With Ireland defeating Italy in the final group game of the Euros and setting up a last 16 clash with France in Lyon on Sunday, fans will be desperately trying to figure out how to get to Lyon and where they are going to stay ahead of the big game.
The Irish Independent's travel editor Pól Ó Conghaile was on Newstalk this morning discussing potential methods of getting to Lyon. The reality is that cheap flights to Lyon, especially from Dublin, simply aren't happening.
For flights, Ryanair have this morning announced that it will have extra flights from Dublin to Lyon, but these will set fans back around and upwards of €600 for a return.
Ó Conghaile also outlined Geneva as a potential flight destination, with a two hour drive from Lyon and one-way flights around €400. Paris, too, just two hours away from Lyon via France's TGV train service, and with plenty of direct flights from Ireland. The cheapest one-way was €256 currently but fans were advised to act soon if booking the flights.
The TGV from Paris starts off at around €57.
Birmingham, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid and Frankfurt were all highlighted as options for fans to fly to and then catch another flight to Lyon from there.
However the cheapest return flight for these destinations would be Birmingham which is still around €400. Skyscanner.ie is a useful website for this purpose.
Flying into Basel, Montpelier, Toulouse and Nice would be an alternative for the Boys In Green as they could then get a train onwards to Lyon; the website captaintrain.com was recommended for this purpose.
As for fans travelling by ferry, the Stenaline to Cherbourg was something Ó Conghaile highlighted as a possibility but one that would be a huge task given the massive drive fans would need to undertake.
Another potential avenue is the Eurostar from London-the airports of which is highly accessible from Ireland-, from 200 euro for a train direct from London to Lyon-but the large number of England fans using the service will make tickets hard to come by.
As for accommodation, hotels and Airbnb are currently still at reasonable prices, at 110 euro and 37 euro respectively per night, but don't expect this to remain so for long. Go onto airbnb's site, booking.com or hotels.com to find out more info. Equally trivago.ie and hotelscombined.ie are useful spots for this purpose.
There are camping sites within 40 minutes of Lyon, at 22 euro per person. But this is for people with camping gear; caravans are unlikely to be free at this stage.
As for fans who are in Lille and are planning on making their way to Lyon, the TGV train is by far the best way to get there. The train takes three to three and a half hours and prices range from around €85 to €112.
A good site for any supporters trying to figure out how to get to Lyon is rome2rio.
If all of this sounds a little stressful, there should be packages available with companies like Abbey Travel, Stein Travel, Club Travel, Killester Travel and Marathon Sports Travel-while pricey, you will be able to spend less time organising and more time looking for that elusive ticket.
(Hat-tip to the very useful piece on the Irish Independent's site)
