The world's championship comes to Brazil in (now) a little less than two years.

The operations they've set in place for it are kind of stupefying- out of 12 venues, three are brand new, five are being(or have just been) rebuilt, and the rest are having some pretty amazing upgrades. Even the security measures look pretty ridiculous -- security will be using RoboCop-esque glasses with facial recognition technology. Not to mention the amount of rail systems, airport upgrades, etc., being added. It's not that far off from the Olympics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup

Has anyone been before? Perhaps in South Africa in 2010? Or is anyone planning on going?

• Is a package the best route?

• Is there a preferred or best way to go about tickets to games?

I've heard stories of people who simply bought a package-deal that sent them to the continent for two-three weeks and allowed them to go to 2-4 games during that time. I've also heard other tales of people who simply booked flights, flew in, scalped tickets(at a price), and just backpacked(ish) from location to location, game to game.

As an American it's fucking impossible to be a soccer fan, but I've been in Buenos Aires for a little while now and have been to every game we've had, and I think the World Cup would be a spectacular excuse to vacate for the month and see Brazil along with Bolivia/Columbia/other parts of the northern South America.

I'm at the point where I even know what questions to ask, so anything you guys can tell me would be appreciated.