TIPS & TRICKS | 20 Things I Learned at My First Olympics

HELPFUL HINTS FOR PLANNING A TRIP TO SEE THE GAMES

Planning a trip to see the Olympics is perhaps one of the biggest bucket list trips there is. I know it was for me! So when I found out that not only the Games were going to be in Paris, but that they were hosting the equestrian events (my old sport) at Versailles - I was determined to go!

As I started planning, I quickly realized this was one of the most complicated trips I had ever planned. You need to start your journey early, the official information released can be really confusing, tickets and hotels are hard to come by, and in general I didn't know what to expect. I just knew we only had one shot to get it right.

Along the way, I learned a lot, and I'm sharing my most important tips & tricks here. If you have your eye on LA 2028 or are maybe thinking about attending a future edition of the Games, keep reading to make planning your Olympic trip a little easier!

While I hope my tips are very helpful, things can change Games-to-Games, and you should always cross-reference my advice with the official site, linked here:

PHASE 1: Initial Planning & Getting Tickets

1-2 YEARS OUT

1 | Getting tickets is a long, complex process

The process seems to be a little different for each Olympics, and Paris was very different from previous Games since it was the first Olympics to use a fully centralized ticketing platform. That said, it appears a similar process is being repeated for LA, so here are some basics of how it worked for Paris, plus what info has been released for LA:

STEP 0: MAKE A GAME PLAN (ASAP)

For reasons detailed below, this plan will probably be forced to change (unless you have an unlimited budget). That said, you should still take a look at the events schedule to come up with a list of what you most want to see and how those events fall on the calendar. Think through things in terms of priority in case you don't get your first pick. Also, take a look at where the events are located on a map (as some may be very far apart) and see if that changes your plan. Lastly, familiarize yourself with all of the ticket rules and processes.

STEP 1: SIGN-UP FOR ELIGIBILITY (January 14th to March 18th, 2026)

For the Paris Games, the process unfolded over multiple phases, but to be eligible for the best tickets you had to sign up for an account almost 2 years in advance (deadline was end of 2022).

For LA, this process starts this week! As of January 14th, 2026, you should go register before the registration window closes on March 18th, 2026. This makes you eligible to get a timeslot in the draw when it happens later in April 2026 (and any subsequent ticket drops). It is especially important to register early if you are an LA or OKC local to take advantage of the locals-only pre-sale.

STEP 2: HOSPITALITY PACKAGES BECOME AVAILABLE (TBD)

For Paris, hospitality packages started going on sale in early 2023 (before the lottery). For LA, clarity on the timeline isn't released yet, but there is currently an option to put down a refundable hospitality deposit to get early access.

Hospitality packages are first-come, first-served, but tended to be incredibly expensive, especially the ones that included hotels, tours, and multiple events. Single event hospitality tickets were also available at various levels of service - some with in-venue hospitality and other more affordable options with service at a centralized venue.

The great news about hospitality tickets is that they are guaranteed - no playing games with the lottery. Ultimately, we ended up having to go this route to get our show jumping seats because "normal" tickets were sold out very early in the lottery. I highly recommend considering this route if you have a "must-see" event.

Some hospitality tickets are also an exception to the fully centralized rule. While the official ticketing platform did sell hospitality tickets, authorized sub-distributors (basically ticketing agencies in different countries around the world) were also authorized to sell hospitality tickets - and hospitality tickets only. This is a bit of an echo from the past when these sub-distributors sold all of the tickets. Just make sure you do your homework that the distributor is truly authorized and on the official list. We ended up buying our hospitality tickets through a distributor in the Netherlands. I did a ton of homework first because the Olympics was very clear about not buying through 3rd parties outside of the official platform and official sub-distributors.

STEP 3A: THE LOCALS-ONLY PRESALE (April 2nd to April 6th, 2026)

Locals from LA and OKC will be eligible for a pre-sale of tickets from April 2nd to April 6th, 2026. This will run as a draw where you receive a time slot to buy available tickets, much like the general public draw that happens in step 3B.

To be eligible you will have to have a postcode from one of the following counties:

• California: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura

• Oklahoma: Oklahoma, Canadian, Cleveland

STEP 3B: THE 2-PHASE LOTTERY-BASED TICKET DROP (April 9th to April 19th, 2026)

Not much has been announced about the LA lottery, other than some legal paperwork that has announced that the drop window will run from April 9th to April 19th, 2026.

For Paris, the lottery was done in two main phases - the first lottery offered tickets for all of the qualifying events and the second offered tickets for the medal rounds and opening / closing ceremonies. During each lottery you would receive an email with a timeslot for when you could access the ticket platform to purchase tickets. Unfortunately, when it wasn’t yet your timeslot, you couldn't view what tickets were available to try to make a game plan.

The first lottery forced you to buy "packs" of multiple events, which unfortunately seemed to lead to people buying up tickets they didn't really want, just to get the one or two events they really did want. That meant none of the events we wanted were available by the time our timeslot came available.

The selections were better in the second lottery. I believe this was a result of being able to purchase single events, ticket prices being higher (because this round offered higher-priced medal rounds and ceremonies), and we got a slightly better timeslot.

STEP 4 & BEYOND: MORE TICKETS ARE RELEASED & THE RESALE PLATFORM OPENS (TBD)

If you didn't get the tickets you wanted in the main lottery system, there were still more opportunities to find seats. The Olympics continued to release additional tickets at various points in time, but it was hard to know the rhyme or reason - whether they had held back tickets from the lottery phases or whether more became available due to changes in venue design, etc. - so we didn’t bank on this. These were released and sold in real-time (no draw or timeslots).

Later on in the process, an official re-sale platform became available. That way you could hope to find tickets from people who couldn't attend or perhaps over bought during the "pack" phase. Re-sale also seemed to be very common for team sports once brackets were announced and you could try to plan to see your country. It's important to note that prices were the same during the resell phase, and the original holders were not allowed to sell them for a higher price.

There is a lot of uncertainty in these later phases, but a lot of advice I heard reminded spectators that the ticket buying process is a marathon not a sprint. There's a belief that the organizing committee can try to create artificial scarcity in the early rounds to drive up sales, meaning that there can be a lot of good tickets available in the later phases. But, planning a major international trip doesn't always afford that kind of flexibility or patience. It all comes down to what you're comfortable with!

2 | You won't get to pick your seats, exactly

Tickets were available in 4 seating categories - A to D, with A being the best-positioned and most expensive. That gives you some control over where you'll be seated, but you have no control over your actual seat selection. You and your group will be assigned seats automatically and informed a few days / weeks before the event. This unfortunately can be hit or miss. For example, we got seats that were really close, but if I had my choice, I would have preferred to be on a different side of the stadium. You kind of have to roll with it.

3 | Certain tickets are especially difficult (or expensive) to get - manage your expectations accordingly

Time after time, there are a few events that you know will get gobbled up quickly and will be priced accordingly. Notably, the Opening Ceremony, Women's Artistic Gymnastics, Athletics, and Swimming are notoriously popular. Also, be aware of any events being held at interesting venues (for example, the Equestrian events being held at Versailles) or events where the host country is usually competitive, as those tickets will be more likely to sell out.

In contrast, team events were some of the easiest to get. Partly because there are so many rounds of competition, increasing the number of tickets available in total, and partly because fans hold out until later to try to get games where their country is playing. We weren't picky about which teams we saw, so we were able to get some good tickets to beach volleyball in the lottery round.

4 | Cheap tickets are advertised, but scarce

Technically, ticket prices started at 24 Euro for Paris (and for LA they are set to start at $28), and almost every event had a category of tickets (category D) available for between 24 - 50 Euro. That said, I never saw tickets available for this price, for any event. You either need to get really lucky with an early draw in the lottery or be really patient, diligent, and still lucky to find one for re-sale.

For popular events, the top categories (A or B) were often the only tickets available by the time my timeslot came around  - if there were any available at all. For these, you could expect to find tickets between 100 and 1,000 Euro.

Then of course you could consider hospitality tickets, which started around 1,000 Euro and went up from there depending on the level of service and the event. These are pricey but there are major perks to having a guaranteed ticket and the perks of better seats and better service at the event.  

5 | Splurge on a must-see event, but also consider trying something new

Overall, if you have an event you are dying to see, you will probably need to open up your wallet - either paying for the guaranteed hospitality seat or taking the expensive category of seat when you see it in the lottery. If you are less picky and able to be patient, or just get incredibly lucky, you might be able to find something better suited for a budget.

That said, I would also highly recommend staying open-minded and consider going to something you wouldn't normally go see. The Games are full of sports that don't normally get the spotlight; take the chance to support those incredible athletes and learn something new at the same time! The Olympic spirit is strong, and every event is special even if you aren't normally a die-hard fan.  

6 | I wouldn't try to go with a group bigger than 4 people

Not only does having a big group make it harder to find accommodations, transportation, restaurant reservations, etc., it will also pose problems for finding tickets. The Olympics has limits on the number of tickets that can be purchased. In Paris, an individual could purchase a total of 30 tickets for themselves and others in their group across all events attended. Additionally, most events had a 6-ticket limit, and the more popular events like gymnastics had a 4-ticket limit. Of course, your group could try to purchase their tickets separately, but you will likely not have the exact same luck with the lottery, and your seats won't be together.

7 | Don't overbook yourself (even if you get lucky with the lottery)

It's easy to get carried away trying to make the most of a once-in-a-lifetime event, but be careful not to overbook yourself. Plan for the extra time it takes to get around during the Games and for the time to get through security to get into the events. With a good lottery spot, it would be easy to stack too many things and create a miserable day.

On social media, I saw some people that were trying to stack as many events into a day as possible. Their plans inevitably required a lot of running around, and some people were even planning to leave one event early to make it to another. As someone that couldn't get a ticket to some of the events people were planning to bail on, this was incredibly frustrating. Not to mention it just doesn't sound like a lot of fun to watch half of a bunch of things.

8 | Official resources could be really confusing - join a group of Olympic Veterans on Facebook for clarity

I'm not going to lie, a lot of the official publications that were released by the Olympics were incredibly confusing. It was hard to tell if it was a result of the organizers using a new ticketing system, translation nuances, or something else entirely. In addition, there's reason to believe that the organizers want to be intentionally vague to drive ticket demand, and I definitely felt that when interacting with customer service.

Unfortunately, since the Olympics change locations, it's usually the first and last time a city has experience with this type of major event. That means logistics aren't always optimal and lessons learned from the past aren't always passed down.

The good news is that there is a Facebook group of Olympic enthusiasts that I found really helpful. These fans have gone time and time again and have learned a lot along the way. Some of the admins were really well informed and seemed to have contacts with organizers. Listening to other users also helped flag when it was best to be doing something vs. staying patient. Overall, this was a huge help. Of course, do your own official homework, but I recommend joining the group! 

PHASE II: Planning the rest of your trip

6 - 18 MONTHS OUT

9 | Finding a place to stay is just as hard as finding tickets

I expected prices to be high, but I did not expect as many problems with sheer availability. We started planning over a year in advance and simply could not find a hotel room; every hotel said sold out. This is of course because of the demand from spectators, but I also learned it is because these rooms are blocked by officials.

The IOC requires the host city to reserve a large number of rooms for organizers, media, sponsors, etc. In Los Angeles, that number is contracted to be 40,000 rooms. This effectively blocks off all 4 and 5 star hotel rooms to the general public. The good news is that the leftover rooms will be released back to the open market once all of the official needs have been met. The problem is that this usually isn’t until ~6 months before the event, which can be uncomfortably late for someone planning a trip of this magnitude.

What we ended up doing in Paris was reserving a vacation rental. Availability was still competitive and prices were high, but we at least could guarantee we would have somewhere to stay. My only note here is that I did hear of some people who booked very early at reasonable rates who then had their hosts cancel to try to get higher prices out of the property.

Your other option is to consider a hospitality package that includes hotel rooms. They were astronomically priced and you likely weren’t going to get exactly what you wanted (as far as specific hotel or mix of events), but it is one way to guarantee getting a hotel room.  

10 | Keep your event schedule in mind when picking a place to stay

Event locations can be quite spread out, and you don't want to have to cross the entire city to get where you need to go. Plus, getting around is harder than usual during the Games. In Paris, large parts of the city were closed to car traffic for security and congestion reasons, and organizers would block off certain Metro stations due to the large crowds. Paris did have a specific transit app that helped navigate the best routes.

LA is notoriously plagued with traffic during normal times, and you won't be able to fall back on an extensive Metro system like we used in Paris. I've heard anecdotes that enough locals cleared out for the '84 LA Games that the city was navigable, but I wouldn't bank on that happening again. Instead, I'd try to move around as little as possible and give yourself plenty of time to get where you're going.  

11 | Be prepared for prices to double, triple, or more

If I haven’t made it clear already, understand prices will be very high during the Olympics. Our flights were well above average, and our vacation rental was easily more than double what it would cost at any other time. With sky high prices, don’t expect to stay within your normal budget without making some sacrifices.

12 | Plan any tourist activities early...

You may be picking up a theme here - the early bird gets the worm. Due to the large crowds attending the Games, all of the tourist attractions will be busy as well. So that you aren't disappointed, make sure you book these far enough in advance to ensure optimal availability for your trip.

13 | ... but I would be reluctant to attend the Games in a "new" city

If you are considering going to the Olympics, I would target going to a host city that you have already visited in the past. That way you'll already have some familiarity, and you'll have done the major tourist things so you can focus on the Olympic events and limit your time in the city (read: protect your budget). Plus, while attending the Olympics is an incredible, bucket-list experience, it's not the best tourist experience.

In some ways a host city is going to be at its absolute best as it tries to showcase itself for the Olympics, but in many ways it's a terrible time to be a tourist in the city. Access is limited to many places, especially since events can be held at or near major tourist sites; the city will likely have a major influx of visitors, clogging restaurants, transportation, and activities; and as mentioned above, it will be really expensive to stay for much longer than just seeing a couple of events, so you likely won't be able to stick around long to "be a tourist."

I would also be hesitant to visit a city in the months before the Olympics. Because the city will be preparing by cleaning monuments and constructing infrastructure, it is likely that you'll run into a lot of construction, scaffolding, and blocked areas that can all limit the experience. 

14 | Do plan to extend your trip to stops nearby the host city

Just because I advise limiting your time in the core of the host city doesn’t mean you should cut your trip short. Just head to other places nearby instead. In Paris, we spent a full two and a half weeks in France, but only about 4 days in Paris. We built a trip with stops in the Loire Valley and Normandy, spending most of our time away from the chaos and expense of the Games. You can check out that itinerary here:

For a trip to the LA Games, you might consider extending your trip in nearby Palm Springs, sunny San Diego, fabulous Las Vegas, or any one of the National Parks in the mountain west. For a ready-made itinerary to some of the best parts of California, check out this itinerary:

PHASE III: Enjoying the Games!

6 MONTHS OUT - DURING YOUR TRIP

15 | Buy merchandise you like when you see it

Official merch was launched and available well before we arrived at the Games. I saw some stuff that I liked, but I waited to buy thinking the options in person might be better. Turns out they really weren't, and I was disappointed I couldn’t get what I wanted because I had waited. Maybe this will be different at a more Americanized version of the Games, but I'd still buy what you want when you see it.

One souvenir that's really easy is checking the box to buy souvenir tickets when you purchase your event tickets. Your actual tickets for entry will be delivered electronically, but for a few bucks you can get paper versions of the tickets that make for great keepsakes.  

16 | Consider getting in the Olympic spirit with pin trading

Ok, so admittedly I'm not the best person to ask about this because I didn't do it at the Games, but people talk about it as something they really love about the Olympic experience. If you do want to try to find others to trade with, you'll need to start with some pins to be able to make an offer. Even if you don't want to trade, pins make a great souvenir to pick up before you leave, and perhaps to use at future Games.

17 | Pack for the heat & bring national swag...

The Games are held in July and August. No matter where you are in the world, it will be hot - plan accordingly! Even if the weather isn't all that unpleasant, the temporary venues used for the Games are often exposed to the sun, and you may have to walk long distances to get where you're going. I recommend bringing a good hat, wearing sunscreen, and perhaps packing some gadgets to beat the heat like a pocket fan or cooling towels.

I also wanted to get in the spirit, so I packed some USA swag that was both packable and fun. Just make sure to be considerate of other fans. For reference, I packed some red, white, and blue pom poms and foam Statue of Liberty headbands. People from countries around the world brought their national flag (even if their team wasn't competing)! 

18 | ...But leave any forbidden items behind

While packing a USA flag is a great choice, flags on sticks or poles were banned, and make sure to check rules regarding the size permitted. There were also restrictions on camera lens length (basically nothing with a giant telephoto that would block other guests). You'll want to make sure you have a small bag that meets venue specifications. As always, you should check any other restrictions before arriving at the venue.  

19 | Get to the venue when the gates open

As I've mentioned, you'll want to give yourself plenty of time to get around the city. Each venue also had security, and sometimes it took quite a bit of time to get through. Once inside, it was a little confusing at times to find your seats and how to get to them.

Getting in early also has its perks. It was nice to have time to visit the souvenir shop, concession stand, and restrooms. Some of the venues also had great photo ops, spots to relax in comfy chairs or under misters, or even activities like lawn games to play before the event.  

20 | Be aware you'll be seeing the local broadcast (unless you come up with a workaround)

We were in France but not in Paris for part of the Games and still wanted to watch some of our favorite events. The thing is, I really did not think about how different the French broadcast would be from what we're used to in the US. Of course, I expected it to be in French and run by a different broadcast team and all that, but I did not expect the actual sports to be so different.

In the US, we're usually glued to the TV for the gymnastics, athletics, swimming, and equestrian with a pretty good variety of other sports featured as well. The French, apparently, are huge fans of Judo and Fencing, and they were featured on TV non-stop, to the point that nothing else seemed to be getting any airtime. Ironically, attending the Olympics was probably the time I saw the Olympics the least.

If you are traveling internationally and you want to watch something that you won't be attending live, you'll need to come up with a plan. There are some national team pavilions that air broadcasts to attendees, but you'll have to look into tickets. Alternatively, you may be able to use a VPN to get your broadcast from home, but some television providers and streaming apps don’t allow this.  

A FEW FINAL THOUGHTS

I hope this guide has you in the Olympic spirit and ready to start planning your trip! Planning this trip can be a lot of work and can come with some big surprises, but going to the Olympics was legitimately one of the coolest things I've done. Whether you're hoping to make it to LA 2028 or just dreaming about a future Olympics, it's well worth a spot on the bucket list.

Let me know if there are any tips I left out or what event you'd most like to see!

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