How to organise a junior rugby tour: the club organiser’s checklist

Nobody joins a mini and junior committee to become a travel agent, but that is usually who ends up organising the tour. The rugby part is easy. The hard part is thirty families, one group chat and a spreadsheet that is wrong by Tuesday.

This is the order we would do it in, based on the clubs that get to the festival with the least drama. It is written for a Revel festival weekend, but the first half applies to any junior tour.

1. Decide what kind of tour you are running

There are two honest answers, and they need different planning.

• A festival weekend. A fixed tournament date, a holiday park for the whole club, fixtures arranged by the organiser. You bring the squad; the weekend already exists. This is where most mini and junior sections start, and it is what the rest of this guide assumes.
• A rugby tour. Fixtures arranged against local clubs at your level, a city or coast to explore in between, travel and hotels booked around your squad. Longer, more bespoke, and more of a leap for the families. Those live on the tours page.

If you have never taken the section away, take the festival weekend first. A club that has done one festival together finds the next tour sells itself.

2. Pick the weekend before you pick anything else

The date settles most of the other decisions. Our 2027 UK festivals run from the Easter holidays (Devon and North Wales in early April) through Cheddar in late April and the May Bank Holiday weekend (Somerset and Cheshire) to the Whitsun half-term. The full list, with dates and venues, is in the 2027 festival calendar.

Three things to check before you commit to a date:

• Age groups. Each festival publishes its own range. Most run Under 7 upwards, but the top end differs (Cheddar, Somerset and Cheshire run to Under 15; Devon and North Wales to Under 16), and girls-only categories run at Devon, Somerset and Cheshire.
• The school calendar. Easter and May half-term fall differently across councils and independent schools. Check yours before you announce.
• Distance. Two hours in a car on Friday evening is a weekend. Five hours is a tour. Both work, but families need to know which they are signing up for.

3. Get a price before you go to the parents

Do not float "would anyone be interested?" in the group chat. Nobody can answer that without a number. Get the price first, then ask.

The instant quote prices a festival, park and party size in a couple of minutes. If your club is bigger, mixed across age groups, or wants extras (coach travel, a stadium day, surf lessons), send us the outline and a named tour manager comes back within one working day with a proper quote. Either way you go to the parents with a per-person price, a date and a park.

4. Announce with the three facts families need

The message that gets a fast yes contains exactly three things: the dates, the per-person price, and what happens next. Everything else (which park, which lodge, who is sharing with whom) is a decision each family makes for themselves later. Front-loading it just slows the yes down.

Give a deadline for the deposit and mean it. Festival places and park accommodation are finite, and the club that dithers into December is the club that ends up at the park across town.

5. Hand the money to us, not the treasurer

This is the step that used to kill tours. One parent collecting cash at training, chasing the same four families for months, and being the club's bank and bad cop all year.

With Clubhouse your quote becomes a single share link. It goes in the group chat and each family books their own places, picks their own accommodation from live availability, adds their own travellers and pays Revel directly. A deposit secures the weekend and the balance is paid in instalments, landing ten weeks before the tour. We send the reminders. Your dashboard shows who has booked, who has paid what and where everyone is staying, without you asking anyone anything.

Every booking carries financial protection under the UK Package Travel Regulations.

6. Sort the rugby side early

• Squad sizes. At our festivals they step up with the age group: four-a-side at Under 7 through to nine at Under 11, twelve at Under 12, thirteen at Under 13 and fifteen from Under 14. Plan your numbers so every player gets a game.
• Coaches and first aiders. Your normal club ratios apply. On-site first aid runs for the whole festival, but your own qualified first aider on the touchline is still expected.
• Kit and colours. Two sets if you have them. Clashes happen.
• Player registration. Your county or union rules on playing out of area still apply. Check with your club secretary in good time.

7. Give the non-playing half of the family a reason to come

The festival is built around family accommodation on a holiday park with pools, arcades and evening entertainment, so siblings and grandparents are part of the design rather than an afterthought. Say so when you announce. The tours that fill fastest are the ones where the parents are looking forward to it too.

8. The week before

• Share the park's check-in time (most of our parks open lodges at 4pm on the Friday) and the pitch address.
• Post the age-group timetable when it lands so families know if they are a morning or afternoon squad.
• Remind everyone about medical forms, inhalers, gumshields and boots — the four things always left on the kitchen table.
• Nominate one contact per age group so the organiser is not the only phone that rings.

9. On the weekend

Turn up on the Friday. Teams arrive the day before the rugby, so nobody plays after a long drive, and by dinner the park already sounds like one big club social. After that, the job is mostly done: the fixtures are run for you, the medals are presented on stage, and the only thing left to organise is where everyone is meeting for the evening.

The short version

1. Festival weekend or tour? Festival first.
2. Pick the date. Check age groups, school holidays and distance.
3. Get a per-person price before you ask anyone.
4. Announce with dates, price and a deposit deadline.
5. Share one Clubhouse link. Families book and pay themselves.
6. Sort squads, coaches, kit and registration.
7. Sell the weekend to the whole family.
8. Timetable, check-in, kit list the week before.
9. Arrive Friday. Enjoy it.