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Route plan
At the end of September we agree with some friends on going to visit
one country together on Easter. We started to manage it immediately as
this time we haven’t got the advantage of date flexibility. We must fly
on Good Friday and coming back on Monday as these are the holidays all
5 couples will be free of work.
We got the dates, but didn’t got the destination
and we were checking
the chances of going to a long list of countries until we received the
suggestion of Ireland, which was not on the list, and could verify it
matches our expectations of budget and beauty.
The idea, then, was being in Dublin the two entire
days and the two
half days we were going to spend in Ireland, but after a small
investigation about the country we decided to spend, at least, one of
the entire days to go to Cliffs of Moher, on the other side of the
island. As we’re a big group with a tight agenda I look for a tour
which could get us to there.
The budget is set to 500€ per couple and, as you
can see below, is not
reached.
- Flights
Ireland is the cradle of low cost airlines and the name “Ryanair” comes
to mind at the moment. Somehow, the conditions and scheduled times of
Air Lingus flights match more our wills and is finally the chosen one.
The price for those flights appears at website as
84€ per person, but after including taxes and baggage the total is
finally 247.58€ per couple.
The final flights for this travel are the
following
:
21/03/2008 BCN 11:20 DUB 13:00
24/03/2008 DUB 17:50 BCN
21:15
- Hotel
The search for hotel should be quick too, but the first
results showed high rates for Dublin allocation. It seems rooms in
Dublin are, as its neighbor capital London, small and expensive.
This point required a deeper level of search and
we finally found out some travelers diaries and chronicles pointed to a
specific one as the best value for money option Opinions label Clarion
Hotel Liffey Valley as a hidden jewel and its only handicap
is, as usual, location. It is far from city downtown but a bus line
covers that distance regularly and has a stop close to the hotel
entrance. So we go for it.
We booked from hotels.com website as I can get
some discount on that website due to my job. Three nights are 159€ per
room.
-Other
expenses
The only fixed expenses for this travel are due to the Cliffs
of Moher tour, which we finally book and pay in advance to Healy
tours the 16€ per person. They will pick u up on Galway train
station and will deliver to it after visiting some spots of the area
known as “The Burren”: Ailwee caves, Dolmen Poulnabrone, Cliffs of
Moher, Doolin, Black head Lighthouse and Dunguaire Castle.
The other expense is the train trip we’re going to
need to go to Galway. One week before leaving to Ireland we book the
ticket through Irish rail web site: www.irishrail.ie by 31,50€ per
person:
Dublin (Heuston station) 7:10 Galway 9:55 and
Galway 18:05 Dublin (Heuston station) 20:54
Detailed plan, then, is like this
:
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MARCH |
|
| Day |
Night |
Morning |
Afternoon |
| 21 |
Dublin |
Flight
to Dublin |
Dublin |
| 22 |
Dublin |
West
Coast tour |
West
Coast tour |
| 23 |
Dublin |
Dublin
|
Dublin
|
| 24 |
Home |
Dublin |
Flight
back to Barcelona
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