Travelling to a marathon you are actually running
The expo is compulsory, the start and finish are rarely in the same place, and the night after matters more than the night before.
Updated 31 Oct 2026
A marathon trip is not a city break with a run in it. The race dictates four days of logistics, and the choices that matter are made months before you pick a restaurant.
Your number is collected in person
Every major hands out numbers at an expo, and none of them post it to you. That turns a race weekend into a minimum three-night trip:
- Berlin: expo Thursday to Saturday. Collect on the Thursday or Friday — Saturday’s queue costs an hour on your legs.
- New York: the Javits Center, where the Saturday queue is its own event.
- Boston: two nights before the race is the minimum, and the expo is not optional.
- London: the Running Show at ExCeL, 20–24 April 2027. If you are racing the Saturday of the two-day edition, collect on the Thursday or Friday.
The start and the finish are different places
This is the decision your hotel actually solves, and it goes differently each time.
| Race | Start | Where to stay |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | Hopkinton, 26 miles out, runners bussed | Near the finish |
| New York | Staten Island, ferry before dawn | Near the finish |
| Berlin | Start and finish both by the Brandenburg Gate | Anywhere central |
| London | Blackheath, south of the river | South of the river |
Where the race is point-to-point and you are bussed to the start, nothing about your hotel can shorten that morning — so pick for the finish, when you will be walking slowly and want it to be short.
Three nights, four if you can
The shape that works: arrive two days before, collect your number on the first morning, spend the day before the race doing as little as possible, race, and stay the night after. Flying home the evening of a marathon is the single most common mistake in this kind of trip — see the night after.
Book around the ballot, not after it
Marathon fields are decided months ahead, and the hotel market moves on that news rather than on the race date.
- Boston’s qualifier registration runs the previous September, and Back Bay empties the week the acceptances go out.
- Berlin and New York draw lotteries in the autumn and winter; the result is what moves the price.
- London’s ballot result lands in July — and the 2027 edition is a one-off two-day race with about 100,000 finishers, which is twice the usual pressure on the same number of beds.
The move is the same in all four cases: book a refundable room before the result, and cancel it if you are not in. The booking timeline on each event page says when each wave goes.
Small things that matter more than they should
- A hotel with a bath is worth more than a hotel with a view.
- Breakfast before the official hours. Race morning starts at 05:00; check whether your hotel can do anything about that, or buy food the day before.
- Check-out time. Most races finish after 11:00. A late check-out, or that extra night, is the difference between a shower and a station toilet.
- The course crosses the city. Spectators cannot get from mile 8 to the finish during the race in most of these cities. Pick one spot.