Ireland, England, Wales in 3 weeks
 

As some of you know, my friend is getting married in the Killarney area next July. My husband and I are going to make a 3-week vacation out of it. Originally, we wanted to do just Ireland, but my hubby REALLY wants to go to England as well. I have never been. He has, but not to Wales, which he is really interested in. Is the follwoing rough itinerary possible?

FLY INTO SHANNON

Cliffs, Burren, Aran Islands, south to explore Dingle Pen. (3 days)

Drive to Killarney area, wedding, Nat'l Park, Dunloe, Beara Pen (5 days)

Kinsale, Cahir, Cashel, Glendalough (3 days)

FLY FROM DUBLIN TO LONDON

London (3 days)

Heart of England (3 days)

Wales (3 days)

FLY HOME FROM LONDON

That seems very doable. One thing you might consider is taking the ferry from Dublin to Wales and working your way to London where flight home will be. We did a similar trip in the reverse order, spending a few days in London, a couple in Bath, one in the Cotswolds, and a few in Wales, then took ferry from Holyhead to Dublin.

I did not realize there was a ferry. It actually makes more sense to go to Wales first and make our way to London.

This may seem like a stupid question, but can we bring the car we rent in Ireland to England on the ferry? Or, should we rent one in Wales? Where would we do that?

Thanks!

The web site is a bit confusing, but you can google ireland wales ferry. It's Stenaline. You definitely want the "Swift Ferry," which takes less than two hours. The "cruise ferry" takes between 3 and 4 hours. I think cars can go on either, but don't know about rental rules/cost, etc...

I checked on the ferries, and I was floored by how expensive the fares were! 240 euros is a bit above our budget. I looked on the ryan air website and flying from Dublin to Cardiff is MUCH cheaper! That is probably what we will end up doing. I wonder why they charge so much?

I personally don't think taking (and paying for) a car on the ferry is a very good idea. If you lived there and it was your own car it would make some sense because you would not need to rent a car. Plus very few rental if any companies would allow you to pick up a car in Ireland and leave it in England. If the ferry sounds like something you want to do - then just go on foot and rent a car once you land in Wales.

What do you mean by "Heart of England"? I know what the British tourist authority means by that - but what do you mean? In other words - where do you hope to tour over those three days?

Three days is not really long enough to get even a brief overview of London. Are you "city people" and want to take in many of the sights and events in London? If so, a minimum of 5 or 6 days is needed to even scratch the surface. getting around London is easy - but very time consuming. Even on a dead run you can only hope to average 2 or 3 major sites a daye.

If you don't want to cut any time off Ireland, then I'd do 2 or 3 days in North Wales, maybe one night in Bath or in the Cotswolds and spend the rest in London.

(If you were to cut the days in Ireland back to 8 or 9 then you'd have more time to see more of England.)

Check out www.ryanair.com and airwales.com

Both have budget airfares from Dublin to Cardiff (Under 50 euro with taxes one way). AirWales also goes to Swansea.

Or if you are going to see N. Wales, Ryan air to Liverpool might be better. Agree that 3 days in London isn't enough to see very much, but you can see some interesting things. I would bet though you could do the Kinsale/Cahir-Cashel/Glendalough section in 2 days, if you really needed to find an extra day. Rushed, but doable. I'd do the village-country stuff in Ireland and the city thing in England.

ilovelabs: I was posting the same time you were - the reason the fare is so expensive is because taking cars on ferries is VERY expensive. If you were just going as foot passengers the fares would usually be a fraction of that amount.

Flying is very cheap if you book far enough ahead.

It's Irish Ferries I was thinking of. The ferry we took was the Dublin Swift. Fares for foot passengers are 34-38 euros. When comparing with flying, it depends on where you want to be in Wales. If south, it probably makes more sense to fly into Cardiff (no idea of air fares). But if you want to see North Wales (which is spectacular, by the way), then ferry to Holyhead would put you right where you want to be.

I've taken rental cars on ferries, but only with the UK (from or to Northern Ireland from England and Scotland).

Rental companies do allow their cars on ferries, but I discovered something interesting: the car typically is not insured while it is on the ferry. While it's very unlikely that something would happen (ferry sinking), it does make you think twice about it.

Like the others, my advice would be to fly or go on the ferry as foot passengers.

Fly into Manchester from Ireland. Pick up car for time in North Wales and England. Drop off car somewhere?? and take the train into London for your last days before flying out.

Just a thought!

So LoverofLabs, no Paris trip? I'm just being nozy.

No, we decided not do Paris only b/c my husband really wants to get back to England. He really fell in love with the country when he was at Oxford for his semester abroad. He has not been in several years, and we just went to Paris in April. We definitely plan to return though!