usafran

How much does it cost to travel in Ireland this year? How much does it cost to eat in moderately priced restaurants? To fill a car's tank with gas? To buy food in a supermarket?

rvflyer

Returned from a 2 week trip to Ireland on April 11. Some sample prices: Petrol: 1.49/litre, average cost for a tank of gas for a 4 door midsize manual trans. car: about 50 Euros. Pints in Dublin 4.50-5.00 Euros. Pints in rural Ireland: 3.65 Euros. Pub meals: 10.99-13.99 Euros. We had a self cater, and bought breakfast and dinner items for 4 adults for 4 days approx 50 Euros. (we figured that these meals were approx 25% of the cost of restaurant meals). A latte was 2.45 Euros. B&B's were 30-40 Euros/night/person...average 35 Euros. Fine dining: Earlybird 2 course: 20 Euros/meal, 3 course 25 Euros/meal. Non early bird meals....25-30 Euros. Admissions for sight seeing: average 5-6 Euros. (Get the heritage pass: 16 Euros/Sr. Hope this helps! D

BigRuss

It costs Euros. The rest of your questions are concept-dependent.

kellytravel

In Dublin average amount around €50 per day.

ksara

Hi
petrol has gone up, I paid around 70 euros for full tank a week ago.
an average main course is 9-15 euros I guess.
there are value supermarkets, Aldi and Lidl, they are cheap, next level up, Dunnes and Tesco, and then Marks and Spencers,

but all really depends on your budget.

emv0816

I am in Irelnd as I write. I arrived yesterday at Shannon. Staying at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis. today I bought a postcard. It costs .50 Euros (75US cents) and then mailed it to the USA,it cost .82 Euros ($1.23) at the rate of $1.50 per Euro. I talked to some people today in the town square and asked what their minimum wage was. 8.65 Euros per hour...$13.00 US per hour. gas is $8.50 per gallon. Taking in to consideration the Euro/dollar exchange rate (actually it's $1.57 per Euro),and the high cost of pretty much everything here>>> it is EXPENSIVE. The reason I am telling you this is because I had the same questions before I left and nobody knew anything. Rental cars are $71 per day including insurance but that doesn't cover tires and mirrors and windows. We are trying to save some $$ by taking Bus Eireann from town to town. hope this helps you make a better informed decision.

tangwah

Thanks for the info which is very helpful for my planning.

flpab

We aren't even renting a car next trip, flying into Dublin, taking the gobus to Galway and back, 25 euro roundtrip. While in Galway we are staying at a hostel and will go to the grocery and buy items to snack on, saving the money for day tours to Inishmore on Flaerty's tours, 45 euro. Cheaper tours to the cliffs and Burren. We eat pub grub,love seafood chowder and Guinness and after so many trips don't need to buy a lot of stuff to bring home. We love Dublin and I find lots to see and do even after four trips. I have yet to see Croke park but get on the train and go north or south and walk the coastline. I did book a reasonable priced hotel in Dublin this time close to Trinity. I think you can do it cheap but it is expensive if you don't watch out for bargains. If you cross the Liffey pint prices drop as do food prices.

floridapugmom

emv0816, Did you eat at Poet's Corner while staying at the Old Ground Hotel? We visited there in 09' and 2010 and loved their Irish Beef Hamburger. As stated it is expensive to visit Ireland but WELL worth it. Enjoy your trip!

Ackislander

Our standard rule for the UK has been the same price in pounds as in dollars at home, the euro zone generally but not always a little less. The gas and exchange calculations make this a little low, though gas at home is $5 a US gallon, roughly $6 an imperial gallon. How much is that in litres?

Exchange rates could improve in your favor (nice surprise) or get slightly worse (not great). We have had both happen over the years. The suggestions on saving money are all good.

I would like to visit Ireland very much, but the whole car rental thing has completely turned us off. I will look into the options flpab so kindly supplies.

emv0816

we are on day 5 of our trip. presently at the Abbeyglen Castle?Hotel in Clifden(not really a castle folks). Yes, we did dine at the Poets Corner at the Old Ground Hotel and loved it. In fact out of the 3 hotels so far, the Old Ground in Ennis is our favorite.As for prices of things here, we did a little price shoppig yesterday at a local supermarket>> the exchange rate presently is $1.50 per 1 Euro. so I'll give it to ya in US$$, bananas,$1.00/lb;milk,$2.50/1/2 gallon;there was a special on steak>3 packages of 4 steaks for $15; cigarrettes,$13.00 a pack (glad I don't smoke);gas,$8.50/gallon. Ireland's economy depends alot on tourism these days and they hit ya hard at restaurants and hotels. At the Abbeyglen here,an entree a la catrte of linguini with pesto sauce is $30.00,if you want the appetizer,entree,drink,dessert deal that'll be $75.00. When I asked about the linguini w/pesto for $30.00 the hostess said that is very good pesto. yeah ,uh huh. the room rate here is $250/night and that comes with an awesome breakfast buffet of eggs,salmon,cheese,blck pudding etc. To get around we are taking a bus service like Greyhound (CityLink). from Galway to Clifden only cost 1 euro for 1 ticket and 13 for the other. apparently there are a small # of seats on wach City Link bus for 1 euro. the other ticket cost 13 euros. not bad. However, we need a car to see all there is to see here in Connemara. We plan on renting one in Limerick rto see Dingle and Ring of Kerry and the south coast in County Cork. hope this helps. let me know what other prices you'd like to see.one more thing,taxi service>> cost $15 to go 3 miles in Galway and that's typical all over. Tipping is optional as the waiters make 8.65 euro minimum wage, that's $13.00 an hour. or $28,000 a year. I guess they need it to pay for gas,beer and smokes. haha

njsusan

Not sure how you are getting your Euro,but the exchange rate is 1.43 (US dollar)has not been over 1.49 in the past 12 months.

www.xe.com

Use an ATM and a debit card and you will get the bank rate.Never bring US dollar and exchange at a bank or a currency exchange place.

emv0816

I don't know where you are getting $1.43. even the credit card that we are using ,which gets the current rate,is getting between $1.46 and $1.50. we got some Euros before we left home and got $1.50 per Euro at a bank in Boston. actually the guy standing in front of me was going to exchange some of his leftover Euros,I asked him if we could do our exchange with each other so we asked the bank clerk what the buy/sell rate was>> the bank was going to buy his Euros for $1.40 and I was going to buy Euros from the bank for $1.56,so we split the difference and I gave the guy $518 for his 350Euros $1.48. so where are you getting this $1.43 rate? also, my credit card charges a 3% conversion fee on each purchase. I know that some don't charge that fee and I applied for and qualified for a Capital One card but they didn't send it in time and is now probably sitting at home on my desk.I like to talk to people and the Irish I've interacted with so far are very receptive and respectful and have time to answer questions.Apparently the taxes included in everything you buy (VAT>>value added tax) is 21% for alcoholic beverages,food purchaqsed at stores,and lots of other things. Gas is $8.50 a gallon ,taxed 80%. where does that money go? according to several of the people I have asked.. crooked, greedy politicians. sound familiar? I guess politicians are the same all over.

njsusan

www.xe.com gives you up to the minute what the currency is being traded.If you use a debit card attached to your checking account you will get the current rate.When using your credit card make sure they charge you in Euros not US dollar(you will get a better rate)
We travel to Ireland every year and we have always had the exchange rate be the bank rate(xe.com).
When you exchange dollars for Euro at the bank they charge a higher rate to make money on the transaction +charge a fee. Never get Euro in the US ,you really get screwed by the bank.

ATM is the way to go.

emv0816

like I mentioned earlier , I am in Ireland travelling as I write. I have been using my credit card for most things. I let the person taking the charge to use Euros in the transaction. I am getting an exchange of between $1.48 to $1.51. If I were to go to an ATM it's the same.

paperandpacks

So the main suggestion is to bring minimal money over there and use ATM's to get money if needed and use a debt card instead of a credit card? Also do B&B's and other restaurants allow you to use Debit cards?

egnolive

Paperandpacks,

We use debit card to get money from ATM; credit card for other purchases, such as restaurants.

allisonm

When we went in April (8th visit) we used a world mastercard for the car rental (paid for the insurance), a capital one venture card for all purchases (no foreign transaction fee), and we used our debit card at ATMs for cash.

None of the B&Bs we stayed in took credit cards because of the added cost to them, so cash was necessary. We used our cc for all meals, shopping, and gas.

There are ATMS at Dublin and Shannon airports, so you don't really need to worry about having euros in advance. If you fly Aerlingus and want to purchase alcohol on the plane, they very conveniently take dollars or euros!

jcg

We are thinking about doing the train (we get discount as we are over 60) dublin to cork, cork to galway....anyone have any experience doing the trains in Ireland. When we were younger we have explored Ireland by car and want to relax. We are not interested in a tour group. Thanks!

emv0816

My wife and I just got back from a 2 week vacation in Ireland. We decided to not rent a car and use Bus Eireann ,City Link Bus Service and trains to get around. As far as trains go , we took one from Galway to Limerick. It was great.City Link Bus service as we found out while we were there has a great deal where if you buy online you can get a ticket for as low as 1 euro;in our case it was from Galway to Clifden and then again on the return. I bought my laptop but the B&B's we stayed at had a computer so that's what we did a couple of times. However after visiting Connemara we realized how little we saw without the use of a rental car, so that's what we did in Limerick for the rest of our time there. It was a very good decision as it gave us the freedom to come and go where we wanted ,when we wanted. The Dingle peninsula,Slea head, Ring of Kerry, all through west County Cork and back to Limerick(a total of 700 plus miles). I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have.