My wife and I will be spending two weeks in Ireland and have read a lot about the Heritage Card, is it worth the money? We will be driving and visiting some of the attractions but will mostly be off the beaten path. Are there any other ideas an similar options. We used the ROMA card in Italy and it was well worth the money.
Thanks,
Eddie
Interested in the answers. Following.
Hard to say whether it would be cost-effective for a two week trip. Would depend upon your particular interests and whether you'd be going to enough of the attractions covered by the card. Best bet is to add up the total cost of individual admissions for places you plan to go and compare to the cost of the card.
It's been a few years since we used them and they were terrific, but we were in Ireland for a much longer period.
I don't recall that the card included priority entry or skip the line privileges but that may have changed in the past few years. If it does then it might make it worthwhile just for gaining admission to some of the very popular sites like Kilmainham. Check the OPW website for the latest on that.
We just returned from 3 weeks in Ireland. Purchased Heritage Card on Day 1 in Dublin. We haven't done a cost/benefit analysis, but probably would have spent a bit less on an "ala carte" basis. Still, it was convenient to just pull it out and walk into the sites where it was accepted. If you know your likely stops, it's easy enough to make the calculation from info on the website.
Also, on the basis of this Forum, we'd made reservations (and paid for admission) in advance to visit the Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin. Upon presenting the Heritage Card, the nice ladies at the Gaol reception desk refunded our pre-paid admission in cash on the spot -- an unexpected courtesy -- but an accurate preview of what we would encounter on a daily basis going forward. You'll have a great time and, btw, Kilmainham Gaol is a grim but moving and educational site to visit.
(Oops, I was writing as Robert was posting; sorry for the duplication.)
Another thought: although we originally purchased the Heritage Card to try to save money on the major attractions, as an unintended consequence we found that once we had it in hand we were drawn to explore many of the lesser known (and certainly less crowded) attractions that OPW manages around the island. Most had entry fees of only one or two Euros, and some were free, but all of them were terrific. We too like to go off the beaten path on our explorations and found that the Heritage Card was perfect for encouraging us to take short detours off of our daily meanders and explore areas that we otherwise would not have been aware of. Might have the same effect for you.
Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly but I recall that the Card was cost effective for us for our 13-nt trip, mind you we were doing the "big sites" that are most costly.
I like the convenience of these things and it since we were traveling with another couple it removed all discussion of whether any given admission was worth it to all parties.
