Study Abroad Weekend Trips

A few places that would be easy to get to would be
Edinburgh
Amsterdam

When my daughter had her study abroad semester in Rome, one of their favorite places they went to was Athens but you need some longer weekend time to make it worth the trip.

Lucky you, soak up every wonderful moment of your time.

I agree with Beth. Go to Rome2rio.com and plug in Ireland and any city that interests you. My first choice would be short train rides or short flights. Check AerLingus’ website as they regularly run sales.

It would be helpful for you to look and see which places are easy to reach from where you are staying in Ireland. I am assuming Dublin, which is a major hub. You want to avoid layovers. If you are looking at cheap Ryanair flights be aware they don’t always fly into the main airport but sometimes to ones that are a considerable distance from where you want to be.

Berlin would fill a lot of your interests I would think. As would Edinburgh, or Cardiff or many other cities in the UK.

Why Interlaken? It’s a nice enough city with views of the Eiger and other Alps, if the weather co-operates. But it does not have the easy air access of your other choices so getting there on a weekend trip might not give a lot of time on the ground to make it worthwhile, plus Switzerland is notoriously expensive.

You might consider Rome and Florence, two major cities worth more than a couple of days each, for a longer visit or even a final splurge before heading home.

You might some ideas from this guy, "solotraveleurope" who is currently a student in London and doing weekend trips.

https://community.ricksteves.com/users/903101/posts

I agree with the others that the first thing I would look at is direct destinations flown by LCC (low-cost carriers) from Dublin (or are you elsewhere?). For weekend trips I'd not want to have to change planes if I could avoid it.

Yeah, Interlaken really isn't practical for a weekend. You'd have to fly into another city and take the train, and Swiss rail tickets are Not Cheap.

Rather than using Rome2Rio to check on convenient flights, I'd go right to skyscanner.com.

You can also use the Wikipedia entry for Dublin Airport. There will be a chart listing every airline that flies into/out of that airport and its destinations. Some destinations may not be served daily (cross-check with skyscanner). "Seasonal" destinations may not be served for the bulk of your semester (again, check skyscanner).

Be sure you buy your airline tickets from the airline itself, not one of the scammy companies like CheapOair.

I'd definitely research airport transportation before making a final decision. When you have only a weekend, you don't want to be in some isolated airport where you have to wait a long time for transportation into the city you want to see. Anything other than public transportation (i.e., a taxi) from an airport is likely to be very expensive.

Rick Steves' son runs a tour company that specializes in trips for students. Don't know if what he offers will appeal to you, but here is a link to his site so you can check it out. https://andysteves.com/

@TC, I don't think Andy is offering trips any more? I think he stopped during Covid. There are no trips listed on his website and the last blog entry is 2019.

oh gosh I didn't know that Andy had so much difficulty. I hope his health is alright. I guess (I hope) maybe he just took a different direct not to be heard from again.....

Seems strange to just abandon a website with a store

I was interested in Interlaken because I have had lots of family and friends travel there and say it is the best place they've ever been. Heard it was very fun especially for young people.

There is much to see in Ireland as well as N. Ireland.

Still, you should be able to travel outside that country. London, York, Bath and some of the British countryside as well. Places like Stratford Upon Avon, Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury. Scotland has much to see in Edinburgh, Inverness, Loch Ness, the Western Highlands and St. Andrews. These places will be easy to get to and much cheaper than Interlakken, Switzerland, which is one of the most expensive countries in Europe.

If you only have weekends, consider the time you will spend in airports flying, especially to the continent.
There are ferries from Ireland to the UK.

You have a great list. What excitement and adventure ahead!

There will always be more wonderful destinations - practicality may be your decider. Not all budget airlines within Europe fly every day so you will probably have to look at your school schedule and what is involved in getting to a particular destination, in order to decide.

@TC, I don't think Andy is offering trips any more? I think he stopped during Covid. There are no trips listed on his website and the last blog entry is 2019.

Ooops! Was not aware of that. His web site is still up, so I assumed he was still doing his thing with students. Thanks, Pam, for the heads up.

Sorry about the side track on your topic studyabroadweekend but the younger Mr. Steves is still around, was living in Colombia, and working at RS Europe as a guide - he was on a 2022 Monday Night Travel show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2ri2ewxQog Unclear if his Europe tour company is alive, but the website would offer some ideas for weekend travel in any case. Enjoy your fun opportunity for adventure, I wish I had done the same at your age!

Aren't you going to have at least one or two long weekends during your semester? I'd use one of those if I had a challenging destination really important to me (like Interlaken, though almost everyone here will recommend that you stay in Lauterbrunnen or one of the mountain villages instead). You didn't mention any particular budget concerns, but not all European destinations are created equal. Switzerland is on the very pricey side.

My son also was in Dublin for a semester in 2018 (at age 20 as well) and did the exact same thing you are planning. His favorite was Edinburgh. If you like sports he flew from Dublin to Liverpool for the day dirt cheap (like$30 round trip) to watch his favorite “football” team Everton play and explored the city as well. Barcelona, London, Paris and Amsterdam are also easy flights from Dublin. If you are there for St. Patrick’s Day that was another highlight of his experience.

Enjoy! I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain my junior year of college. It was one of the best experiences I've had- hard and lonely at times, but also wonderful and exciting- and it ignited my love of travel and living abroad. To that end, while it would be a very quick trip, I'd suggest southern Spain. There should be direct flights to either Sevilla or Granada.

After you burn through your cash in your growing list of the best under 30 party stops in Europe, consider Bucharest for a cheep weekend of __________ and __________.

Berlin is so full of your interests that you could fill your whole studying time here without travelling but you can start with 3-4 nights - less is not really meaningful.