How much to save?

You never said how long your trip would be or how many people are in your party. I'll assume it's just two. I've found that Great Britain is a little bit more expensive than Ireland (both). To keep things simple I'll sort of mix them together. Nice B&Bs will run anywhere from $100 to $150 per night for two. Different towns have different rates. London and Bath are significantly higher than small, rural towns in the Republic of Ireland. If you're frugal, food can be $30 per day with pub grub or picnics but you can splurge for over $100 (not including alcohol). Figure on a beer costing about $5. Many museums are free in ROI and UK but many sites can cost a significant amount to get into. The Tower of London costs over $25 but many sites will run $5 to $10. Here, I can only say don't not go to see something for a few dollars but plan your time. Sometimes tourist cards make sense like ROI's OPW Card or GB Heritage Pass. Before buying, make sure they make sense for you. My advice is to get Rick's guidebook on where you're going and plan out a rough itinerary. You can see in the book what the B&B's will run. You can see what the major sites are and their cost. Remember that Rick is a year behind the actual pricing in many cases so you need to add a little on top for price creep.

Thanks for the info. It's two of us (honeymoon!) for 14 days. Flying into London and out of Dublin.

You could easily do 14 days on either island. Don't forget rental cars and how much it will cost to get from Britain to Ireland. For a rough guess for "budget purposes only," I'd say you could be comfortable on $6,000 plus airfare.

Ken's in the right ballpark re: cost. I was last there for two weeks last October, by myself. I stayed at nice but certainly not 4-star hotels. I didn't splurge on food, but ate where I happened to be. (No big dinners.) I did not rent a car but did take trains out of London and back to Bath, Oxford and Edinburgh. My idea of a good time is walking around for hours on end. My cost was approx. $5000, including airfare. Also, I don't recommending rent a car just to get from Point A to Point B. Too expensive. Use a car in areas that are amenable to sightseeing while driving. E.g., the Cotswolds, Cornwall, Devon, etc.

We are going in August, and because we're traveling with another couple trusting me with the itinerary I've actually made a spreadsheet, listing everything we plan to do along with all the expenses we'll have for four nights in London before we leave there on a cruise. It includes hotel, bus transfers from airport, railcards for transportation, admissions, and generous allowances for meals. I've put the exact amount for admissions (though we'll get a break with the 2-for-1s by buying the railcards), but I have estimated food on high side and also did the currency conversion at $2 to the pound to add some more cushion for the unexpected (it's barely under $1.70 now). At this inflated rate I'm estimating $2,300-2,400 which should be more than needed. I did the same thing for every stop on the cruise also and will be interested when the trip is over to see how well I did.

I just spent 12 days in Ireland in April, and including airfare ($630 roundtrip/person), my boyfriend and I spent close to $6000... I will say that the rental car cost a good portion of this, but I also think that the exchange rate was a big factor as well. Yes, beers are 4-5Euro, but with the exhange it is actually $7. We stayed in B&Bs for 60-80Euro/night as well. My recommendation is to over-estimate and factor in exchange rates and debit/credit card fees- those add up. Have a fabulous time!

You're going to get numbers all over the place. Ken's six grand would last me thirty days if I traveled with my wife. I could make three thousand last another ten days for my half of the tab if I were traveling with another guy. Both cases would involve a car the whole time. We were in NI and the RoI for a month last spring for just under six thousand (including the car). During the fall a buddy and I were gone for a month which was esseintially split between England and France. Prices were close to the same except that a couple of days in London bumped the average. With a car the whole time (including two channel crossings) we averaged a bit under seventy-five bucks each per day. I think where most people spend too much is by booking rooms ahead. Equally good places can easily be found for a lot less just by asking when you're ready to stop for the night. That, and wandering off a couple of blocks from the hub when you're ready to eat. The only thing odd about my expenses is that there are very few entrance fees since most of those things are way in the past. I wouldn't get to excited about the exchange rate - - right now it's about ten percent above what it was six months ago - - a bit stiff, but not a killer unless you're spending like crazy. ATM fees aren't, or shouldn't be, or will be only miniscule. FTFs for credit card use don't do much - - if you put five grand on a credit card (goodness knows how?), that only a hundred bucks.

Angela, wow--$630 pp round trip? Our tickets this time were twice what we paid the last time we went. Any tips on how you got such a good price??