Palaces, superyachts and chauffeurs: How the super rich will watch the 2024 Paris Olympics

In itineraries seen by CNN Travel, experience companies are tapping into the most exclusive packages provided by official hospitality provider On Location for tickets to Olympic events. These include access to hospitality suites which will be fully catered, with alcohol available. The general public, meanwhile, won’t be able to buy alcohol as per France’s strict booze ban inside sporting venues.

Tour operator Kensington Tours says it has two clients coming into Paris for the first seven nights of the Games. They’ll kick off their stay watching the opening ceremony from the vantage point of Alma Bridge, with the Eiffel Tour rising in front of them. The base price for this official Bridge 360 Package is $10,300, and includes flowing Champagne, live music and meet-and-greets with Olympians in a brasserie-style setting.

Kensington says the best tickets – “gold 1st category A” – have already been secured for their clients at a cost of between $500 to $1,000 a ticket for tennis and basketball events. On the one day they are not attending any events, they’ll be whisked away on a private whiskey tasting led by a distillery owner.

AZA Luxury Travel’s Angela Adto Teppa says her company has designed a whole Paris program for a family of financiers from Oahu, Hawaii, who are coming specifically to watch basketball and wrestling.

"Paris presents a wealth of opportunities for luxury travelers to indulge in during the Olympics,” Adto Teppa says. “I have tailored an itinerary that includes Michelin-starred restaurants, guided curated shopping excursions in Parisian fashion districts and private tours to iconic sights like the Louvre.”

 

Similarly, Craft Travel has organized a busy, 15-day itinerary for a family of four, including two teenagers, from New York. Among the exclusive experiences is a private concert at the Palais Garnier, Paris’ gilded opera house.

“The performers will include a National Opera Ballet dancer, a classic quartet and an opera singer. A gourmet dinner will accompany the performance. Afterwards, they’ll enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of the opera house, including a visit to the costume workshop where all the magic happens,” Craft Travel’s director, Andrea Galvez, says.

Home in Paris for the family will be the La Réserve Apartments, just across from the Trocadéro. “They wished for a prime location and a luxurious environment that feels homey yet offers the services of a five-star hotel, and this is exactly what they’ll get,” says Galvez. The apartment will include a full-time attendant and a private chauffeur so they can avoid the city’s already-stretched public transport network.

Palaces and superyachts

 

To ensure their clients have access to Paris’ most prestigious hotels, many luxury travel advisers have made blanket bookings at properties across the city.

“We’ve contracted room blocks at eight different hotels for the full period of the games. We’ve then made shorter stays available inside those blocks to our guests,” says Dave Guenter, president of sports travel experts Roadtrips, an Internova Travel Group company. Among those are Rosewood Hôtel de Crillon, Le Bristol Paris and the Shangri-La Paris.

Those that have snared a room at Paris’ top hotels are paying top dollar for the privilege. At Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, one of France’s ultra-prestigious “palace” hotels (a status awarded to exceptional luxury properties), its 190 square meter (2,045 sq foot) Royal Monceau Suite has been booked for the duration of the Olympic Games at a rate of $27,000 per night.

And, just like the athletes they have come to cheer on, wealthy travelers are bringing their entire entourage with them to Paris. “Some of the top suites have been personalized according to guest’s décor preferences and will feature a hair and make-up area,” Le Royal Monceau’s General Manager Nicolas De Gols says.“A regular guest is traveling with their personal chef and working with the hotel’s culinary team to adapt the kitchen inside the suite to fit their needs, too.” In front of the hotel, an area will also be designated for the guest’s own fleets. “Some are traveling with almost 20 vehicles,” De Gols adds.

With other French cities such as Marseille and Nice — and even the far-flung French territory Tahiti — hosting Olympic events as well, it’s hardly a surprise that superyacht charters are also trending for the games.

Fraser Yachts says Askari, a 33-meter (107-foot) classic yacht based in French Polynesia, has received multiple inquiries for surfing events in Teahupo’o, Tahiti.

In the Mediterranean, the Monaco-based yacht brokerage has a confirmed charter on a 27-meter (89-foot) motor yacht in Marseille to follow the Olympic windsurfing competition in early August and is also looking to deploy yachts from its US fleet to the Mediterranean to accommodate increased charter demand in the south of France this summer.

The wine Olympics

Considering the choice of host nation, it seems many luxury travelers are also keen to secure allocations of gold medal-worthy wines to enjoy while in Paris. Clément Bru and Charles de Brosses, the duo behind Cookoon, a luxury gastronomic service that connects clients with Michelin-starred chefs in exclusive, private locations, say they are already seeing a high demand for fine and rare wines from incoming Olympic visitors.

“We’ve been contacted by an American professional sportsperson who has told us that they really like older Burgundys,” Bru says. Thanks to their service’s network, the pair have already been able to source a nearly 40-year-old bottle of Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée “Cros Parantoux” — a wine that averages around $16,000 a bottle — as well as wines from another revered Burgundy estate, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

The wines will be served in an ultra-exclusive private property secured by the duo. “We are organizing a special evening with a leading chef and sommelier in an amazing venue with a view overlooking the Champ de Mars,” Bru says.

Yet, despite their intricate network of connections, it seems like there are some requests even the most well-connected of UHNW concierges can’t guarantee.

“A client of ours is interested in doing a whole behind-the-scenes experience with [US gymnast] Simone Biles,” GR8’s Carnega explains. “It’s very complicated because she’s very focused on trying to get her to win.

“But we’re working on it.”