Ireland Costs
Feb 12th, 2007, 08:23 AM
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Ireland Costs
Hi All,
This is a VERY general question, but here goes. I am planning on surprising my husband with a trip to Ireland for his birthday in September. I wouldn't plan the whole thing until I "give" it to him, as I want his input. But I want to know how much to save. In general, let's say we're going for 2 weeks, staying at B&Bs, renting a car, flying from NYC. Approx how much do you think I should plan on saving? We would do tours, etc. but nothing super fancy. Thoughts? Thanks a million!
This is a VERY general question, but here goes. I am planning on surprising my husband with a trip to Ireland for his birthday in September. I wouldn't plan the whole thing until I "give" it to him, as I want his input. But I want to know how much to save. In general, let's say we're going for 2 weeks, staying at B&Bs, renting a car, flying from NYC. Approx how much do you think I should plan on saving? We would do tours, etc. but nothing super fancy. Thoughts? Thanks a million!
Feb 12th, 2007, 09:44 AM
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Here's a link to a rough accounting of trip costs for a one week self-catering visit in April of 2006.
Hope it helps.
http://p104.ezboard.com/feuropetogof...icID=112.topic
Bob
Hope it helps.
http://p104.ezboard.com/feuropetogof...icID=112.topic
Bob
Feb 12th, 2007, 09:45 AM
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Go onto Orbitz.com and put in the dates of your flight to get a price on that. Same thing with the hotels.
Depending on where you want to go in Ireland, the price of the hotels and B&B's can change dramatically. In the countryside, I saw decent B&B's for 35Euros per person. In Dublin, I'm find most of the places I would stay no less than 135Euros per night and that's a "budget" hotel.
As for renting a car, are you going to need insurance? Will your Visa or M/C cover Ireland and even if the credit card does, will the car rental agency in Ireland take it the day you rent the car? Plan for no and hope for yes. Can you drive a manual? Better yet, can you drive a manual with your left hand while driving on the "wrong" side of the road and feel safe for you and those on the road with you? Manual cars are much less expensive. Can you feel comfortable with a small car (compared to US sizes)?
Have fun ! I'm in the midst of planning a trip with 7 other family members for July....the price of airfare seems outrageous at $780 from Boston with ALingus, but its a nonstop.
T.
Depending on where you want to go in Ireland, the price of the hotels and B&B's can change dramatically. In the countryside, I saw decent B&B's for 35Euros per person. In Dublin, I'm find most of the places I would stay no less than 135Euros per night and that's a "budget" hotel.
As for renting a car, are you going to need insurance? Will your Visa or M/C cover Ireland and even if the credit card does, will the car rental agency in Ireland take it the day you rent the car? Plan for no and hope for yes. Can you drive a manual? Better yet, can you drive a manual with your left hand while driving on the "wrong" side of the road and feel safe for you and those on the road with you? Manual cars are much less expensive. Can you feel comfortable with a small car (compared to US sizes)?
Have fun ! I'm in the midst of planning a trip with 7 other family members for July....the price of airfare seems outrageous at $780 from Boston with ALingus, but its a nonstop.
T.
Feb 12th, 2007, 11:15 AM
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I just took a quick look at Aer Lingus. RT is running about $570.
Car rental can be pretty outrageous and the cost of an automatic is about 2x the cost of a stick. Cost for the rental car will start at about $220 for the samllest thing they have (for about 2 weeks) and then you start adding on insurance. Very few credit cards cover car rental in Ireland. Some wrold MC, and most Business MC do. Diners Club may still be covering. Visa does not cover at all. The cost of bring the deductible to $0 can be pretty high using the renatl company's insurance. Kemwel had the starting price for roughly 2 weeks at $202 and $306 with insurance which has approx $1100 deductible. They don't quote the super CDW price. An automatic starts at $408.
tmt had pretty accurate prices for rooms. Besides rooms, there are general costs of dining and pints of Guinness. Pints were about E3.5o in the country and over 4 in Dublin. Entrees in pubs and restaurants run from about E10 up.
Most of the sites aren't terribly expensive and you can get a Heritage card that can get you into all the places covered in the system for about E20 (last I checked).
Rough estimate on airline+car+rooms is about $1350 per person based on what I just gave you. The car can bring that up quite a bit depending on what you need.
Bill
Car rental can be pretty outrageous and the cost of an automatic is about 2x the cost of a stick. Cost for the rental car will start at about $220 for the samllest thing they have (for about 2 weeks) and then you start adding on insurance. Very few credit cards cover car rental in Ireland. Some wrold MC, and most Business MC do. Diners Club may still be covering. Visa does not cover at all. The cost of bring the deductible to $0 can be pretty high using the renatl company's insurance. Kemwel had the starting price for roughly 2 weeks at $202 and $306 with insurance which has approx $1100 deductible. They don't quote the super CDW price. An automatic starts at $408.
tmt had pretty accurate prices for rooms. Besides rooms, there are general costs of dining and pints of Guinness. Pints were about E3.5o in the country and over 4 in Dublin. Entrees in pubs and restaurants run from about E10 up.
Most of the sites aren't terribly expensive and you can get a Heritage card that can get you into all the places covered in the system for about E20 (last I checked).
Rough estimate on airline+car+rooms is about $1350 per person based on what I just gave you. The car can bring that up quite a bit depending on what you need.
Bill
Feb 12th, 2007, 05:32 PM
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The Heritage card is currently listed as E21.00 and can pay for itself pretty quickly depending on your plans and interests in the sites.
http://www.heritageireland.ie/
I know you didn't ask for a cheapskates guide to Ireland, but http://www.cultureheritageireland.com also has discounts and might save you a few bucks. Their site says they are updating for 2007, but an example of previous discounts can be found by following the links down the lefthand side.
(I can't comment on them, as I haven't used these yet)
I figure if it's something I'm going to do anyway, if I can do if for a discount, all the better for me
Also, don't forget about the exchange rate, especially if you plan a few days in Northern Ireland, which doesn't use the Euro. I'm not discouraging it, but it's something to keep in mind.
http://www.heritageireland.ie/
I know you didn't ask for a cheapskates guide to Ireland, but http://www.cultureheritageireland.com also has discounts and might save you a few bucks. Their site says they are updating for 2007, but an example of previous discounts can be found by following the links down the lefthand side.
(I can't comment on them, as I haven't used these yet)
I figure if it's something I'm going to do anyway, if I can do if for a discount, all the better for me
Also, don't forget about the exchange rate, especially if you plan a few days in Northern Ireland, which doesn't use the Euro. I'm not discouraging it, but it's something to keep in mind.
Feb 15th, 2007, 09:36 AM
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I budgeted around 100 E/night for B&Bs. Some places (like in Dublin) were more expensive but other places were cheaper and that was a roughly accurate amount per day. We generally spent around 100 E/day for two people on food --- breakfast was at the B&B, lunch usually cost around 30 E at a pub and for dinner and drinks, we would spend about 70 E. I think you could definitely do food cheaper if you just ate pub food. Automatic rental car for 9 days cost us about 300 E (but we did not buy insurance b/c our credit card covered).
