sueciv

Consider an apartment for your trip to Paris. (More space than a hotel, usually a small kitchenette and per nite considerably less than a hotel). OK, no maid service, but you won't have to tip them AND you can sleep in without them knocking on the door at 10 am. You can eat in for breakfast, maybe even dinner or two. Don't think Paris Hotels give you breakfast...all too often they add on 10 Euro' (or more). For discussion purposes only, say the exchange rate of $1.00 = 1.40E is in affect, you want pay $14 +/- for Breakfast? You could use your valuable Euro's for GREAT lunches at the fine restaurant's you've searched out. I have eaten some pretty darned good dinners for about $30 2 courses with a small pitchet of wine...when you're ready for dinner, take your stroll and read the menu's posted outside. EVERYONE does that...
Since they have recently (like this week) prettied up the around the Republic (11th I think), I can recommend the hotel Lyon-Mulhouse (on Beaumarchais Blvd, as I recall). Someone inquired on a Paris Hotel search was questioning hotels, so I googled them to see what they are now. I found a double for 89E's..or about $125 (Our double room was really large and a nice more than adequate bath, not so small but not great huge either). Lots of great restaurants around. The Republique is a GREAT hub for the metro's to get you out and about to the other areas of Paris that you will have researched and want to visit.. Things to see in that area, Place de Vosge for interesting off-beat shopping, the Pompidue, the free Carnavalet (museum of Paris history..wonderful afternoon..)

Luisah

My Dublin top three

Trinity College -- Book of Kells

National Museum, reputedly one of the best archeological museums in Europe

Kilmainham Gaol

St Stephen's Green is a park that you can walk through on your way to/from your hotel to the center to get to Trinity and the museum on Kildare St nearby.

Food in Ireland is not bad, the soups, especially fish, are very good, salmon and lamb are good there too.

Since you have so little time in Dublin I wouldn't waste it on shopping. Shopping is good in Killarney and at the Blarney Woolen Mills at the castle. There is a wide assortment of Irish goods there.

Paris: If you're not art lovers I would skip the Louvre, but do make a visit to the Musee d'Orsay, you might be surprised when you see some of the impressionist paintings.

Good luck with your planning. Get books from the library or visit a book store, pore over maps to get a better of idea of pacing.

alanRow

<i> I think you can put US to Dublin, Dublin to London Gatwick, and Paris to US via Dublin on one ticket that will cost less than you are now looking at. </i>

I wouldn't book Ireland-UK as part of the main ticket, plenty of flights every day to several London airports.

<i>In Dublin you are missing IMHO the most important sights in Ireland - the Book of Kells at Trinity.</i>

The Celtic gold in the National Museum is pretty impressive

WhatAreWeWaitingFor

Wow, thanks for all the great info. I dot think an apartment would be right for us this trip. The hotel know formerly Lyon Mulhouse looks to be very high end but is also $400 a night which is way above what we could get.

Im not sure if the group walks are our thing for vacations either. My wife and I like to have our personal time and own schedule in case we see some random off the way place to stop and we have the flexibility to blow our carefully planned itinerary away if we feel like it.. I'll be looking for an online map of attractions where I can scope out the best on-the-way paths to walk around the city but if anyone has any good links, feel free to share!

The Guinness warehouse does sound like a bit of an overpriced tourist trap... But it doesn't mean we won't do it although we may choose to just relax at a pub with our own pints.

As for the flights, adding the Ireland to London flight raises the cost by almost $200 per ticket. Ryan Air and Aer Lingus are the way to go for that flight cost wise from what I can tell.

Tony2phones

As said above just be aware of Baggage allowance/weight/size/charges on Aer Lingus regional (Aer Arann) and Ryanair. to be honest London to Paris might be better by rail? There is also the Rail and Sail option between Dublin and any mainline UK station.

amy_torres_sd

In Paris, take a look at the Paris Greeters website. http://www.parisgreeters.fr/?lang=en Volunteers provide free tours for agreed-upon locations. You specify what you would like to see and when, and they match you up with a guide who proposes a walk:

We requested a tour for our teenagers' introduction to Paris. Our guide met us for café at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, then took us on a delightful walk through the Latin Quarter. Hearing that daughter wanted to visit Ladureé, he took us to Gerard Mulot where she found delicious macaroons.

jaja

I can only speak to the Ireland leg of your trip. You can get a VERY nice room in a B&B for €35 per person per night if you choose wisely. Plus a varied breakfast menu is included.

For nights 4&5 I highly recommend Headley Court in Bunratty or next door, Bunratty Lodge. Straight shot to the airport from either. And very easy to find from the Castle...just take the Low Road and they both sit at the end of the road.

If you want to go to Skellig Michael, fine if the weather cooperates. There is a boat tour that just takes you round the Skelligs. Or if you are braver than I, you can visit Skellig Michael. We found the Skellig Experience underwhelming for €4 apiece.

I haven't been to the Cliffs of Moher since the visitor's centre was built, but I recommend the boat view from the sea which leaves from Doolin about noonish. We left Bunratty after breakfast, visited Doolin Cave and took the boat tour, then back to Bunratty. Craggaunowen is a good choice for the afternoon, plus shopping at Bunratty Woolen Mills.

Doolin Caves' stalactite is impressive but be warned you must walk down what my knees insisted were a million steps and then of course back up again. And in spots you wear a hardhat for a reason. Could be quite uncomfortable for a really tall person. And claustrophobic for some.

Two places in Dublin to consider is the already-mentioned Kilmainham Gaol, and the Jeanie Johnston immigrant ship moored in the Liffey.

We stayed at Trinity College and took the DART out to Dún Laoghaire to pick up our rental car. I don't think you would want to stay at Trinity and it wouldn't be available when you are there anyway, but don't plan to drive out of Dublin proper no matter where you stay!

I just returned from my 7th visit so I am full of enthusiasm! Ask any questions and I will have an answer of some sort.

Judy

denisea

Use the Paris Museum Pass website to map out what you want to do in Paris. Group your activities together...Notre Dame, Isle De Cite/Isle St Louis together; Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee and ET together ( although, I wouldn't bother with the CE...disappointing for me...crowded and full of shops you can see at the mall).

I agree to take the Seine cruise at night to see the monuments lit up. Opera Garnier is spectacular and so gorgeous!

I would go to Giverny for the morning and then you can be back in Paris for the afternoon.

I am not sure, with only a few days in Paris, that you want to go to Versailles this time. It is beautiful (and plan to get there when it opens, if you do go), but I might not include it.

If you aren't art fans and don't have something specific you want to see, The Louvre is massive and you need a plan there. It is not a place to wander around in....it can be overwhelming. I love D'Orsay and it is much more friendly to the non-art fan, IMO. I don't care for the art in the Louvre...just not my style. If you do go, be prepared with what you do want to see and dow to negotiate it. Otherwise, it can be frustrating.

I would include Ste Chapelle....very intimate and lovely. Include with Notre Dame and the Isles. Also, the Deportation memorial is behind ND and worth a visit. Small, silent and moving.

flanneruk

"The Temple Bar I'm talking about is the old city gate...just something to walk by and see."

It's not old, and it's not a gate. It was taken down a century ago (by London standards, not long after it was built, because it's just a recent, ornamental, recreation) then rebuilt and moved as a modestly pretty grace note in a boring modern mall, about 100 yds north of St Paul's about ten years back (www.thetemplebar.info/history.html).

London's stuffed with elderly relics chucked into boring developments to add a spurious touch of class. You'd do a great deal better just looking at what you're passing than going out of your way to see yet another of Christopher Wren's hundreds of interchangeable City monuments

BigRuss

Quick comments.

(1) This is good: Paris Museum Pass.

This is not: London Pass. Use the Days Out Guide two for one options I mentioned earlier.

(2) Know your Paris art museums. General rules: The Louvre is Renaissance, classical, and baroque; Musee d'Orsay is Romanticism to early modern (impressionism, neo-impressionism, cubism); Pompidou Center is the modern "oh crap, I spilled the paint on the canvas - let's go hang it in a museum" rot.