[Football] How much did the Marseille cost you ? / Athens trip tips.

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

So I was speaking to someone about the Marseille game which they attended and inevitably the total cost of the trip came up,I was staggered when they told me the rough estimate taking everything into account,£1280.00 for flights Ubers food tickets and accommodation,is this figure extravagant or pretty much on par with what you spent ? .

I'm hoping to go to the Athens game as cheaply as humanly possible with a 3 night stay but it's totally out of my budget going by what I've been told the Marseille game cost a non drinker.

I would be grateful for any tips on getting and staying somewhere near the stadium with a somewhat flimsy budget all in of around £650, pp X3 is this a doable figure or am I being too hopeful it's possible.

I read the Marseille thread and some posters came up with some very useful tips to cut costs.

Thanks in advance.

If you’re really insistent on doing it on a tight budget look at it as an elaborate away day rather than a holiday. My group flew out first thing Thursday, drove to Marseille, had food and drink, went to the game, drove to the hotel, flew home Friday. It was long but totally worth it.

 

[Midget]

Athens is the more expensive one as there aren't as many travel options. We are flying direct for about £250pp Wed - Fri but it may cost more now.

Some have found booking a week's holiday cheaper than just flights and those deals look brilliant, but we can't take that long off work.

£1280 sounds an awful lot for Marseille.

Flights were cheap for us, think it was about £30-40 there with Ryanair, and we flew back to Gatwick from Nice for £25 (plus train ticket about 35 euros I think). Just have to be flexible with where you go to/from and when - and patient with Wizz delays!

There are Airbnbs pretty cheap in Athens if you're happy sharing 3 to a room, depends on how your party's made up. Or 2/3 rooms isn't too expensive either. We shared a flat between 5 of us in Marseille which was pretty good. Think it worked out about £40 each, total for 2 nights. We're sharing a group room in a budget hotel in Amsterdam, again similar price. Don't know for Athens (Airbnb booked by someone else) but it won't be that different.

How much you spend on beer / ouzo / gyros is of course up to you, like everywhere there'll be ways to eat cheap and ways to eat posh. Just as in Marseille you can have steak, seafood and wine at a fancy restaurant every night, or grab a sandwich from the Carrefour and get a kebab on the way back.

Do your research and it's certainly doable on a budget, it all depends what sort of experience you want. We're treating them as long-distance away days rather than holidays, as we're doing all 3 (and hoping to have even more expense after the group stages obvs!). I'll go back to the south of France for a proper break (avec steak & seafood) another time without the football, when my bank balance has recovered.

Good luck!

 

[Midget]

Athens is the more expensive one as there aren't as many travel options. We are flying direct for about £250pp Wed - Fri but it may cost more now.

Some have found booking a week's holiday cheaper than just flights and those deals look brilliant, but we can't take that long off work.

£1280 sounds an awful lot for Marseille.

Flights were cheap for us, think it was about £30-40 there with Ryanair, and we flew back to Gatwick from Nice for £25 (plus train ticket about 35 euros I think). Just have to be flexible with where you go to/from and when - and patient with Wizz delays!

There are Airbnbs pretty cheap in Athens if you're happy sharing 3 to a room, depends on how your party's made up. Or 2/3 rooms isn't too expensive either. We shared a flat between 5 of us in Marseille which was pretty good. Think it worked out about £40 each, total for 2 nights. We're sharing a group room in a budget hotel in Amsterdam, again similar price. Don't know for Athens (Airbnb booked by someone else) but it won't be that different.

How much you spend on beer / ouzo / gyros is of course up to you, like everywhere there'll be ways to eat cheap and ways to eat posh. Just as in Marseille you can have steak, seafood and wine at a fancy restaurant every night, or grab a sandwich from the Carrefour and get a kebab on the way back.

Do your research and it's certainly doable on a budget, it all depends what sort of experience you want. We're treating them as long-distance away days rather than holidays, as we're doing all 3 (and hoping to have even more expense after the group stages obvs!). I'll go back to the south of France for a proper break (avec steak & seafood) another time without the football, when my bank balance has recovered.

Good luck!

Ps just seen there are cheaper flights than ours still available to Athens, but at times we couldn't do, so that may also be an option for you. Research as many options as you can.

 

[Bozza]

Roughly £225. That covers return flights Gatwick-Geneva, car rental, tolls, fuel, match ticket, 1 night’s hotel stay and beer and food.

When did you fly in and out of Geneva?

 

[MattBackHome]

About £400 for a couple of nights all in I believe

 

[Nicks]

Marseille was £150.00 flight from Bristol ,accommodation £125.00 Beer etc £100.00

Amsterdam flight is £150.00 from Bristol Accommodation £70.00 each (3 of us in a massive apartment) one night .
Beer and food I reckon £75.00 tops.

Athens flight is £240.00 going Wednesday and returning Friday from Gatwick
Accommodation for two of us for two nights is £75.00 each for two nights in a big apartment . Beer and food I reckon £100.00 plus as it's two nights

 

[dazzer6666]

Amsterdam around £1000 for two of us plane and hotel (expensive flight booked late stuffed me here ). Athens hotel €190 for 2 nights (walking distance from the stadium) and flight using Avios.

 

[ozzygull]

Ticket £27
Bus to Reading Station £2
Rail Air to and from Heathrow £30
Flights £196.88
Hotel £169.61
Bus to and from St Charles £18
Food and drink £66
£508.88

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

Between £300-350. That's parking at Gatwick, flight, taxi from Montpellier airport to station, return train to Marseille, one-night's accommodation, match ticket, and food and drink (didn't really track this, but a decent guess I reckon).

 

[Albion_Dave]

Share of short stay carpark at Gatwick £10
Return flight to Nice £68
Flixbus return to Marseille £19
Air BnB £50 for 2 nights
Match tickets £27
Total = £174

Food and drink a bit more so for the 3 days roughly £400

The enjoyment we had was priceless.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Amsterdam was fairly reasonable, direct train was about €120 return, first class.

Motel One was a standard price.

Athens not too bad, Scoot flight really cheap, but slightly concerned it will end up in Singapore...

 

[CheeseRolls]

Marseille via Toulouse with 2 nights stop over was £350 single room, £265 shared room including trains etc excluding food and drink.
Ajax via Eurotunnel with 2 nights is coming in at £238 inc. petrol.

Will not be doing Athens.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Ps just seen there are cheaper flights than ours still available to Athens, but at times we couldn't do, so that may also be an option for you. Research as many options as you can.

Yep, this is key. My initial search for a short trip to Athens was more expensive than an 8 day, 7 nighter. I’m guessing that there’s more flight pressure around the game. So if people can go for longer, it’ll actually be cheaper, though of course you’ll spend more on food and drink. Athens is an incredible city for anyone interested in history.

 

[Tfitz12]

flights £40
train £40
accomodation £50
ticket £27
food and drink £100

£250 all in probs

 

[Hamilton]

Cost me about £100 to fly to Nice and back. I booked very early to keep the price down.
TGV from Nice to Marseille was 80 euros.
Two nights in Marseille was £200.
So, about £370 plus about £100 in beer and food.
Total about £470. Add on the ticket - £500.
Was it worth it? 100%.

Didn't get an Ajax ticket so have just cancelled that travel and hotel. Very disappointed.

I'm holding off for Athens because I expect interest in this fixture to increase off the back of great Marseille reports and the bun fight for Ajax. Still intending to go if I get one. It could also mean that tiers are set a little higher.

When are Athens tickets on sale?

 

[Frankie]

Really very helpful thank you all very much, definitely won't stay in a hotel as this seems to eat up quite a chunk of money and have started looking into the cheaper options, I've since found out £440 of the £1280 was on their hotel accommodation,I didn't know there was a Ritz in Marseille.

 

[The Fifth Column]

Flights, 3 nights accommodation (including 1 night at Stansted before the early AM flight out), private airport transfers, match ticket - £400 all in. It took a whole day of searching and booking but I was happy with that.

 

[Knightsworld]

Just been totting up, around £ 400

 

[Gwylan]

Marseille was about £700 for me (although that does include the cost of a second room when the one I originally booked wasn't available).

That's not too bad as it does include food and drink, but I could have done it cheaper if I'd ordered everything before I'd got a match ticket.

 

[Nicks]

Cost me about £100 to fly to Nice and back. I booked very early to keep the price down.
TGV from Nice to Marseille was 80 euros.
Two nights in Marseille was £200.
So, about £370 plus about £100 in beer and food.
Total about £470. Add on the ticket - £500.
Was it worth it? 100%.

Didn't get an Ajax ticket so have just cancelled that travel and hotel. Very disappointed.

I'm holding off for Athens because I expect interest in this fixture to increase off the back of great Marseille reports and the bun fight for Ajax. Still intending to go if I get one. It could also mean that tiers are set a little higher.

When are Athens tickets on sale?

October 20th for Tier 1 Athens tickets