Famous clubs and destinations

Some grounds are simply where the sport's history lives. If you're planning a trip around polo — as a spectator, a student, or eventually a player — these are the names worth knowing, alongside the tournaments many of them host, covered in full on our tournaments page.

Argentina

Palermo, in Buenos Aires, is the sport's undisputed cathedral — home of the Argentine Open and the closest thing polo has to a spiritual capital. Beyond Palermo, the wider Buenos Aires province hosts a dense cluster of clubs that together form the deepest polo scene on earth, reflecting the country's dominance described on our world polo page.

England

Guards Polo Club at Windsor and Cowdray Park in Sussex anchor the English high-goal season, with royal association and a genuinely long institutional history behind both. Smith's Lawn, Guards' home ground, is where the Coronation Cup's international exhibition fixture is traditionally staged.

United States

Wellington, Florida hosts the country's winter polo capital, drawing much of the world's professional talent for the northern winter months and culminating in the US Open Polo Championship. Outside Florida, historic clubs across the northeast and California carry on the American polo tradition that dates back well over a century, including the Westchester Cup rivalry with Britain noted on our history page.

Continental Europe

• Sotogrande, Spain — a summer season built around a genuinely international, resort-based polo community;
• Deauville and Chantilly, France — historic French polo grounds with a long society pedigree;
• St. Moritz, Switzerland — home of the sport's most famous winter spectacle, played on the frozen lake, covered in more depth on our variants page.

The Gulf and beyond

Dubai and its neighbours have built a serious winter polo scene with international patronage over recent decades, complementing rather than competing with the established European and American seasons. Further east, Southeast Asia's polo scene is smaller but growing — our companion site Khao Chee Chan Polo covers Thailand's polo country on the Eastern Seaboard in detail for anyone travelling that way.

Visiting as a spectator

Most of the clubs above welcome spectators, often for free or a modest gate fee at club-level fixtures, with grander finals ticketed like any major sporting event. Our spectator guide covers what to expect and how to behave once you're there, and always check a specific club's own site for current visiting hours and fixture dates rather than relying on any general guide, including this one.