My best friend and I will be traveling to Ireland and Switzerland withing the next 8 months. She lives in Kentucky and I' m in Georgia. We will have a total of 10 days. Where should we start, and what is the best way to travel between the two destinations.? How should the trip be divided up? My son and my daughter-in-law are in Schauffhausen.

You should start with a guidebook

Get Rick Steve's guide books and I would get an open jaw ticket, flying into Ireland and out of Switzerland, maybe flying from Ireland and then into Switzerland.

Get a map, a couple of guide books, some tour books (for the pix) and decide what you really ant to see/do.

Then you need to figure out if youhave 10 days on the ground or if that includes the dayyouland and depart - so really 8 days on the ground.

You should check out open jaw tickets from Atlanta (?) to Dublin and from Zurich to Atlanta (?). Then find out about low cost airlines rom Dublin to Zurich (but make sure your luggage fits within their minute weight limits).

We would be flying out of Atlanta and will only have 8 days on the ground.

Check kayak.com for sample flight using the "multi-city" option to check the flights nytraveler describes.

Keep in mind: Moving from Ireland to Switzerland will use up a good part of one of your 8 days when you consider checking in and out of hotels, traveling to airports, security and waiting at airports, the actual flight, and so forth.

OK I have to ask, why Ireland and Switzerland? They seem a bit unrelated for such a short trip. Do you plan to stop in Germany on your way between the two countries to visit your son?

Just curious,

Greg

My friend is 100% irish and has been to both Ireland and Switzerland years ago. My original interest was only in Switzerland, but I don' t want to travel alone and would enjoy seeing Ireland, so we decided to go together and visit both places. No plans to stop in Germany.

Well I new there had to be a reason.

I would still spend most of my time in one place or the other. You could fly into Dublin, spend a couple of days enjoying the sights and adjusting to the time difference and then fly to Zurich. There is no reason to get there any other way, unless you really want to take the train, which would be painful.

Now you have 4 days to enjoy yourselfs' in Switzerland. There is so much info on this site about Switzerland, you should be able to fill up 4 months if you had the time. One of my favorites are Jungfraujoch in Interlaken, but you need to pick the things you like to do.

Have fun,

Greg

So... Fly to Atlanta--Zurich 4 days in Zurich and area, visiting with family in Shaufhausen and the region. Maybe a daytrip, or mornings as tourists, afternoons with family, to split your time.

Then, find a discount airline to get you from Switzerland to Ireland. The particular combination Zurich to Dublin might be hard to find, so consider taking a train too/from a nearby city (Germanwings or Ryanair might be good to try). This will take most of a day. Visit www.euroflights.info for help with your research.

Then, spend 3 days in Dublin, or the city of your choice. Fly back to Atlanta from Dublin.

With only 8 days pick one--not both.

I really appreciate all the tips and all the help. Thanks for taking time to reply and share your knowledge. I' m not experienced at all in european travel so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hey, Greg...why do you say the train trip would be painful?Too long...bad connections? I had actually been leaning towards the train, thinking that it might not be much longer that the flight with the travel to and from the airport.

Now I'm confused. You're considering trying to get from Ireland to Switzerland by train? Can that even be done? There are a couple bodies of water and a LOT of miles between the two places.

If you really want to do these 2 places in only 8 days, you'll need to use flights. I'd check flying into Heathrow perhaps and book your ticket home out of Geneva or Zurich at the end to avoid back tracking. That MIGHT work OK.

According to a quick Google search, even as the crow flies, Dublin to Geneva is 739 miles. I also tried to Google train schedules, but it keeps showing me "cheap flights" (as low as $69 Dublin/Geneva).

The OP wants urich - not Geneva - much closer to Schaufhausen (and family). According to bahn.de from the Dublin ferryport to Schauffhausen by ferry and trains will take about 26 hours with multiple changes in various countries. The only thing that makes sense is to fly.

Sorry did not mean to distract or mislead. Point is they need to FLY not take a train if they have any hope of seeing their proposed itinerary of Ireland AND Switzerland in barely 8 days.

for sure we are flying between the two locations...don' t want to spend 26 hours getting there...that sounds exhausting, and "painful" for sure!!