TinaFaye

Hi,

My husband and I are taking our five children (17, 17, 15, 9, 5) to Ireland next March or May. I know that's a long way off, but with this many, we have to plan long in advance to have the money.

Anyway, need suggestions for the best ways to maximize money.

Lodging: Are hostels or B&Bs the best way to go? Links to B&Bs if you have any. Recommendations on both B&Bs and hostels appreciated.

Car Rental: If I am reading the threads correctly, Dooleys, Nova, Aer Lingus are recommended. Any others? Just received email quote from National at Shannon aireport for 2400 Euro for 14 days on a 9 passenger mini van (the smallest they can give to a party of 6). Any thoughts?

Food: How pricey is this going to be? If we do hostels, we can do some of our own cooking (depending on our time). What is the average cost of a lunch or dinner at a pub? Looking for regular, authentic food, not the pricey restaurants...though a few of those would be nice, too.

Sights to see: Prefer scenery, history, culture, people. DO NOT want amusement parks, games, rides, etc. We can do that at home. We travel alot where we live and really enjoy getting off the beaten path. Best recommendations?

We are thinking the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Bunratty Castle. Would appreciate recommendations on anything medieval (my 9 yo is probably a reincarnated knight ) or spiritual (my 17 yo twins like anything Celtic, have done a study on the Book of Kells)

Thought on Tara and Giants Causeway?

We are choosing March because it is Spring Break for the twins from university. BUT, may look at mid May when they finish the semester.

All thoughts appreciated. All opinions count for me.

Thanks, Tina

wojazz3

The least expensive option for a family is probably self catering. It does anchor you to one place for a week at a time, but self catering can be extremely affordable. You rent a cottage for a week at a time. In March, you may be able to get shorter breaks. There are a number of companies that rent them. Find links to accommodation and all sorts of other stuff at:

http://www.irelandyes.com/links.html

Also, a monster list of links would be:

http://www.irishman.org/

Aer Lingus is the airline and car rentals are available through them. There are all sorts of options as to where the best car rental deals are and it changes regularly. In comparing prices, making sure you are comparing apples to apples is a challenge. Whether or not CDW or Super CDW is included and what the deductible is on the regular CDW. I've rented from a different company each year. Last year was through O'Scannlain travel. They had a huge discount with Hertz whom I had no trouble with. We always rent small vehicles and as I remember Hertz was not a good deal on the larger ones. I would check as many as possible. Mini vans are expensive over there.

If you are self catering, you can pick up food at the market and dine for much less than dining out. A meal at a pub run 8-15 Euro without Guinness.

I don't think I've seen an amusement park in Ireland. The scenery is stunning throughout, with the Dingle Peninsula usually getting the greatest all around reviews, but there are so many spectacular places. That's what tour books are for. To me, Ireland is about scenery and history.

As far as driving is concerned, you won't average more than 36MPH on most days and less if you enjoy backroads. Consider that in your planning. There are lots of off the beaten path possibilities. In easy reach of Shannon is the drive to Loop Head, but I could go on and on. A few of my favorite off the beaten path spots are in the SW, Mizen and Sheepshead Peninsulas in the NW, Co Donegal (virtually any piece of the coast), The Torr Rd in NI ... oops I'm going on and on. If you are interested, I have a couple of travel journals online. They can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/obeirne_ireland_2002/index.htm

and:

http://www.geocities.com/obeirne_ireland_2003/

The Cliffs of Moher, The Burren and Bunratty Castle are all in the same general area. Giants Causeway is nice if you travel up to NI, but I don't think I would make an enormously long trip just to see it.

There are two general philosophies on travel. A liesurely in depth tour or a high speed run to catch as many sites as possible. There are pros and cons to each. The more I travel, the more leisurely I become. With a large family, the word liesurly might be tough to accommodate, but I would suggest that trying to see loads of stuff might present emotional and other types of strain.

The advantage of May to March is that you are slightly more likely to get better weather, more sights will be open and the hours of daylight will be increased a fair amount. The advantage of March would be less crowds, though May is not bad and if you get off the beaten path, you won't see much in the way of crowds.

You have plenty of time to plan, so you have a good start. Get a good tour book or two or three or four or five.

Hope this helps you get started.

janis

Definitely rent a cottage (some "cottages" are actually mini-manor houses sleeping 10 or more).

A well placed cottage somewhere in the southwest would place you within 60 or 90 minutes drive of literally hundreds of places to visit. So instead of packing and moving every day or two, you return every night to your homey cottage. And self catering does not mean you have to cooks all the time - but you can and that really saves a LOT for a family of seven.

As wojazz says - in March many cottages will rent for what are called "short breaks", which are 3 or 4 night stays. So if you didn't want to stay in one general area for a full week, you could rent 2 cottages in different areas and see even more of the country.

for example - 4 days in the SW and 3 days up north near Galway would let you see most of the SW/W of Ireland.

bardo

Definately agree with above the posters that renting a house or apt will save you the most money: 1) The cost of the lodging itself will be lower than multiple hotel rooms. 2) The added savings of not having to eat every meal out is HUGE. If at all possible, go in March. Airfare in March will be about $200 less than in May. A $200 savings per person is $1400. That could be the biggest savings of all.

slbuz

Another vote for a cottage! We did this a few years ago in the Cotswolds in England. The price was fantastic and we felt like locals in the village. We had our four kids with us and it was a great experience!

NEDSIRELAND

B&B's are definitely not the best for a group of your size unless you can work out a 'package' deal in advance. Some will charge less for your two youngest children; but when you have to pay 30 Euro per person sharing, even for 5-adults, pretty soon you're looking at almost $200 a night. It adds up pretty quickly.

Hostals are OK if you can handle the 'community' faciities (W/C, showers and kitchen). I stayed at Abbey Tourist Hostal in Ennis (County Clare, near Shannon airport) last year: the room had 2-sets of bunk beds & a double bed. I'm an early riser, so I got to the shower around 6:30 AM and to the kitchen when it opened at 7:00 AM.

We haven't done the self-catering bit: Our most recent visit: 26 Feb-2 Mar. We got a great airfare from AerLingus (BWI-SNN: $198 R/T each). You're more likely to get a better airfare deal in March than in May. We stayed at Rose Cottage B&B in Ennis 4-nights and daytripped to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway.

GMT2272

I wouldn't rule out B&B's entirely. Some of them do have family-rooms or will give you a special deal to accomodate a family. Look for the Ireland farmstay B&B catalog, and e-mail several, I think you might find them willing to give you a better price, especially off-season. Have you considered renting two smaller cars? Check the rates for getting two cars. Insurance on a 9-passenger van makes the rate quite a bit higher, plus it can be hard to get around the narrow roads.

rex

See http://www.slowtrav.com/other/listings/ireland.htm for other ideas on leads.

In particular, http://www.irishvacationrental.com/ looks quite interesting.

Best wishes,

Rex

ginoconnor

We are going in April, 18 days to be exact! We would have needed three hotel rooms or three B&B rooms. I did extensive research and found that it was much cheaper to rent cottages/self catering houses. Even if you have to pay for the whole week and don't stay there, it still is cheaper. We have rented two cottages. We will be three nights at each. One owner gave us a little break and the other is not charging us electricity. Definitely worth looking into and the family will be together.