Has anyone ever gone to the Olympics? Cost?

[jwwi]

Our family went to Atlanta for the 1996 games. We went to a track event, which was our first event, it was a memorable and iconic Olympic event. The evening included some medal races/competitions along with some preliminary events. Also attended baseball games, including gold medal game; gymnastics exhibition, boxing, and gold medal games for men and woman's soccer. We had planned to travel into town each day for the events from a hotel 50+ miles, but hotels did not fill so we were able to stay at a hotel on public transportation lines. Our event tickets allowed free transport on Marta which was nice. This was by far the most expensive trip we ever took as a family. Our children were 17,14, and 10 at the time. It was great to do this as a family, and I cherish those memories. I do remember having to request tickets very far in advance, and it was thousands of dollars held up for many months. We did get lucky with the hotel, the proximity and ease of transportation was great. A bonus was our last morning there was a "ticket exchange table" in the lobby; my husband and son ended up getting free tickets to men's soccer gold medal game in Athens, the girls and I got to spend another day at Olympic park. No cell phones so we just made a plan to meet at a mall north of the city. Would have been much easier to connect now, but we made it work.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I went to a lot of Atlanta events as I had family living there. It was great


I'd love to go to a winter games.

 

[EpiStitch]

I ended up having to cancel my trip, but I actually did have tickets for Rio. I had tickets to 10 different events for 2 people for about $2500 total....including the Opening Ceremony. I bought all of them through CoSport starting in May 2015 and up through June of this year. They were cheaper in July once they were released on the official Rio 2016 website, but it would have been risky to hinge a trip on waiting so long since most Olympiads have been more expensive and in higher demand. I'm thinking about going to Tokyo myself and I think I would budget double what I did for Rio because airfare, food, lodging, and tickets themselves will be more expensive.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We went to the 1988 Calgary games and th games in Salt Lake City. Both were great experiences. For Calgqry we bought a packag and had tickets to opening ceremonies, the ski jump and a couple skiing events. For salt lake games, we had friends with a house in Park City so we stayed with them and we bought tickets through eBay at the last minute. The tickets were for several events. I don't remember the cost. We did fly into salt lake and were able to get tickets at a reasonable price. Of course not having to pay for a hotel helped. We have been to Japan. It's an amazing country and I'm sure it would be a great time.

 

[MMCD]

We went to Calgary, Atlanta and St Lake City Olympics. For Calgary, we went through the Olympic channel for housing and they assigned us a 1Br with a family like a bed and breakfast. Our tickets was through Olympic ticketing also. It was done by paper and we mailed in our "wish list". We originally had tickets for the first day and tickets for the closing ceremony. The house owner where we stayed was a volunteer for the Olympics. She told us where to go buy tickets that were unsold. So we were able to buy add'l tickets including Brian vs Brian men's figure skating. We saw the Jamaican bobsled team and Eddie the Eagle. We saw an event every day to fill our time.

As for the Atlanta Olympics, I placed my lottery order on the very first day tickets came out again with Olympic ticketing. This time I ordered tickets for everyday and for morning, afternoon and evening. For Calgary I picked only one event per day. I requested some most expensive seats to middle price seats but NEVER the lowest price seats unless it was the same price for all venue like field hockey rounds or ping pong. If you picked the expensive tickets but they were not available, then they would assign you next expensive. I cant remember how many events I picked for the lottery but I won almost everything which I did not expect. (I had done poorly at Calgary) Our tickets alone for 14 or more events for 6 days was over $2500. We were on the move everyday seeing almost 3 events per day. We arrived the day after the bombing. We only missed one event ping pong semis because we were on the T train and there was a bomb scare. The train could not leave the station. Funny how no one got off the train so the police could inspect it better. So we could have been blown up if there was truly a bomb. Lodging we found through classifieds.

As for Salt Lake City, I went through Olympic ticketing lottery also. I had secured housing through timeshare TUG staying at Park Cities. So my choice of ticketing was mostly closer to Park Cities. I did not pick a lot of events because of the travel distance. I picked a Mtn day events at PC and then a venue at SLC at night. All the mtn event were single priced standing only. I did not buy grandstand seating. As for the evening venues that were in arenas, I picked 2nd expensive seats. I lottery won good seats and some nose bleed seats but at least we were in the arena. I think I won only 9 events while we were there for 6 days.

I would love to go to Japan because I used to work for a Japanese company. I could try to hookup with my Japanese coworkers but I haven't talked to them for over 15 years. The yen exchange was high when I traveled there back then. I think it will be too costly to go to Japan.

If you have a chance to go, go for it!!

 

[jimandami]

We went to Calgary, Atlanta and St Lake City Olympics. For Calgary, we went through the Olympic channel for housing and they assigned us a 1Br with a family like a bed and breakfast. Our tickets was through Olympic ticketing also. It was done by paper and we mailed in our "wish list". We originally had tickets for the first day and tickets for the closing ceremony. The house owner where we stayed was a volunteer for the Olympics. She told us where to go buy tickets that were unsold. So we were able to buy add'l tickets including Brian vs Brian men's figure skating. We saw the Jamaican bobsled team and Eddie the Eagle. We saw an event every day to fill our time.

As for the Atlanta Olympics, I placed my lottery order on the very first day tickets came out again with Olympic ticketing. This time I ordered tickets for everyday and for morning, afternoon and evening. For Calgary I picked only one event per day. I requested some most expensive seats to middle price seats but NEVER the lowest price seats unless it was the same price for all venue like field hockey rounds or ping pong. If you picked the expensive tickets but they were not available, then they would assign you next expensive. I cant remember how many events I picked for the lottery but I won almost everything which I did not expect. (I had done poorly at Calgary) Our tickets alone for 14 or more events for 6 days was over $2500. We were on the move everyday seeing almost 3 events per day. We arrived the day after the bombing. We only missed one event ping pong semis because we were on the T train and there was a bomb scare. The train could not leave the station. Funny how no one got off the train so the police could inspect it better. So we could have been blown up if there was truly a bomb. Lodging we found through classifieds.

As for Salt Lake City, I went through Olympic ticketing lottery also. I had secured housing through timeshare TUG staying at Park Cities. So my choice of ticketing was mostly closer to Park Cities. I did not pick a lot of events because of the travel distance. I picked a Mtn day events at PC and then a venue at SLC at night. All the mtn event were single priced standing only. I did not buy grandstand seating. As for the evening venues that were in arenas, I picked 2nd expensive seats. I lottery won good seats and some nose bleed seats but at least we were in the arena. I think I won only 9 events while we were there for 6 days.

I would love to go to Japan because I used to work for a Japanese company. I could try to hookup with my Japanese coworkers but I haven't talked to them for over 15 years. The yen exchange was high when I traveled there back then. I think it will be too costly to go to Japan.

If you have a chance to go, go for it!!

That's so funny...we were on that Marta train as well (it wasn't funny at the time!) and we missed our event as well (I want to say it was baseball, but I don't remember). We did see women's gymnastics, when Shannon Miller won her gold medal on beam, which is one of my favorite all time memories!

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

This is pretty cool to read all these experiences. It's amazing how expensive tickets can be and when shown on tv it looks like some of the venues are empty.

 

[MMCD]

Yes, the Marta Train. I could not remember what it was called.

The ticket pricing for SLC was close to $2500 for 4 tickets for 9 events We had our 3yo and the 11yo (5yo at Atlanta). The arena tickets were expensive but we saw Ohno skate.

I have fond memories at all the Olympics. I did a selfie with Eric Heiden, the 5 gold medal winner in speed skating. He was a commentator at the time. I was on the airplane with the Prince of Monaco. I got their autographs plus Peggy Fleming at Calgary.

Atlanta was great. The field hockey was in South Atlanta. We went to the best Soul food restaurant ever. Neighborhood was very questionable and we had our 5yo son with us. I ordered hamhocks and pigs feet! I did not get any gymnastic tickets because it wasn't on while we were there. We saw Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson win gold. Carl waved to me as he was being interviewed under the tunnel. I kept yelling Carl to wave over to me so that my son can take his picture. I touched a USA silver medal when the winner sat down the row from me. I can't remember his name. A women asked me to get his autograph and she will give me Janet Evans' autograph. I went back to the silver medalist to get his autograph again. I gave his autograph to the lady thinking she was going to give me Janet's autograph. Instead she asked for my address and she would send it to me. Months later she sent me an autographed poster of Janet Evans. In the attached letter, she apologized for for sending it so late cause she didn't see Janet when she went to visit her mother who lived next door to Janet's family.

At SLC, I was near the finish line fence when I noticed this man standing next to me was wearing the same "socks" as the skiers ski skin suit. I looked at his face and I wished Bode Miller that his finish time would win the gold. Bode was wearing a parka robe coat like the boxers wears coming into the arena. Same as what Phelps wore while in the waiting room. Bode ended up with a silver instead.

These memories are just like the mastercard commercials - priceless.

 

[dmc6469]

I lived in California and was able to go to the 1984 Olympics in LA. I was only 15 years old at the time, so it didn't cost me anything but my uncle was saying it cost him a 'pretty penny' for all our tickets. We attended the closing ceremonies and 3 games of soccer. I wouldn't care how much it cost because i'd do it again. Pretty cool to know you were at the Olympic games.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I was thinking Tokyo for the Olympics was looking pretty cool but reading this thread has helped me re-evaluate that. A number of people have said how neat it was to experience and that's great- I really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences! From this I've been able to tell I would not be happy & this has cured me completely of wanting to go for now. You all have saved me some serious dough in the coming years. I'll happily watch all my favorite sports from the comfort of my couch and save my $$$$ for some other awesome travel.

 

[aunties]

I have been to the Atlanta 96 and Torino 06 games. Ticket prices really depended on the event and whether it was a Gold medal round or preliminaries. The most expensive ticket I had in Atlanta was track and field. It was just under $90. The events started at 3 pm and we left around midnight and there were events still going on. I had preliminary baseball (7th row), men's water polo - 2 matches, and women's basketball - 2 games, and each of those tickets were @ $25. In Torino, Men's parallel slalom snowboarding tickets were @ $170 (maybe it was Euros) and it was the entire event from preliminaries through gold medal round. Preliminary men's bobsled tickets were @ $70.

However, the hotels prices were another story. I stayed with a friend in Atlanta. But in Italy, the hotels as far away as Milan (an 1 1/2 train ride from Torino) were more than triple their usual rates. The hotel rates closer to Torino were even worse.

As MMCD said - the experiences of being there- priceless! I call it my Mastercard moment on the Visa card - 25 Euro for souvenir, 170 for ticket, finding out your ticket was front row center at the Olympics - Priceless, especially the look my nephew gave me when he realized where we were sitting. Gold medal round - we were four seats away from the athletes' family as two brothers raced for the gold and silver medals.

 

[DisneyMandC]

This is pretty cool to read all these experiences. It's amazing how expensive tickets can be and when shown on tv it looks like some of the venues are empty.

I noticed that particularly in Rio. Many of the events looked very empty. Wonder if attendance was generally low or what the deal was.

 

[pigletliz]

I was thinking Tokyo for the Olympics was looking pretty cool but reading this thread has helped me re-evaluate that. A number of people have said how neat it was to experience and that's great- I really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences! From this I've been able to tell I would not be happy & this has cured me completely of wanting to go for now. You all have saved me some serious dough in the coming years. I'll happily watch all my favorite sports from the comfort of my couch and save my $$$$ for some other awesome travel.

I attended both LA and Atlanta. I think part of what made the experience so great was the overall atmosphere. There were so many activities going on besides the sporting events. I saw plays in Atlanta, traded pins and met sports enthusiasts from all over the world. Still kicking myself for waffling on London.

 

[neatokimmo]

I noticed that particularly in Rio. Many of the events looked very empty. Wonder if attendance was generally low or what the deal was.

I read several articles online that the residents of Rio were unable to afford tickets and the committee wasn't interested in doing big price reductions.

 

[neatokimmo]

Add us to the Tokyo group. I won't know if it is doable until much closer. I had a friend tell me to budget 1k per person for tickets. Then take today's rate for hotel and triple it. That puts us over what I like to spend on trips. So we might just go to the trials for the selection of the gymnastics teams and cross our fingers that 2024 is Los Angelos.