(National Post)
If you’re still contemplating a last-minute trip to Vancouver to see the Winter Olympics, as I am, there’s still hope — actually, a lot more hope than you might think, as this Wall Street Journal article by Sarah Nassauer points out. It covers all the bases, from airfare to accommodations to tickets, and the news is encouraging on nearly all fronts. A few enlightening tidbits from the story:
- A final round of tickets will go on sale to U.S. residents through this site, perhaps as soon as today (though a mid-morning PST check revealed that hadn’t occurred yet). If you strike out here, there are always resale options, including one through the Olympic Committee and the usual suspects such as StubHub.
- Hotel rooms are still available, even downtown if you look hard enough, though they continue to carry the usual astronomic big-event markups.
- The owner of one of the rental Web sites I mentioned last week when discussing the Olympics says only 25-30 percent of the homes being listed as available to rent have been rented. That’s an astonishingly small percentage to me, and it might be an indication that if you’re patient, you can find a steal of a deal as the Games draw closer.
Of course, just because tickets and accommodations are still available doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll come cheaply. As I wrote last week, there are ways to get to Vancouver and stay there while still maintaining a budget, as long as you’re willing to be creative.
Itinerant Fan 