Heather

Four of us are planning a fly/drive/B&B vacation to Ireland for late March - 7 nights. Trip includes B&B vouchers. Has anyone used these? Are they worth buying? Also our trip plan is to go into Shannon and drive and leave from Dublin. Hopefully visiting Galway/Clare/Kerry/Cork/Waterford/Wicklow into Dublin. Any suggestions?

Kathleen

With only seven nights, you might have to give up a couple areas. The day you land you could see the Cliffs of Moher and maybe the Burren, then stay in Doolin for the music, or back to Bunratty for the banquet. Then head to Kerry for a couple nights--Killarney is a good base (though I prefer Dingle), then maybe one night in Cork, then one night in Waterford or Kilkenny, then the last couple nights in Dublin. <BR>Keep in mind that driving over there you average about 35mph (they don't have any superhighways!), and you will be spending a lot of time in the car with this schedule.<BR>Alternatively, you could head to Galway (with a stop at the Cliffs), see a bit of Connemara, the thru Althlone with a stop at Clonmacnoise, to the Boyne valley (Newgrange, etc), and then Dublin. <BR>If you move every night, you'll spend most of your time in the car, so try to stay a couple nights when possible.<BR>I haven't used vouchers before, I've heard that they're actually more expensive in the long run, plus your choices are limited--but then again I'm pretty choisy about where I stay and prefer quirky offbeat places.

Shadow

Heather-to help you I first have a few questions and some advice:<BR>1) How much is the package?<BR>2) Keep in mind it will be dark early-<BR> so you will want to reach your <BR> evening destination by 4:00-5:00pm.<BR>3) It will be pretty cool this time of <BR> year (I prefer summer for this <BR> reason-'cuz I don't like cold <BR> weather!)<BR>4) Flying into Shannon and out of Dublin<BR> is a good idea-you won't waste time<BR> that way.<BR>5) The average price for a nice B&B is<BR> anywhere from 23-25 Irish Punts per <BR> person (a few really special ones are<BR> a bit more, manor homes are more <BR> again). That is what you would pay <BR> without the vouchers.<BR>So, let us know what the package costs and we can see if it is cheaper than doing this on your own. <BR>You will love Ireland!!<BR>Shadow

steve

Went to Ireland in March in 2000. Weather was very nice - frankly, as good as i imaginge it would be in summer. It just depends on your luck as it could have been wet and miserable.<BR><BR>I don't see any problem with yoiur itnerary. We went from dublin across to the west and back in a week and didn't feel like we were rushing at all.<BR><BR>Since tours are priced per person, you might be overpaying a little for the car portion of the trip and you might want to compare the price of doing it yourself, keeping in mind that B&B's are about $25 person. My guess is that you will have plenty of selection on b&b's and the package deal is as good as you can get

Marcia

Heather;<BR> We recently returned from a trip to Ireland using an airfare/rental car/B&B package. I too thought it would be less restricting and cheaper not to have the B&B vouchers. However, the tour company could not give us the reduced air fare without the B&B's. So we just got a voucher for one night. It worked out great. Almost all the places we stayed in would have accepted a voucher, but we did save a little bit at each one. Have a great trip.

rebecca

Heather-<BR>I just got back a couple days from the same deal.<BR>We got a geat deal on this package from Sceptre. After upgrade to auto car and "towne and Country" B&B's we paid $500 per person.<BR>The cars is small- are you going to do 2 cars or one larger car?? They upgraded us to a Toyota Corolla- too small for 4 AND luggage (thinks me).<BR>We flew into Shannon and left from Dublin, too. We stayed in Doolin, Dingle, Kenmare, Kinsale, Kilkenny and Dublin. It was not too much driving but not enough daylight. If I had it all over to do I would fly in & out of Shannon - go to Galway, Doolin (famous for it's traditional music), Dingle, maybe Kenmare, and Killarney lakes and leave from Shannon again. My Boyfriend and I drive ALOT - Sometimes we'll do 800 miles a weekend at home(long New England drives). We did only 700 miles and thought it was too much to really spend time in town because we didn't want to really drive at night. The roads can be extremely dark and they really are skinny as hell. We've driven lots of times in Italy, Carribean, etc.<BR>It's not that the drivers are nuts, it's just the roads can barely fit two cars. <BR> We had a GREAT time but had to keep up the pace to stay on schedule- and we dropped Galway from the plan and try to see it next time. Also we did not get upo at the crack of dawn! If you are not going to be in the pubs till closing and can get on the road a couple hours before we could (about 9-10 am)you might not feel rushed at all.<BR> Waterford isn't too much to see. Two places people referredme to places there that both became dollar (pound) stores.<BR><BR>Regarding the prices- a couple of the B&B's that we stayed at were about $45 punts a night per person. We felt the we really got our money's worth.<BR>well- sorry this is so long!<BR><BR>Rebecca

maureen

I have used b&B vouchers in Ireland, and I thought the pacakge deal was the best around. I liked the convenience of having my accommodations prepaid, not worrying about getting to the ATM each day for cash. Many B&B's do not take credit cards, so the vouchers helped.<BR><BR>I used Lynott Tours. They had programs for b&B's, hotels, many houses, etc. You could buy vouchers for any type of accommodations.<BR><BR>As someone else said, the airfare was also cheaper by buying a package.

Carol

We just booked our honeymoon for next September..We're doing the fly/drive/ b&b thing as well.9/16/02--10/1/02..<BR>We're flying from Boston, into Shannon, but; out of Dublin,have an automatic car ( toyota corolla), the cdw on the car, 6 nites town & Country b&b's $684 per person....<BR>I've looked at every possible tour operator you can imagine, & this was by far the best deal I could find.<BR>Sceptre quoted us over $2k for the same package at the same time..<BR>Good Luck..It's all about research..<BR>Oh, contact the Irish Tourist Board for info, they'll send you the Town & Country b&b Guide..It's awesome

Barb

I would suggest flying into Shannon and then leave from Dublin. You can see most of Dublin in two days. We stayed at the Heaton's Guesthouse in Dingle - the mosy incredibly beautiful drive. Be careful about stray sheep I almost killed one coming around a corner. Galway we stayed at the Jury's Inn which is overlooking the bay in Galway and is very well situated to most of the shopping, pubs and restaurants in Galway. Dublin we stayed at a Guesthouse just off the Green. We had a two bedroom twonhouse that was big, modern and had a kitchen. You'll love Ireland. I'm headed there over New Years.

Don

www.oconnors.com usually have airline specials highlighted, as well as package tours in cooperation with Sceptre.