Spending money Ireland
 

I iwll be in Ireland for 9 days and was wondering how much to bring for spending money. All tours and hotels are already paid for. We also have two meals that are paid for. The spending money will mainly be for food and of course a lot of alcohol. We will do some shopping but not a lot. We have 2-3 days that are packed full so we won't have a lot of time for shopping or drinking. I'm thinking 100 Euros a day? Maybe More?

How many people is this for? What type of eating - do you want fast food and basic pubs? a mid range restaurant? upscale dining?

Not sure what you want to drink - but mixed drinks or hard liquor are very expensive vs the US. Local beer or ale will be fairly reasonable (depending on if you are in a country pub or a club in a city). Expect all prices to be higher than in the US.

Ireland is very expensive since its economy went down the pan, so I think I'd be more like €150 to €200.

Take it Rubicund that you come from the place that is 6Trillion in debt..
Eating out in Ireland has always been expensive but then our food is fresh to the table rather than fresh from the freezer. Good pub food starts @ about €10 main course but you can 4x that if you want to eat in "Foodie" places. Guinness is cheaper than Lager and beers run around €4 pint spirits about the same but then so do the mixers so be careful and if you do coc*talis then have a friendly bank manager. That said if you are on a Tour you will likely be in bed before 10pm ready for the 6am wakeup call.

As Tony says, and do recognise soft drinks can be very expensive so avoid :-)

t2p - what lagers do you drink? Pretty much all that is available in the U.S. is Harp.

I also like Smithwick. It's not as heavy. Guiness is difficult to drink in volume, so I stick to the lighter beers.

In talking recently to an Irish expat pub owner, he said the U.S. mixes Guiness gasess improperly, and that he had customized gases made for Guiness. There are a few pubs here that get their own gas mixture, and the Guiness tastes much better.

Very rare I touch Lager apart from the Alcohol free varieties, Heineken is a popular brand and Smithwicks is popular.

Guinness is now Black Lager thinner, weaker and colder than when I was trained on the product in the 70's, at that time it came in double skinned barrels with its own gas in the void, Had to be kept and served at 12 degrees. now that was a heavy pint and half a dozen would fill a corner as I say.

"Take it Rubicund that you come from the place that is 6Trillion in debt.."

No t2p, Lancashire, we owe no-one nowt!

Right back over my other side..That wonderful UK which prints money sells of all its gold reserves to make people think they are afloat then screws its needy. I remember it well and thank fleck we are out of it. Isn't a further cut in pension payments on the table today? Because the country cant keep hiding its £900 Billion National Debt? No The UK is fine.

Hows Thwaites, Pendle and other local ale these days?

No, the brew that is true is Moorhouses. Brewed in Burnley and such varieties as Pride of Pendle.

As I said, Lancashire, not UK. I was born in the Republik Of Mancunia and don't give a toss for politics.

Although Ireland was expensive as compared to Pittsburgh USA where I live, I thought we got around pretty cheap. As T2P says, Pub lunches are around 10euros but they were always very accomadating in allowing us to split our meals in 2. The Irish Stew was very filling so my wife and I would order one between us. The waitress would very politely give us extra silverware and brown bread. I make mention of this because our recent trip to Lucerne Switzerland, they charged us by the seat - 3 swiss francs just to cut the Pizza in half so we could share. Most entry fees to attractions are around 10 euros also. Coupons (2 for 1) are available for some places. Ireland is a fantastic trip regardless the cost. I can't wait to get back

I'm amazed that a pub would let you split a single main course. An appetizer or dessert, yes - if you each have a main course - but not just one main. I hope you tipped as if you had ordered 2 meals.

As for Switz - yes it is very expensive for everything - and I don;t think one should plan on sitting down in any restaurants or cafes anywhere without ordering something. (I know the coffee shops where I work have a $10 minimum at lunch - even if you eat nothing - since they have to make their money then.)

One of my granddaughters and I split a main in a pub and no one batted an eye....but it was a half pound "order at your own risk" burger with chips. This by the way was a pub suggested to us as "you'll not come away hungry."

It must have been more than half a pound if it was an "order at your own risk" situation

Well, they said it was a half pounder. It was plenty big for two people.

NYTraveler, I don't know about you but a half Pizza is more than enough for me. Our bill for 2 Pizzas shared (one a cheese Pizza), 2 beers, and 2 Sodas was 75 swiss Francs. At that price I didn't understand why they charged me 3 francs to cut each Pizza in half. I didn't complain at the time (Hey I'm on vacation in one of the most beautiful cities in the world) but I mentioned it in a review I did on Tripadvisor. The manager responded to my post saying they didn't charge me for the cutting of the Pizza but for using 4 seats. As for the Irish Pubs, we don't normally eat hugh lunches. Having no place to store leftovers to eat later, one meal split for 2 worked great. At Dinner, we went to Pubs and Restaurants alike and each got our own seperate meal. As I said, the Irish were most gracious people I have ever met - the main reason I want to return.

We (two of us) recently came back from a week, and I SERIOUSLY under budgeted for food/drinks. (uhh, mostly the drinks part). Our breakfasts were covered everyday, and we packed our own lunches for the most part. I thought we'd manage on $60/day because of that, and I was way off.

Maybe you could get away with 10 euro lunches per person, but you mostly won't. Especially if you order a beer. I'd say more in the 15-20 range to be safe. Double for dinner. We had pub dinners a couple of times, and restaurant dinners a couple of times. We drank more with the pub dinners (probably two drinks for me, three for my companion), and less with the restaurant, which means they were about even in the end. Then there's the beer you have on an afternoon rest, or in the evening while listening to great music. In Dublin, the drinks were much more expensive, in the countryside, Guinness was around 5 euros each, and whiskey ran in the 4-6 euro range a pour.

Hope that helps!

I have been able to order a half order many times. This saves a little money and allows you to eat a reasonable amount.

We usually self cater when we are in Ireland so we cook a lot of our own food but I would say 100 euro a day is plenty especially if you will be recceiveing 2 meals a day.