Behind the Scenes: The Best Stadium Tours in the World
You can buy a match ticket and see the pitch from row 34. Or you can book a stadium tour and stand in the tunnel, sit in the dugout, and walk through the changing room where the players prepare. For football and sport history enthusiasts, the behind-the-scenes tour has become a worthwhile attraction in its own right — some grounds now attract more tour visitors annually than matchday spectators.
Camp Nou Experience, Barcelona
The Camp Nou Experience is one of the most visited museum-and-tour packages in European sport, drawing over a million visitors a year. The route moves through the FC Barcelona museum — trophies, historical footage, the entire arc of the club from 1899 to the present — before taking you out through the tunnel to pitch level. You sit in the dugout, walk the touchline, and look up at the four-tiered stand that held 99,354 people at its peak capacity.
The changing room is impressive in scale and gives a clear sense of how the space is used on a European night. With the ongoing stadium renovation project under Populous and Nikken Sekkei, some sections of the tour route have been adjusted since construction began; check current availability before booking. The Experience operates on self-guided audio-tour format and runs daily, including on many matchdays until a few hours before kickoff.
Bernabeu Tour, Madrid
The Real Madrid Bernabeu Tour gained a new dimension after the ground's comprehensive renovation completed in 2023. The retractable roof and retractable pitch are now part of the tour route, and the view from the top tier — looking down over the open steel structure — is dramatic in a way the old Bernabeu never was. The museum covers Real Madrid's record thirteen Champions League titles with the expected depth of trophy cabinets and memorabilia.
The tour is self-guided and includes the changing rooms, the press conference room, the presidential box, and the players' entrance tunnel. It runs 360 days a year. Booking online in advance is strongly advised; weekend queues without a reserved slot can be long.
Old Trafford Museum and Tour, Manchester
Manchester United's Theatre of Dreams offers one of the most complete historical museum collections in club football. The tour takes you through a museum covering United's entire history — Munich air disaster, Busby Babes, Treble 1999, Ferguson era — before moving into the changing rooms, the players' tunnel, and the pitchside dugout. The commentary at each stage is detailed and the archive material is extensive.
Old Trafford itself is aged — the main bowl dates from the early twentieth century with successive additions — and the tour conveys that layered history. The stadium is scheduled for significant redevelopment or replacement in coming years, which will eventually change what the tour shows. Until then, the current ground retains its distinctive enclosed atmosphere.
Anfield Tour, Liverpool
The Anfield Tour includes the famous Kop end, the This Is Anfield sign at the entrance to the tunnel (which players touch before taking the pitch), and the expanded Main Stand changing facilities. The Bill Shankly museum anchors the historical section, covering Liverpool's five European Cups and the transformation of the club through the 1960s and 70s.
The Shankly-era and Paisley-era trophies are displayed well, and the tour staff — typically former players or long-serving supporters — add genuine knowledge. The redeveloped Anfield Road end, which increased capacity to approximately 61,000, has been incorporated into the tour route.
Bayern Munich Allianz Arena Tour
The Allianz Arena tour focuses heavily on the architecture of the stadium itself alongside the FC Bayern and TSV 1860 history. You walk through the 75,024-seat bowl to the player areas, including the away team changing room, the referee room, and the underground vehicle access route that brings players' coaches directly to the tunnel entrance. The exterior ETFE foil cushion skin — which changes between red, white, and blue depending on which team is playing — is explained in detail.
FC Bayern's Erlebniswelt (experience world) museum at the adjacent site runs independently and can be combined with the stadium tour for a full half-day visit.
Maracana Tour, Rio de Janeiro
The Maracana tour in Rio carries a specific historical weight. The ground hosted the 1950 World Cup final, the defining Uruguayan victory that devastated Brazil (the Maracanazo), and the 2014 World Cup final and 2016 Olympic football final. Walking the tunnel and standing on the pitch in that context is a different kind of experience from a European club ground.
The museum section covers Brazilian football history broadly, not just one club. Flamengo and Fluminense both use the ground as their home, and the tour reflects that shared tenancy.
MCG Walk, Melbourne
The Melbourne Cricket Ground's tour — marketed as the MCG Walk — covers a stadium that has hosted cricket, Australian Rules Football, the 1956 Olympic Games, and two Cricket World Cups. The walk takes in the Members Reserve, the Long Room, the broadcasting boxes, the player changing rooms, and the National Sports Museum embedded within the ground. With a capacity of 100,024, it is the largest stadium in the southern hemisphere, and the scale of the bowl is striking at close range.
The MCG runs its tours on non-event days and is specifically worth combining with a visit to the National Sports Museum, which covers Australian cricket, AFL, tennis, and Olympic history in one building.
Stadio Olimpico Tour, Rome
The Stadio Olimpico in Rome is shared by AS Roma and SS Lazio, which means the tour must diplomatically serve both clubs' supporters — an unusual dynamic. Built for the 1960 Rome Olympics, the ground has a running track and an open curve at each end that gives it a different feel from enclosed modern stadiums. The tour includes the two separate changing rooms, the tunnel, and the press area.
Stade de France Tour, Saint-Denis
The Stade de France — France's national stadium at Saint-Denis — runs regular tours of a ground that has hosted the 1998 World Cup final, multiple Rugby World Cup fixtures, and the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony preparations. The 81,338-seat bowl is large and functional, and the tour covers the press room, the royal/VIP areas, the field-level tunnel, and the changing facilities used by the French national team.
What tours actually show you
Across all major stadium tours, several spaces appear consistently: the home team changing room, the away team changing room, the players' tunnel, the dugout or technical area, the press conference room, the media mixed zone, and some form of historical or trophy display. Higher-end tours add the presidential or VIP box. The pitch itself is typically viewable from the touchline but not walkable to protect the surface.
The quality of commentary, archive material, and physical access is what differentiates a good tour from a perfunctory one. Camp Nou, Bernabeu, Old Trafford, and Anfield set the standard. For everything else, the map marks stadium locations so you can plan which grounds to visit alongside their tour offerings.