Students First Trip Abroad to Ireland

You would probably be better off flying into Dublin and out of Shannon in the west if you want to make a swing across the south. That way you wouldn't have to backtrack to Dublin to leave. Check out Aer Lingus, which often has great deals on airfare -- can't really advise you as to whether you have a good deal since you didn't say what yours cost.

You have your reasons for wanting to spend most of your time in Cork, but there are certainly areas I would concentrate on more, unless you plan to take day trips to other places from there. Public buses go everywhere (and yes, they stop at lots of small towns along the way). Train service in Ireland is more limited, especially in the west.

You don't say when you plan to travel, which makes a big difference in terms of cost and crowds.

We plan to go in the middle of May for two weeks. The price that we were finding for round trip was around $900. Since we are leaving from St. Louis, MO which is not an international airport we have to connnect in another city which is why we chose priceline because using two different airlines will be more costly. We would love to land in Dublin and leave from Shannon but we are not sure how we would be able to keep the cost down.

I just looked on Kayak.com (which compares fares from numerous places) and you can get a multi-city ticket roundtrip for May 09 for less than $700 right now. Most of them start at STL and take you first to Chicago. You would land in Dublin and leave from Shannon. What you need to look at is "multi-city" tickets, not two one-way flights. Your flights might be on different airlines, but it won't cost more because of that.

"...I just looked on Kayak.com ..."

Looking on Kayak and Booking on Kayak can be two different things. I've heard good things about Kayak, so maybe my experiences are in the minority, but on several occasions I've found the price quoted on Kayak is nonexistent once I was transferred to the site actually selling the tickets. You only find this out after selecting the itinerary and price you like while still in the Kayak site, then getting transferred to the seller's site (which is often the airline), then filling in all of your travel info including passport number, passenger info, payment info, etc. You find out in the final window, just before hitting the "purchase" button, what the real price is, which can be much more than the kayak quoted price.

I've emailed kayak about this issue and they've been entirely unhelpful in explaining why this happens.

Again, hopefully my experience is in the minority. With any of these internet booking sites, realize that no prices are firm until you book.

Another thought (other than my post about kayak, above). If you are students, your college might have an STA service that can get good deals on air fares. My son has used that with good luck. I don't know if it works out for the best every time, but it's sure worth checking.

Maybe your experience IS in the minority. I just checked the same flights on Kayak that I saw before and when I clicked through to "purchase" the tickets the price was the same on the ticketing site. My point, though, was really more that they need to look for "multi-city" tickets rather than two one-way ones to be able to fly into one city and out of another. Since they had the idea that flights on different airlines would cost more, I thought maybe they didn't know how to look for multi-city tickets. My use of Kayak was merely to get an idea of what fares are running now, not a suggestion that they use Kayak.

Our best luck for airfares has almost always been directly through aerlingus.com

I'm going roundtrip next month -- into Dublin out of Shannon from Chicago -- for $450.

I have always found the best fares on Aer Lingus, too, which is why I suggested them.

Yes Aerlingus are good, the reason arriving in Dublin and departing from Shannon isn't much more expensive is that alot of the time, flights from Dublin to the USA will stop in Shannon anyways. Passengers stay on the plane while new Shannon passengers get on.

Alternatively an option could be to start in Dublin, travel to Cork, then come back up along the west coast maybe up as far as Galway (mid west of the country) and cut across the midlands back to Dublin. This way you can start in Dublin and finish in Dublin without back tracking. Buses leave Galway straight to Dublin Airport up to 17 times a day (citylink.ie). The bus station is right in the center of Galway city

Is one of you over 21? Then you can rent a car in Ireland. Here is a quote from the Auto Europe Web site specifically pertaining to Ireland: "To rent a car, you must be at least 21 years old (age may vary by car category) and have held your license for 2 years. Drivers age 23 and under and over the age of 70 may incur an additional fee locally."

For bus timetables and routes, use the Journey Planner on the Bus Eireann site. Check out the information on tourist passes on the same site.

I don't know if it is all car rentals but one that I was looking at said that the age requirement for car rentals is 25. We were planning on renting but when I discovered this I just figured that we would just take the bus. I am 22 so if the age is 21 then that would be great but if not bus will also work just fine even though it may not be the best way to travel.

Auto Europe is a consolidator that finds you the best rate from among the rental companies with which it has contracts. As the paragraph I quoted implies, one or more of those companies might require a person to be older to rent a fancier car. Check the Auto Europe site and call their US toll-free number to get all your questions answered.