Ireland and Scotland??

My wife and I visited Ireland in 2002 and could not resist the cheap Aer Lingus flight to Edinburgh, staying three nights on a 14 night trip. We did not regret visiting Edinburgh, but with five nights in Dublin (too many by two or three), that left too little time in the rest of Ireland. We finally made up for it on our 2016 return to Ireland, but even then two weeks was not enough. With 20-20 hindsight, I might consider on a first trip doing Ireland for eleven nights, with two or three in Dublin, three in Edinburgh, and the rest in the Irish countryside/smaller towns. But really, there is more than enough in Ireland to fill two weeks. Also more than enough to fill two weeks in Scotland. On the plus side, getting to/from airports in Dublin and Edinburgh is pretty easy. Not like some cities where the airport is way far from the city and/or expensive to get to. It's always tempting to tack something extra on, I often did in some of the earlier of my sixteen Europe trips. But then you might end up wishing you spent more time in the place you came to visit, as we did for many years. All things considered, I advise sticking with Ireland on this trip.

Personally, I would just stick to one place, then you won't feel rushed to see the places you really want to see. I have done three weeks in each, and still came home feeling like I could have used a lot more time.

We did Scotland and the Isle of Skye in 2014 and Ireland, mainly the west coast and Dublin this spring 2017.. I would only choose one, the extra travel time would subtract from both of these great locations. Ireland offered awesome natural beauty and easily located nightly/evening musical entertainment. Scotland offered awesome natural beauty but the music was more difficult to locate. We did locate traditional music in Scotland and it was wonderful but it was harder to find and generally took a bit of travelling each night to locate the pubs wth music. Another factor to consider is the dollar vs the Euro and the dollar vs the Pound...at this point you will get more bang for your buck in Ireland due to the Euro! I would stick with Ireland for these reasons. I loved Scotland so much though I feel like I am cheating on a girlfriend by suggesting Ireland!! They are both wonderful.

On our first trip to Ireland we spent 15 days trying to see the whole island, including a few days in Northern Ireland. Although we enjoyed it and it gave us a good overview, we felt that we missed way too much. On our second trip, we first spent three days in Edinburgh and then three full weeks in southern and western Ireland--and we would have been happy to stay for longer. As much as we enjoyed Edinburgh, I think if you try to squeeze it into a two week trip you may feel in the end that you've shortchanged yourselves. But if you have your heart set on going to both countries you should limit your exploration to just a few places. For instance, you could fly into Edinburgh, spend three nights there, then fly to Ireland and base yourselves in just a couple of different places determined by what you most want to see. It won't necessarily be a relaxing experience but some people enjoy faster paced traveling more than others.

You'll not be able see everything if you spend the entire two weeks in Ireland. Adding Scotland will just add lots of rush, rush, rush, stress. Ireland is such a beautiful place it should be slowly savored -- not gulped down in a hurry.

Separate trips. You could spend a month in Ireland and not see everything; the same goes for Scotland and/or Wales. We spent 18 days in each country and could have used more time.