Traveling after Dublin
 

Hello,
I will be traveling to Ireland with another mom and several college students at the end of May. One week will be spent in Ireland for a group tour then we are free to travel elsewhere for a week. We will have 6 of us total, most having never been to Europe before. We are wanting to be conscious of expenses but willing to spend a little more for worthwhile ventures. Good hostels are acceptable or night trains or even a rental home since it may equal a hostel price with the 6 of us. We're looking for suggestions of places to travel next and how many days at each. We will be flying out of London to the US and will have 7 nights on our own. I think the students would like to see Paris most but are flexible. Any help?

Also, our last day of tour will be in Dublin.

I suppose you want to spend at least a few nights in London before heading home. In that case, I'd probably suggest just one other place, and Paris would be a good choice. Students might really enjoy Amsterdam as well, but trying to see three places in 7 nights is really pushing it. Both Paris and London are large cities, hard to see in a few days. I suppose you could spend three nights in Paris, one night in Amsterdam, and three nights in London. That would be a very superficial glance at each city.

Instead of Amsterdam, you might want to consider one night in a city in Belgium, which would put you a lot closer to the Eurostar from Brussels, and it would also be a shorter distance from Paris. Bruges, Antwerp, and Ghent are all nice.

There are fast trains between Paris and Amsterdam, taking a little over 3 hours. If you can get them all to the train station at the crack of dawn, you could have pretty much a whole day in Amsterdam.

You can go by train from Amsterdam to London in about 4 1/2 hours, taking the Eurostar from Brussels. From a city in Belgium, it would be quicker, of course.

You can save lots of money on trains if you buy your tickets well in advance. However, you might also want to check out cheap flights, especially for longer routes like Amsterdam to London. From Dublin to almost anywhere in continental Europe, a flight would be the best way to go. www.skyscanner.net is a good web site for finding budget flights.

If you'll be traveling around a lot by train and budget airlines, you need to pack as light as possible. Tell all of those people they don't need to have two outfits per day. Two or three days per outfit is much better! All mix and match, all colors that don't show light soil.

Are you also asking questions on the Ireland forum? Most of Ireland isn't in the United Kingdom.

I'm not asking on the Ireland forum as the details for that week are already determined for us. We are part of a larger touring choir. Thank you though.

There is no Ireland forum. There is a forum for all of Europe.