Question by Hannah: Roughly how much would it cost to attend the 2014 Sochi Olympics?
I live in America and would really like to see the figure skating at the next winter Olympics. If possible, it’d be fun to see some of the other sports (everything at the winter games is fantastic), but it’s already looking to be super super expensive.
From my nearest airport, a round trip ticket would cost about $ 800. Tickets to the men’s, women’s, and pairs events (along with the exhibition) are a total of about 2k. If I can get food for a price similar to what I can get in America, I can eat for probably $ 100-200.
So that’s 3k AT LEAST.
But I have no idea how much housing would cost, what hotels to look at, or if there are going to be different prices for the Olympics. Is a room going to be $ 500 a night? Would I be able to find one for any cheaper?
What are ways to save money?
Help!
Answers and Views:
Answer by Toronto
Hotels are going to be expensive around that time.
My estimate is $ 5000. Don’t forget you need insurance as well.
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Kay says
edit* accidentally wrote $40 for food under the "summary" but the total of $510 is for $30.
Forgot to add that I read the Russian government would be regulating hotel pricing so you should be able to find a lot of hotels for under $200. You could lower your accomodation cost by finding a friend or 2 to attend the games with you and split the cost. Also consider not staying for the entire length of the games, maybe more like 10 days.
Definitely try to find a grocery store to buy your food since it will be much cheaper. You could just buy yourself a loaf of bread and have sandwiches or something. It will be cheaper than buying a meal at a restaurant and will last you longer.
It's still difficult to actually start planning because ticket prices have not been listed yet and new accomodation is still being built.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Kay says
It will definitely be more than $3000; more like double that. Roundtrip from the US will be more like $1000-$1300. If you stay for the entire duration of the games than accomodation will likely be around $1700-2000 (Feb. 7-23; but you'd probably want to arrive at least a day in advance to overcome jet lag). Not sure what you mean by $100-200 because that estimation will definitely not get you far even if you are a light eater (e.g. if you stay all 17 days that would work out to $5.80-11.70/day, which is more like the cost of a single meal). Meals are more expensive in Europe and purchasing food when your at an event (e.g. pizza, coke, etc) will be even more expensive than usual simply because of the general tendency to increase prices at major events. Per day you should not expect to spend any less than $30 (it's possible to spend less than this is you buy most of your food at a super market/grocery store but for trips you should inflate your expected expenditure just to be safe).
Quick summary (per person):
Return flight – approx. $1000-1300
Accomodation – approx. $1700-2000
Food – per day approx. $40 ($510 total)
That's already $3210-3810 without including the cost of any events. Assuming the skating is $2000 like you said, that will bring you to over $5000. I'm not entirely sure if this is correct but I read that the average cost of event tickets (single day) at Vancouver 2010 was approx. $150. So even if you see events other than skating, you should expect to spent at least $1500 on tickets.
So + event tickets brings total to anywhere from $4710-5310.
This price estimate does not include transportation either. Not sure how far apart the venues will be or how far your hotel would be. Nor does it include souvenirs or unexpected cost. Usually hotel and flight prices will increase if there's a major event going on at you destination so the cost could easily increase.