livelifewithpassion

My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe. We have 18 days including travel time. We purchased round trip tickets to Dublin, Ireland. We go the end of April to the first part of May of 2014. We would like to do a BIG loop. The objective of this trip is to visit as many destinations as possible, take is as many cultures as possible, stay on the move yet enjoy it all! We know one day we will go back and spend longer amounts of time in each spot, but for now we want adventure! A little about us, we are fairly experienced travelers and do very well adapting to our surroundings, we embrace new things and love culture. And have no kids. What our brainstorming has come up with so far... we are looking into buying the global rail pass, (we are under 26 so its a great deal for all the places we want to go), we are planning to only pack what we can carry, we are planning to use a sleeper train on our longer routes and also use hotels or b&b or hostiles...of course we don't want to backpack the entire trip, but we do want to be conveniently prepared if we need to. So our destination path so far are the following: fly into Dublin, Ireland, day trip to Cork, to Belfast then to Scotland (6 days split between Ireland and Scotland), from Scotland to London (night train of course)stay in London for 6 days, then to Paris for 4 days, from Paris to Wales for 1 day, from wales back to Dublin, fly back to U.S. Is this itenary possible and reasonable? like I said we are willing to travel at night, carry backpacks if needed. Our main places we must hit are Ireland-London-Paris....ok open to any and all suggestions from packing, dos and donts, where to stay, where to play. Its your turn now...go!

janisj

>>The objective of this trip is to visit as many destinations as possible, take is as many cultures as possible, stay on the move yet enjoy it all! <<

Too much -- four countries in 15.5 days (2.5 days is eaten up just traveling to/from. Then you will lose another nearly 2 full days traveling between places. The ONLY sleeper train on your plan is between Edinburgh and Edinburgh. All the rest of your travel will eat up daylight hours. So you are down to about 13 days for Ireland, Scotland, Wales, London and Paris. Nope. You say you want to keep moving -- well that is a given. But do you REALLY want to spend that much money just glimpsing places.

The ONLY sleeper train on your plan is between Edinburgh and Edinburgh. All the rest of your travel will eat up daylight hours.

Look at a map -- Cork is not a day trip from Dublin, it is on the opposite side of the country. -- what exactly do you hope to see in Cork. You won't have time to tour any of the glorious countryside.

You are planning half a day for Dublin, half a day for Cork, half a day for Belfast, 2.5 days for "Scotland" , and a fraction of one day for "Wales. Why?

London looks fine, Paris is OK (could be longer but 3.5 days is a decent taste)

But the rest - a hot mess. You need to account for travel time which you haven't.

W/ 15+ days you will want to 1) fly open jaw like into to Dublin and home from Paris or some other city pair. and 2) Limit your number of destinations.

adrienne

Congratulations on your first trip - how exciting!

I realize you've already purchased tickets but for the next time you should consider flying into one location and flying home from another to save time (and expense) backtracking. In this case, fly into Dublin and home from Paris.

It seems that you don't have any time in Dublin so I'm wondering why you're flying there? 6 days between Ireland and Scotland is little time in each place when you look at the time to get from one place to another. I would stay in Ireland for all 6 days; forget Scotland and Wales for this trip. Your 16 day itinerary would be Ireland, London, and Paris. Or Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and London.

You don't need to carry backpacks, small rolling luggage is fine.

The best guide book series for new travelers on a budget is Let's Go. You can get them in your local library or download sights and hotels from their web site.

Before you buy a rail pass (not always economical) check the prices for point-to-point tickets. You can normally get discounts when booking about 3 months out. Check the pricing before by plugging in an arbitrary date 3 months from now. seat61.com is a great site for rail travel information.

If you "stay on the move" you will use more money and see fewer sights. In depth travel is more rewarding as it takes time to acclimate to new cities. I've always had this philosophy, even when I was younger than you.

If you don't see all you want to see this trip, there will be other trips - you're very young.

Christina

I don't have a very thorough knowledge of rail routes in the UK, but for timing, of course you can visit Ireland, London and Paris in a little over 2 weeks, it is certainly possible. I think you may be cutting time a little short in your Ireland/Scotland segment, though (6 days total for both). The big problem is you need to get back to Dublin to leave, so that eats up a lot of time given you want to include Wales in there in the middle. That part may not be doable in a couple days, I don't know the rail lines.

If I were you, I'd cut out Paris, that's all. It adds a lot of time and cost to your plans. Just do the UK and Ireland.

I also wonder if that Global Rail Pass really makes sense. It is $500, and I don't believe it covers the UK, only Ireland. YOu aren't going to be traveling in France by rail at all even if you go to Paris as you'll only be in Paris a couple days. And I don't think it covers the Eurostar, although you can get a discount on it. So it sounds of little use to you, just in Ireland. Hard to believe that would be worth $500.

Also, very few routes have sleeper trains, at least not on short distances. Scotland to London isn't included on that pass, anyway, I'm pretty sure, and it's only about a 6 hr train trip. Yes, you can go at night, but you won't start until about midnight (from Edinburgh), and then you get to London before 7 am, when you can't do anything anyway. And you have to pay extra if you do have a sleeper on a train and a regular rail pass.

That's probably the longest route you have in this trip, so not sure where all you were planning to use sleepers otherwise. Of course if you were coming down from Inverness, it would be longer.

So I'd look into more details about the rail plans you have and the passes.

janisj

oops -- that should be >> between Edinburgh and <u>London

thursdaysd

Besides Let's Go you should take a look at Lonely Planet. Also, the global rail pass doesn't work in England, Scotland or Wales, not does it cover the London-Paris train, so will be useless for this trip. (For train travel see http://www.seat61.com/index.html and http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/rail_menu.htm)

Gretchen

If you want to see Ireland, Scotland and England, then "maybe" this would be OK.
I know nothing about the Global pass, and thanks to the above poster, now really see it just won't be worth it.
RT to Dublin? Can you change it? Open jaw would be better, as has already been pointed out.
YOu probably really only have 14 days of sightseeing--there is a lot of travel time in your itinerary.
Get a map and connect the dots with travel time and mode.

janisj

Oops again

I missed that you've already booked the flights . . . That does mess things up quite a bit since you lose another half day getting back to Dublin to fly home. So you really (honestly) only have about 14 days free for seeing/doing.

Dublin is a nice city but not nearly the equal of London, Paris or Edinburgh. And Cork city (since you don't have time for the County Cork countryside) is definitely not a 'must'. Belfast -- interesting -- but you simply don't have the time.

I'd consider 2 nights in Dublin (= 1.5 days -- jet lagged), fly to Edinburgh -- you just don't have time to take ground transport. 3 nights in Edinburgh (2.5 days), 6 nights in London (6 days since you can take the sleeper), 5 nights in Paris (4.5 days), fly back to Dublin the night before your flight home. There is you 18 days. No Cork, no Belfast, no Wales.

janisj

Oh and one more -- the ONLY long distance train is the sleeper to London. No way any rail pass will make sense. The Eurostar to Paris is cheap IF you book well ahead. And Dublin > Edinburgh and Pari > Dublin only work if you fly.

PalenQ

ah yeh the Global Eurailpass will be of little use to you as like thursday says it ain't valid in the U K and it is in Ireland but trains there are very limited - it also does not cover the Eurostar trains London to Paris - you may look at a BritRail Youthpass for the U K - for lots of great info on European trains check out www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com andhttp://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id11.html.

livelifewithpassion

Great!! I really appreciate the imput! That is what I wanted to know, I love traveling it is hard for me to not be sidetracked by other neighboring countries...I can't quite give up Paris, although you have a good point. We looked into flying into Ireland and out of Paris...but it was actually cheaper to just buy one ways from Paris to Dublin and go round trip from Dublin. If we went back to our original plan of Ireland-London-Paris 5 days each...would that be sufficiate time? And which rails and routes would you suggest? And could I keep wales if we would travel back on train from Paris to Dublin? Really appreciate all the help and insight!

janisj

OK -- Train from Paris to Dublin?? That would mean Eurostar to London Train to far western Wales, Ferry to south of Dublin, train to Dublin and bus to airport . . . Uh - nope.

(there are other possible routes involving ferries/trains but they would take almost two full days)

adrienne

From London to Paris you take the Eurostar. Please look at the site that has been recommended to you twice - seat61.com.

Ireland (depending on where in Ireland), London, Paris is a good combination for 16 days. You'll need 1.5 to 2 of those days to change locations.

Wales is a country and you haven't specified where in Wales (unless I missed what town you want to visit).

Please allow us to teach you to fish...use the site below for train schedules and duration. That will allow you to figure out if you can get to Wales and leave it in the itinerary or take it out. If you do go to Wales you'll have to give up something else in Ireland, London, and Paris.

http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml

thursdaysd

Another fishing lesson...

You need to print off a blank calendar (lots of free ones on the net) and then lay this out day by day ALLOWING FOR TRAVEL TIME. Note that it takes two nights in a place to get one full day.

From Paris to Wales you could take the Eurostar back to London and then a train to ? (Cardiff? Swansea?) Or train - ferry - train. You can also take a ferry from Wales to Ireland - see http://www.directferries.ie/ For that matter, there's even a ferry from Cherbourg to Rosslare.

livelifewithpassion

Ok I already have a calendar printed out...I will look at those sites and see what we can come up with.

PalenQ

www.seat61.com is a British bloke's site and its forte is plotting train travel from the U K to the Continent. Book on www.eurostar.com and book as early as possible because tickets on the Channel Rail Tunnel Link are sold in several tiers with varying pricing - the early bird really does get the worm.

If having to come back to London then maybe fly from Ireland to Paris then take the Eurostar train back to London.