Manchester to Galway (or Scotland?)....
 

I'm in a bit of a muddle, hope someone can help. we've got a flight into Manchester and will then either go on a bike trip in the west of Ireland (hence Galway) or find something interesting to do in Scotland (or I suppose come up with some totally different plan....)

Assuming the bike trip, we get to Manchester Friday morning (end of June) and would need to be in Galway Saturday night. On the other end, we've got all Sat to transit back as the return flight is Sunday morning. Aer Arann has a flight, but it's a bit more expensive than I'd ideally have liked. I actually rather like trains, but haven't yet hit on the right combination.

The alternative is to decide that Galway is infeasible and head up to Scotland instead. (I've been briefly and have thought it'd be lovely to go back.) Or to decide to do something else entirely....who knows the wisdom of this board will produce?

Well the first question is, what isthe muddle? The price of flights to Galway?

If so, do you intend to hire when you get there? If so, you can definitely get to Knock on a cheap flight from Manchester or Liverpool. It's only an hour away?

Scotland can do good biking too.

Well, the muddle is sort-of which way to go. I feel like the proverbial donkey stalled between two bales of hay. At least they're all good choices.

That said, I'm pretending that the goal is to get to Galway, at least until DH says yea or nay or I stumble upon the perfect cycling trip in Scotland.

Knock is an intriguing idea. Is it doable without a hire car? We hadn't planned on one and would rather not, but it isn't out of the question either. Also, I can't find ANY information on transfering between MAN and LPL airports.

Thanks so much for your help....I can get half the answer to any question searching the net, but there's always the other half missing!!

Getting from MAN to LPL is a bit of a hassle - one train to Manchester, change to a Liverpool one, then a bus to the airport.

MAN to LPL: there's a direct train every hour (taking an hour) to Liverpool Lime St from Manchester airport, whence bus or taxi.

If you don't want to pay for Aer Arann, the only alternative way of getting to Galway (if that's really where you want to be) is to fly to Dublin then train or bus. Which will take you all day.

I think Sheila was suggesting you start biking at Knock. For a list of all flights between NW England and Ireland, go to http://tinyurl.com/nbldc

If you are still in a muddle, I would advise from a cycling point of view to go to Galway rather than Knock. Or even better fly into Galway and back from knock. (Perhaps get a bus from Westport to Knock on your last day). Galway is much more in the centre of cycling terrain... and most importantly you will be travelling in a NE direction and not fighting prevailing winds which come from the SW. If you decide to train from Dublin, check before you leave, as not all trains carry bikes (yeah, I know - shameful).

Oh, thanks for the continuing advice!! This is great stuff!

I am trying to take a (specific) bike tour that starts at Galway. They supply the bike, and I'm on my own to make my way there. Liverpool looks to have some good options, and even Manchester has flights to Dublin that seem better than the Galway route (times and costs). It sounds like Shannon might be an option as well as I gather there's a bus from the Shannon airport to Galway.

Owain and CotswaldScouser, thanks for the info on the MAN/LPL transfer. You'd be amazed how little information about this is online. If I do this, I will have a full day in each direction to get from Galway to Manchester airport, so the pain may be worth it depending on the costs.

And Pontoon and Sheila, do you know about the transportation options within Ireland (without bike) if I do wind up in Dublin, Shannon, or Knock? These are marginally better documented online than the Manchester/Liverpool question, but it's still hard to interpret from afar.

I did find a bus from Manchester airport to Dublin (and continuing to Galway!), but I'm not certain I want to spend my night in a bus seat :-)

For future reference, all UK travel is supposed to be summarised at www.transportdirect.info. You need to use the 'door to door' option for inter-city buses rather than the "bus" one which can be spectacularly wrong and confusing.

Irish trains at www.cie.ie. Virtually all long distance buses in the Republic at www.buseireann.ie.

There are some separate medium distance buses too: generally each Irish airport website has a great deal of surface transort information about its region.

To get from Dublin to Galway, or from Shannon to Galway see http://www.citylink.ie/

To get from Knock to Gawlay see: http://www.buseireann.ie/site/airpor...ck_airport.asp

Fantabulous!! Thanks!!!