7 replies to this topic

[bsj]

Hot off the heels of this Olympic Games, my wife and I were talking about maybe trying to make a trip to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.

Has anyone ever gone? I'm sure every Games are different...but anyone have any feedback? Was it worth going? Im sure it was ridiculously expensive...but how expensive is expensive? How hard is it to get tickets to decent events? Am I going to be paying a grand for ice skating tickets (which is what she'd want to see)....Are hotel prices off the charts expensive? Etc...

And most importantly, how far in advance do you need to start the process of booking hotels and buying tickets? A year? More?

We are in the early stages of dicussing this...so just trying to gather info.

Edited by bsj, 26 August 2008 - 07:53 AM.

[Dan Murfman]

At the end of the closing ceremony my wife said we should start saving for 2012 and head to London. I'm going to start looking into it.

[BigMike]

Hot off the heels of this Olympic Games, my wife and I were talking about maybe trying to make a trip to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.

Has anyone ever gone? I'm sure every Games are different...but anyone have any feedback? Was it worth going? Im sure it was ridiculously expensive...but how expensive is expensive? How hard is it to get tickets to decent events? Am I going to be paying a grand for ice skating tickets (which is what she'd want to see)....Are hotel prices off the charts expensive? Etc...

And most importantly, how far in advance do you need to start the process of booking hotels and buying tickets? A year? More?

We are in the early stages of dicussing this...so just trying to gather info.

I went to the Atlanta games, spent 19 days there.

I have been interested in Going to Vancouver as well, the good news is that you have missed nothing so far.

Housing is expensive and difficult to come by. Obviously the winter games are somewhat different (smaller), but still for the Atlanta Olympics the Olympic housing network included hotels in Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina. There were between 500K and 1Million people per day visiting Atlanta. Housing has not been released to the public yet; although, private rental units are available now. A house in Whistler is going for 3-8K a day. Apartments can be had for less, but still are upwards of 1K a day. When the official Olympic housing network is available there might be some more reasonable units available, but I doubt it will be cheap.

In terms of tickets, face value they are expensive, but at least in Atlanta not shockingly so. Tickets are probably going to be more than a Sox game, and in some cases a lot more for some marquee events. They will be hard to get, because the big lottery will go to Canadian citizens, and US citizens will get limited tickets. Back in Atlanta it was easy to get scalped tickets for most events, especially things like mens basketball, which was selling for way below face value, on the other hand things like gymnastics were going for way above face. I have no doubt due to the limited events and smaller venues Winter Olympic tickets are going to be tougher to get

If you want to go, now is the time to start your research

http://www.vancouver2010.com/en

[Fred not Lynn]

Hot off the heels of this Olympic Games, my wife and I were talking about maybe trying to make a trip to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.

Has anyone ever gone? I'm sure every Games are different...but anyone have any feedback? Was it worth going? Im sure it was ridiculously expensive...but how expensive is expensive? How hard is it to get tickets to decent events? Am I going to be paying a grand for ice skating tickets (which is what she'd want to see)....Are hotel prices off the charts expensive? Etc...

And most importantly, how far in advance do you need to start the process of booking hotels and buying tickets? A year? More?

We are in the early stages of dicussing this...so just trying to gather info.

One thing seems to be a constant every Olympics - you hear all these stories about how hotels are all booked, and people are getting tens of thousands of dollars a week to rent houses and things like that...and in the end it isn't true. What happens is that when the Games are awarded, the IOC books pretty much every hotel room in town - and once the Games get closer, they release what they don't need. You may tend to do better, actually, by waiting if you have the stones to do it, and reserving accomodations later - problem is, of course, no one has the stones to leave such a thing to chance.

Until Salt Lake, I'd found and heard that for all but the most premium events scalpers were outside the venues with tickets at or below face value - as tickets came in packages, and to get the figure skating, ceremonies and ice hockey tickets they were selling at a premium, they had to buy packs with speed skating, ski jumping, luge and other less premium sports...I had expected more of the same in Salt Lake, but no dice, demand was up. I had managed to get some face value stuff on E-Bay pre-Games for Salt Lake, but I'm a little worried that with more legit secondary market outlets you're not going to see the off "extra ticket" on e-bay as much anymore. I'm inclined to think that since Vancouver is the biggest metro area in North America to ever host a winter Games, and because it's a short drive from a major US city, attendance will be pretty strong in 2010.

[Mr Weebles]

Do the Special Olympics count?

[Eastchop]

Hot off the heels of this Olympic Games, my wife and I were talking about maybe trying to make a trip to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.

Has anyone ever gone? I'm sure every Games are different...but anyone have any feedback? Was it worth going? Im sure it was ridiculously expensive...but how expensive is expensive? How hard is it to get tickets to decent events? Am I going to be paying a grand for ice skating tickets (which is what she'd want to see)....Are hotel prices off the charts expensive? Etc...

And most importantly, how far in advance do you need to start the process of booking hotels and buying tickets? A year? More?

We are in the early stages of dicussing this...so just trying to gather info.

I went to Salt Lake 2002 and enjoyed it, it's definitely worth checking out. We didn't particularly plan ahead for it (the dates happened to overlap with our yearly ski trip to SLC), but had no problem getting event tickets - I was surprised at how easy they were to find actually (for certain events, definitely not all!). I think I bought mens gs on eBay in advance, as one of the more popular events, and picked up reasonably priced downhill and freestyle skiing and hockey tickets the day-of from scalpers, etc. As you're looking into more popular events, buying ahead is the right call, and if you come across any good opportunities to pick up more while you're there, cool.

Booking flights/hotels wasn't particularly difficult (moreso than usual, anyway), but that said, we stayed at our usual hotel up in the mountains to ski, and just drove the 45 mins down to the city a couple days to see events. If you're open to staying a bit farther away and renting a car, it's something to look into - at least in Salt Lake, they had plenty of parking with buses running to events venues, downtown Park City, etc. I can't speak to staying closer, but imagine it would require a bit more money and for you to book way ahead. Good luck with your planning!

Edited by Eastchop, 26 August 2008 - 09:41 AM.

[Fred not Lynn]

Be aware that Whistler is a signifigant distance from Vancouver (2 hours at least, sometimes more), it's not like Park City where you can zip up there for the day. If you're interested in any of the events in Whistler/Callahagn Valley(alpine, cross-country, ski jump and sliding), be sure to plan for travel - and I think travel will be a pain in the ass. I understand there will be restrictions on who can drive on the one highway that goes up there...but I'm assuming there will be lots of bus service.



Here's what the road looked like last month...

Edited by Fred not Lynn, 26 August 2008 - 09:57 AM.

[LateRally]

I went to LA in '84 and Seoul in '88. Housing was not a factor so can't help there (lived in LA and had family in Seoul).

But the best reason to go to an Olympics is simply the experience of it. And just getting high on the atmosphere and the buzz. Everyone should go at least once.

And I would echo the comments about tickets not being very hard to come by. Had a buddy who took his family to Salt Lake and he had no problems going to pretty much any event he wanted to. Besides that, some of the more obscure events are sometimes the best ones to go to. Hell, if you've been to Fenway anytime in the last few years, getting into most Olympic events will be a piece of cake.