The European football championship tournament starts in four months. The Polish national team will be participating for the third time in a row. Are you planning to go to France? Please read our guide. We have calculated the estimated cost of this kind of a journey.
The UEFA Euro 2016 starts on the 10th of June. For the first time in history, it will include 24, instead of 16 teams, as it was in the past years. The games will be held in ten French stadiums. The host cities are: Saint-Denis, Marseille, Lyon, Paris, Lens, Bordeaux, Saint-Étienne, Toulouse, Lille, and Nice. In the group phase, the Polish national team will face Northern Ireland in Nice, Germany in Saint-Denis, and Ukraine in Marseille.
Arriving to Paris
In the group phase, the most prestigious game for the Polish team, will be held against Germany on June 16th in Saint-Denis near Paris. This is the tournament's main arena. We have analyzed the details of a journey from Warsaw to Paris. Traveling by car takes approximately 16 hours. The distance between the cities is 1.6 thousand km. If we consider the average use of fuel (7.5 l per 100 km) and current fuel prices, the round-trip cost is approximately 1.2 thousand zloty. If we take three passengers, the cost will be only 300 zloty per person.
Traveling by bus will take approximately 24 hours. If you book the ride today, the price of a one-way ticket is approximately 250 zloty. You can also go to Paris by train. However, a negative side of this solution is that you must change trains four times during the whole journey. The total time via train is approximately 15 hours, and a one-way ticket costs 160 euro (approximately 704 zloty*).
Flight prices are very attractive. The ticket from cheap airlines from Warsaw to Paris cost approximately 350 zloty, and the flight takes approximately 2.5 hours.
30 euro for accommodation
It is worth thinking about booking an accommodation long before the event. Approximately 70% of places on the Booking.com website are already taken. Also, the prices in June are significantly higher than in May or July. A bed in a hostel dormitory costs 30 euro (approximately 132 zloty) per night. One night in a double room in a guesthouse located near the center of Paris is approximately 45 euro (approximately 198 zloty). A double room in a three-star hotel costs approximately 90 euro (approximately 396 zloty).
Tickets for the Euro 2016 games
Ticket sales for the European Championship games concluded on January 18th. There were approximately 3.5 million applications from almost 190 countries. Approximately 100 thousand people from Poland applied for the tickets, and 33 thousand of them achieved the goal. Those who did not make it still have a chance to buy tickets. At the beginning of March the UEFA will activate a website that will allow people to legally buy and sell tickets. However, there are slight chances for finding the tickets that you are interested in.
Currency exchange
When making preparations for a journey to the tournament in France, it is worth buying the euro in Poland. The euro exchange rate is known for being considerably seasonal. Historical tendencies show that the euro is usually cheaper in spring, especially in March and April**. Last year, the average exchange rate of the euro was approximately 0.14 PLN lower than in June. Of course, we have no guarantee that it will always be like this. That is why purchasing the currency in stages seems to be the safest solution. This reduces potential losses coming from an unfavorable change of the exchange rate – Piotr Lonczak, Cinkciarz.pl analyst.