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Add-on destinations to Heart of Ireland trip; getting from London to Shannon

Posted by on

Good evening!

I'm signed up for the 8 day Heart of Ireland tour this fall, and I'm trying to plan on a couple of additional destinations. So far the best flight options for me (in terms of flights & times) is to fly roundtrip into London. So I'm planning to arrive a couple days early and explore London. I'm guessing that flying from London to Shannon would be the best option. Would it be feasible to fly out early in the morning on the 1st day of the tour, then take the short bus trip to Ennis? Or would you suggest getting to Shannon the day before?

Secondly, I'd like to go to Paris from Dublin after the end of the tour for a couple of days. In terms of transportation from Paris to London for my return flight home, would you suggest taking the train or flying?

Thank you in advance!

Posted by
585 posts

For your flights look at a multi-city booking, flying into London and then fly out of Paris for the trip home. Usually is no more expensive than booking a round trip ticket to say London and then having to add on cost of getting back to London not to mention the time that would take…

Posted by
2367 posts

I would fly into Ireland getting there the day before your tour. Then when tour is over fly to London for a few days then Eurostar or flight to Paris and home from there. I think it would be just as cheap as what you have planned. Book directly with the airline. It is called multicity. Whatever you decide I would not take a chance of trying to fly into Ireland the day the tour starts. Air travel. Is so unpredictable these days.

Posted by
2469 posts

I took this tour in Sept 2017. We flew from JFK to Shannon arriving on the day of the tour, just hours before our first group meeting. I did this only because I was with a friend who was adamant about saving money on hotels. Our flight from JFK was delayed several hours so we were lucky to arrive when we did. It was easy to get a taxi from Shannon to our hotel in Ennis. Do yourself a favor and arrive at least a day early. Ennis is interesting and fun to explore. Great place to chill out. After the tour, we flew to London using BA for five days then flew home from Heathrow.

As the others have said, book your flights multi-city. I’m sure there are flights from Dublin to Paris. Then you could fly home from Paris - remember it costs money to get back to London to fly home.
Nowadays you will be playing Russian roulette to plan to arrive for a tour on the first tour day.
Enjoy this tour, it’s wonderful!

Posted by
504 posts

It's probably feasible to fly from London to Shannon the morning of the tour and then the bus to Ennis. However, Ennis is an evocative town, medieval Ireland at its best. If you go the day before, you won't regret it.

If your tour goes to Kilkenny, it's another town that evokes medieval Ireland.

The Paris-London train is fun. I'd take it for that reason aline. However, if you're rushed, then take the flight.

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