Ireland, England, Scotland, Paris

It's January. Daylight hours are far shorter. Don't count your arrival day or final day as part of your total # of days on the ground because you really aren't going to accomplish a whole lot of sightseeing on those days (if any). Does that still leave you with 14 days or 16 days or is it less? Is your plane ticket open jaw (flying into one city - like Shannon and then out of another city - such as Paris)? Or do you need to spend even more time circling back to your original point of entry because you have already booked a roundtrip ticket?

You're trying to squeeze 3 entire countries and a city in a 4th country into a pretty short time frame. You don't seem to have accounted for the hours you will need to spend packing up from one hotel, checking out, getting your train, plane, bus or rental car to the next destination, finding your new hotel, checking in, unpacking, etc. That's all time lost from your trip.

Check the local library and watch some DVDs or YouTube videos on the destinations you have in your head and start figuring out how you will get from one place to the next, how long it will take you and what you really must see in those places. This will give you an idea of how much time you might need to spend in these places.

If you just want a quick taste of 1 city in each of those countries so you can say you went, then yes, you can do something like Galway for 3 nights to spend time with your daughter who is over there, then Dublin, Edinburgh, London and Paris. You really don't have the time to devote to exploring other regions in some of those countries.

I agree with Ceidleh that it depends a lot on where you plan to fly in and out of. If by England you mean London, and by Scotland you mean Edinburgh, then it's doable to do a short visit in Ireland, then Edinburgh, London, Paris, but it will still be a bit rushed because of the travel times between those places and will work best if you can fly home from Paris. If you intend to see more in England than just London and/or more in Scotland than just Edinburgh, then I don't think you have enough time to add Paris. It does depend a lot on your travel style, go, go, go, or do you prefer to settle in for a few days and enjoy where you are.

When I saw your title, I hoped that your trip was for 4 weeks minimum to do scratch at the surface of 3 countries and a major capital city.

Getting from Ireland to Scotland by flying is going to be a minimum of 5 hours door to door and the same for all your other transfers, so you are going to lose much of your 14-16 days just in transit. In January, it will be dark before 4pm.

Are you flying open jaw? I suggest that you limit yourselves to say Ireland and London (Ireland as it's already booked and London as you stand a better chance of the weather not being as grim) plus a couple of days in Edinburgh. Paris deserves at least 5 full days as there is much to see, so I would save that for another trip.

thanks,
This was the kind of feedback we needed to hear - I appreciate all the input. Our "idea" for plans and what are our "actual" plans will most likely be very different (as we learn more) . My daughter just recently got word that she was fully accepted, and so we have not had time to plan out our trip yet outside of the actual days she'll be able to be off of school. I like the idea of going to less places/countries, and will attempt to convince my wife as well.

So, if we do scale it back (country-wise) - we welcome suggestions/advice on where we should actually go, what to do, tips, etc. Of course we are going to go to Ireland, see Galway where she is going school. We would like to go to London, and my wife likes the idea of Paris, but maybe as suggested, we save that for another trip.

Leaving from a different location that we arrive ("open jaw?") makes sense as an option - we have done that before to avoid backtracking.

Thanks all for your help with this.

Emma,

thanks for the info and it doesn't sound negative - glad to get your input.
We are going to be in Dublin by Dec. 30th/NYE at the start of our trip - but our trip will last through about 2 weeks into January. As it is her break from school, it was the only time we could go.