A bit early but starting to plan for the Winter Olympics in Milano. This will be our first Olympics. Any pointers, best way to get tickets/lodging, etc?
Hi Lori,
Canāt really help with Milan directly, but Iām in the same boat re the 2024 Paris olympics. Weāre in the middle of the lottery process now for tickets - obviously presumably Milan may well be different - but here is what Iāve learned so far:
1/ re tickets, learn the buying/lottery process pretty well & really hit it. I/we did multiple email signups for the lottery (using different emails/friends) very early, and so far this has really paid off - I have all the tickets I really want for Paris just from the first round of offerings. (3 of the emails/people hit, and two were used to actually purchase. The tickets in this round went extremely fast - sometimes in just refreshing the screens during the 48 hour window for each email, tickets would be lost. Also, cheapest tickets went first, to all events.). Also figure out well in advance your prefs for tickets (and ticket price tolerances) - some of the events in the first ticket round I thought I had a decent shot at were completely gone, others were available but more than I expected - had to make decisions quickly. For Paris, there is a 2nd round of the lottery (starting May 11) (& then a 3rd at the end of the year), but this really will be gravy - a position I feel pretty lucky about.
2/ Learn well in advance exactly where (& what) the venues are. Some for the Paris olympics were in completely different French cities altogether (!!; I didnāt expect this at all), and even within Paris, some of the venues are extremely desirable (beach volleyball stadium to be built at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, opening ceremony right on the Seine, etcā¦, etc., others much less desirable.) Also, for various events (marathon, triathlon, etc.) get the route maps in advance - I was able to skip getting tickets for these events altogether in favor of just going to public points on the course to observe.
3/ Finally, re hotels, Iāve observed something interesting, for Paris at least. (I already have our place all set up, so this is academic for me, but I have been curious re how the hotels are handling this, so I check every now & then.). (For context, I was in Paris last May when the world soccer championships was going on, and even the worst hotels in dodgy neighborhoods were going for over $1,000/night. I assume the cost for Paris hotels for the Olympics will be at least this bad, and probably worse.). Anyway - what I discovered about a month ago, is that for Paris, as expected, most hotels are not booking out now for the August 2024 olympics, or the ones that are booking have crazy rates. All to be expected. But then what I found is that a small handful of hotels (that I either knew & checked, or that were on Booking.com searches) actually would let you book for the period during the olympics and their rate had Not been adjusted at all! (E.g., a nice hotel in center of Paris under 200E/night.). I was shocked. Now, I donāt know if they would cancel/refuse the booking on you - I assume their pricing is a mistake, just out of inertia with websites - but if I had to get a hotel, I would jump on this. Anyway, the point obviously is to search very early, and you perhaps could get very lucky.
Milan should really be something! Good luck.
Thanks so much for the information. Im following the Paris process closely to hopefully prepare. Like Paris, the Milano Olympics are very spread out across several venues. Will be an interesting process Iām sure. I use booking.com often in Europe - so very good to know!
Iām hoping my time of 2.8 seconds to wolf down a bag will qualify me for this.
I had never heard of this sport before, but I fully approve.
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good one!
The Olympics are hosted, for the first time, in two different cities.
Cortina and Milan are 160 miles apart. I would imagine day tripping between the two would be nearly impossible
Yes, part of the challenge - but also more flexibility re lodging. Our focus is hockey, so we will be looking in Milano.
Hi Lori,
Wow! Round 2 for Paris 2024 just hit. By pure luck, my email entry was 1/ chosen for access to the 2nd round and 2/ for the earliest possible date & time for same - I just got done with it. As you already know, be prepared! That was intense. And I can now add, really be ready to 1/ be quick and 2/ roll with the punches (including financial) (i.e., know your limits/preferences, incl those of anyone else who is making decisions with you).
What happened here was - tickets for Opening Ceremony were supposed to be available, and I wanted to get some. Because I was so early in the draw, I figured no problem. Nonetheless, really out of luck more than anything else, I logged in the minute the draw opened. So, then, I go to get Opening Ceremony tix first, figuring these would be most desirable. They show available, but then suddenly contra the advance press that there would be plenty of tickets that would be āfree, cheap & otherwise reasonably pricedā (and with the entire Seine river & bridges being able to be lined with grandstands - I actually believed this official line), the tickets are 2,700 euro down to 90 euro, with almost all of the tix at the higher-end, and, in looking at the fine print for the ticket purchase, the 90 euro tickets were NOT for seats - just first-come, first serve standing room in a small pen area. The cheapest actual seats were suddenly 250 euro each. Faced with the choice, and with an 11 year old who I figured would see ZERO in a stampede for even 90 euro standing room, I opted for the 3 x 250 euro seats, and got them (figuring this is once is a lifetime event). Not 750 euro I planned on spending (in addition for the cost of all the actual events seats), but hey. Anyway, so then I look at a few other events, and in LESS than 5-10 minutes, all of the Opening Ceremony tickets are gone, except those over 900 euro apiece! All gone in 10 minutes from the start of the saleā¦
Interestingly, a few other events - which previously had been completely sold out - were now available, and some for cheap(!). 3 tickets to the Equestrian Eventing taking place in the gardens of Versailles were available for 50 euro a piece! After grabbing them, again, within less than 10 minutes, the entire event is sold out. Anyway, I feel very lucky. Be prepared & donāt slouch when your time slot hits! If I can answer any questions for you or you want to discuss more, please feel free to shoot me a PM.
Edited to add: Looking again, I now see I failed to see 2 completely other price categories for Opening Ceremony tix: 9,500 euro a ticket and 5,000 euro a ticket (!!). My god, be āwaryā (to put it politely) of what the organizers say about the tickets, affordability & access.
Thank you so much Theo. What great insight since youāve just went through this. Iām wondering given the prices if we should just go through one of their travel packages. I thought they were high but if the individual tickets are $$$ it may be worth it at the end of the day. Appreciate this! Have fun!
Thanks Lori. Ended up with 36 tix for 12 events including the Opening Ceremony, well spread-out, & for an all-in very reasonable price. But I think this was the product of really being extremely prepared/organized & having multiple friends register to have multiple log-ins (3 or 4 total seemed to be more than enough), being on it when the buying slots opened up & finally having a good amount of luck. My guess is, if youāre willing to do the above, youād probably be plenty successful for the winter olympics. But it is a little work! Good luck!
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