To me, the Olympics are the best event on earth. I have always been crazy about the Olympics, and athletics specifically. I have followed them all of my life, with some of my earliest childhood memories coming from iconic moments of the Games. I could write paragraphs on the topic, but instead will summarise to say I’ve dreamed of going my whole life, and I am so so excited to write this post of my experience, and to share my advice on planning an Olympics trip.
It was truly an experience of a lifetime, and I feel incredibly privileged to have done it. If you’re thinking about going one day, or just want to read about what it was like, read on to find out more.
Contents
- Contents
- My Experience
- Day 1: Travel from London
- Day 2: Men’s Football Semi Final (France vs. Egypt)
- Day 3: Women’s Football Semi Final (Germany vs. USA)
- Day 4: Athletics
- Day 5: Athletics & Women’s Volleyball Semi Final (Brazil vs. USA)
- Day 6: Canoe/Kayak Sprint & Athletics
- Day 7: Women’s Water polo Bronze Medal Match (Netherlands vs. USA)
- How to plan a trip to the Olympics
My Experience
Day 1: Travel from London
On day 1 of our trip, we travelled down to London late afternoon and enjoyed our tradition of a date night and a Dishoom before the Eurostar. For date night we chose an open air cinema, and then scoffed an absolutely delicious meal at Dishoom – their house daal is unbeatable! We then stayed overnight in London ready for our 6am Eurostar!
Day 2: Men’s Football Semi Final (France vs. Egypt)
After an early Eurostar, we arrived in Paris. I was completely shocked by how well the transport hub of Gare du Nord was managed – there were helpers everywhere, no queues for tickets and it was super easy to navigate. Our first event wasn’t actually in Paris though, it was being held in another French city – Lyon. We therefore transited across Paris from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon (very easy on the metro), to board a train out of the city.
But before we did, we stopped for lunch at a bucket list spot for me in Gare de Lyon, Le Train Bleu. I have always wanted to eat here and I absolutely loved it! Just look at it!!! Luckily when we arrived (11.30am) it was empty as we were the first sitting for lunch.
We then boarded the train to Lyon (tickets purchased in advance), which was smooth and easy. In 2 hours, we arrived in Lyon, and after checking in to our hotel we decided to head to stadium. The organisers had put on a special shuttle to take people from Lyon centre to the event in around 30 minutes, and it was easy to find and cheap at 3EUR per person.
We arrived to watch France vs Egypt in the semi final. It was really cool to see the home nation in action, the stadium was packed and the atmosphere was really good. It felt like a big party vibe – until Egypt went 1-0 up in the second half. France managed to equalise, taking the tie to extra time. It finished 3-1 to France and the celebrations ran well in to the night. The match didn’t finish until midnight, and it took us 1.5 hours to get back to the hotel due to the crowds. I was exhausted after day 1!!!
Day 3: Women’s Football Semi Final (Germany vs. USA)
After the late night, we had a lie in and then strolled to Lyon’s old town for lunch. It was really beautiful, but also 35 degrees and baking heat so we couldn’t do too much. I’d love to go back one day and explore it further as the architecture was just beautiful.
We then walked to the train station (1hr from the old town) to catch the shuttle bus again to get out to the stadium to see the women’s football semi final between Germany and the USA. Thankfully this one started at 6pm, so we knew we wouldn’t be back as late.
The game had a lot less atmosphere than the previous night, with easily half the stadium empty. The USA fans were super vocal though with chants of ‘I believe we can, I believe we will, I believe we are the best’ in unison (eye roll, sorry to my US readers). Given my connections to Germany, I joined the chants of ‘Auf geht’s Deutschland’ instead. Sadly, my cheering didn’t help and the USA won 1-0. It was a pretty poor quality game to be honest.
Day 4: Athletics
We set off from Lyon on the return leg to Paris at 10am and arrived back in the capital at lunch time. I was SO excited to get to the athletics. My heart is in this sport, it is the highlight of any Olympics for me and my favourite athlete Matt Hudson Smith was running in the men’s 400m final that night. So, after checking in to our hotel and making a 30 minute journey out of the centre via the metro, and then a 45 minute walk from the metro to the venue, we finally arrived at the Stade de France.
We were seated in the ‘friends and family’ seating area round the top bend. We had a perfect view of the women’s pole vault final, and many of the vaulters came over to their family a few rows in front of us. We had no British interest in the final so we supported the Finnish athlete instead. She didn’t win – and the title was taken by Nina Kennedy of Australia.
We then watched the 200m semi finals, and saw Tebogo outrun Noah Lyles by a long way. I’m not a fan of Noah and was so was glad for Letsile – it’s amazing for Botswana to have such a talent on the track, and it’s great to see the diversification of athletics. We also saw the men’s discus final, won by Jamiacan Roje Stona who threw an Olympic record to beat Mykolas Alekna.
We then watched the men’s steeplechase final, which included the most horrific accident I have ever seen in 30+ years of watching athletics. The race favourite, Girma, fell on a hurdle and smashed his head on the track, lying unconscious for ages as other athletes jumped over him. Eventually he was stretchered off in a neck brace, and I was so upset by the amount of people taking photos as he was. Thankfully he is now conscious but remains in hospital days later with a serious neck injury.
Then it was time for Matt. I first saw Matt race aged 13 in Birmingham for our local athletics club, Birchfield Harriers. He’s a really shy, really kind, really humble and down to earth person. Even in his teens at Birmingham regional meets he was a class above everyone else, and watching him run for almost 20 years has been a pleasure. If you don’t know Matt’s story, he attempted suicide a few years ago after a string of disappointing results and getting to a lot of debt with health issues in the USA. Last year he won a World Championship silver medal and I shed a tear in happiness for him. I was hoping for one better for him.
I think I probably deafened the poor Swedish boy next to me as I screamed Matt on. Round our bend, he was well in the lead and down the home straight he stayed strong. He ran a personal best, a British record, a European record and the 5th fastest time in history. No-one has ever not won the Olympics running a sub 43.5. Running 43.44, he couldn’t have done any more, but in the final steps American Quincy Hall charged to the line and beat Matt by 0.04 of a second. I was absolutely devastated, but happy for him at the same time.
His lovely Mum Cheryl was sitting on our row, and she ran to the track to embrace her son. Their hug was the highlight of my Olympics.
Day 5: Athletics & Women’s Volleyball Semi Final (Brazil vs. USA)
After getting back to our hotel at 1am, we had to get up again at 7am to get back to the track for 9am. This time it was a morning session and we had a different view on the opposite side of the stadium. The highlight of the session was the start of the women’s heptathlon. We saw the first two events – the hurdles and the thrilling High Jump which saw Brit Kat Johnson Thompson clear 1.94 for the first time since rupturing her Achilles.
We also saw qualifying for the women’s shot put, the 800m repercharges and the men’s and women’s 4x100m semi finals – both of which saw GB go through to the finals.
The session finished at 1pm, and we had tickets to another event at 4pm – a new sport for us in Volleyball. We travelled the 2hrs across town to Arena Paris Sud to get to our women’s volleyball semi final between USA (again) and Brazil.
This was our favourite event for atmosphere by far. The stadium was PACKED and I had no idea how seriously Brazilians took their volleyball. They were bringing the party, and the venue did such a great job as well – between points they played Brazilian and US music so we went from Tupac to a samba in the aisles in seamless unison! We also learnt all the cheers and chants, it was great! We totally fell in love with the Brazilian fans and were really gutted that the USA won. We had emotional tears all around us.
The volleyball finished at 6.30pm, giving us an evening in Paris. We took the opportunity to have our first proper sit down meal in days, treating ourselves to steak and wine, and then a stroll along the Seine. Plus an early night was much needed after 36,000 steps and with a 6.30am alarm set!
Day 6: Canoe/Kayak Sprint & Athletics
When that alarm went off, I didn’t want to get up. Going to these events takes energy, especially for a pair of introverts. The noise, the people, the travel, the heat – it saps you. My body craved a lie in, but my heart and brain knew we couldn’t miss an event. The Canoe & Kayak sprint started at 10am and was the most annoying venue to get to. 2 metros, a shuttle bus and a 3km walk and we were finally in our seats. The venue itself was beautiful – a perfect place to sit in the sunshine and watch some boating!
There was absolutely no GB interest at all in any of the semi finals or finals we saw, so we decided to adopt Brazil again who were represented in one race, and Hungary because we love Budapest. We appear to be a bad omen for whomever we support – we saw 4 Hungarian medals but all silver/bronze and a Brazilian silver. It didn’t dampen the Brazilian mood though – the party continued.
After 4 hours, the event finished at around 2pm. We had to hot foot it back to the athletics stadium for 6pm, and find food on the way – but we were scuppered trying to get the shuttle bus back to the train station and the journey ended up taking us over 3 hours, so we had to forgo ‘proper’ food to make it to the athletics on time.
It was worth it though with a spectacular final night for us of athletics. We had incredible seats, right over the finish line. We were surrounded by fellow Brits on a night full of medal opportunities for us. We watched both 4x100m relay finals. The women’s GB team were narrowly beaten by the USA and could have won if not for awful handovers. The men got a good bronze medal and the two teams celebrated on a lap of honour together which was lovely.
Then it was time for the final event of the heptathlon, with KJT needing to make up 8 seconds on Nafi Thiam of Belgium to take the gold for Team GB. She made an amazing attempt, taking 6 seconds out and running a PB, but it wasn’t enough and she had to settle for silver. Nafi became a 3 time Olympic champion which is truly incredible.
I finished my time at the athletics having seen 3 silvers and a bronze for Team GB. I’m gutted not to have seen a gold for GB – I suppose I’ll have to try and rectify that in 2028 or 2032!
Day 7: Women’s Water polo Bronze Medal Match (Netherlands vs. USA)
We finished off our trip with another early morning start across town to La Defense Arena for another new sport – Water polo. Yet again it was the USA women in action, this time against The Netherlands in the bronze medal match.
The arena was a sea of orange and we decided to cheer for the USA in the hope that us supporting them would go in The Netherlands’ favour. The game was incredibly absorbing, with the USA taking an early lead and then Netherlands coming back to 10-10 with just a minute to play. In the last 20 seconds, the Netherlands scored, meaning they won the match! We chuckled to ourselves at our supporters curse.
And with that our time at the Olympics drew to an end – we headed back to our hotel and on to the train station to head home on the Eurostar after an exhausting but wonderful week at the Olympics. In total Team GB took home 65 medals, more than at Tokyo and the same as at London 2012, however were 7th in the medal table due to such a low proportion of golds (8 less than in Tokyo). Hopefully in LA2028 we can climb back up the medal table!
How to plan a trip to the Olympics
Tickets
- Tickets are normally released around a year prior to the Games; ensure you sign up to ticket updates well in advance of that so you know the dates for ticket releases.
- There are normally free tickets available in a ballot for nationals of the host country, everyone else goes in to a ballot for a slot to purchase.
- Interestingly for Paris, not all tickets sold. Actually we checked the app most days and there were lots of options to buy tickets every day. Often people re-sell tickets last minute as well, so some really great sports came up the night before (e.g. gymnastics, cycling, athletics).
Cost
The most common question I’ve been asked is how affordable a trip to the Olympics is. In total, our week long trip cost us £6,226 for 2 people in 4 main cost buckets: Tickets, Hotels, Travel and Expenses, and there’s plenty of scope to make it more affordable than that. For transparency, here is our cost breakdown.
- There are multiple ticket categories, ranging from A to D. We chose a mix, largely because we were restricted by what was available. We purchased tickets for two people to 8 events and in total the tickets cost us £3,710, broken down as follows:
- Athletics evening session (Category A): £1,300
- Athletics evening session (Category A, with UK Athletics invite discount): £600
- Volleyball afternoon session (Category B): £480
- Canoe morning session (Category A): £350
- Waterpolo morning session (Category C): £350
- Athletics morning session (Category B): £300
- Football session women (Category B): £180
- Football session men (Category C): £150
- In total, we spent £1,524 on hotels for the week. Top saving tip: Book fully refundable hotels well in advance, and then check prices before you travel. Often prices are reduced last minute for hotels if they are not fully booked.
- In Lyon, we stayed in the Radisson Blu (4*). When we booked a year in advance it was £1,500. The day before we travelled, it was £212 for the same time period. I cancelled the initial booking and rebooked at the new price.
- In Paris, we stayed at the Hotel Camille Paris Gare de Lyon (4*). Initial booking was £2,430 and with the re-book tactic it was £1,312 a week before we travelled.
- Travel will vary massively depending on how far you’re travelling. In total we spent £680 on travel, made up of £450 on Eurostar train tickets, £80 on Paris travel passes, and £150 on return train tickets from Paris to Lyon.
- Whilst at the Games, we spent £312 on expenses – food, souvenirs, drinks etc.
Venue Information
- When planning your Olympics trip, nothing is more important than knowing where your events are. You will never have a city centre venue with walking distance to a stadium, aquatics centre, open water venue, multiple indoor stadiums, etc so you will have to travel significant distances to get around.
- Venues can be absolutely miles apart – we found on days where we had an event at 10am and event at 6/7pm, we were only just making it in time. Often venues are c.1 hr out of town and can be 2-3 hours apart from other venues. Then double the ‘no crowds’ travel time to account for the crowds. On some days we had to queue over an hour to get on the metro, for example. Planning sensible routes (with time padding) on each day is really important.
- Plan for your hotel to be somewhere near a station/transport hub to enable you to minimise travel and walking time.
- Ensure you know which travel zones your venues are in so you can sort you travel tickets when you arrive. For Paris there were multiple travel card options to cover different zones and timeframes. It was great to have 1 card which lasted us all week and got us everywhere we needed to with no fuss.
Other helpful tips on the Olympics
- Get in speed walking training (!) – even walking from metro/train stops to venues could be a 5km walk. We walked over 20,000 steps a day easily. On one day we walked 36,000 steps and I honestly came home physically exhausted. These cities are big and covering walking between venues and public transport adds up.
- Give yourself time – everywhere is busy, though it was only unbearably so on exits from venues when everyone is doing so at the same time. Leaving a stadium at 10pm and not getting back to the hotel at 1am purely because of queues for everything, then getting up at 8am to get to a venue for 10am the next day was pretty tiring.
- Don’t squeeze in too many events – one event a day enables things to be done at a nice pace, and 2 events a day is the max you can fit in (unless you’re not moving venue). I recommend a mix of both types of day to build in some rest. If you have children with you and need extra time, this is even more important.
- Take food to venues – we found the stadium food to be not very nice and queues ridiculous. Most events are also timed over lunch and dinner times. Venues allowed you to take small backpacks in so we loaded ours with food and water. That does mean you rarely get a ‘proper’ sit down meal. In our entire week at the Games, we only managed two restaurant meals.
- Cushions – if you have room, pack seat cushions. The seats were horrendous to have to sit in for 3+ hours a session and we both came home with bad backs. Also if you’re in shorts/skirt, your skin sticks to the plastic chairs and it’s really grim. So take a cushion if you can.
Safety at the Olympics
My biggest concern about the Olympics was safety. I thought the public transport networks would be overwhelmed and vulnerable but I have to say at no point did I feel unsafe.
- There were hundreds of armed police on duty at all times and at all stations. We saw police units from France, Slovenia, Germany and Serbia so there was a lot of back up in place!
- The volunteers were AMAZING. They kept everything clear and well organised, managed crowd control and meant I never felt on an overcrowded bus/metro etc. They also meant everyone knew where they needed to go, directions were clear and help was on hand if you needed anything.
- Roadblocks were set up everywhere between transport stops and venues so walking to events was easy and with no risk of anyone being run over. Police monitored the roads at all times and controlled road crossings to manage crowds.
- Planes flew over the stadiums to stop any aerial attacks or problems. Whilst at the Stade de France, a police plane was constantly flying overhead monitoring everything. In Lyon, drones flew every 10 minutes or so.
And there you have it – my experience of a full on but absolutely INCREDIBLE week at the Olympics. The Hannah of 1996 making medals out of cardboard and tin foil and running around the house pretending to be Michael Johnson, the Hannah of 2000 getting up at 3am to secretly watch the canoe slalom before school on a tiny old black and white TV in her bedroom, the Hannah of 2004 crying at Darren Campbell being beaten to Gold, the Hannah of 2008 watching Usain Bolt catapult athletics to a new level, the Hannah of 2012 so upset not to get any tickets in the ballot and not able to afford to go, the Hannah of 2016 screaming at Max Whitlock’s double golden afternoon, the Hannah of 2020 who couldn’t go on the planned trip to Tokyo due to COVID….led to the Hannah of 2024 living her best life finally there. It was a privilege, an honour and one of the best weeks of my life. Now, can I have a nap please?
Saasdia Travel Gid
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