If you went to the Olympics, what advice would you offer us in planning to attend the LA games in 2028?
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Anonymous
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My family will be going to the Olympics in LA in 2028. At that point, our kids will range in age from college to late 20s. I'd appreciate any advice you might have especially on when to start the process for buying tickets, finding an Airbnb or other rental, etc. We know LA a bit -- I lived there as a kid during a couple of my family's sabbatical years and we have extended family there now -- so that will be helpful, but I feel like planning for the Olympics is very different from flying in for other family vacations.
TIA for your advice and insights. |
Anonymous
| Book early. |
Anonymous
| Realize it will be carfree so look at venues and transportation. They have light rail or a subway or something. See where it goes and if there are good places to stay on the routes. |
Anonymous
Ha it's a combo- some lines are light rail, one is a "real" subway, and there is also a busway in the SF Valley. Personally I think one of the best places to stay would be Culver City- the busiest areas will be near USC, downtown, and Sofi/Intuit. All accessible via the E light rail line, or transfer to the new K line. |
Anonymous
| I think some things will be taking place in Long Beach. So I would look at what is happening where in terms of your interests. |
Anonymous
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Put all family members names in the lottery for tickets (each with a different email address), and hope that someone gets the notice early. Plan ahead of time what tickets you want to purchase, and have a back-up list, when you realize some are outrageously expensive.
Do not plan to attend more than one event per day, even if one is 9am and the other 5pm. Even with one per day, you will all be exhausted. I promise. Book your AirBnB early if you aren't staying with friends and family. Pack clothing to wear in layers. When you get online at 7:30am for a 9am event, it might be cold, but by later, it could be hot. Bring raincoats (opening ceremony anyone?). Hats with a brim and sunglassess (sitting outside in the sun at events for multiple hours). Plan on $$$ for food. If you are spending from all day watching multiple tennis matches, you aren't going to leave to get food, you are going to eat whatever expensive garbage is available to you at the tennis courts. If they allow you to bring your own food, do it. In Paris, they allowed you to bring your own food, and we picked up inexpenive lunches that we brought to every venue we were at during lunch time. Water bottle for everyone, drink often. Hopefully Los Angelos will learn from Paris and have water-filling stations available all over the place. That's off the top of my head - if I think of more, I'll come back and post again |
Anonymous
| Don't bring a raincoat to LA during the summer. |
Anonymous
| Unless I had a child competing I’d have no interest in attending. LA isn’t Paris. Based on last nights closing ceremony, the Hollywood sign is their Eiffel Tower. Think about that! |
Anonymous
Yup, just because it rained in Paris, has zero to do with the Mediterranean climate of Los Angeles. It rains about as often there in the summer as the DC area gets substantively accumulating snowfall nowadays. |
Anonymous
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I went to Paris and to London and I don’t think I’ve learned much from those that would help in LA! The biggest challenge there is going to be getting between venues, so the only thing I can say is that you should try to book events either at the same venue or very close if you are doing more than one a day, or only plan on one a day. It won’t be like Paris where you could easily do 2 or 3 events a day.
If LA is like Paris and the hotel prices are crazy, then you may find that there is still a lot of availability even a few days before. We could see that this was the case in Paris (lots of rooms still available) and ended up paying close to normal hotel rates just by holding out. |
Anonymous
"The LA Olympics will be car-free" will be the "the Seine is safe to swim in" of the next Games. |
Anonymous
| I just cannot understand how the LA Olympics will be car-free. They have less than 4 years to get ready. I was just in LA and nothing appeared to be under construction for public transportation. I really want to go to the next Olympics, but I just hate LA SOO much. Kicking myself for not going to Paris. |
Anonymous
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Transport will be a huge issue. The plan is to borrow 3000 buses. To empty a relatively small 5000 person venue would take ~100 buses to empty. I can’t see this working smoothly at all.
Paris worked because of the extensive public transport. |
Anonymous
| Plan your events close to each other. We were able to do three events on one day - it was a long day but doable. |
Anonymous
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You should be able to re-sell tickets pretty easily, but you may not get a better chance to buy some of the best tickets again. So if you see an event you want with tickets available and you are waivering, just buy the tickets. But be aware that most of the reselling will actually happen just as the games begin or during - so it may take some time to recover your costs.
For hotels, book something with free cancelation early and then check prices and availability right before the games. You may get a better deal last minute. Don’t use Airbnb. There were so many people in Paris who got screwed by owners listing early and then canceling when they realized they could charge more. If you do Airbnb, get a place with a long history of reviews. For a lot of people, a big event like the Olympics is their first time listing their place and they’re not well-prepared. Join one of the LA Olympic planning groups on Facebook. These groups have so much knowledge and intel to share like unexpected ticket drops and seating maps at venues. |