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Ireland - Before and After

I am looking for advice for before and after a guided Ireland tour next September. The tour doesn't include Dublin, but starts and ends there, so we will want to spend a few days in the city on one end or the other. We are flying from/to Salt Lake City and we will have three days before the tour starts (flights are not booked yet but deposit has been paid on tour) My initial thought is to fly into, and spend our first few days in and around, Edinburgh. Maybe take a day tour with Rabbie's? Then fly to Dublin, do our tour with Vagabond, and then finish up with two or three days in Dublin before flying home. Or does it make more sense to start in Dublin and end in Edinburgh in order to see more of Scotland? Return date is somewhat flexible but start date is not since one of our group will be coming from a biking adventure in France and cannot join us any earlier.

Posted by
1583 posts

Whether you start or end in Edinburgh depends on whether and how much time you want to spend in Scotland. Not sure anyone else can answer that question for you. I will simply note that if you decide to return to the US from Dublin you pre-clear US immigration in Dublin.

Posted by
1 posts

We did the 12 day Vagabond tour last summer. It was amazing!

We spent three nights in Dublin prior to the tour. I would tend to say it might be nice to explore Dublin before the tour because the Dublin sites gave additional context for a lot of the history and culture we learned on the tour. We explored the EPIC museum, Famine Ship, Book of Kells, Trinity College, Kilmainham Gaol, Christchruch Cathedral and of course Temple Bar, Guinness, etc.

However, it is really nice to go through immigration/customs at the Dublin airport on the way home and not have to deal with it upon landing in the states.

Posted by
417 posts

If you feel you can see everything you want to see in Dublin in three days (this is not unreasonable, IMO), then flying into Dublin and exploring the city for a few days before the tour starts certainly seems like the sensible thing to do. Unless your biking friend doesn't care to visit Edinburgh, in which case you might be able to fly in there even earlier and, depending on your Vagabond dates, catch some of the August festivals? I don't know about SLC, but it's more common to find a direct flight into Dublin than into Edinburgh from the US. You can take a ferry between Ireland and Scotland in you don't want to fly.

Posted by
2449 posts

I agree to start with a few days in Dublin and then the tour and if you want a few days in Edinburgh. Be sure to book multi city tickets to do this it is called open jaw. Also book tickets for any must see attractions before you go, such as the Kilmainhaim Gaol as they sell out quickly. We have been to both cities several times and they are amazing. Enjoy.

Posted by
42 posts

I love this forum - thank you all for your input! After reading your responses I have decided that spending our first 3 days in Dublin, as most of you recommend, makes perfect sense. This will give us a better foundation for our tour and will also give us more flexibility with regard to the Scotland piece of our trip. Thank you, Autumn, for the Vagabond endorsement - we are also doing the 12 day tour! Now if only we could fly directly to Dublin - sadly, the only non-stops to/from SLC are to LHR, AMS and CDG.