carolynf

Probably a popular question but I'll give it a shot...we are planning a 7 day trip to Europe the first week in October. We will be flying from New York. The definite part is 3-4 days based in Dublin, staying at the Merrion, visiting family, etc. The other 3-4 days, however, are up in the air. I've been to Austria/Switzerland and we (husband and I) went to Paris last year, so want to try somewhere new, preferably within a 2.5 hour or so flight from Dublin and then we would fly back to NY from there (or vice versa, we could do Ireland second). I was thinking of London but I didn't love it when I was there 10 years ago. I priced out a trip to London/Dublin, including airfare, rental car in Ireland, 4 nights at the Merrion, 3 nights at the Ritz London for $3500. Ideally, we'd like to spend $3000 on hotel, car and air. We are around 30 years old, no kids yet, interested in some laid back sightseeing, food, drinks. We would want to base ourselves somewhere where we could keep occupied for 2 days and then maybe one day trip. Thanks for your input.

GeoffHamer

There are less expensive hotels than the Ritz in London.

amyb

Why not see more of Ireland than just Dublin. The west coast is beautiful.

carolynf

We will be seeing more in Ireland than just Dublin. We are simply basing ourselves there because that is where the majority of my younger cousins live. We will also be visiting family in Waterford. I have been to Ireland several times and my husband has not, so we will be doing short trips while we are there. I would love to repeat my last trip, flying into Shannon and then staying in Galway, Killarney, Waterford and ending in Dublin, but unfortunately time does not allow. I am more concerned with the second part of our trip. Thanks for the replies.

cailin

I would also recommend that you stay in Ireland - you could fly to Kerry and stay somewhere like the Sheen Falls Lodge. You can't really get to see a lot of the country doing day trips from Dublin and, if you haven't been to Kerry before, I'd highly recommend it.

Otherwise, if you're intent on doing another country...how about Barcelona or Madrid? or perhaps Edinburgh, or Copenhagen or Amsterdam ...there are endless opportunities!

Clifton

Part of the equation here might be which airline you're likely to fly with on the trans-atlantic (or where ever you're originating) portion of your flight. Say, if you're home city is served by American and partners, the list of cities you can fly open jaw from affordably may be different than if you're flying United's group. We've usually flown AA partners, so AerLingus have worked well with British Air, and their serviced cities, along with AA's.

Either way, I'd choose a budget airline to get between Dublin and the departure city. See this list to get a list of budget airlines flying out of Dublin and where they go:

http://www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?from=DUB

I can't speak for that many places in Europe. So many left to see. Personally I'd recommend Budapest as it's the place right now we most look forward to returning to. It's almost 3 hrs though on a low cost AerLingus flight.

carolynf

Clifton, thanks for that website. Now that I am thinking about it more, I am considering Amsterdam for the second half of the trip. On that website, Aer Lingus has four direct flights per day to Amsterdam for 44 Euros per person.