Spoiler alert: The Metropolis of Lights isn’t the one setting for the 2024 Summer time Olympics. Technically, it’s not categorized info. Nonetheless, most individuals don’t know that the Olympic Agenda launched final October declared, “Video games now not should be held in a single important metropolis, however might be unfold over a number of cities, areas, and even international locations.” Why disperse the motion? It’s way more sustainable, as a result of fewer venues have to be constructed. However wait, it will get higher. It additionally makes attending the Olympics extra inexpensive.
For instance, in three weeks my childhood bestie, Katie, will be part of me in Marseille to look at soccer, each males’s and ladies’s (tickets from $16), and crusing (hospitality packages from $350). Marseille is considered one of 17 cities and communes all through France internet hosting Olympic occasions July 26 to Aug. 11. In the meantime, French Polynesia (Tahiti to be exact), is the place the browsing competitions will happen. Whereas Katie and I like Paris — the Video games’ important host metropolis — we have been simply there in 2021. This yr, the Cote d’Azur is asking, and in a shock twist we by no means noticed coming, we will afford it.
Regardless of searches being up 80 % yr over yr, in keeping with Reserving.com, Marseille nonetheless has loads of snug resort rooms beneath $300 per night time, a worth level that’s laborious to search out in Paris proper now. For instance, finish of July charges on the 4-star NH Paris Champs-Elyssées begin at $600 per night time. In the meantime, we simply booked a room the NH Assortment Marseille for $215 per night time. That was solely after imagining ourselves within the plethora of tempting properties on AirBnB.
Ought to we determine to splurge and enterprise east alongside the ritzy French Riviera, we’ll gap up at Hôtel Belles Rives (rooms from $600 per night time). This 5-star beachfront Artwork Deco abode — the place F. Scott Fitzgerald reportedly partied with Ernest Hemingway — boasts one of many world’s oldest water snowboarding colleges. Maybe we’ll spend money on a lesson and uncover we’re naturals/shoe-ins for when the Olympic committee provides water snowboarding to its lineup. Then we’ll take the prepare into close by Good to look at the U.S. Ladies’s Soccer Workforce tackle Zambia. Tickets begin at simply $16. Bordeaux, Lyon, and Nantes are additionally internet hosting Olympic soccer matches, together with the Males’s Quarterfinals (tickets from $70) and Ladies’s Bronze Medal Match (tickets from $38).
If you can be splurging on a Paris resort and might’t get tickets to all of the matches you may have your eye on, verify your resort’s programming. Lodges just like the luxurious Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris are internet hosting viewing events for visitors.
For those who’re most trying ahead to the equestrian occasions, trip in Versailles. You gained’t discover a room on the Waldorf Astoria Versailles – Trianon Palace for lower than $1,400 per night time. However AirBnB nonetheless has a handful of Versaille-area flats beginning at simply $100 per night time. Whereas the one equestrian-related tickets left on the official Paris2024.org web site are for hospitality packages beginning at $1,200, Ticombo has periods beginning at $84. Simply bear in mind, any time you purchase from a reseller, you’re taking a danger.
If basketball is in your bucket checklist, make Lille your house base. Each the boys’s and ladies’s groups (tickets from $54) will play on this Flemish metropolis bordering Belgium. Actually, it’s cheaper to remain in Brussels, simply 38 minutes away by way of Eurostar categorical. Whereas double rooms at Vacation Inn Specific Lille Centre begin at $257, you may nonetheless rating a spacious king with a balcony on the Vacation Inn Brussels – Schuman for simply $137.
And if watching golf is your purpose (tickets from $26) you may have a superb probability of operating into Scottie Scheffler in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines the place each the women and men will tee off beginning Aug. 1. This new Parisian suburb, constructed within the Sixties and simply 20 miles west of town, can even host the indoor biking occasions (tickets from $194) in its 6,000-seat velodrome. With one-bedroom flats beginning at $100 per night time, AirBnB shall be your finest guess right here.
However what about flights? We’re not going over price range on these both. American Airways, for instance, nonetheless has roundtrip nonstop tickets from JFK to CDG beginning at $765. From there, you may take an inexpensive prepare or airplane to Bordeaux, Good, Lille, Lyon, or Versaille. For those who be part of us in Marseille, don’t be a stranger; say hello (or bonjour). We’ll be the 2 vacationers wearing head-to-toe Workforce USA attire.