I took a shot at planning our first overseas vacation rather than booking through a company. If you're looking to save money, and still do a lot of stuff this is the way to go. First, I'll give you a break down of the costs then discuss each thing.
To be clear, we did not skimp on experiences. We went to five different cities on the Eastern, Southern, and Western coast of Ireland. We went to 6 different castles, we went to the Cliffs of Moher, traveled to the Wicklow Mountains, St Kevin's cathedral and the Glendalough. It was quite an adventure for the money.
Air fare - $1200 Nightly accommodations (8 nights) - $580 Car rental (4 days) - $160 Food/Snacks/Beer - $300 Public transportation - $120 Shopping/tours/sight seeing - $200
Air fare: $600 per ticket seems low, but we found several flights to Dublin for under $400. In fact, I recently booked tickets to Dublin for a guys trip in September for $325 out of Boston. Patience and Google Flights are key. If you're interested to know more let me know but there are a lot better resources on flying cheap than me.
Nightly accommodations: This could have been a lot lower, but we booked four different bed & breakfasts around Ireland. We booked 2 nights at a hotel and stayed one night in a hostel. The key for us was booking places that served breakfast. Yes, I ate traditional Irish breakfast every single day.
Car rental: We took public transportation for 4 days and rented a car for 4 days. Booking in advance is your friend. If you book 2+ months out, we were seeing $30 a day everywhere.
Food/snacks/beer: $300 seems low, but remember we ate breakfast at the hotel. For lunch, we usually popped into a grocery store and picked up chips/sandwhich/drink combo for $4. We had a nice dinner out 4 out of the 7 nights we were there and just got pizza or fast food other 3 nights. After we rented a car we picked up $30 in snacks which held us over for in between meals rest of the trip. My wife doesn't drink and all, and beer was so expensive I took it kind of easy on the sauce.
Public transportation: Ireland's public transport is fire. For $20 each you can get a 72 hour unlimited pass for Dublin which let's you take trains and busses. We took the train to a suburb on the Eastern coast called Howth. It was a beautiful little harbor town. We took public busses from Kilkenny to Waterford, Waterford to Cork and Galway to Dublin. Total cost for all that mentioned was only $120. Students in Ireland get free public transportation.
Shopping tours sightseeing: Ireland allows you to buy something called a Heritage card, which is good for a year. Allows you to see 80+ attractions in Ireland. They're about $50 each. Entry to most of the sites are north of $15 so well worth it. Also most museums are free in Ireland. As mentioned wife and I did several castles and tours with the heritage card. And they're not stupid places either, these sites are some of the best Ireland had to offer.
I decided to post this because we've been married 16 years and always assumed overseas travel was cost prohibitive. And I'd like to let others know it's not! If you have any questions hit me up!
June 25, 2018 at 01:09PM
