Flying from Atlanta to Ireland
 

I would like to visit Galway and am curious as to what flight options are going to be the cheapest -
someone told me to fly in to London and take a bus to Galway - for flights from Atlanta to London are much cheaper than flights from Atlanta to Shannon
Or - would it be cheaper to fly to Washington/Boston and take Aer Lingus to Ireland or just fly Delta to Shannon??
Time is not an issue - connecting flights is not an issue - i'm just looking for a cheaper flight option - Any advice would be much appreciated
Thanks!!

Wow, that must be some bus from London, I mean to cross the Irish Sea.

:-)

What month? and what base price are you using as a starting comparison (Atlanta-Shannon)?

I presume you meant to connect onward to Ireland from London by air.

Calrification would also be useful on whether you have any interest in actually visiting in the London area itself or not.

Best wishes,

Rex

I think the only way to determine that is to spend some time on the websites of the various consolidators. There have been times that flights to either Dublin or Shannon were cheaper than to London. It just depends on how lucky you get.

If flights are cheaper to London, you still have to pay for the RT to Ireland which will run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 + or - from either Gatwick or Heathrow. If you want to fly the really inexpensive flights on Ryanair, you would have to take the bus to Stansted or Luton and have to keep the price of the bus trip in mind, not to mention the hassle. If you did that, you would also have to deal with the hassle of the feasibly very long bus ride and you would want to allow plenty of time to make the flights. If you miss them, you lose from what I understand.

Again, I think you'll just have to start plugging info into some websites.

Bill

As several of us told you three months ago when you were asking about flying into Galway, your best bet is a non-stop flight to Shannon followed by a short bus ride to Galway. You may be able to save $50 going to London, but transferring from Gatwick to Stansted or Luton is just not worth it, imo. However, if you are determined to fly into Galway, get to London, transfer to Luton and fly Aer Arann to Galway.

Given the fact that you live in Atlanta and have access to low-cost airlines, I would definitely choose the connect in BWI or Boston route. Best prices depend on time of year and flexibility. Aer Lingus and USAir are running good deals with USAir leaving out of Philadelphia. Just keep checking the websites for deals and AJC in the budget travel section on-line. Shannon is where you want to land to get to Galway, so don't do Dooblean:) Have fun

The bus from London to Galway takes 15-16 hrs (overnight both ways) and costs £68 return: you actually have to change in Dublin. The flight takes about 2 hours and costs about £80 return, depending on the time of day and what Aer Arann is doing with its fares. On top of that you have the time and cost of getting to Victoria bus station or Luton airport from your intercontinental hub.

Whether this works out cheaper than flying direct to Ireland only you can calculate. If it IS cheaper, we should salute your moral fibre: spending two successive nights travelling to save $50-$100 is serious dedication.