My wife often refers to our honeymoon in 1996 as "our first football trip". With one match in Seville, and two in Barcelona, sandwiched around a 12-day tour of cathedrals and shopping on the Ramblas, she's not far wrong.

Truth is, I have been combining travel and watching football since 1986 when I supported Canada at the Mexico World Cup.

It's been a fun ride. France for the World Cup in 1998, New York and Philadelphia for Manchester United's tour in 2003, Portugal for Euro 2004, Buenos Aires in 2005 to see Argentina play Brazil, Germany for the World Cup in 2006, Toronto for the FIFA Under-20 tournament in 2007, Vienna for Euro 2008, and Rome to see the Champions League final in 2009.

Today, our group leaves for South Africa and the 2010 World Cup.

One of the great joys of going to these tournaments is the opportunity to explore cities I might otherwise never have visited. I know a great place to drink freshly brewed lager and dig into a platter of tasty ribs . . . in Vienna. There's a brilliant café in Porto – think mirrored walls, frescoed ceilings, and tuxedo-clad waiters – that you just have to visit, a terrific little bar in Berlin – and a local chicken on a spit joint in Lisbon that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Don't even get me started about steakhouses in Buenos Aires.

Some of the places we find are out of a guidebook, but many we just stumble upon as we explore the city, rounding corners with no expectations but always on the lookout for somewhere interesting. We're not really the hop-on, hop-off types.

I expect those carefree days are over, at least temporarily. We fly into Johannesburg on Sunday morning, and already the warnings are burned into my brain. If we are driving, don't stop at stoplights, especially at night. Don't go wandering, even in the daytime. Don't stop to help a motorist who is in apparent distress. In short, watch yourself.

The numbers support the advice. Some 328,000 people have been murdered in South Africa since the historic 1994 elections, an average of 60 each day. Non-alarmists point out that much of the violence happens in traditionally dodgy neighbourhoods so all we need to do is avoid them to steer clear of the trouble. But the website of one of the guest houses we considered in Johannesburg, situated in a nice area, included among its benefits an armed guard to accompany guests to the restaurant district, just half a mile away.

We are in South Africa for 25 days, 14 in Johannesburg and 11 in Cape Town. We have tickets to 12 matches, beginning with Sunday's first round battle between Brazil and Ivory Coast at Soccer City in Soweto, and ending with the final at the same ground on July 11. We've got five group matches, four games in the round of 16, plus a quarter-final and semi-final, too.

Our tickets are sorted, our flights are booked, and our hotels are arranged. Other than that, we are making it up as we go along – and I'll be sharing our trip with you here in The Royal Gazette. I understand that there are a number of other Bermudians and residents going, too, so hopefully we will run into them – and I can share their experiences with you.

As far as support goes, most of us don't care who wins the tournament as long as we see some good football along the way. We'll definitely see Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy – the rest of our games depend upon the way the first round shakes out. We hope to see England, Argentina and Portugal – and, along the way, we hope to add to our list of favourite places.

Today, Tomorrow and Sunday: New York non-stop overnight to Barcelona, 13 hours in Barca, and then overnight to Johannesburg via Madrid, arriving Sunday morning.

Veteran World Cup observer Duncan Hall will be reporting exclusively from South Africa for The Royal Gazette.