budget in traveling through Ireland

altons6 · Newbie

budget in traveling through Ireland

Michele Erdvig · Host

Alton,

Welcome to the forum. I hope we will be able to assist you with your trip to Ireland. Can you give me a bit more info about your question? Exactly what "spending" would be included in the 125? Thanks.

Michele

altons6 · Newbie

Michele

Thanks your e-mail. I would be spending the $125 on food and souvineers.

Alton

lighthousefan · Member

Alton-

$125.00 US dollars converts to $96.50 Euro. Go to www.Currency.com and you can figure exchange rates. Spending per day all depends upon what you are doing. IF this amount includes your B&B, you will need to budget more. THink about if you like big fancy meals or pub grub, will you eat lunch or just breakfast and dinner? Hope this was helpful. Have a wonderful trip!

Lighthousefan

shashie50 · Veteran Member

Alton -

The cost of your B&B depends on location and season. Also, rates given are "per person sharing" so if you are traveling alone your rate will be a bit higher. I assume staying at a hostel is less, but I have never done it. Staying at hotels would be more than a B&B almost always (maybe not, if breakfast wasn't included). During our Oct-Nov trip (which is off season) we paid from 30 to 35 euro per person, but we were usually away from the most popular tourist destinations. Also, we normally stayed 3 nights and you usually get a small reduction for that.

Regarding food: the breakfast provided at a B&B is large and filling -- we only needed one other meal per day, plus a small snack (since I have a sweet tooth). If you eat in pubs or early, you will pay less. We found really good food at pubs that cost the same or less than a small pizza at a fast food place.

Your other daily cost would be transportation -- I don't know what your plan is there. On two trips, I did not rent a car and traveled by bus and train. It did limit where I could go, because it gets complicated and time consuming to reach the out-of-the way spots, but the cost was reasonable. I made sure my B&Bs were close to town and the bus/train station. From Dublin or Galway or Killarney you can take 1 day bus tours if you want to spend the money. Some are small vans, others are large buses. I found it less expensive and less stressful than renting a car. An occasional taxi won't break the budget either.

On my last trip, we rented a car for 3 weeks. I don't know the cost of the car, but we spent $236 US Dollars on gas in 3 weeks. We used the car for sightseeing almost every day but didn't try to cover the whole island -- basically we went from Shannon to Mizen Head to Achill Island to Birr to Shannon.

A Guinness costs about 3 euros I think -- maybe a bit less. How much you spend on souvenirs is of course completely up to you! The exchange rate is not in our favor these days and it's subject to change daily.

I don't think you need to spend a lot to have a great time in Ireland. Enjoy!

Marsha

Michele Erdvig · Host

alton,

Is that per person or for more people per day? Since I don't know what sort of souvineers you want to purchase it is hard to estimate. You could easily spend the whole daily amount on one piece of Waterford crystal or a sweater. Or you could purchase a calendar for 3.95 euro. It really depends on what you are shopping for.

As Marsha has mentioned, if your accommodations include breakfast that can keep you going for most of the day. You could get away with soup or sandwiches for lunch or stop at the supermarket or petrol station for a quick snack. Depending on what you want you are looking at anywhere from 4 euro and up. Dinner will put a big dent in your budget if you let it. Eat smart. Have an early bird dinner. Avoid purchasing soft drinks or liquor. Eat at pubs. Don't order appetizers, soup, entree, dessert, wine, etc. Instead just order the entree (or have an early bird). Many early birds (mostly 3-courses) can be had for 22-25 euro per person. A bottle of wine can be anywhere from 15 euro and up. A pint was running about 4.25 euro on my last trip. Entrees in pubs can be 10 euro and up for dinner.

If you have any more specific questions I will do my best to answer.

Michele