Olympics Experience Still Possible : Lodging: It’s tight in Barcelona but Albertville is still bookable.

Maybe you would have a better view from the living room. You’d save thousands of dollars by staying home and you wouldn’t have to put up with the crowds and the out-of-the-way hotels. But then again, maybe it would all be worth it.

This is the Olympics.

Despite a recession that is fairly well spread out around the globe and dire warnings from consumer groups and some travel agents of unconscionably jacked-up hotel and restaurant prices, more than 1 million people are expected to attend the Olympic Games this year.

The XVI Winter Games will take place in Albertville in the French Alps Feb. 8-23, the XXV Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain, July 25 through Aug. 9.

Neither Albertville nor Barcelona has hosted the Olympics before, so preparations have been under way in Spain and France for two years to accommodate the hordes of athletes, officials and spectators. They’ve been grabbing up choice hotel rooms, particularly in Barcelona, booking parties at smart restaurants in both places and reserving the best seats for the Games.

Albertville, a small, quiet mountain town nestled in France’s Savoy region, was chosen because it is near some of the world’s best skiing. Barcelona, on the other hand--brassy, colorful, bold and loud--has long coveted the Olympics, and its chances probably weren’t hurt this time around by the fact that the coastal city, Spain’s second-largest, is the hometown of Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee.

But on to the Games.

If you’re planning to go to the summer events, don’t even think about finding a hotel room in Barcelona at this late date. The rooms were all but snapped up two years ago by corporations or are being held for the 10,000 participating athletes from 167 countries.

“The availability of rooms in Barcelona itself is almost nonexistent,” said Jan Katzoff of the Olson-Travelworld Ltd. office in El Segundo, the official travel agency for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The majority of the space is along the northern and southern beaches in Mediterranean resorts, such as Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava, northeast of Barcelona, and at Salou on the Costa Dorada, southwest of Barcelona. Most of the three-star resort hotels are an hour’s bus ride from Barcelona.

Olson-Travelworld offers a seven-night package, $2,990 per person, double occupancy, which includes airport transfers, breakfast and transportation to the Games but not air fare or tickets to the Games.

“Barcelona is going to be three or four times more expensive than Albertville,” Katzoff warned. The summer Olympics tend to be a bigger draw than the winter games, he said. And Spain is going to be jammed this summer with tourists attending Expo ’92 in Seville, the last and supposedly largest world’s fair of this century.

“It’s becoming a game of supply and demand,” Katzoff said. “A lot of people like ourselves have gotten a lot of heat about the prices in Barcelona.”

Some of the heat has come from Consumer Reports Travel Letter, a San Francisco-based publication that has charged hotels in and out of Barcelona with price gouging. “If you’re an Olympic fan, this is a good year to stay home and watch it on television,” said Travel Letter editor Ed Perkins. “We said skip Spain this year.”

Pilar Vico, director of the Tourist Office of Spain in New York, agrees that rates are high but denies any gouging. “There are hundreds of hotels out of town where you can find reasonable accommodations,” she said. You may still be able to find a wider range of price options in private homes selected by two sister companies, Servihouse and Habithe Servei. Call them at (011) 343-301-3676, fax them at (011) 343-318-3423 or write to them at Passeig de Gracia No. 74 1a 08007.

Tickets to the Summer Games, many of which will take place at two main stadiums in central Barcelona in an area known as Montjuic, will run from a low of $10 to a high of about $100 for events. The Montjuic Olympic Stadium will be the site of the dramatic opening and closing ceremonies, which will cost a minimum of $101 to attend and as much as $515 for the very best seats.

French Alps should prove a bit less hectic.

Albertville, about four hours from Paris by high-speed rail, is home to about 20,000 people. It is really noteworthy only for its stunning location in a deep valley crowned to the north by Mt. Blanc. The warrior Hannibal tramped through the valley, elephants and all, on his warpath through the Alps. Little else of note ever happened in Albertville. That will soon change.

Albertville has spruced itself up and built four new hotels, a modern hospital, its first sewage treatment plant and a large, $10-million theater that seats 1,000. The French government has put in a new post office and a large bus and train station. The diesel train has made way for the high-speed rail called TGV. There’s also a new four-lane highway into Chambery, a nearby town. Albertville has no commercial airport, but you can fly into Lyon about 100 miles away or to Turin, Italy, 75 miles away, or to Geneva, Switzerland, 55 miles away.

It’s a little late now to start thinking about attending the Winter Games, but Olson-Travelworld says hotel rooms are still available in the Chamonix and Grenoble areas, both within an hour’s drive from Albertville and both former sites of Olympic Games.

Olson is recommending the four-star Des Aigions hotel in Chamonix, and the Hotel President in Grenoble. La Tarentaife in Meribel also still has rooms. Olson-Travelworld’s six-night, $2,900-per-person package includes round-trip air fare from New York, breakfast and dinner each day and airport transfers. Other packages run $3,000 to $4,000 for chalets and four-star hotels.