pthurber

Hubby and I have 29 days to explore Europe. We are wanting to see Ireland, England, and France...but would add Scotland, if you thought it might be quite different than Ireland.
These are the suggestions we have gotten so far:
Flying into Dublin, renting a car at the airport, and heading SW, basically doing a triangle to Kilkenny/Cashel, Waterford, Kinsale, Kenmare/Ring of Kerry, Dingle Peninsula, Cliffs of Moher, Gallway, then back to Dublin for 2 nights. We are estimating our Ireland visit may could be done in 7 days?
From Dublin, we would fly to Edinburgh, Scotland,(hear these fares are quite reasonable)? Do a few sites, there, then when leaving Edinburgh, rent another car, and head down to England. 8 days? for Scotland and England. Then we would like to take the train tunnel from London to Paris, and just visit some of the wine country in France, via car? Returning to Paris, to fly home.
Is this doable?
Any suggestions on a makeshift Itinerary. We love country side, pubs, architecture, castles, and not so much the big cities. We are 60 years of age, semi-active. Any ideas would be greatly appreciative. Thanks, Pam

mjdh1957

Ireland and Scotland are certainly very different.

As it stands I think you have too little time in Ireland and you will have to rush around to do your itinerary. Distances might not seem large but off the motorways average speeds are low and the whole point of doing an itinerary like you suggest is to take it easy and enjoy the scenery.

abram

We spent 35 days in Ireland and Northern Ireland and were advised that a month wasn't enough for France, so I definitely think you are trying to do too much in that time frame.

janisj

Your Ireland bits are essentially two weeks worth. To see the same sort of things in either England or Scotland would be two more week (each) . . . Ten days minimum.

So two weeks in Ireland, 6-8 days for a tiny taste of Scotland, and the rest in England/London (though you'd have to be very selective which areas of England to visit.

Twenty nine days flies by, and IF you mean 29 days total, that is really 26.5 days on the ground . . . And then you lose even more time every ti e you move. So say 22 or 23 dats free seeing and doing.

PalenQ

Then we would like to take the train tunnel from London to Paris>

Don't quite go that far yet - just about 20 miles of actual tunnel - between Folkstone and Calais areas. But high-speed train the whole way. Book that really early to get limited number of deep discounted tickets - www.eurostar.com. But you lose another valuable hour on the clock going to Paris! So you have only maybe 26.49 days!

fuzzbucket

I'd suggest taking the train or flying, instead of driving a car.
The distances are not what you'd expect - over 5 hours by train from Edinburgh to London.

Only 1 hour if you fly.

mnag

With 29 days and your interest in Ireland, England and France I would do a relaxing 10 day trip to each of these countries. I would not add Scotland to the list. We visited Ireland and Scotland on two separate trips 5 years apart. While they are indeed different (I found Scotland to be more rugged) the scenery is not drastically different. I am glad we didn't see both countries on the same trip. Edinburgh is very unique and I enjoyed the architecture. We also visited Glencoe and Skye - lovely dramatic scenery but I would say not too different than what we saw in Dingle, the Northern Irish coast...To give Scotland justice I think you need a little over a week. Having said that I don't see how you can cover all four - Ireland, England, France and Scotland in 29 days unless you start skimming on the other three..

bilboburgler

What sort of wine do you like Champagne (easy train trip), Alsace (a bit further maybe a couple of nights), Burgundy (yep a few days) more time in the train, Bordeaux long train journey (again) Loire relatively close but further than Alsace (a couple of nights or more if you like pretty chateaux) and then all the regions in the south....

play arouind with rome2rio and seat61.com to get an overview and then book tickets (if you want to ) with "capitain train" you may have to claim to be afgani to avoid US pressure to book tickets through a reseller.

PalenQ

with "capitain train" you may have to claim to be afgani to avoid US pressure to book tickets through a reseller.>

Use for France if www.voyages-sncf.com bulks www.thetrainline.com -easier many say to work and same fares and trains. But try SNCF site first - always better to go thru the source if possible and not a re-seller.