Feb 10, 2026
If you were thrilled to watch real-life sweathearts and U.S. figure-skating champs Madison Chock and Evan Bates win Olympic gold in Milan, imagine being there in person.
It's not too late — or too prohibitively expensive — to attend this year's 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. In fact, you can do so for $3,000 all in: flight, accommodation, meals and tickets.
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For decades, the Olympics have occupied a particular kind of fantasy space, typically reserved for travelers willing to absorb costs as steep as the slopes themselves.
But that assumption may be due for a revision with the Games.
Ken Hanscom, chief operating officer of Ticket Manager and a trustee of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, says this may be one of the most affordable Games to date.
“The accessibility from a financial standpoint to attend Milano Cortina’s Games on a budget of $3,000 or less is pretty unheard of,” he told Time (1).
Here’s how that breaks down. It’s all about spending wisely.
The price tag of an Olympic getaway
Unlike many past host cities of the Winter Olympics, northern Italy’s Olympic footprint is spread across regions that already function as major travel and tourism hubs.
Rogers Li, a clinical researcher in Rockville, Maryland, has followed the Olympics for years, but the Milan Games will mark his first time attending in person.
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He told Time he expects to spend about $3,000 for a five-night stay in Milan, covering transportation, lodging, meals and tickets to events including men’s speedskating and women’s ice hockey.
“I was surprised that it was a bit more affordable than I expected,” Li said. “I would say it’s moderately expensive, but not as much as I anticipated when I first decided to plan an Olympics trip.”
First you have to get to Milan. Flights are comparatively affordable.
Currently, round-trip fares are listed between $427 and $503 from New York, $539 to $662 from Miami, and $484 to $514 from San Francisco.
Costs of accommodation vary. As of the time of writing, four-star hotels and local Airbnb listings in and around Milan starting at just over $100 per night.
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How much tickets to Olympic events cost right now
You can still score relatively affordable tickets to Olympic events. It’s best to order them at the official ticketing site (3).
Entry-level tickets for preliminary rounds of ice hockey start at €30 ($36), and organizers say more than half of all the Olympic event tickets are priced below €100 ($119), depending on the sport, session and seating tier.
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Other affordable events:
- Nordic combined events (tickets €25, or approximately $30)
- biathlon and skeleton events (tickets €50–€66, or approximately $60-$78)
- ski mountaineering (tickets €45, or approximately $53)
Other events are much pricier.
Men’s hockey games can run upwards of $476, while high-demand men’s figure skating singles have climbed to about $879 per ticket, according to CBC News (4).
Bring the Games home
You can still have a larger-than-life experience of the Olympic Games without boarding a plane or emptying your savings account.
NBCUniversal has partnered with AMC Theatres to bring live Olympic coverage into movie theaters across the U.S. (5)
More than 150 AMC locations are offering select broadcasts throughout the Games, featuring events like figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, hockey and speed skating.
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In other words: stadium vibes, without stadium prices.
For viewers looking to stretch their Olympics experience even further, there are other ways to tune in without going full luxury-travel mode.
Some host cities and sponsors set up public viewing areas, fan zones or popup events that offer live screenings and Olympic programming at little to no cost.
Local sports bars and community centers often lean into big moments too, especially for medal events, turning watch parties into something closer to a shared civic experience.
And if all else fails, there’s always the low-effort, high-comfort option: streaming key events at home and timing watch parties with friends.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Time (1); Hospitality Net (2); Olympic Winter Games (3); CBC News (4); Hollywood Reporter (5)
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based Staff Reporter at Moneywise, where she covers the intersection of personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, a postgraduate certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and a Master’s degree in American Journalism from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her work has been featured in publications including Apple News, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Her Campus Media and The Click.
