In June of 2016, I rewarded myself from graduating nursing school with a much-needed European vacation! My sister Colleen and brother-in-law Jay came along too. They are also world travelers and I knew I could benefit from their experience to make it an awesome trip! This was Kyle and I's first visit to Europe (other than layovers at airports).
In just over 14 days we visited Ireland, England, France, and Scotland. We started in Dublin and did a counter-clockwise tour through the countries.
SO, I'll start by saying this: we did ALOT of things and traveled CONSTANTLY. We also spent a ton of time in the car. If you're in a group without kids, it's doable. If you have kids, you would probably need to cut destinations in at least half. If you're the type who likes to relax in the same place for a few days, this would not be the itinerary for you.
With that said, it was an awesome trip jam-packed with activity! Because there's so much and we went to so many different places, I've separated the countries into individual posts; links below.
My favorite tour guide app is Ulmon. They have an app called Ulmon Guides which lets you save your favorite places and activities and makes a map for you. They have guides to most major cities in Europe. The entire guide is downloadable for each city so you can use it offline, which is a feature I was looking for overseas, as we did not have cell service. If you do have service/data, you can use it like Google maps and it will tell you the best way to get from place to place, or from where you are. When you connect to wifi though, of course, it can also do this if you aren't using data. It includes a metro map as well for cities with metro, and will tell you the exact stops to make and, when connected to data, will tell you the wait times. You can also purchase tickets to attractions. I highly recommend using this app instead of guidebooks, we wouldn't have survived without it!
Here's some overall things I learned about Modes of Transportation on this trip:
Flights within Europe are mostly WAY cheaper than trains and cars.
For example, we really wanted to take the EUROSTAR from London to Paris for the "experience", but found it was over $150 from London to Paris round trip, per person. A flight to Paris from London was about $45 per person, and Paris to Edinburgh $55 per person. The train is also hours long, where flights are much faster.
Being the budget-friendly travelers we are and with a limited time schedule, we decided to fly this leg of the trip. Trains are great, but also with both flights getting there in 45 mins and an hour and a half, respectively, it was too tempting to pass up. I recommend flying when you can, as it cuts your time significantly AND saves money.
Rental cars are great (if you know how to remain calm).
Most of the traveling this trip was spent in the car. We decided to rent a car due to wanting to see more countryside. However, this may not be the most budget-friendly option. Even though the average rental car is only around $35 a day, after two weeks straight it starts to add up. If you are a single couple traveling, you could probably save money with flights, trains, and metros. But because we were a group of 4, it made more sense.
My brother-in-law Jay was up to the "driving in a foreign country" challenge, much to the rest of all of our's pleasure (no one else wanted to volunteer). Driving in Ireland in particular was INSANE at times, so I wouldn't recommend driving unless you feel very confident behind the wheel. Even he, with his confidence, would panic sometimes and we returned our rental with a few dings due to the narrowness of lanes. Oops. But more on that in the "Ireland" blog.
Ferries are NAUSEATING.
I have a mild-moderate amount of motion-sickness tendancies, and Kyle is slightly worse than me. I can ride in the backseat, but usually cannot read or look anywhere but out the window or straight ahead. I generally do fine on boats as well. We also lived, for a time, in western Washington state where ferry rides are a regular occurance to get to and from Seattle within the Puget Sound. I have not once gotten sick on one of these ferries.
But OH MY WORD the ferry from southeast Ireland (Wexford) to west coast England (Pembrokshire) was so sickening. I am not an "ocean/tides/seafaring" expert but whatever is happening in the water between Ireland and the UK is crazy. I swear the Krakken is down there absolutely cracking up as it tosses this boat around. You cant hardly stand for more than a minute without getting knocked off your feet. And this is a BIG boat. Its even bigger than our ferries in Washington state, with many levels for cars and such. I think I kissed the ground as we got back to land! Our car ride after that was very quiet for awhile, as I think we were all slightly traumatized.
I will say though that our ferry from Glasgow-ish coast back to Northern Ireland/Belfast was alot more tolerable. Maybe it was the time of year and the changing weather or something, but I dont know know what happened on that first ferry ride. Or maybe it was because we were expecting the worst on the way back so it didn't seem so bad? Either way, if you choose to take a ferry, be warned and prepared, donned with dramamine and sea-bands. UGH.
Here's the links to my other blog reviews on individual countries within this trip:
IRELAND - https://www.bisconerstakeontheworld.com/post/east-ireland
ENGLAND - https://www.bisconerstakeontheworld.com/post/england-wales
FRANCE - https://www.bisconerstakeontheworld.com/post/paris-france
SCOTLAND - https://www.bisconerstakeontheworld.com/post/two-days-in-edinburgh-scotland
Cheers (as our Brit friends would say)! xxx