Want to go to the Olympics?

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Getting into the Games

While you might arrive in Turin without a hotel reservation, you absolutely shouldn't show up without admission to the Olympics Games themselves. This isn't a baseball game, where you can expect to score $20 tickets off some shifty-eyed guy in the parking lot. To get into the Games—especially such popular events as figure skating, men's downhill, and ski jumping—you need to snatch up some seats pronto. Here's how.

EU residents can purchase tickets directly from the main www.torino2006.org site. Residents of the United States and Canada have to turn to CoSport, 800-457-4647, which has an exclusive contract with the USOC to handle North American ticket sales.

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Sure, tickets for women's figure skating were snapped up long ago, but you can still get seats for the pairs or men's figure skating (as well as ice dancing) starting at $286. And figure skating is the darling of the Winter Olympics. For other sports, tickets are relatively easier to come by—though many finals and medal games are, as you might expect, rapidly selling out. Speaking of cost, most Category C tickets (the cheap seats) start around $42 for the Biathlon, and range up through $134.50 (ice hockey) and $143 (speed skating) to $185 (Alpine skiing and ski jumping). If you want to attend the opening ceremony, though, it'll run you a cool $1,260.

Incidentally: Don't bother with the "Ticket Packages" offered by CoSports. Those simply bundle together admission to three or four events at random—but at absolutely no cost savings. Far better to pick your own event combo and witness the Olympics of your dreams.

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Bio: Reid Bramblett is a guidebook author and the creator of the travel planning site ReidsGuides.com. He is currently working on sections of the new Pauline Frommer's Guide to Italy, including the Turin and Piemonte chapter.

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