While stadiums roar into life, museums are quieter, restaurants easier to book and the roads are blissfully empty. Consider this your guide to making the most of the World Cup without watching a single minute of it.
Book The Restaurant Everyone Else Has Abandonned
For non-footballing foodies, the World Cup brings happy news: hard-to-book restaurants suddenly become rather easier to get into. While much of the nation is gathered around pub screens or settled in front of the television, coveted tables can appear where there were none before.
Our top picks? The Devonshire remains one of the most sought-after tables in London, serving faultless Guinness alongside some of the capital's most talked-about pub food. Over at London Bridge, OMA has earned a devoted following for its Michelin-starred take on Aegean cooking, while Core by Clare Smyth continues to set the standard for fine dining in west London. None are exactly easy bookings at the best of times, but a major match night may just tip the odds in your favour.
Have A Solo Cinema Night
A lot of people will be glued to screens already. Why not do the same – but with a film you've actually been meaning to watch? There’s nothing as oddly blissful as a cinema almost all to yourself with plenty of space to spread out and make as much noise munching your popcorn as you bally well like.
Our hot tickets? We’re pretty excited for The Invite, Olivia Wilde’s Sundance hit which comes to a screen near you on 3 July. Wilde and Seth Rogan play an unhappily married couple who invite their neighbours – Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton – over for drinks. Let’s say, things do not go quite as anticipated. However, our hottest ticket of the summer is one that you’ll have to wait for the World Cup final for: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which is coming 7 July. It’s Homer, it’s his most multi-faceted and interesting character, it’s Matt Damon, and it’s the director who brought us Oppenheimer. Need we say more?
