Help w/ Logistics Please: Dublin to Bath, Gloucester, Cotswolds, Wales ...
 

I’m trying to work out logistics and I’m not sure if I’ve got my itinerary in the best order—or if I’ve chosen the best airports.

Here’s the plan …

When we leave Ireland we’ll drive from Belfast to return the rental car to Dublin because the cost of returning the car as a “one-way” rental to Belfast is prohibitive.

Fly RyanAir from Dublin to Bristol. (More about this below *)
Rent car at Bristol airport – then drive to Bath for two nights.

From Bath … drive to a base near Gloucester or Cheltenham for day trips to Oxford, Stratford-on-Avon, and the Cotswolds villages. We’ll be visiting someone in Gloucester 2 or 3 times – so need to stay pretty close to there. (Still looking for a quaint, traditional self-catering cottage.)

From Gloucester drive to Harlech in Wales. Seems to be about 3-1/2 hour drive. Depending on how we feel, we might stop en route for a night in Shrewsbury.

From Harlech we’ll drive to Liverpool. When we’re through in Liverpool we’ll return the rental car to the Manchester airport—and fly to the U.S. from there.

* I’m a little concerned about the negative comments about RyanAir—but it seems to be the only carrier that flies Dublin to Bristol without hours of layovers. Would we be better off flying Aer Arann to Cardiff?

Or … should we be doing these stops in a different order? If so, we might be flying into a different airport.

Your thoughts will be much appreciated!

RyanAir is fine as long as you understand the fare rules. They are a low cost no frills airlines. Their seats are not the biggest - but your flight will likely only be hour.

Just make sure you weight your bags to meet their size and weight requirements. They are not flexible AT ALL. They will likely weigh your hand luggage as well - be sure you are comfortable with their rules (i.e. womans purse must fit in the carry-on and still fit in their size limits) as again, they are not flexible at all.

Also when you look at flight prices, follow the transaction all the way through to teh end as they charge for all extras - baggage, extra weight baggage etc...

They also dont assign seats, but for such a short flight it may not be a big deal if you dont get to sit together...up to you.

If you are comfortable with all of that then there should be a problem.

I've flown them many times with no issues - however we weigh all our bags very carefully before heading to the airport. They have been on time for all my flights (knock on wood). They are definitely not my first choice, but if their fare is significantly cheaper we do book with them. We are flying to Genoa in May with them.

Hope this helps!

That should read - shouldnt be a problem.

I would price up both the Ryan Air flight, including all the extra fees they charge against the flight to Cardiff. Aer Lingus also fly to Cardiff and may also be cheap.
Go through the full booking process right up until they ask for you money to find out exactly how much each flight costs. It has been shown that it is often cheaper to fly a legacy airline rather than Ryan Air now because of all their hidden extras.
Aer Arann also fly to Gloucester btw.

Of your itinerary, I've only gone from Dublin to Bath. We took the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead. It was in the middle of a trip to Ireland and then on to England. The 'down time' was very helpful although we didn't even think about that when we made our booking. We travelled by train to Chester and then rented a car to do the Cotswalds, Stratford, the potteries and on to Bath.

I've just noticed that the Cardiff airport is quite a ways south of Cardiff. It would add an additional hour of driving time to Bath. I think I'll be taking my chances on RyanAir. Unfortunately, because of the business portion of the trip I'll be toting quite a bit of luggage--so I will check all the fees and limits.

If I were simply vacationing, I'd manage it all with carry-on. I've become quite the expert. My crowning glory came when I did 4 days in Rome, followed by a 10 day cruise--with nothing but carry-on!

After having all my luggage disappear on an international flight--I learned how very little I really needed. I bought a few items and kept waiting for my luggage to be found. That was wenty years ago--and I'm still waiting;-) But it was a wonderful lesson.

Did you look at Aer Arrann to Gloucester?

Are you set on staying over in Bath?

You might consider flying into Birmingham and traveling directly to your base near Gloucester. Bath is a VERY easy day trip from the Gloucester/Cheltenham area.

That would be an convenient base for all of the Cotswolds, Bath, Wells/Glastonbury, South Wales, etc . . . .

Aer Arann DOESN'T fly to Gloucester. Or at least not when any tourist in his or her right mind would want to be within 25 miles of the place.

They operate scheduled flights from Dublin into the local airport during the Cheltenham Spring Racing Festival, when most of the population of Ireland migrates to Cheltenham:

a) to avoid the American tourists in Ireland for something they call "Patty's Day"
b) to watch their horses run those trained in Britain or France into the ground

AA also operates unscheduled flights into the airport during the other Cheltenham race meetings. Driving around the area is impossible during them. There are no other AA flights, though you can fly to the Isle of Man from most Irish airports, whence there's a flight or so a day to Gloucester.

The only real alternative in the area to Ryanair is Aer Lingus from Dublin to Birmingham. Its baggage rules aren't that different from Ryanair (its service is a lot nicer though, but most of this anti-Ryanair posturing is just silly. It's only an hour's flight, so what does it matter if the airliine's run by a loudmouth megalomaniac with a no-nonsense approach to all this customer service claptrap?) If baggage is a real issue, try BMI to Heathrow, though it was a lot pricier than Air Fungus last time I looked.

If you want to start in Bath, LHR's not that trickier than Bristol or Birmingham to fly into.

hi songdoc...

As I have written in previous posts on your threads, I live just a few miles south of Gloucester / Cheltenham, and approx 30 miles north of Bath. I fly out of both Bristol and Birmingham, but usually Bristol.

RyanAir flights Dublin-Bristol are great, only about 50 minutes. Yes, you do have to pay attention to their terms and conditions, and make sure your baggage is within their allowances, and err of the side of caution as your scales may not be as 'accurate' as theirs! With regard to time/delays, I've never had one more than 30 mins, and that was well away from Dublin or Bristol.

And if it's Bath you are set on then as flanner says, flying Dublin-Heathrow is pretty much as quick and easy, if not more so regarding the driving.

Anyway, I don't remember what time of year you are coming but seem to think it's in the spring months? It might be easier to rent a cottage somewhere near Gloucester for a full week and as janis suggests do day trips to Bath - it is really only 40 mins or so to the racecourse Park & Ride from here.

I can't really help you with cottage rentals but there are plenty of posts here about those. Or you can google 'Tourist Information' followed by the name of the town/village you are thinking of, like Painswick, Minchinhampton, Upton St Leonards.

And if it's off-the-beaten track Cotswold villages you might like to see, then let me know, and we could have a mini Fodors GTG somehwere!

PS

Let me know your approximate dates because then...

...I'll go into the TIC in Stroud tomorrow in my lunchbreak and see what S/C cottages are available between here and Gloucester for your dates.

With luck (and time permitting) I'll post back to you in the next few days.

OK, just looked back, and see it's the first week in March.

Just been googling local holiday cottage rentals and come up with these...

http://www.dovecottagebisley.co.uk/

http://www.cotswoldretreats.co.uk/co...e-cottage.html

Personally I think Bisley is glorious, a typical traditional Cotswold village, yet one that is off the tourist track. you can be in Gloucester or Cheltenham within 30 minutes. Bath is probably 40-50 minutes, Oxford takes nearer 90 minutes these days. Stratford/Warwick the same sort of time, and towns like Stow on the Wold, Bourton on the Water. the Slaughters around 1 hour.

In the same sort of area are (and all in gorgeous locations) the following small cottages...

http://www.cottageguide.co.uk/twopillars/

http://www.westleyfarm.co.uk/

http://www.mrsite.co.uk/usersitesv16...root/index.htm

So hope this helps you a bit.

Here's my reasoning for beginning in Bath -- and staying over ...

The aaireland.ie website lists the driving time from Gloucester to Bath as almost an hour each way (fifty-seven minutes). We figured that rather than spend an hour or more driving from the Bristol or Birmingham airport to Gloucester -- PLUS two hours driving (RT) on a day trip from Gloucester to Bath ... if we flew into Bristol we'd already be quite close to Bath -- 31 minutes per the website.

We wouldn't arrive until late afternoon so we thought we'd spend the night, tour the following day, and then drive to Gloucester. Net driving savings: 1-1/2 hours :-)

The aa website states that the drive from Heathrow to Bath would be 2 hours and 6 minutes. That's too far if I can land in Bristol and only drive 30 minutes. Birmingham airport to Gloucester is listed as 1:13 -- and Bristol to Gloucester is :57 so either of those would work -- if I don't start in Bath.

I do hope this makes at least a bit of sense!

Julia -- thank you SO much for your help. I didn't know the names of any of those little villages. I'd been looking for cottages in Cheltenham and Gloucester -- and not finding anything that fit the requirements of: a rural, pretty setting; traditional & quaint; and fireplace. I'll start looking online and see what I can find.

The AA Ireland site's been on the Guinness again.

There's no way on earth you'll get from BRS to anywhere remotely near Bath in 30 mins.

Just look at where the airport is on the map. Then remember you can scarcely cross a street in Bath in half an hour.

If you have anything near normal luggage RyanAir will be HUGE problem. Their total limit is about the equivalent of a full gym bag. Have a realistic idea of the weight of your luggage (including purse etc) when deciding how to proceed.

Julia -- Apparently, I was posting at the same time as you. Bisley looks PERFECT. Thank you SO much!!

When I come up for air I will do a practice run of packing and will weigh my luggage before locking in flights. Thank you for the advice.

If the distance listed from Bristol to Bath is so far off ... it makes me wonder if all the timings are equally wrong on that website.

I do think it's terribly inconsiderate to situate the places I'd like to visit so far apart as I'm not very fond of driving ;-)

This is not a "once-in-a-lifetime" kind of a trip -- so I might not cram everything in if it feels as if I'm spending too much time behind the wheel.

Again, thank you all so much.

"<i>If the distance listed from Bristol to Bath is so far off ... it makes me wonder if all the timings are equally wrong on that website.</i>"

Not just THAT website, but any drive time calculators . . . The times are almost w/o exception very optimistic.

Most visitors should add 30%-40% or more to the times. And that is w/o any traffic tie ups or construction/roadworks.

"Not just THAT website, but any drive time calculators"

It's more subtle than that.

First, a huge proportion of any driving time that involves a historic city is taken up in finding where you want to be, then finding somewhere to park. If you're unfamiliar with the place, but want to be in the centre, my rule of thumb is 45 minutes each time.

Second, routes that are all-dual carriageway (like LHR to the Bath turnoff on the M4, or BHX to Gloucester)are generally calculated pretty well by the engines: though they assume no major traffic problems, they also assume you'll be driving much more slowly than most of do. Cross country routes on minor roads, though, completely flummox the machines. Traffic problems are a total certainty, route finding is rarely as easy as you might imagine, and most now have near-ubiquitous and camera-controlled 50 mph limits.

So getting to a central Bath hotel from LHR really won't take much longer than getting there from BRS. The spurious precision of these engines blinds you to the fact that they're spuriously precise about just one - and often the least time-consuming - element in getting from a plane to the inside of a cottage or hotrel.

Add to all that, though, the fact that driving in the Cotswolds isn't downtime and distances are actually pretty short. So having one base is usually the wisest thing, even if it sometimes means doubling back on yourself

Thought you'd all want the update ...

I weighed and measured my luggage and amazingly, don't think I'll have any trouble meeting RyanAir's limits -- even with the materials I'll be carrying for the programs I'll be teaching. That's the good news.

The bad news: that lovely cottage in Bisley that Julia recommended -- and I had my heart set on -- was already booked. :-( But wait! I found an even better one!!! And that one was booked, too. Grrr...

I didn't expect that for dates in early March. So ... I'm still looking for that perfect, quaint cottage, in a beautiful rural setting, with an open fire ... with easy access to Gloucester.

We're now on the fence about stopping first for an overnight in Bath. I sent two inquiries to the Marlborough House and haven't heard back. Might be a sign.

If we don't start in Bath, (and instead, do it as a day trip), the decision about which airport to fly into will be based on the location of the cottage.

Many thanks to all who've been so helpful. Hope you're enjoying the holiday season.