Getting To Athens: Olympic Travel Tips
POSTED: Thursday, May 20, 2004
UPDATED: 4:55 pm EDT May 20,
2004
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Getting to the Olympics as an athlete is a long shot for many.Getting there as a spectator may be easier than thought, if the price is right.
The cost of traveling to Athens, Greece, may be what is keeping trips to the Olympics from selling well."We've been getting lots of inquiries; however, the cost is the big deterrent," said travel agent Trudy Flores.KCRA-TV in Sacramento, Calif. randomly called 15 travel agents, and not one had booked an Olympic vacation.Flores priced a six-day Olympic trip for a family of four, with airfare from Sacramento to Athens, hotel, food and a souvenir or two."It's about $21,000. And that's at a very budget hotel. That same package, if you were traveling at non-Olympic times, would be about $8,200," Flores said.Money and security concerns have resulted in Olympic games ticket sales being 30 percent lower than the same amount of time before the Sydney Games in 2000, which means event tickets are available. Travel editor Peter Greenberg offered two Olympic travel tips: forget about flying straight to Athens."Go the back door. You buy cheap round-trip from California to London, and then go online for EZJet.com or RyanAir.com and buy a cheap secondary trip from London to Athens," Greenberg said.Second, he says to learn the difference between a booked and a blocked room. Companies block rooms, hoping to get people to pay high rates. But if no one books the blocked rooms, consumers could get a bargain rate right before the games."It happened before Sydney. It happened in Utah about 10 days before the Olympics. A lot of rooms will come free because they blocked too many rooms," Greenberg said.To order Olympic venue tickets, click here.
Interactive: Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Several bobcat sightings have a Central Florida beach community on edge.
The body of a woman is discovered inside a room of a Central Florida extended-stay hotel, according to deputies.
A woman who had just dropped off a friend's child at a Central Florida high school was struck and killed when a vehicle ran a red light, the FHP says.
Watch this amazing time-lapse video of the storm that dumped more than a foot-and-a-half of snow on the nation's capital Feb. 5 and 6.
A car crash involving a fatality has occurred near a Central Florida high school.
In an incredible tale of survival, a Haitian man is found alive under earthquake rubble.
Academy Award nominee Sandra Bullock trash talks her Oscar competition, Meryl Streep, and discusses her Razzie nomination for Worst Actress.
Several bobcat sightings have a Central Florida beach community on edge. 
Check out these lookers who ran into the law.
It's something for everyone: A slideshow of wild stories where you have the choice of watching the video clip at your workstation -- or not! 
Open up your heart and see images from the star-studded romantic comedy "Valentine's Day."
Email Alerts
RSS News Feeds
Mobile
Live Streams
Slideshows
Video
Search
