England/Ireland

undyingmizery

I know I am being a PW today..

Anyone who has done Ireland and England in one trip..

1. Did you use a vacation package? If so from where?

2. Any suggestions of where to stay?

3. What is a MUST to see in your opinion?

4. Anything else to add?

luckyme502

I have not done England and Ireland in one trip, but I have been to both places.  I say a must see is Bath in England.  It was awesome!

mejane123

This has nothing to do with your trip (sorry, I wish I could be of help!), but are those mason jars attached to chairs in the ceremony section of your bio?  How are they attached?  I'm using some mason jars in my reception, so it would be nice if I could save a little $$ and use them in my ceremony as well.  I never would've thought to use them like that, though, it looks so neat!

undyingmizery

They will be attached to the chairs yes. I am using ribbon and wire to attach them. You just wrap the wire/ribbon around the underneath of the lip of the mason jar before the thread. Afterwards when you want to use them for your reception simply take the wire/ribbon off!

mica178

I've done them both during the same trip. 

I didn't get a package, I just bought tickets and figured out my own housing.  

In Dublin, I used tripadvisor to find a B&B in my price range.  I loved seeing the Book of Kells at Trinity College (I like that kind of nerdy stuff), doing a pub crawl through Dublin, and visiting the Guinness Museum.  I flew between Dublin and London on Ryanair, which is even more basic than Southwest, but it's so darned cheap, it was worth it to me. 

 In London and Oxford, I stayed with friends, so I can't help you with hotels.  I love museums -- I loved the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum the best, but the Tate Modern is wonderful if you like modern stuff.  Definitely walk around as much as you can, enjoy people watching across the bridges.  Get an Oyster Pass to take the tube around for cheap.  From London, it's easy to take a bus roundtrip to Oxford.  The trip takes a little over an hour if you don't go at rush hour.  Oxford is fun to wander around, seeing the little colleges within the university.  Walk through the Magdalen gardens (if you can get in), see the college that inspired the Harry Potter sets (that'd be Christchurch), have a drink at a pub by the river and watch people row by, have high tea at one of the hotels in the middle of town.

Edited to add paragraphs.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I haven't done England and Ireland but I did England and Scotland. Specifically we just did London and Edinburgh. We took the train between the two.

For London, my favorite attractions were Westminster Abbey (pay an extra L2 or so and take the guided tour) and the Tower of London. We also did St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the British Museum, Kensington Palace, saw Buckingham Palace from the outside, Picadilly Circus, Harrods... that might be it? We had 4 days there. We also did a ton of restaurants and pubs, which were awesome. Prepare to walk, even with taking the tube. First day we walked 12 miles and about 8 miles every day after that.

I've heard good things about Gate1 Travel if you want that option.

We booked hotels through hotels.com and stayed at the Academy, Bloomsbury Townhouse in London. Loved the area - near Tottenham Court Rd and the British Museum, really pretty, central, and the hotel is converted Georgian townhouses.

undyingmizery

Thank you very much Mica and Mery I am planning on going in 2013 after I get married. I just plan everything way ahead and this isn't something I just want to up and do. Get there and I'm either in a really bad neighbor hood or I don't know where to go or what to see. I don't want to go into this blind. I appreciate your suggestions and advice.

mejane123

Not that I went to the UK, but for our Italy HM we used TripAdvisor to find everything - hotels, restaurants, and tours, so ditto Mica on that one.  Before you book anything, definitely consult TripAdvisor.  Also, we weren't planning on using a TA, but once we had a pretty exact idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do, we consulted a TA and she was able to get us really good rates on the hotels and tours we were hoping to use.  We pretty much planned out the entire thing, then she just booked the hotels and 3 tours for us (we used Orbitz for airfare because we found a great rate).  It ended up saving us about $400 or so using her instead of booking on our own.  

mica178

Ooh, I forgot to add: St. Martin in the Fields has a great noon piano concert once per week for free, or they charge for the nighttime musical concerts.  And visit St. Paul's Cathedral in London too.  I went to listen to their Evensong (basically choir music done in the early evening), it was so beautiful hearing that music in a beautiful, Christopher 

Wren setting.

Knottie1457761448

I did both in...I guess one trip.  I stayed in Ireland a ton of times (exbf lived there) and I've been back and forth to England.  I was much fonder of Ireland, so I'll discuss what I really liked:

-Dingle: Seaport area with dolphins, great seafood, beaches (heh).  I feel like Connor's Pass is right around here - it's an amazing mountain range.  Here's Connor's Pass:

Here's a picture of Dingle:

-Monaghan: Irish farmside - the "patchwork quilt" area.  Quite beautiful. Here's a picture from there:

-Tralee: Cute little "mini-city" where "The Rose of Tralee" is held every year, with a huge carnival and tons of festivities.  Lots of shopping and great restaurants. Picture:

-Shannon:  More farmland, but by a major Irish airport.  Tons of B&B's and cute little pubs.  Lots of cows.  Tons of cows:

-Dublin: Obviously you should go to Dublin.  It's cute, there's a ton of history (castle's, historic bars, etc.).

-Aran Islands: A group of beautiful islands on the eastern coast (I think) of Ireland. They do boat tours around there.

-Galway: So magnificently beautiful.  The most wonderful place in the world.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Oh, and I agree about the oyster pass - get one before you leave. Well, get however many you'll need. We put 30 pounds on each for 4-5 days and if worked out well - I think we had 4 pounds left after our trip. You just tap them on your way in and out of the train/bus and they can only deduct a certain amount per day, so once you max out, you max out.

I also recommend the Heathrow Express from the airport if you fly into London. It's a nice train, it costs 15 pounds I think, and it takes you to Paddington Station. A cab would be upwards of 60 pounds. We found it to be worth it. It also only takes about 15-20 minutes. You could also take the tube, but it takes about an hour. We just transfered to the tube from Paddington and got off at our hotel.

nda_roxybabe

I have not much to add other than we were planning on moving to Ireland for a year but now are instead considering getting married there. And, I always get Ireland vacation specials emailed to me and there was an amazing one this week. 6 nights, air, hotel (4 seasons and the ritz) and a car for 2 people for $1800ish.

manychihuahuas

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_englandireland?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:b52b04be-b536-469d-a716-8033ab258ad0Post:28ffb35b-f140-467a-ab55-5c4f5c2aac62">Re: England/Ireland</a>:
[QUOTE]I have not done England and Ireland in one trip, but I have been to both places.  I say a must see is Bath in England.  It was awesome!
Posted by luckyme502[/QUOTE]

I second this.  Bath was really amazing.  I would also suggest making sure that you have plenty of unscheduled time just to drive around and see what you find.  My first husband and I had the best times when we literally stumbled onto great pubs and shops.  And we had our best <u>stories</u> from when the places we stumbled on were not so great!

I would also suggest staying away from the big chain hotels and stay at B&B's or small hotels.  The big hotels are practically the same all over the world but the small places let you really get to see life where you are.  Often they are truly lovely people.  One time when I was in Scotland and I got really sick with a respiratory infection, the owner of the B&B had her neighbor/doctor make a housecall and made me the best hot toddy of my life!

Have a great trip.  I am officially jealous!!!!!  <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />

OutOfTheBlue612

I haven't been to Ireland but I have been to Englad. I agree with everyone else that Bath was amazing. The tour of the baths is great. But also just walk around the town. The Cathedral is beautiful and there are tons of great shops. I found the most amazing fudge. We paid the money to do the London Eye and it was totally worth it. I also really enjoyed the tower of London. Wandering around Harrods was fun and apparently their High Tea is fantastic although we didn't do that. For food, we ate at a lot of ethnic resturants in those specific districts of town. I had some amazing Indian and Chinese food. We went to a traditional fish and chips resturant one night too and that was also fantastic. We also went and saw Stonehenge, very cool.

We actually wore pedometers the whole trip to see how far we walked each day. Most days were around 12 miles, and that was with the Tube passes. At the one tube station, there was a line for the elevator (which could hold like 2 people) so we decided to take the stairs. Big mistake. Upon finally reaching the top we saw the plaque congratulating us for climbing the worldest tallest spiral staircase.

lindseyann410

My FI and I packpacked through Ireland, Scotland, and England for two weeks last summer.  Ireland is awesome. I recommend checking out the northern coast and checking out Giant's Causeway. Kilmainhaim Gaol in Dublin is really cool too.  I wasn't excited about Belfast at first, but the murals and history are fascinating. Next time, I we want to rent a car and just travel the coast.

I'm soo glad we wend to Scotland!  Edinburgh is amazing! It looks like something out of a fairy tale, seriously.  The multi-level streets can be a bit confusing, but it's worth it. I wish we would have had time to explore the highlands. 

In London, definitely go to Westminister Abbey.  It's expensive, but goregous.  Also, go to the museums....they're free!  Tower of London is cool if you are familiar with its history.

Hope this helps! Sorry I don't have hotel recommendations....We did it for as cheap as possible and stayed at hostels (not scary or weird at all).  If you are going from Ireland to England, you should definitely take the ferry.  It's my new favorite method of transporation!   We flew with American, but I hear Virgin is the way to go for comfort.  No packages for us, because we wanted flexibility.

Have an amazing honeymoon!