Where can I find out info on how to travel to the 2004 Olympics in Athens?  I would like info on where to stay, what to do when I'm there, the best deals, and how big the parties are going to be.  Yeah, Baby!

Thanks,
R

I just found the info myself. The Seattle Times has a great article at http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=athens03&date=20030803 . You'll have to register for free to see the article, but it's a good one. The best info tidbit is that one of the two official Olympic ticket resellers is www.cartan.com.

-R

I just wanted to give everyone an update of my findings. Cartan, interestingly enough, is in my city of Manhattan Beach. So I paid them a visit to ask them some questions. It turned out that their prices were very high and they didn't have many of their packages available anymore.

So for accommodations I saw an advertisement on Google for Vivian Russell Travel (http://www.vivianvrusselltravel.com/). Vivian was AWESOME! She got me a hotel for $2100 for 7 nights when everything else was absolutely sold out. And since I am traveling to Ibiza beforehand, and The Netherlands afterwards, she took care of my convoluted airfare - for only $2496.40. Anyway, I couldn't have afforded the Olympics without her, and I thank her very much.

As far as the tickets are concerned, you can find many ticket resellers on the web, but all of them are way overpriced. I relied on my Dad's European (Dutch) citizenship to be able to purchase the tickets directly from the source, http://www.tickets.athens2004.com/ . You can sign up for a membership at https://www.tickets.athens2004.com/member/ . I entered that I was a citizen of The Netherlands. However, you should read about ticket delivery and pick-up, and what identification is required in order for tickets to be released before you purchase anything. Since I purchased the tickets under my name, and I'm a US citizen, I'll have to come up with some story about how they're actually my Dad's tickets and that I just purchased them for him. I'm sure that the person at the Ticket Collection Point will accept my story.

For you I say, "Stick with it!" Where there's a will there's a way.

See you at the Olympics!

-zylstra

Oh, in case you want to know the full cost, here it is:

$2496.40 for my airfare - lax - (minneapolis - amsterdam - barcelona) - ibiza - (madrid) - athens - amsterdam - lax.
$150.00 booking fee for my airfare.
$628.20 for my dad's airfare - amsterdam - athens - amsterdam.
$100.00 booking fee for my dad's airfare.
$504.00 for 4 nights ibiza hotel.
$2100.00 for 7 nights athens hotel.
$346.50 for 4 athletic event tickets.
$247.50 for 2 diving event tickets.
$1238.00 for 2 closing ceremony tickets.

$7810.60 Total