The 30 MLB Park tour by travel or air is one of the most adrenaline filled chases one can endure. It is like the Amazing Race, meets Survivor, against Planes, Trains and Automobiles. But even if you just love to travel, nothing beats going to the park!

I wanted to watch the 1st 2 months off of the West Coast, but the schedule didn’t allow it.

I would have loved to chase down records (for land or air), but obligations to family, friends and also to this website had me thinking of the bigger picture, and I just couldn’t  wear myself that thin…when the goal was originally a game a day all year at least

 It has been a grueling journey to even plan this 179 day MLB Trip, but the end is in sight, and the baseball year is just 6 weeks away.  You can view my pending journey here.

I have dealt with the Canadian $ plummeting to the lowest mark it has seen since I started ballpark chasing in 2005, but at least had the foresight to see it coming down in advance.

The cost of a venture like this changes on a daily basis with fuel prices, and also the rise of inflation.  The best laid budgets can veer the wrong way on any given 24 hour stretch.

The best Airline to fly with in America. free baggage and free flight change of flight are ust two of the options to aid you in travel. They  also have a lot of early morning flights which helps  get you to your next destination faster than later cuz we all know routine can turn into a circus act quickly on the road!

Opting for some stability in the schedule, I have my new 219 game schedule pretty much ironclad now.  Overall, I am ecstatic with the outcome.  Who wouldn’t want to do this type of trip?

I will see 34 games at Citizens Bank Park, 28-30 at Yankee Stadium, 27 at Nats Park, 10 – 14  of range at each Citi Field, Camden Yards, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Safeco Field – and Miller Park.

The only drawback in my view, is only being able to see Comerica Park, Great American Ballpark and Busch Stadium (2 times), and both PNC Park plus AT @ T Park just 5 times each.

Believe me I wanted to see those last 2 parks in Pittsburgh and San Francisco more, but the cost were mounting, and I also had no help from the times posted for certain games.

I must say that megabus.com has emerged as one of my favorite new websites to explore travel.  I am booking $1 bus rides from New York/Boston/Philly and Washington in between each other.  This is also a factor in the games I have decided to go to.

I am happy to announce that one of my ballpark chasers friends (Scott Bultman) is going to hit 30 MLB Parks this year as well.  I think he is going to about 24 – 26 with me on the weekends mostly.  This is a smart move on his part.  Combining efforts on travel is the way to go about cutting costs on the cities. It also doesn’t hurt that I have nearly 40 free car rentals to work with – that allow secondary drivers, and one way airport dropoffs for free.

I would not have been able to do spend this kind of time on the Eastern Seaboard if this was 5 years ago.  The Yankees were a hotter ticket, the Red Sox didn’t offer such packages to make Fenway a great value, and even the Mets and Phillies were a tougher ticket to purchase.

The budget for this trip all in is set at $22,500 American – which would be incredible to pull off, when you consider that I am witnessing 219 games.  At an average of just around $105, this is about half of what you can expect to pay on a MLB Road Trip.

To save cash, I will travel to next cities via buses and cars after games, and then come back to my base in Philadelphia every few days (to shower, do laundry, and maybe sleep).  I have other ballpark chaser friends (who have graciously offered accommodations while I am in their town).

On this website, I will break preview and breakdown every detailed plan and eventual execution via blog writing.  You will see first hand how crazy I am for doing this type of travel.

If you look on the right side widgets of our home page, you will see the synopsis and stats of the trip as they are ongoing. I will keep tabs on spending, food conquests, travel mileage and number of games – with the upcoming schedule.

Honestly I have a lot to be the thankful for.  Starting with the website http://www.ballparkchasers.com, I have part of a fraternity there for over 6 years, that has a growing number of fans in all 30 MLB Parks.

I have met some of the coolest people there, and formed long-term friendships.  It is like combining the top experts in any field.  We all share information more than ever, and it has worked wonders to shorten the costs and time for these excursions.  Many of these said people will appear in the blog posts I write in the coming months.

One of the things I miss this time around about this trip is the removal of AirTran, with the merging via Southwest.  This has been a detriment to West Coast travel in my opinion.

What I mean by this is: West Coast travel to the Central or East Coast.  Travel within the Western Time Zones is till alright.  Southwest and new low cost carrier Spirit Airlines, make that possible.  What is missing are the cheap airfares overnight to New York from San Francisco or Oakland, or the all-night trip from Seattle to Milwaukee.  Those that have frequented these prior flights know what I am talking about.

It seems now thatAirTran is out of the picture, Virgin Air, Delta and Alaska have raised their prices on flights East of Denver.  Out of my 23 flights bought for my trip, I only paid more than $150 2 times on one way fares.  A trip from Miami to SFO ran me $153, and a flight from San Fran to Washington Dulles (IAD) set me back $216.  Trips over night from SFO/OAK/LAX used to run about $125 for a red-eye flight to New York City/Boston/Chicago, or the Baltimore/Washington area just a few years ago.

In fact, a lot of us chasers have found that flying to Denver 1st, then carrying on to Seattle is the same price of a one way trek to Seattle by itself.

Spirit Airlines have cheap fares, but they are not kidding when it covers the bare essentials (meaning you and a personal item). They have some decent prices, just make sure your know their baggage policies beforehand.

If you have been on KAYAK.com lately, you will see an annoying new website called edreams.ca offering the lowest rates on flights.  Ignore this url.  These guys charge administration charges per flight book.  I hate companies like this wasting my time.  Tell me the bottom line price.  I don’t have time to dicker around.

stubhub has changed their pricing structure to include all fees in one set price when you click on an event now – instead of hidden fees like before. The best part of online ticket brokerages is that is wiped out a lot of people running prices – selling in front of the games. You can really take advantage of this website if you are seeking a singular game ticket only. ideal for the quick buy and the quick ticket paper print

Stubhub has also come along way since I first dropped four letter bombs on them during my 2008 record streak chase.  When everything was paper tickets, there wasn’t a worse ticket brokerage for Canadian buyers than these guys.  However, with everything going to digital in tickets, and them including the everything price – STUBHUB is now #1 for ticket buying in my view.

SH is also taking advantage of clubs not putting out single game ticket sales early enough, by the season ticket holders placing the tickets on line with their company, and having free reign of selling to interested buyers out of the get go.  I have bought the majority of my single game tix from these guys, and all for less than what the teams would charge for singles.

stubhub.com great website also takes payment in PayPal, which is just awesome.Having flexibility in paying is the name of the game this time around.  Kudos to the ballclubs that take installment plans for packages too.  Some of us love financing tickets on a monthly budget, instead of getting whacked all at once.

For my USA friends, and not applicable to my fellow Canadians, is the website bigscore.com .  This place has fair value tickets for sale on all sorts of events, and I recommend checking them out, even thought I can’t pay for tickets with a Canadian address on my credit card.  Again,  I am amazed on the kind of technology world we live in, but I am penalized for living 3 miles north of the USA/Canada Border.

These are just a few more things I found out as I have been doing this planning there’s a lot more to come here.