Tournament Travel Advice
Amy Trevey has had a lot of experience traveling with her sons, Nathanael and Christian, to compete in tournaments throughout the United States. She is excited to share her tips with us!
Amy loves flying on Southwest Airlines because they have a great cancellation policy, and will allow money to be refunded or used toward a different flight if tournament plans change. This is helpful for tournament play because often a player does not need to be present for the entire duration of a tournament.
Amy explained that the first day, usually Saturday, players will play two singles matches. Most often if a player is traveling to these tournaments they are doing well enough to make it through the first day. Sunday there will be two more singles matches. Once a player has lost two total matches they are done. Amy usually books two return flights: one for Sunday evening just in case her son doesn’t make it to the final day, and one for Monday evening assuming that her son makes it until the last day. This way they can book early and get both flights home at a good price and just cancel the one that isn’t needed. It gets very expensive trying to buy a last minute flight home!
Typically Amy and her family fly in on Friday morning, which allows them to drive to the location of the match with plenty of time. Most of the facilities that Amy has traveled to have practice sessions on Friday during the late afternoon and early evening, which last 2 to 3 hours. The facilities will allow the out of town kids to join the group session, helping them get used to the altitude change and the weather. She has also found that it helps to have some good hitting sessions before a match, which usually starts early Saturday morning.
Flying Southwest allows 2 free bags with each ticket, so Amy takes advantage of that by packing some of the food that her sons like so that she doesn’t have to grocery shop when she gets into town. She brings protein bars and electrolyte powder from home, as these are helpful for the matches that last a long time. She also packs a mini flexible Coleman cooler, so she can have lunch for the day. This way she doesn’t have to run around trying find food in between the matches. Extra socks and shirts are great, 2 per day, in the hotter climates. Athletes tend to sweat a bit more than when they play in Colorado!
In terms of places to stay, the tournaments always have a couple of host hotels that are centrally located to all of the tournament sites. They always have a free breakfast, which is great for the early matches. Amy will often find a hotel with a kitchen in it that is close to the tournament site so that her family does not have to eat out for every meal. Elements at Sommerlin in Las Vegas is highly recommended by Amy, and she has also had nice stays at any Marriott location that has a kitchen as well. Amy and her family have traveled to Las Vegas, Utah, Arizona, Texas and Omaha thus far, and Las Vegas is the nicest location for Amy as far as facilities, locations and weather are concerned.
If you have any further questions regarding tournament travel, feel free to reach out to Amy at amy@trevey.com.
