It’s not long until Olympic fever grips Paris, and it might be easier than you think for Londoners to make the short trip across The Channel to get a taste of the action.
Whether it’s for an extended period, or even a day trip, there are plenty of chances to attend across the two weeks of action this summer – we’ve collated some of the ways you might go about an Olympic excursion from 26 July-11 August.
Travel
Most people might not consider taking the short flight to Paris, but as Olympic travel options go, it looks like the most affordable option.
Return flights from Heathrow start at as little as £120, and you might even find a slightly better deal if you’re willing to make the trip to Gatwick or even Southend.
Both Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports in Paris are well connected to the city, so either provides a good Olympic travel.
Of course, not every event is in Paris. Flights to Bordeaux, Marseille and Nice, amongst others, for the football or sailing start at £70 return and could easily be turned into a warm summer getaway.
To make it to the surfing in French Polynesia, however, you’re looking at a £1600 return flight via Los Angeles.
If flying isn’t for you, the usual raft of Eurostar departures is running from St Pancras.
Prices are a little higher than flying and will continue to rise in the build-up to the games, so if it’s your preferred method of transport, booking early is advised.
At peak times, it’s already quite pricey, but make an early start – or head home late – and you’ll still be able to find a return for under £250.
After all, if you’re looking at a day trip, those sorts of times might work well.
Eurostar will also be putting on an additional service between London and Paris on Fridays and Sundays to help cope with demand, and they are the official Olympic travel partners of Team GB for the games, so who knows who you’ll be sitting next to.
Ferries from Dover will be equally busy, as will the roads in France, but if you don’t mind a long drive, the prices are much as normal, starting at £80 return for standard car of two.
Tickets
As nice as a trip to the French capital in summer may be, there’s no point planning your Olympic travel unless you’ve got tickets for something.
As is to be expected, a lot of the big-ticket sessions and events have sold out already, but there are still some exciting, and not outrageously priced, events on offer.
All tickets are sold through the official portal – tickets.paris2024.org – where you just need to make an account to be able to seal a seat for Paris 2024.
There’s still a healthy number of the ever-popular athletics sessions available for booking from about €150, but tickets start at €24 for a variety of different sports.
Accommodation
Finding somewhere to stay might be your biggest challenge if you’re looking to make a trip of it.
Lots of hotels are already fully booked, and those with vacancies are mostly charging exorbitant prices.
One solution might be to find somewhere a little outside the city, but that’s accessible by train – after all, lots of the events are a outside the city centre or in surrounding towns as it is.
Somewhere such as Chantilly or Chartres might be the perfect spot to escape the busyness of Paris whilst also being easily accessible from the city – just over an hour on public transport.
Official hospitality provider On Location are also offering hospitality ticket and hotel packages which include a few extras such as public transport included.
However you choose to plan your Olympic travel this summer, the proximity means that there’ll be a healthy following for Team GB, so pack your flag and get over there.
Featured image credit: Conall via Flickr under CC BY 2.0
