London, Dublin, Belfast. Limerick and Cork
 

Hi Everyone,

My girl and I are heading across the Atlantic this summer for two and a half weeks and I would really love some input on what to see, what not to see and any other tips you could offer.

Our current itinerary is such:

*Fly from Calgary to London (Heathrow) on a Friday and spending 3 or 4 days there
*Over to Dublin, most likely by a regional carrier like RyanAir (suggestions?)
*5-6 days in Dublin, I want to see the main things like Guinness (obviously) and the other big things (whatever that is)
*Then we are renting a car and doing a driving tour. I don't want to have to drive every day and never more than 5-6 hours if possible, but we want to see: Belfast and the Giant's Causway in the north and Limerick and Cork in the south.
*Then back to Dublin to drop off the car and head back to Heathrow to catch our flight home.

So, based on those things:

*What do I need to add?
*Is Belfast to Limerick a two day drive? Remember, I'm Canadian and we drive everywhere at 120KM/hr, your winding roads make judging driving times pretty tough for me.
*What are the "can't miss" things in London for 2 or 3 days?
*Does anyone know any cheap (100eur) accom in the places I have mentioned?

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

Ryan Air was dirt dirt cheap - -for a non-frills airline. They have serious baggage restrictions so keep that in mind if you use them (what you might pay in baggage extras could get you on a better flight). Also book your flight well in advance.
(When you are lookin at flights to Ireland, don't overlook the smaller airports Stansted (I don't think I spelled that right) is one to consider) and Luton

taking a train can be alot cheaper than renting and maybe a bit safer than driving. When I was there 2 years ago, I took the train from Dublin to Galway, and it was about a 3 hour ride and was very inexpensive. I didnt want to spend the $ for renting and I didnt trust myself to drive over there....some crazy roads and drivers over there.

Re: London, Dublin, Belfast. Limerick and Cork
 

Belfast to Limerick is only a couple of hours drive, as for the roads they are all pretty good so you need not worry abouy twisty ones.
Dublin you have the national museum, some interesting stuff there, Kilmainham gaol, get a bit of our history and see how we were treated.
Dont know much about what is in Limerick, never really went there, but the Clare is not that far and you have some great views and things to seee there. You could do most of them in a day if you wanted to.
Cork is a great city, good food and night life, and the people are always up for a laugh.
Hope you have a good time here

A guided day trip to Wicklow/Glendolough about an hour south of Dublin would be a great getaway!

Spend as much time in London as possible. It's got more things to do than you could ever ask for. Pick up a weekly Time Out magazine for info.

Must see in London is the the Tower, hands down. See a play in the west end. The British Museum is great if you want to see the Rosetta Stone and the friezes from the Parthenon.

I did 5 days in London with 11 in Ireland and felt rushed the whole time.

In Dublin see St Stephens Green, The Book of Kells at the University Library and walk down O'Donnel street. You can do all that in a half day. If you can fit it in, have dinner at Gallager's Boxty House in the Temple Bar district.

Driving times are very hard to figure and you really can not go far in a day if you want to enjoy yourself and see anything. There did not seem to be much near Cork. We concentrated on the West coast from Gallway down to the Dingle penninsula. I would have liked to get to Belfast and the Giants Causeway, but we just did not have time. Consider the Rock of Cashel. It is an impressive ruin.

Hopefully not too late....

I really hate flying RyanAir, very no frills. But you can get cheap flights from London Stansted ( I don't believe they from from Heathrow) if you book it right it can be as cheap as £0.99 (not including taxes)

When driving out side of Dublin do not expect the roads to be of a quality of the US (although they are slowly getting better). Even though on a map Dublin to Cork does not look that far, you should expect to spend upto 4hrs driving.

In Dublin I would recommend taking a tour bus, they start on St Stephens Green at the top of Grafton St. You can see most of dublin city center in about half a day.

O'Connell St has also recently been revamped into a slightly more pedestrianized area so it looks alot less dull than it used to, still not much down that was to see though :)

Thanks everyone, we leave in a just few weeks (Aug 8).

I have a few specific questions now that we are nearing the date.

**How long is the drive from Glaway to Dublin, we have to return the car at 11am, when should I light out of Galway?

**Can anyone recommend a day hike in the southwest(2-3 hours)?

I'll be sure to post the ~1000 photos when I get home in late Aug :).

Traffic allowing the drive from Galway City to Dublin City is at best 3 hours, but more likely it will be over that.

Too bad I'll be in the US when you guys are here (Dublin). Could have given you a tour :D

I leave on the 7th of august :(

--jaded

We left Dublin in the morning and drove around the Connemarra before getting into Galway early evening. I would plan on 4 hours for a trip going the other way in the morning because you have to allow for traffic in Dublin. But check with the hotel staff for a more accurate answer.

If at all possible, I would highly recommend using Virgin Atlantic for the long flights. Even in coach each of the seats has its own monitor, with an absolutely massive list of movies to choose from. On top of that it shows a map of the world and where the plane is. Then there are a bunch of games. All of this is free of charge by the way.

The seats also had more space than usual.

Well I am off to Ireland tomorrow gang. Thanks to everyone who offered good advice. I'll be posting a shit load of pics when I get back.

See y'all in 19 days.