Traveling in April

Are you traveling by rental car or train? That makes a difference.

Is this a round trip ticket from the US to Dublin, then separate tickets for London to Dublin at the end of the trip? If so, can you just fly home straight from London and skip that last leg?

As for luggage, the smaller flights between countries may have different carry on size limits. It depends on each airline. A lot of people say to do carryon only, but sometimes the sizes are so small that it’s really difficult. But if you are visiting family/friends, hopefully you can use their washer and clothesline if they don’t have a dryer (very common). Pack 4 outfits and do laundry every few days. Bring waterproof shoes.

I always bring a packable tote bag. On the way home I check the tote bag and bring souvenirs on the plane in my carryon. That won’t work for whiskey! You’ll need to check that.

I agree that advice on carry on will depend on what airlines you are using both for the International flights and for the legs between Dublin/Munich, Cologne/London and London/Dublin.

As much as you are moving, I'd want to go with carry on because if your luggage is lost along the way it will never catch up with you.

Do you also have connecting flights in the US to get to the international hub?

If you are concerned about jet lag, I successfully used the Timeshifter App for a short-ish trip (2.5 weeks) in August and had no jet lag flying from Eastern WA to Scotland and back home. Your first round trip is free. I used that and will gladly pay for it next time as it was so very helpful to me.

If you are unable to fly home from London (or even if you are) you may be able to get your Irish Whisky at the Duty Free shop when you leave Dublin.

editing to add: Ugh sorry..forgot...I'd want a waterproof jacket with hood, lightweight glove liners and possibly a puffy vest or jacket depending on how cold tolerant you are.

@travelforfun 

I think we were planning on renting a car, unless you would suggest otherwise. We booked the round trip from PHL to DUB. I originally planned on flying home from Munich or London, however prices were exorbitant. It made more sense to just do the quick flight from London to Dublin. I think we are planning to try to carry-on if possible, but moreso concerned about the souveniers/whiskey and such. 

@pam

I have only booked our nonstop American Airlines round trip from PHL to DUB. I was planning to do single legs, but there were limited non-stop flights back to PHL and were very expensive. That’s very true about the carry on with lost luggage. I didn’t think about that. Thank you for the tip about that app and the rain gear!

For future reference, if you want to fly into and out of different cities, choose "Multi-city" rather than "Round trip" or "One way" when doing your flight search.

@acraven thanks so much for this tip! I found a flight out of LHR and only added $65 to my original total, now removing that last leg to Dublin. Thank you!!!

That is excellent! This is going to be easier for you!

So glad it worked for you. I'm still thrilled at the round-trip/multi-city fare I found way back in 2017: About $550 US into Nice (May) and out of London (September).