Three of us (2 from Atlanta, 1 from Dallas) want to spend a week together in Ireland this winter or early spring. We've been looking for good deals (from Sceptre to Aer Lingus through Baltimore to go-today.com) but can't find anything that we can call a quick and cheap trip. All the really cheap deals seem to end in January or they don't fit our travel schedule. Can anyone recommend other sites to search for/monitor for good deals into Shannon, Dublin or even Belfast?

You don't say what you consider cheap... Travelocity shows RT $518 from Dallas to Shannon on British Airways. Did a search on Feb-Apr.

I'm not sure what you are looking for, but I recently returned from Ireland and stayed at the following. If it interests you let me know and I can answer any questions you might have, however, it is set up for plane leaving from Chicago O'Hare.

Sorry forgot the URL<BR><BR>http://www.castledalymanor.com/accommodations.htm<BR>

According to Aer Lingus web site: Baltimore to Shannon from $149. Valid for sale until 14 January 03 (that means you must purchase it by then). Valid for travel 30 March - 31 May 03. Delta never has fares to Ireland that low.

Have you checked out Travelocity / Orbitz etc,to see what carriers near you fly to Ireland? <BR>If you have one that flys direct, you may be better off than trying to connect to Aer Lingus. <BR>OR if you do go with AL, Check out all their hubs ( Chicago/ Baltimore / etc) to get the dates/ prices you want.

Good luck this year. Prices are up this year from last year. I got a deal for May 03 from Denver for about $600, that lasted for about four hours. Hasn't dropped back down since.<BR><BR>Also, prices have increased in Ireland for local services like car hire and B&amp;Bs. Apparently auto insurance rates have sky rocketed there and that is having a big effect. The price gap between standard and automatic shift cars has widened substantially.<BR><BR>Prices inflated a bit after the Euro conversion (may have been a coincidence) for B&amp;Bs. Not to knock them though. They are still a fantastic deal. Where canb you stay in the US for about $65 for a room, with a view of the ocean and the biggest breakfast anyone with a hope to keep the blood circulating through their veins should eat.<BR><BR>The dollar has taken a slow decline from about $1.00 = E1.15 last year to about $1.00 = E.99.<BR><BR>All that said, you're looking in the right places. There may be some price drops after the 1st of the year, though it didn't really happen last year. Then again, last year was a bit strange. You may need do be very diligent about checking the big consolidator websites.<BR><BR>I've never gotten a deal that wasn't better than the package deals, but I don't usually travel during the low season. <BR><BR>OK, I didn't help at all, but oh well..<BR><BR>Bill

Am going in late May for about $500 on Aer Lingus/US Airways from Pittsburgh.<BR>We considered driving to Balitmore and taking a flight from there, but changed our minds. One reason is because the time we wanted to travel the fare was not the $149 each way we had read about. Maybe it is because we are traveling both ways on a weekend.<BR>Good luck as I looked and looked at all the regular travel websites.

Consider flying to London and then by Ryanair to Ireland

There are still abundant seats at $99 each way from Chicago to Ireland on AerLingus. And possibly even better would be this package - - although I can't get the webpage to load correctly, so I am not sure about prices for anything other than the first few cities (the table of departure cities fails to load correctly for me).<BR><BR>http://www.yahoovacationstore.com/promotion/ireland_6night/default.html<BR><BR>If you can't get the page to load at all, the phone number is 800-648-8248<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Addendum:<BR><BR>This might be the same as this offering from Sceptre Tours - - <BR><BR>http://www.sceptreireland.com/script...EYNAME=SPECIAL &amp;PCODE=2&amp;PQUOTE=000000000&amp;PAGLOGIN=<BR >

We did Sceptre for $1400 for 2 of us. If you have very specific plans you may not be able get those &quot;cheap and quick&quot; trips.

It's usually cheaper to fly to Dublin/Shannon than Belfast because you have to connect (most likely through Heathrow). But sometimes you can find a cheapo to London and then another from London to Belfast (or Dublin or Shannon). I'm flying to Belfast after Christmas for $400, which is very cheap, but I haven't checked fares for Feb/Mar. Typically you'll get the best fares in February.

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