Barber1586

We're planning a trip to Ireland in October. We have not been there before. We have a general idea of what we want to see. We thought the easiest thing for us is a package tour. We're considering an Aer Lingus package tour. Is anyone familiar with them? Comments appreciated. Thanks in advance.

cigalechanta

topping for Barber

wojazz3

It sort of depends on where you are flying from. If you are coming from an area where Aer Lingus flys from, you might be able to get a better deal in the off season. Generally, I'm not a fan of packages because you have to use vouchers which could limit your choices and is a pricey alternative for the B&Bs. You are not far off at this point so it's hard to say.

You might also want to check gotoday.com and see if there are any deals there.

Bill

AHaugeto

Actually, my husband and I are leaving for Ireland this Thursday, and we booked one of the Aer Lingus packages (6 nights plus car, ensuite B&B supplement, Dromoland for our last night). For this not-yet-shoulder time of year, it turned out to be a much better deal than had we booked everything piecemeal - I checked. In addition, I booked our B&B's about four weeks in advance and have had no problem with the vouchers thus far. I made sure to call them (the ones that accept vouchers are all listed on www.tandctrade.com) and was as polite and genial as possible on the phone, then added at the end that we had vouchers after I'd found out they had availability.

Bill's suggestion to check go-today is good, but when we shopped we really wanted to stay out West, and their packages involved going into/out of Dublin. My advice would be to price a flight, car, and check out the prices from some of the B&B's on the Town and Country website, then decide if the package is right for you. Good luck, and happy planning!

allisonm

We're leaving for our 4th trip in a couple of weeks. We have never done a packaged tour, but did buy a package of air, car and vouchers in April 03. I'm not sure why or how we ended up doing it; I think we went in to check out airfare and ended up booking the whole thing. We did have to upgrade the car, and I am sure we didn't save any money.

We didn't have any trouble finding B&Bs that took the vouchers either, that time of year, although we most likely won't use them again.

Price it all out on-line an compare. (All of our arrangements for October have been made via the internet!) Have a great trip, whatever you decide.