Anuzen

Hello all. First time poster but I figured it was time to get some help planning for my honeymoon.

My fiance and I are tying the knot in April of 2013. We are thinking of doing our honeymoon in London and then Dublin in early May 2013.

We have a solid 7 days in Europe with 2 days of travel. So 9 days total.

We would fly into London from the east coast of the US and arrive Saturday morning in London. We would spend about 3 days London, maybe a flex day or travel day by rail from London to Dublin and then finish up our trip in Dublin for 3 days fly out of Dublin late morning/early afternoon on the 9th day.

Major Questions:

Ratio of stay?

How long should we stay in Dublin vs London? Right now I have it split evenly (3 days each) with a day to travel between cities. Does that sound right?

Also would it be worth it to spend a day or two Euro Staring it to Paris for a day trip to Pairs? or tour busing it to Stonehenge/Bath for a day?

Where to stay?

We were thinking of getting an apartment through onefinestay.com for our stay in London and booking a hotel/bed and breakfast for Dublin. Any lodging recommendations for newlyweds?

How much to budget for food?

We want to have at least one romantic night out at a nice romantic restaurant in each of the cities and wouldn't mind casual/pub dining the rest of the trip.

Any advice would be helpful really. What would your budget for food for about 7 days be like? Any hotel recommendations for newlyweds in either London or Dublin?

Getting around?

London seems easy enough with the underground and the buses however I am unfamiliar with Dublin. What would be a good budget for getting around the two cities?

Also I have the trip to Dublin from London costing about $60 /person or about $38 Sterling pounds if my research is right.

What to do?

I am really not that concerned with this because my fiance and I are pretty easy going when it comes to the sight seeing but we are worried about not planning properly budget wise. Anything we need to reserve/get on waiting list to see?
What are good things to do for newly weds in both London and Dublin who are trying to make the most of their time?

Like I said earlier I was playing with the idea of maybe a day trip to Paris or Stonehenge while in London or maybe a day trip to someplace while in Dublin.

Extra Info
This is our first time traveling abroad. We are both in our mid to late twenties and have I mentioned we will be newly weds?

So what say you? Am I trying to do to much in 7 days? Any advice? What would be your recommended budget be for a middle class couple? I will try to fill in any blanks I left as far as info you may need to give me a better idea.

BigRuss

Forget Dublin, go to Edinburgh. This is not a close call.

And it's your honeymoon, take some more time. You could easily spend a week in London and not cover more than a small percentage of its offerings.

London (7.7M people) is the size of New York - it's far larger than Dublin (1.1M) or Edinburgh (sub 500k).

Last check, you can't get from London to Dublin by rail - no train crosses the Irish Sea.

Rastaguytoday

I agree with BR.

However, I would fly into either Dublin or Edinburgh and leave via London. You'll probably have to fly through LHR anyway.

See Gardyloo's comments about costs. You will get hit with beaucoup extra $$$ by flying out of the UK.

http://www.fodors.com/community/air-...ree-ticket.cfm

Regardless, London is a very expensive hotel town. Try this website for hotel examples.
http://www.venere.com/hotels/uk/ This is a very comprehensive site to get an idea about where you might want to stay and pay.

Here's a simple map of Dublin's city centre.
http://www.dublintourist.com/maps/du..._version.shtml

ncounty

I just arrived in Dublin from London. I would skip Dublin and just do London. You can train to Paris for two nights if you really want but that will be quite the teaser because there is so much to see there as well.

Lodging in London is very expensive but there are so many things to do for free there.... British museum, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert museum, Natural History museum, Science museum, etc.

Tony2phones

Too much of a rush. This is a special time (congrats) and pushing London, Dublin and Paris into 7 day's will not make for a relaxed trip.

If you do want to fit all in then I would go with flying into Dublin for 2 days, first for the hopper bus, second for a day tour. Fly to Paris 2 days then Eurostar to London to end the trip and fly home.

Remember that baggage will be constrained by allowances on the short haul carriers.

Sassafrass

I've been to Dublin, London and Paris each several times. Of course, it is personal opinion, but Dublin would be last choice.

With only seven days, I would
stay in Paris and take day trips to Versailles, etc.,
or
London with two days in Bath.

There is so much to do in either of these two cities, you will not be bored. By taking day trips, you can experience a bit more of the culture, rather than just a city. You won't waste so much of your short time traveling.

If you absolutely must see two cities, Fly into Paris (3/4 days). Take Eurostar to London 3/4 days). Fly home.

If Ireland is really your first choice, then just go to Ireland for the whole time.

flanneruk

As an Irish citizen, I wouldn't waste time in Dublin unless you've got a real reason (like both having ancestors from there).

I could well imagine a holiday in Ireland's unique marine countryside being combined with a holiday in London or Paris. But Dublin: just a third rate, dirtier and more provincial London with worse pubs and scrappier theatre. And bloody difficult (and time consuming) to get to Ireland's glorious southern and western coastline from.

Now a week in London, followed by a flight to Cork, a car hired a few minutes from spectacular cliffs, a few days meandering round the area, the car dumped at Shannon, a quick passage there through US immigration and customs followed by a brief flight to (and bureaucracy-free arrival at) Logan: that's a holiday.

janisj

"<i>Ratio of stay?

How long should we stay in Dublin vs London? Right now I have it split evenly (3 days each) with a day to travel between cities. Does that sound right?</i>"

Why have you chosen London and Dublin? Unless your granny was born in Dublin, I would skip it - and even then think twice.

London is huge and there are hundreds (probably thousands) more things to see/do in London. Dublin is fine for a couple of days during a longer tour of Ireland - but the equal of London? . . . In no way.

I would do one of the following depending on what sounds good to you:

1) spend the entire week in London w/ perhaps one day trip to Oxford or Bath or Salisbury/Stonehenge or elsewhere.

2) 5 days in London and a couple of days in Paris - fly into London and home from Paris to save both money and hassle. (Paris is of course 'worth' more than 2 days - but you need more than 3 or 4 days in London to account for the jet lag and just logistics)

3) Fly into London, spend 5 days, train or fly to Edinburgh for a couple of days, fly home from Scotland.

#1 would be my first choice for a first visit.

Save Dublin for a future 2 week trip to Ireland.

longhorn55

Choose either London or Ireland--you don't have enough time for both.

If budget is a factor, then Ireland might be the better choice. You can find good B&B's outside of Dublin for 70-75 euros per night for the two of you. I doubt you could come close to that figure anywhere in London.

For a week, I'd recommend flying in and out of Shannon Airport and spending your time driving around the western part of Ireland. We did such a trip last May (8 nights) and saw some fabulous sites and fabulous scenery. It was a lovely time of year to be in Ireland.

Anuzen

Thanks everybody for the advice. Based on your advice Dublin will definitely be scrapped. As for the trip from London to anywhere in Ireland. I've found a few places we can take a train to and ferry over. Well aware they are two separate islands. Lol

Originally we choose just Ireland but thought all the traveling we would have to do to see it all not to mention the cost of renting a vehicle and gas. We added London because it is a large city filled with so much to do and see. If I had to change the city in Ireland to add on to London it would now have to be either Edinburgh based on your recommendations or Waterford because my fiancée has ancestral roots there.

Based on time and your recommendations. I think we might just stick to London and do the day trips to Oxford, Bath, or Stonehenge. I would love to sneak in Paris but I too feel like that would be a tease.

I understand why everybody says we need to spend more time in Europe but we are constrained by how much time we can take off from work unfortunately. Due to time constraints we really are restricted to visiting a city and not a country.

Thanks for the links too. Tremendous help!

Anuzen

Also mistyped meant to say if I had to change a city in the region. I realize Edinburgh is located in the UK more specifically Scotland. My apologies.

Tony2phones

You can fly into Waterford from London Luton or London Southend, neither of these airports is exactly handy for the city centre (London)but either is only about an hour out.
http://www.waterfordairport.ie/index.php

nytraveler

London and Dublin are already a lot to squash into only 7 days - do not even consider day trips. I would do 4 days London and 2 Dublin - and I like Dublin more than many people seem to.

For hotels and restaurants you really need to give us a budget - keeping in mind that europe is more expensive than the US (even than New York - never mind a smaller town). And London especially has a lot of hotels that would not be acceptble to Americans (their rating system is about one star less than ours - their 3* would be our 2*)

farmer_annie

Waterford is OK for a day trip but there's not a lot there. If you are a history buff, Dublin is great but so is London. I found them both to be big cities just like in the US, everyone in a hurry, and on the dirty side. What is it you want to do with your time? That should be a deciding factor. If you're into the cosmopolitan life then definitely Paris and/or London. But beware: if you don't speak French in Paris be prepared to be treated rudely and sometimes even given the wrong information just for "fun."
If you are into scenery, mountains, hiking and outdoors type stuff, you couldn't get much better than the we and soutwest coast of Ireland. the Dingle pennisula is breathtaking!
Traditional music? Ireland for sure. Southern England is lovely too, we spent four days in the town of Sherbourne just because it was so beautiful and peaceful.
The thing to remember is don't try to get everything into the trip, give yourself a reason to go back soon and don't be burned out halfway through because you're just running everywhere.
If you change your mind about Ireland, it is expensive to eat there but on the other hand not as bad as say Atlanta or NYC. We stayed at the Harcourt Hotel in Dublin (former home of G.B. Shaw) I think it was about 70 euros a night. but be prepared too, expensive hotels in Europe are not nearly as posh as the expensive hotels here. so spending an estra $50.00 might not get you the upgrade you're thinking of. We budgeted about $25.00 apiece for meals so about $150.00 a day (that's dollars, not euros) for food. the buses were fairly inexpensive especially if you bought a pass, about $3.00 to go from one part of the city to another. that was before the crash and it might have changed.
If you want to go to a totally different country where they still speak English (sort of) it's Western Ireland. We stayed in a cottage in a village called Annascaul. If I could only go one place ever again, that's where I'd go.

longhorn55

Anuzen, I think you have made a fine choice by deciding to stay in London and doing day trips from there. You'll find tons of things to see and do and, if you do your research, you'll find affordable accommodations and places to eat.

zoomzoomfly

I would spend more days in London to be honest. Personally I would recommend staying at a serviced apartment. It's bigger than a typical hotel room and has a living room, and a kitchen! In fact if you really want to be romantic, you could cook her a meal and have a romantic personal setting. I'm sure the staff there would be glad to help you. We stayed at Fraser Place Queens Gate in London, Kensington. You'll be able to find chic boutiques, gourmet restaurants, romantic cafes, and trendy bars near the apartment.