As the icy weather continues to keep Britain shivering it's no surprise that last-minute holidays to the sun are in demand. Luckily for football scouts, they've got their own package trip lined up next week – to sunny Argentina for the South American Under-17 championship, arguably the tournament that offers the most exciting arena for uncovering talents with all the in-demand qualities of modern day football.

That's not to say that they'll be lazing around by the pool – far from it. The popular conception of a scout's life as one of luxury travel to exotic places at someone else's expense, with the added bonus of the odd game of football to watch and just the jotting down of a few token notes to exert them, is – in my experience, unfortunately – quite wide of the mark. Sure, a privileged few do enjoy the high life, but for the majority, the reality is quite different.

Just getting there can be difficult enough, as these tournaments tend to be staged outside capital cities, requiring two or three flights at least for the travelling European contingent to reach the host city of Mendoza in next week's case.

And these days, as austerity reaches football – at least for employees, if not players – it tends to be economy class only for long-haul for anyone other than senior club officials or chief scouts.

While it may seem churlish to complain, I know of at least two veteran scouts who have deep vein thrombosis, likely as a result of constant long-distance travel in economy – not much glamour in that.

Similarly, the quality of the hotels can be very hit and miss. While for a one- or two-night European scouting trip, most clubs are happy to book four-star hotels, during a tournament such as this, you can risk ending up in a dump, as they are often played in small towns and the good hotels get booked up by participating teams and officials many months in advance.

This happened to me two years ago in Arequipa, Peru, at the South American Under-20 Championship. Having spent the first three nights on the same hotel floor as Neymar and his Brazil team-mates, I had to move to another property where my only source of running water was the cold tap in the bathroom. It made an invigorating morning shower a bit difficult.

Then there's the travel involved in getting to the games, which can often be at venues several hours away from your base with no public transport available. Usually there are two consecutive games per day, although in Arequipa there were matches at 4pm, 6pm and 8pm, making it a long, tiring day. Concentration levels certainly dropped for the last game.

This can also make regular meals a problem, with breakfast often the only definite meal on matchday. At 2011's Under-17 championship in Ecuador, the matches took place at venues that were two four-hour drives (each way) from the capital, Quito. As we'd typically leave after breakfast and not return before midnight, I quickly learned to take fruit and energy bars to keep me going, as the quality of catering at grounds can be extremely variable.

With all these logistical problems, it makes perfect sense that many clubs actually purchase a package for the trip. These are organised by local football agents (who, obviously, expect their payback in the role of middleman in the event of interest in a player) who take care of everything from pick-up at the airport to transport to matches and passes for the games.

Often they also include hotel deals, leaving just the flights to be arranged by the club. For a scout who doesn't speak the local language, it's a big relief to have all this handled for him.

Of course this tends to mean that the visiting European club representatives join up in groups upon arrival. This makes for a certain level of camaraderie as you tend to run into the same people on every trip, and it can be useful as you learn whose opinion to trust and who is just a bit of a gossip. Again, pretty much like a package holiday, the British usually stick to themselves, whereas the continental scouts are generally happier to mingle.

It may seem strange to the outsider that potential rivals mix so closely, as it would seem you'd know everyone else's targets. But as much as players are discussed and views exchanged from breakfast to nightcap, when you arrive at the point of wanting to make business – or recommending a player to your boss – the talking stops.

While the star players are obvious to all, they are usually only attainable by a few clubs. As far as the others go, each scout has his own taste or requirements in a player for his particular club's needs. That's when it's handy to elicit a second opinion – or maybe feed some red herrings to the gossip so that misinformation about your targets gets around and your real interests stay hidden.

One bonus of these longish tournaments is that there are game-free days when you can write up your notes, do some research and even spy on a target at his hotel or training session to observe his behaviour and obtain a more detailed impression of his personality.

The tournaments are also a good opportunity to meet agents, businessmen holding rights in players (third-party ownership is still allowed in certain South American countries) and other club representatives. This is usually to catch up and exchange news and gossip, as by the end of the tournament maybe only 2% of the attending clubs will have made concrete business, but such is the standard of the talent on show that absolutely everyone present will have ticked off a fair few names to follow up on over the months and years to come.

Sergio Agüero, left, Anderson, Philippe Coutinho, Edinson Cavani, Luis Suárez and Alexis Sánchez are just some of the names to have first caught the eye at the South American youth championships – players are too young to be widely known yet, so it's the first chance for scouts to see them all together. If you don't go, you'll miss out.

Having said that, I expect no more than half a dozen Premier League clubs to venture over to South America next week in search of the next big things in world football as, inexplicably, many English clubs still don't believe it's an interesting market. It's the Spanish and Italians who realise that it really is hot stuff.

Tor-Kristian Karlsen is a Norwegian football scout and executive, formerly the chief executive and sporting director at Monaco. He has previously worked as a scout for Grasshopper, Watford, Bayer Leverkusen, Hannover and Zenit St Petersburg and as sporting director for Fredrikstad FK