.
Get Out and Do Something
This one gets overlooked the most. After a morning of games, it’s easy to say “let’s just head back to the hotel and relax.” And as an adult, nothing sounds better than a nap. But the reality? Keeping a kid in a hotel room when 20 of their teammates are right down the hall is a near impossibility.
One of my favorites was in a town we’d never have visited on our own. There was a local lake, famous — at least to the locals — for cliff jumping. Now, when I say cliffs, I’m talking rock outcrops maybe ten feet above the water. But to a 13-year-old girl? If you asked her today, they were fifty feet high. Seven or eight of her teammates and a few of us adventurous dads jumped in. It was totally safe, completely spontaneous, and something my girls still talk about to this day. We’d never have found it if we hadn’t been stuck there for a tournament.
Every town has something — parks, waterfalls, historical sites, or the dependable trio of Top Golf, mini golf, and the bowling alley. It’s a great distraction from the games and even better team building. The planner surfaces the top options nearby so you don’t have to go hunting for them.
The Grocery Run
As much as you try to pack for every possibility, I’d bet half our tournaments end with one of us making a grocery run. Extra snacks for the tent. Cheese and crackers for the adults hanging in the lobby. The thing you swore you packed and definitely didn’t. You can never get it 100% right, so the planner gives you a few local options with addresses ready for navigation.
And Yes, the Liquor Store
There’s nothing wrong with a cold beer or a glass of wine in the hotel lobby while you get to know the parents you’ll be spending four to seven weekends with this summer — honestly, that’s half of how the season’s friendships get made. The catch is that states have their own rules. Some let you grab what you need at the grocery store; others require a separate store, even for beer. The planner shows you the local options, links to their sites, and gives you the address so you’re not driving around guessing.
Know the Weather Before You Pack
The planner pulls the full weekend forecast the moment you enter the tournament — which is a real advantage, because what you pack changes everything. Rain means umbrellas and a shoe dryer back at the hotel. Cold means layers and handwarmers. Heat means extra sunscreen and more ice than you think. And weather changes; with the forecast in your pocket, you’re ahead of it instead of caught out in it.
Once you know what you’re packing for, our complete tournament packing checklist makes sure nothing important gets left behind in the garage.
Getting There
Tournaments love to spread games across multiple field complexes. The planner points you in the right direction for each one, so you’ve got a sense of where you’re going before you ever pull out of the hotel lot.
Stop Winging the Weekend
Tournament weekends are a grind — but they’re also where the best memories get made. The hibachi nights, the cliff jumps, the lobby hangs with parents who become your people. The logistics shouldn’t be what eats your energy.
That’s exactly why we built the Tournament Travel Planner. Plug in where you’re headed and it hands you the Pro Tips, the local pizza and group-friendly restaurants, the things to do, the hotels, the grocery and liquor stores, the weather, and the directions — all in one place, for any town in the country. It’s free. Just drop your email and start planning your next weekend.