The countdown is on: there are only 100 days left before the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, taking place this year from July 26 to August 11 (followed by the Paralympics from August 28-September 8).
And the final tranche of tickets will go on sale tomorrow.
With tickets for the opening ceremony currently on sale for €2,700 (£2,300) through (tickets.paris2024.org) you might think it’s too late to grab a bargain and go. But we’ve got some tips and tricks to help you save some cash on a trip to Paris for the Olympics.
This is the first time in Olympic history that tickets have been sold on a single, centralised website; in total, more than 10million tickets are being made available on it.
Early sales started with draws, when people registered to buy tickets from February to May last year. In the first draw, from February 15 to May 15, 2023, more than 3.5million tickets were sold.
Another draw was held in May. And on November 30, more than 400,000 tickets were released.
An artist’s impression of how the Paris 2024 opening ceremony will look
Can I still bag a cheap ticket?
You’ll need to be quick. To celebrate the opening ceremony being 100 days away, tomorrow the final tranche of more than 250,000 tickets will go on sale – only on the official ticketing website (tickets.paris2024.org) – at 9am French time, which is an hour ahead of the UK. Half of those will be sold for €100 (£85) or less, with almost 20,000 tickets at €24 (£21). If you miss those, the official resale for tickets will reopen in May on the same website; create an account so you can receive updates. Other than that, think outside the box and book tickets on the website for events outside Paris – you can still buy tickets for basketball at Lille for €50 (£43) or football in Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice, Nantes and Marseille for €24 (£21).
See the action for free
While plans to allow tourists to see the opening ceremony along the Seine for free have been scrapped (only invitees will receive free seats, and security concerns may mean the ceremony has to be scaled back), many road and river events are free to watch. They include open-water swimming in the Seine, as well as the triathlon and marathon, which can be viewed from the streets of Paris. One of the best places to watch the road cycling events will be the Butte Montmartre, the final stretch before the finish at the Trocadero. Consult olympics.com for schedules and maps of the race routes.
Free-to-watch parades of the previous day’s medal winners will also be held at Champions Park beneath the Eiffel Tower, where the open-air arena will show live screenings of events. Other screens will be set up at Club 2024 zones both in the city and across France; find out where they will be on the games map released at the end of April (olympics.com).
Eurostar hasn’t raised its prices for the Olympic period but tickets are selling fast
Get there for less
Eurostar hasn’t raised its prices for the Olympic period but tickets are selling fast; it has sold twice as many tickets as this time last year. As with all modes of transport, the cheapest outbound fares are on weekday evenings (from about £64) returning early in the morning, meaning extra accommodation costs. You can save on accommodation altogether during the Olympics by taking a day trip, but the cheapest fare I could find was a £213 day return. Flying can be cheaper; I found return flights on easyjet.com from Gatwick at £106.40. Skyscanner.net has a ‘whole month’ search tool so you can see which days are less expensive during the event as well as a ‘nearby airport’ search.
Is it less expensive to drive?
If you’re going en famille or in a small group, taking the ferry or Eurotunnel can work out less expensive during the event in July and August. I found a return crossing from Dover to Calais on P&O Ferries (poferries.com) for £163, and about £200 using the Channel Tunnel (leshuttle.com). Remember to budget for tolls as well as petrol. If you take your car, stay in the suburbs and look for accommodation with parking. Booking.com has the Hotel le Chantilly for a three-night weekend from £722 during dates in July. Or consider Meaux, a 36-minute train ride from the Gare de l’Est. I found a beautifully decorated one-bedroom apartment sleeping five near the station and Disneyland Paris and with parking from £209 a night on Airbnb.
Chantilly is home to a beautiful castle as well as oodles of cream
Save on your stay
While central Paris is by no means fully booked, you’ll have to hunt around to get a deal – I found a studio apartment in Montmartre for £128 a night at the end of July on Airbnb (on which you can now search by competition venue, such as Stade de France) and £162 a night at the Hotel Sunny on booking.com. You’ll get a much better deal if you stay in the wider Paris region, linked by RER to the centre in about 30 minutes for €5 (£4). In Chantilly, home to a beautiful castle as well as oodles of cream, I found a modern flat opposite the station, which links with Paris’s Gare du Nord, for £87 a night on Airbnb. Or try historic Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where a swish apartment for four with views of the castle is from £263 a night. If you stay in the suburbs, it’s worth buying a Paris 2024 pass, a city travel pass so you can use the metro and buses for €16 (£14) a day, rising to €70 (£60) a week. It’s valid for transport from the airports and to Disneyland Paris (iledefrance-mobilites.fr)
Should I book now or later?
Book your transport as soon as possible, as prices are going up by the minute. With hotels, there is a chance that prices might decrease if properties don’t get sufficient bookings. This is exactly what happened during the London 2012 Olympics. According to a study for Santander, some hotels were found to be charging premiums of up to 300 per cent but then some had to discount their prices as the games approached so as to increase bookings. However, it’s a risk if you wait to book your accommodation, particularly if you have tickets for a specific event.
Can I save on merchandise?
If you sign up on the official shop2.olympics.com, you can save 15 per cent on your first order and will receive emails detailing future promotions and exclusive discounts.
Prices were correct at the time of publication.
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