Italy/ireland

The best way to explore airfares is to use a site like Google flights. We don't even know what city has your home airport. Also, you need to consider your itinerary within each country. Italy is huge and you need to pick an airport based on where you want to say. With a week, you only have time for at most two locations in Italy.

Also, what time of year are you traveling?

Thanks for the info! We most likely will be going in the spring, coming from DC area. . Mayb less crowded than summer? Yes it will be hard to fit it all in, but we will try and come up with a couple different areas in Italy. I am thinking Tuscany, Cuomo, Verona. Just need to pinpoint things. As I said, this is BERY early in the planning stage.

I would pick one or the other. Both have more than enough to keep you occupied/busy for 2 weeks. We recently spent 30 days in Italy and easily could have spent 3 months.

Combining those two countries affordably may require you to use a budget carrier to move between them. I suggest you check skyscanner.com for flightsfrom.com to get an idea what non-stop routings are available from Dublin (Shannon?) to suitable places in Italy (Milan, Pisa, Florence, Bologna I suppose). See which airlines have flights and Google for their luggage limits. At least for the budget carriers, the price of checking full-sized bags can be rather high, and the weight limit for carry-on bags can be something like 7 or 8 kg. (15.4 or 17.6 lb.) Be sure your travel party understands this unfortunate fact of doing an Italy-Ireland trip.

I'm from DC myself, and I suspect you'll find it cheaper to fly into Ireland than into Italy, but the reverse is likely to be true on the other end of the trip, so you need to fiddle around with possible dates on Google Flights. Of the northern Italian airports I mentioned above, I think you'll find Milan to be the least expensive.

Splitting a short trip like this between two non-contiguous countries will probably increase your costs and will effectively shorten the trip by inserting a third flight day in the middle of the itinerary.

I also think you should pick either Italy or Ireland, with a preference for Italy.

Does your two weeks include travel days? Also, you will lose a day traveling from one country to the other.

A compromise might be visiting Dublin and then continuing on to Italy. We have done stopovers in Dublin several times because we have a direct flight from our home airport (Hartford - Bradley) to Dublin on Aer Lingus. We stay in Dun Laoghaire, which is. small town just outside of Dublin. Dun Laoghaire is connected to the airport by bus, and is also on the DART commuter rail line to Dublin.

Pick one country and go with it. You can see a lot of Ireland in two weeks, but not so much in Italy. My first time in Rome, I spent 6 days and didn't see everything.

Use Kayak to plan air trips. I assume you are coming from North America. Most likely, you would need an open jaw ticket, fly into once place then fly out of another. It might be cheaper to by the flight from one country to another separately, not sure.

Discount airlines like Ryanair are cheap, but watch fees for luggage. If you travel light, no problem.

Sticking with your original question for now....

Your options fall into really 3 options:

• Fly into Dublin (or Shannon) and out of an Italian city on an Open Jaw ticket, using a carrier like Ryan Air to get from Ireland to Italy. (Or the reverse, into Italy, out of Ireland) This is likely the middle cost option, uses three travel days, you can split however you want between the two (my preference would be to short Ireland, moving the days to Italy for what you want to see)

• Purchase a Multi-City ticket from one carrier with the three legs (DC to Dublin, Dublin to Milan, Milan to DC for example) This gives you the same advantages as the above option, but the ease of sticking with one carrier, one ticket, maybe less risk, but the cost will be higher.

• Fly round trip to Dublin, then get a round trip on Ryanair to an Italian city. This is likely the cheapest option as you can get low cost round trips to Dublin and the Ryanair tickets are cheap. The drawback is you are adding a travel day and would need to split Ireland into two shorter legs at each end (you do not want to try to fly back to Ireland on Ryanair then transfer to a different airline on a separate ticket the same day).

As for the advice to do one Country or the other, rather than doing two...it is your vacation, you have your reasons for doing both, It is very doable, just prioritize what you want to see and limit it to the days available. When you refine an option, there is likely much more advice that could be given (Using Ryanair, Ground Transport options, Lodging, etc.)

It is definitely doable to go to two countries in two weeks. My mom and I did that a few years ago, going to Madrid first, then Dublin, then home to Tampa. We booked all three legs of our flights on the same reservation. I suggest comparing that approach to booking the first and third legs, then adding on the Ryanair or other cheaper carrier between the Italian and Irish cities. See what's best for both prices and flight times for your group.

I suggest going to Italy first, then flying home from Ireland. It's a shorter trip home, and if you fly direct from Dublin to the States, you can get through U.S. Immigration when you leave Ireland. I agree that Milan airport is reasonable, plus it's the closest major airport for the north side of Italy. Enjoy, you're going to two of my favorite countries! Sounds like a fabulous trip.