Flights and hotels booking up fast for Euro 2016

When tickets, flights and the cost of accommodation, food and drink are totted up many Irish football fans from both sides of the border will see little change out of € 2,000 if they want to see Ireland play all three group games in Euro 2016.

Despite the high cost of flying to and from the venues for the Republic's games against Sweden, Belgium and Italy in Paris, Bordeaux and Lille respectively, demand appears to be high with hotels and flights booking out fast.

Tickets for the group stage matches range in price from € 25 to € 145 and a registration process opened on Monday morning with fans being given the opportunity to apply for as many as four tickets each.

The tournament is likely to be one of the most accessible for Irish fans with airports close to all the venues served by dozens of flights every day. Lille is within two hours drive of Paris Beauvais, Brussels and Charleroi airports.

Both cities are also accessible by Eurostar from London while Bordeaux has a couple of direct flights daily. Bordeaux is only three hours by train from Paris.

Stena Line and Brittany Ferries have regular ferry crossings while another alternative would be to travel to the championships via Britain with many channel ports close to both Paris and Lille.

A Ryanair flight from Dublin to Paris Beauvais arriving on Sunday, June 12th and returning home early on Tuesday morning will cost € 405.98. Those who travel out on the same flights but seven days later will pay € 213.98.

At the time of writing, the cheapest Aer Lingus single fare from Dublin to Paris Charles de Gaulle on Sunday June 12th was €259.99 although there was only one seat left at that price. All other single fares on the same day are now over €300.

The cheapest fare for the return flight on Tuesday June 14th was €179.99 although at the time of writing there were only five such fares available after which the cost jumped to more than €200

A flight from Dublin to Bordeaux has jumped by more than €100 over the last 24 hours alone and it will now cost €418.99 on Aer Lingus for June 17th, the day before the match against Belgium. Return flights two days later cost €414.99 , taking the total cost of direct flights to €833.98.

Alternatively, a football fan could fly to and from Paris on the 17th and 19th at a cost of €272.98 and then take a three hour train journey at a cost of around € 80 which would take the cost of getting to the venue to € 356.

The cost of hotels in Bordeaux are climbing and availability is limited but people willing to travel more than 10km from the stadium in search of a bed for the night can find a room on the weekend of June 18th for around €100 a night.

The cost of a hotel room in Lille where the Republic play the last of their group games has sky rocketed as well. Many hotels are already fully booked out while three star hotels are asking for more than €250 per night.

All told, around 50,000 fans will drape themselves in the tricolour and head east for the championships while a further 20,000 or so are likely to travel in support of Northern Ireland.