Greatest hits family tour
 

Hello!
I need help planning our first major family trip, and from perusing these forums, I see so many experts! I would appreciate any advice. Here is my situation:

My husband and I (both teachers near Toronto) would like to take our three boys on their first plane trip to Europe. The boys will be 9, 12 and 15, no behaviour concerns, all are interested in history and very excited. I have been to Eirope several times in my youth, but the others have not. I was looking at a guided tour (neither one of us is comfortable driving) but would rather plan our own trip with reliable transport. The guided tours offer the security and reliability I crave as a parent, but the prices with three kids are astronomical. Any website/forum suggestions with pre made itineraries would be great, I prefer to know exactly where we are going and have travel and accommodations booked in advance.

Our wish list:
-no car travel, open to bus/train/ferry
-14+ days depending on costs
-Ireland is a must, Scotland and England negotiable
-Giants Causeway and other natural or historic sites preferred
-anytime from July 8 until end of August (must be back in Toronto by end of August.)

Thanks!

Public transit good everywhere but spotty in rural parts of Ireland andn Scotland but if you plan carefully can do. England has a dense system of trains and buses. For lots on buses and trains check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com (check Ireland, UK section of free online European Planning & Rail Guide); www.ricksteves.com.

If in Northern Ireland look into train/bus/ferry links to Scotland.

I wouldn't consider a guided tour. Your boys would be bored to tears in a busload of senior citizens!

This is an easy trip to do on your own. The whole family should be involved in deciding what the most important destinations are. Right now you have a very do-able UK wish list, so I think I would stick with that. But everyone should weigh in on what they most want to see. Get some guidebooks from the library and have everyone read/look at them. I find that photos of places help people decide what is important for them to see.

London is the largest city in Europe and has lots to see and do so don't give London short shrift. If any of your boys are Harry Potter fans, consider a stop at the theme park.

Happy planning!

Guided tours are a terrible idea - you will be the youngest people on most and your kids the only children. The UK is not some scary wild place where you need the 'security of a tour.

One exception would be a short, small group tour (16 passenger van instead of a 45 passenger bus) from Rabbies in Scotland, and to a lesser extent in Ireland.

Are you sure you don't want to/can't drive at least some? Hundreds of thousands of North Americans do every year.

14 days is not very long . . . . Certainly not long enough for three countries, and especially by public transport. If Ireland is your one 'must' then go to JUST Ireland/northern Ireland

For tours, I also suggest Rabbies. I have done a number of tours with them and several have included kids ranging in age from 6 to 18. The kids all seemed to enjoy it, and the idea that tours solely consist of senior citizens is not true of Rabbies. I have always found that the age group on any tour I’ve taken with them has a wide range. I can also highly recommend them. Rabbies operate in Ireland, Scotland and England, but you do not have the time to do all three countries. Here’s their website. www.rabbies.com Have a look and see what captures everyone’s interest, then decide exactly where you want to go and which area to eliminate.

Public transport

N Ireland and Ireland http://www.translink.co.uk/
Britain http://www.traveline.info/

The quality of the data is very good on these apps
less good is rome2rio but it is useable

History probably worth going to Derry Londonderry (note politically correct name of city) and ask to do both the catholic and protestant tours.

I think you will find the more you read the more the puzzle pieces fit together. This link might give you three or four ideas:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/ShowTo...s-Ireland.html

Using public transport is a great way for the kids to learn how to navigate - something useful for their futures. And you can almost always find a local driver, cab or tour agency that can take you on day trips.

McCombs in Belfast does a really fun Game of Thrones tour. We were probably the oldest people on the small bus.

Family of five and going around rural areas I would drive - especially for the isolated West Coast with limited local transportation. Driving is as janis says easy - takes about 5 minutes to get the 'wrong side' of the road driving. Pull right up to hotel or B&Bs (everywhere!) with kids and luggage - really taking trains and buses with a family can be more of a travail than travel.

I've only been to Ireland once when we did a tour by car but looking at that TA report, they were very much into Slow travel and if you want to fit than Ireland into a fortnight, you'll need to move faster than the buses and trains will allow, and as others have said, having your own car is just going to be more convenient.


if you only have 2 weeks, I would suggest a week in Ireland and a week in London - fly into Dublin, spend the next week touring to end at the Giant's Causeway, fly from Belfast to London and end your trip there. you won't run out of things to do in either place.

You can book all your accommodation in advance, indeed that would be a good idea because the time you mention you are running into the UK summer school holiday season so accommodation will be in big demand.

Tara--we did a family trip to England and Scotland in 2016.

If you haven't gotten plane tickets, if at all possible get "open jaw" or "multi-city" tickets, flying into London and out of Dublin or vice versa as you prefer. This saves a travel day from journeying back to your starting point.

I would definitely include London if you can. Two of our three kids really loved London. The third was only okay on it. The Tower of London was quite well liked by all three.

I would not do a full week in London though in part because of the price of lodgings there, especially for a family of 5 (which we are also). We were looking at $300/night pretty consistently. We did not book until a little late--April. Still, I don't think we would have saved a lot of money booking earlier--but we might have gotten a more desirable location. (We were in Chelsea but I wanted a bit closer in and on a less busy street.)

For your London lodgings, you can help yourself by once you have your itinerary set, then picking a cancellable place and getting it reserved. I actually ended up doing this before we had our plane tickets because the dates our family could go were set in stone. I ended up removing one night from my reservation later. We booked an apartment through booking.com Read the fine print especially with any apartment sites. Janis on this site has an apartment suggestion as well to check out but it was booked when I looked at it.

We liked the trains far better than my husband driving. It is not just being on the wrong side of the road, it is being on the wrong side AND the roundabouts. It was stressful. Would I do it again? In part. We wanted to see some parts that weren't easily seen by bus and we did that. But it would have been possible to take a bus or train on a couple more days of our trip, and I wish we had.

>>I would not do a full week in London though in part because of the price of lodgings there, especially for a family of 5 (which we are also). We were looking at $300/night pretty consistently. <<

Not if renting an apartment. There are just scads of flats in the $200-$250/£150-£190 range.

Thanks to everyone who took some time to reply and to post ideas and links. I knew this was the right place to ask! I'm still hoping to convince my husband to try driving, but checking the bus/trains as a back up plan. I'm useless, a very nervous driver.

Has anyone had experience with the Aran islands and landmarks around Galway? They interest me enourmously. I was thinking of getting a place for a few days in the area and exploring. I like the idea of flying into Dublin, travelling around, then up to a Belfast, ferry to Scotland and fly home from there. My husband was hoping to fit in the Tower of London, but I'm worried about time. I think it will have to be London or some sights in Scotland as our last stop.

Thank you so much!
Tara

Just time for a quick comment - if you are set on public transport you need to work out a semi-simplified itinerary since you will be dependent on sometimes infrequent bus schedules in rural areas and/or trains between cities.

Well your boys would probably enjoy Edinburgh as much as London if not more but in that case avoid August like the plague as the Edinburgh festival will fill the whole place up and put the prices up more than you would like. I agree that you can do Ireland and Scotland or Ireland or London but not both.

Really your DH shouldn't worry over much about driving in Ireland. Edinburgh or London yes, Ireland no.

Janis--

Total respect for your guidance on London and I looked up a lot of trip reports before my own that had your advice, but I wanted to clarify.

I checked my reservation itself. We paid $1168 for 4 nights or 863 British Pounds. That comes to $292/night, or essentially $300/night, which is what I said before.

We stayed in Chelsea in late June 2016, for family of 5. I found similar prices when I searched other London apartments through booking.com, airbnb, vrbo, homeaway etc. before making my reservation. Believe me, I didn't want to pay that much and I am capable on a computer. If I turned any down, they looked pretty dicey.

I encouraged the OP to book the London apartment early because I also think she could do better than I did booking in April. Hopefully you are correct that she can find the prices you mention. So that means I am the cautionary tale.

Forgot to mention...

we did get a good price on our flat in Edinburgh, should you end up going to Scotland. We opted to stay off the Royal Mile and stayed in Leith. Really loved this area and this flat was really homey, plenty of room for everyone. Easy walk to the grocery store. There were others in this neighborhood I liked as well.

Here is a link:

https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p427451

Thanks everyone. After a bit of research, and a bit of 'pep talk', my husband has agreed to take the plunge and drive. We're looking at heading over around July 9, returning to Toronto July 26.

We are currently planning the following...any glaring issues??

Fly in to Dublin, stay 2-3 days, see a few sights.
Drive to Galway and use it as a home base for about 5 days. Do Cliffs of Moher, Arran islands, Skellig Michael, and other natural points of interest.
Drive to Belfast for 2-3 nights. Do Giant's Causeway, Titanic museum etc.
Return car to Dublin and grab cheap flight on Ryannair to Edinburgh (this appears faster, cheaper and easier than the ferry??)
2-3 days in Edinburgh, and fly home from Glasgow.

Im currently looking for accommodations or companies (Homeaway had some scary reviews!) like AirBnB that travellers have used successfully. Any advice?

Thanks again!

>>Im currently looking for accommodations or companies (Homeaway had some scary reviews!) like AirBnB that travellers have used successfully. Any advice<<

quick note: Homeaway is the same as airbnb or vrbo. They are merely listing sites so any reviews would not reflect on them but on the specific properties/owners.

>>Return car to Dublin and grab cheap flight on Ryannair to Edinburgh (this appears faster, cheaper and easier than the ferry??)<<

IF you can find a rental with a reasonable-ish fee for returning the car in Belfast (usually the fees for cross-border drops are high) you can fly cheaply from there to EDI.

Hi Tara, I would just like to comment on distances in Ireland since you are thinking of using Galway as a base. You can use a site like https://www.theaa.ie/ (look at route planner in the top right corner) to get an estimate on drive times. Then add 30% more time.

So, trying to get to Skellig Michael as a day trip from Galway would be tough. The drive to Killarney is probably about 4 hours each way, and then you still have to get to Portmagee to get the boat. Unless you can base in Killarney for a couple of nights, I think your Star Wars fans may be disappointed. Not quite the same experience, but there are some cliff walks in Kilkee, and a lighthouse with some pretty cool cliffs in Loop Head that they might like.