Rogers Li from Rockville, Md., has long been an avid Olympics watcher, but 2026 marks the first time he’ll fly out to watch the Games in person.
“I was surprised that it was a bit more affordable than I expected,” Li, a 29-year-old working in clinical research, says, adding that he anticipates spending at least $3,000 for five nights in Milan, one of the host cities of this year’s Winter Games. That budget should cover transportation, accommodation, food, and watching events like men’s speedskating and women’s ice hockey. “I would say it’s moderately expensive, but not as much as I anticipated when I first decided to plan an Olympics trip.”
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Li’s expenses for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games fall in line with experts’ expectations on American spectators’ spending. Viewers’ total expenses will be comparatively cheaper than those of previous Olympics, like the Paris Summer Games in 2024, where the host city was already known to be an expensive tourism destination. While Milan has a similar reputation, traveling outside of the peak U.S. travel season lessens the cost. “I actually think that this Games will be more affordable for a family or anyone, an American traveler, versus trying to just even take a winter ski trip [within the U.S.],” says Katy Nastro, a travel expert and spokesperson for the airfare app Going.
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Ken Hanscom, the chief operating officer of Ticket Manager and a trustee of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, will be flying for his fifth Olympic trip this year. He tells TIME that while the Winter Games are generally a “different animal” because of the smaller scale of events, Milano Cortina 2026 may be one of the most financially accessible Games for Americans to date, especially if spectators booked early: “The accessibility from a financial standpoint to attend Milano Cortina’s Games on a budget of $3,000 or less is pretty unheard of.”
Flights
Li’s total airfare amounted to $730—flying from D.C. to the Milan Malpensa International Airport, before taking a trip back to the U.S. from Madrid after a detour. Many Olympic spectators are expected to fly in through Milan Malpensa International Airport, the largest airport serving the city that handles the most long-haul international flights, including those from the U.S.
Experts tell TIME that flights between the U.S. and Milan have remained inexpensive. “You’re traveling during an off-peak time in the U.S. for travel, which is in your favor—meaning that costs are typically lower [in] early February,” Nastro explains.
By late January, TIME found round-trip flights between John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to Milan Malpensa Airport just a few days before the first events on Feb. 4 starting from $440.
Accommodations
Booking where to stay for the Milano Cortina Games depends largely on the events spectators wish to watch, given that this year’s Olympics are spread out across nearly 8,500 sq. mi. The opening ceremony will happen in Milan, but the events will be scattered throughout the regions of Northern Italy, including the alpine areas of Livigno and Anterselva/Antholz, before closing in Verona.
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“Milan and Cortina are great options because you have a variety of events located there,” says Nastro, when asked about how to find the most valuable stays. Milan would host figure skating, speedskating, and ice hockey; Cortina d’Ampezzo is the site of alpine skiing, bobsleigh, curling, luge, and skeleton events.
A Lighthouse report released in November found that average room rates in Milan around February have doubled year-on-year to €481 ($577), peaking at €516 ($619) during the middle week of the Games. And at the time, about 67% of hotels were already booked.
Li from Maryland has booked an Airbnb in Milan, setting him and his two friends back $1,938 for their five nights, or about $129 per person per night. Shane Conrow, 51, who went to the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games a decade ago and is traveling to Italy alone from Chicago for the Winter Games this year, will stay in Milan for five days for around $300 per night (though he said he booked the room using credit card points), and then stay in Tirano for four more nights for around $290 a night to be near Livigno, where he plans to attend freestyle skiing and snowboarding events.
Hanscom tells TIME, however, that accommodation can be a way to cut down costs. “I think a lot of this comes down to what your personal preferences are,” he said.
Tickets to events
Around 1.5 million tickets have been put on sale for the Milano Cortina Olympics and the subsequent Paralympic Games, local organizers have said, with more than a million reportedly sold as of January.
Ticket prices start at €30 ($36) for the average spectator, and while prices vary according to the category, sport, and session, Games organizers have said that more than half of the tickets cost less than €100 ($119).
In mid-January, organizers also introduced a promo for fans ages 26 and under to buy two tickets to the opening ceremony for the price of one. The offer applies to category D tickets—the cheapest available.
According to the Olympic ticket price list, the most expensive seats are for the closing ceremony in the Verona Arena, which are priced at €2,900 (about $3,500). The most expensive sporting event is the men’s hockey final, for which tickets were sold for as much as €450 to €1,400 ($520 to $1,600).
Hanscom says that for this year’s Olympics, event ticket prices are likely to affect how cheap or expensive the overall trip cost, especially as the event draws near.
“Different types of tickets become more and more scarce, and those are typically the ones that you see go the fastest—those category C and those category D tickets,” he says. “I think that’s where you’re going to see the most variability in cost.”
The post The Cost of Attending the 2026 Olympic Games appeared first on TIME.
