It's Not Too Late To Get To The World Cup Final In South Africa

Alia McMullen

Filed under: Budgeting & Planning, Shopping, Travel

Most of us will have to be content with watching the FIFA World Cup final on TV, but for soccer fanatics out there, it's not to late to plan a trip to Johannesburg. Seriously.

OK, I'll prepare you now because this one is going to hurt your wallet. But if you are one of those fans that cringe at the word 'soccer' (it's football, you know) and wake in the early hours of the morning and head straight to the pub to watch the beautiful game live with other like-minded fanatics, then I know you will consider, or at the very least dream, about jumping on a plane tomorrow and heading to South Africa. What a memory.

The good news is there are still tickets about for the final. For non-fanatics out there (because fanatics will already know this for sure), the final will be held in Johannesburg on July 11. The teams playing off for a spot in the final are:

Uruguay vs. The Netherlands on July 6
Germany vs. Spain on July 7

You can still buy tickets officially if booking a package deal. Then there are the ebay or scalper options, but even these options will not be cheap. Which ever way you look at it you're going to have to fork out the big bucks. Ole Ole has a four night package (July 8-12) at a three star hotel, including a ticket to the final, for US$3,290 per person, including tax (based on double occupancy). The package does not include airfares.

Now here's the part that is really going to hurt. To take advantage of such a package you will have to leave Canada on July 6 (you lose up to two days on the flight over). A search on Expedia.ca shows return flights on this day, using Toronto as an example, start at $7,680 per person, including tax. That's the cheapest flight and it takes a ghastly 30 hours. You can get it down to about 21 hours for a few thousand extra.

So, I warned you this would be a nasty one for the wallet. But if you're looking for some justification as to why you would spend such a whopping amount of cash for a few days of memorable fun, then you might be interested in knowing that the loonie has been doing quite well against the South African rand - just think - this trip could have cost more!

One Canadian dollar is buying 7.21 rand right now, which is not the highest it's ever been, but it is buying more than it was a year ago and it appears to be on a strengthening run at the moment that began after it hit a low against the rand in 2004.

So there you go. If you have a spare $11,000 laying around, a lot of passion for the beautiful game, and a friend who's willing to share your hotel room, you can still make it to the World Cup final. If your like me, you'll be watching this one on TV and planning ahead for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.