The 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy have now concluded, and I feel fortunate to have experienced it as a fan in Milan and other sites for the first week of the Games.

Going to any Olympics is a bucket-list experience for many sports fans, and I am glad to say that this was my second time attending a Winter Games (the first time was in Sochi, Russia, in 2014).

I can certainly attest that both have been incredibly rewarding experiences — not only from a sports spectator standpoint, but from the aspect of being involved in an international event that is drawing interest from all around the world.

Now that these Games are over, I’ve already given thought to making it a goal to attend at least a portion of every future Olympics, winter and summer, going forward. Extending the streak to two in a row will be no problem, given that the 2028 Summer Olympics will be held in my hometown of Los Angeles.

From there, the 2030 Winter Games will be staged in the French Alps, followed by the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane, Australia and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (officially branded as Utah 2034). I’m excited to consider the travel possibilities, especially for those first two events.

When the time comes, I’ll be applying a number of lessons learned from my experience in Milano Cortina to these future endeavors. If you also hope to attend one or more future Olympic Games, I hope these tips and lessons can come in handy as you begin to consider your own plans.

Here’s what I took away from an exhausting — but ultimately exhilarating — experience watching Olympic events as a fan in Italy:

Don’t go crazy trying to attend as many events as you can

In planning this six-day trip, I considered attending multiple events on at least three different days. None of them worked out for one reason or another (mainly ticket availability), but looking back, I’m glad I didn’t do that.

I’ll admit now that a lot of the motivation behind it was to maximize the experience. You’re traveling all this way to be at an event, so why not try to go all out and watch as much as possible?

But I can attest that the quickest way to burn yourself out on any ambitious trip is to overplan. And when you attend the Olympics, that means trying to see too many events.

And when you buy tickets in advance, that means you’re committed — you can’t pull back if you realize in the middle of the trip that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, because you’ve already spent the money.

After buying tickets to the events that I really wanted to attend in advance (four in all), I decided to take a wait-and-see attitude toward adding any more events. That is, I would wait until I was in Milan and seek any day-of deals for tickets.

It turned out that a few ticket deals were offered by organizers, but by that point I had decided I didn’t need to see any more events. So it all worked out for the best.

Be sure not to underestimate distances between venues

Whether it’s the Olympics or any other large-scale event spread over a wide area, it’s easy during the planning stages to look at a map of where things are and underestimate the distances between places you want to go, and then plan for multiple activities at venues that are farther apart than you expect.

Indeed, when looking at maps of central Milan and maps provided by Milano Cortina organizers, it appeared a lot of Olympics-related activities were just a short walk apart. The Sforza Castle and adjacent Parco Sempione, an integral part of the Olympic fan zone, didn’t seem all that expansive.

Unfortunately, these misconceptions led to a lot more walking than I would’ve preferred, as well as time wasted, sore feet and a handful of desired activities punted on.

This played out in a more extreme way for me thanks to my desire to see at least one mountain event during my trip. I mostly heeded the warnings about how spread out these Olympics were, meaning my ambition to visit both host cities, Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, were scuttled early on.

However, I determined that getting to the ski resort town of Livigno, where freestyle skiing and snowboard events were taking place, from Milan would take a somewhat tolerable four hours by regional train, followed by a free Olympic shuttle. I figured it would be against my better judgment, but I bought tickets for an event in Livigno and made plans to spend a day going back and forth from Milan.

As it turned out, the four-hour estimate was pretty far off. Leaving Milan’s Centrale train station at 8:50 am, we didn’t arrive at the venue until after 2 pm — nearly 5½ hours later. And returning was even worse, as we arrived back in Milan after 11 pm following 6½ hours of travel.

I don’t regret going to see what turned out to be a fabulous event in Livigno, the women’s moguls final. But the arduous travel day unnecessarily sapped our energy and affected the rest of the trip.

I will certainly take that experience into consideration if I do attend the 2030 Winter Olympics, which is slated to take place amid a similarly spread-out layout of venues in the French Alps.

Just go along with the Winter Olympics fan experience

What no one really tells you about the Winter Olympics fan experience is that there’s much more to do than just watch the events. Simply being there is its own reward, but there’s also lots of other things to keep you busy.

In Milan, an “Olympic Avenue” was created that led fans through the historic core of the city. Landmarks like the Duomo (cathedral), Sforza Castle and the Arco della Pace were showcased as destination spots, as fans could go see the Olympic Cauldron, the official Olympic megastore and sponsor activations in and around these locations.

The other cities that hosted Olympic venues also created fan zones for people to congregate and spend time between events.

Hospitality houses — spaces set up by a certain country’s Olympic committee to host their athletes and support staff — are often open to the public and popular visits for fans. There were more than a dozen hospitality houses located in Milan during these Games, and I was able to visit a handful of them during my trip.

They are a presence at every Olympics, and the House Party blog did a terrific job chronicling where to find these spots in Milan and Cortina. We expect they’ll do the same for future Olympics, starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Meanwhile, pin trading is a favorite activity for many at the Olympics, and something we dipped our toes into during this trip. Fortunately, for the first time an Olympic Pin Trading Center was established as a central hub for these games. Though not highly publicized, I was told about it by a fellow fan early in the trip, and the House Party blog pinpointed for me where to find it.

As a result, we began our Olympic pin collection with eight pieces from these games. And I can’t wait to showcase them — and add to the collection — at future Games.

It’s just one of many reasons why I’m motivated to continue experiencing the Olympics first-hand as a fan. After all, they come along so infrequently that they’re always bound to be a special experience.

Watch our Milano Cortina experience on YouTube!

Check out the first of our series of videos chronicling our experience at the 2026 Winter Olympics here, and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep notified of when future videos are posted.