mcfamilytrip

London for 4-5 days, Dublin 4-5days(depending) starting March 26th. It will be busy time and want to pre-purchase tours and admissions. What top locations should I plan to see with 15, 13, &11 yr olds? Which locations do you suggest we prioritize and get guided tour for? Are there over rated tour-traps we should avoid?

ElendilPickle

There are so many choices in London that it's hard for anyone here to narrow down your choices without more information. What are your interests?

I would also hand your kids some guidebooks and let them pick at least one thing each of them would like to see.

Lee Ann

janisj

There are hundreds of things to see in London and 15-20 tops in in Dublin. Is there some reason you are dividing the time equally??

"<i>It will be busy time and want to pre-purchase tours and admissions.</i>"

There is little advantage to pre-purchasing much of anything.

nytraveler

There are only a few things that you need to prepurchase - which are in short supply. For instance, if you want tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower - you should order those in advance. Almost anything else can be bought at the time - when you see what the weather is like and what you feel like doing.

Agree that kids are absolutely old enough to do research fo the trip, understand something about where they are going and pick out sights they want to see. Have them look at the Let's Go sTudent Guides for ideas of what young people want to see/do.

Heimdall

You will be travelling during the Easter break for schools in both UK and Ireland, so I imagine attractions for children will be busier than usual. Why not set your kids a research project to find what they would like to see most? Half the benefit of a trip like yours is the pre-trip planning. The more they learn beforehand, the more they will appreciate what they are seeing.

Tony2phones

There is Dublin, then there is Ireland. consider flying into Shannon and having Galway as a base for 2 days and Dublin for the other 3

Businessandpleasure

You could fly into Belfast and see the Giant's Causeway,Bushmills Distillery and the Titanic Exhbition, then take a train down to Dublin and go to see Newgrange and the Hill of Tara from Dublin. Once in Dublin there's the Dublin Walking Tours which can be lots of fun and are very informative, then there's Dublin Castle, Guinness Storehouse, Trinity College and the Book of Kells and the Phoenix Park, Dublin Zoo and Aras an Uachtaran (which you will have to book for, but the others will be fine). Theres also the Viking Splash Tours which you and your kids may enjoy more than the walking tour and of course Dublin is a lovely city to walk around and discover for yourself (Georgian buildings, museums dedicated to our civil and natural history, art and archaeology) but do remember a rain jacket is essential in Ireland as is an idea of where you are going as public transport isn't necessarily the best!

If you do want to go to Galway and the West there is so much to do there too, its very charming and its a great base to see Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Clifden, Connemara and the Aran Islands, the only thing I would say is that these are predominately outdoors activities and if you're not in to that or rain would put you off I'd stick to the East.

Finally I would say that having travelled all over the world, lived in Galway and Dublin and been to London more times than I can count, that 4-5 days with Dublin as your base would give you just a taste of what a great city it is and it would be a real shame not to include it in your itinerary.

Hope you have a fantastic time!