Every two or three years, if I’m lucky, I find it refreshing to plan an overseas vacation around a foreign soccer league or event.

Different places have different traditions, chants, accents, rivalries, techniques, uniforms and gear. Their spirit gives me a renewed enthusiasm for the sport even though it may sometimes be intimidating. It relegates trivial daily problems to unimportant status. If you were watching Tottenham beat Chelsea over the weekend, then you wouldn’t care so much about that parking ticket.

Traveling to see World Cup games and qualifiers is fun but stressful, so the easiest trips to plan are to see the English Premiership. This week and next week I plan to attend at least three games. There are two additional ingredients to the perfect football weekend: finding a league so I can play, and I hate to say it, shopping.

Airline tickets

The most important factor in this trip is the airline ticket price. There is no way I want to pay peak prices required to see exciting early season games or important late-season games. The cold, miserable weather of February-March keeps away the casual traveler so there are always good “promotional fares” or “bargain fares” to England. I Googled “promotional fares” and up came a list of $150 round trip tickets. Of course, the taxes are enough to start another American Revolution.

Timing, scheduling

Most English games are played on Saturday, but early season postponements and schedule changes make it possible to see games on nearly every day of the week. Picking which games is the fun part. For me, Crystal Palace is a requirement. They are at home on Tuesday against Cardiff, which frees up the weekend. I will see Tottenham at Birmingham City on Saturday, and Liverpool at Bolton on Sunday.

I try to see teams that I have not seen before or new stadiums. I’ve seen Arsenal twice already and was interested in Chelsea at West Ham, but there are limits even to my energy.

Beware Millwall

Even if you are not intimidated by the fearsome reputation of some fan bases, it is important for overseas travelers to know that police and league officials sometimes change the team’s schedule with little notice if they fear crowd violence. Years ago, I got off of the plane and arrived at an empty stadium only to be informed by smirking policemen that the game had been moved to Friday while I was still in the air. In a furious panic I found a taxi and told the driver, “Take me to the nearest football game.” I ended up at QPR vs. Huddersfield. Not my vision of the English football experience.

Game Tickets

First of all, online services carry premium seats at OUTRAGEOUS prices -- some higher than my airline ticket -- no thank you. Procuring tickets from the team in advance would require prior planning, something that I try to avoid. This caused me in the past to seek out reliable ticket scalpers. Arrive early, walk once around the stadium and you can make eye contact. My rule, buy anything under three figures (unless its QPR, then you could get in at a discount at the gate). I was with companions who turned their noses up at $70 tickets to Columbia vs. Tunisia for 1998 World Cup in France. Police later escort the scalpers away and we had to stand outside and listen to the crowd.

Now I am a respectable adult so I cannot condone this method of procurement. My method now is to play soccer with international players, stay in touch and have them buy the tickets through the club or supporters groups at face value.

Accommodations

The Rough Guide or other bargain travel guides are reliable for finding cheap hotels. In this case, I stay with an ex-teammate named Lee. He lives in Coventry, which is ideally located near London and Birmingham. Only problem is that my host is a Liverpool supporter who constantly reminds me of a 9-0 win they had over Palace nearly two decades ago.

Playing

People in different countries have different styles of play. For me, one of the great thrills is playing when I travel, and in this case, there is a spot for me in an organized league after my plane flight and two-hour bus ride from Heathrow. The only problem is that I strained my hamstring doing a back-heel on Thursday night. Ice, elevate, pressure ...

Shopping

A big part of any trip overseas by a soccer player is taking orders from friends and teammates who pile on requests for shirts from their favorite teams. Mid- to late-season trips are ideal for bargain hunting. Nearly all of the items in the shops are discounted, some as low as $15. Buy from a catalog and you pay $60-120. Some less-scrupulous friends will accept full price for these items and pocket the difference as an “import fee.”

My preference these days are rugby shirts. The newsroom can get cold and they are heavier and warmer, but not too hot like a sweater. Of course, Crystal Palace has the best designed gear in the sport next to Barcelona. So I will hit the club shop. Add to this, gifts for friends, family, scarves, hats, gloves and a bag to store all of the merchandise.

Caution

Be careful when carrying or wearing football gear in certain areas. Its not like wearing a Los Angeles Angels hat in a Federal Hill bar. I had a bag full of Palace gifts when my train stopped at London Bridge, where I had a nice staredown with four overzealous fans from another club with shaved heads.

NEVER mix your gear. Buy shirts from as many teams as you like but don’t wear the Arsenal Hat with the Tottenham scarf, don’t mix Everton or Liverpool, in fact, don’t mix any of them -- one team at a time, or better yet, just stick to one team and give the rest of your stuff away as gifts.