After the Travel Guides
It took us a couple of months to identify the sites we wanted to see and the areas to visit. As we had been to Ireland before, we had seen a lot of the big tourist sites but some we wanted to revisit. Our next step was to locate our 1001 (just a slight.... exaggeration) must sees on a map of Ireland.
It's really good to have a map of Ireland that is all on one page and big enough to distinguish individual towns. That helps to give you an overall sense of the distances between sites and what sites are grouped together.
However, you also need a larger atlas that will show you specific areas in a larger format. We chose, Collins Ireland Comprehensive Road Atlas. We located each place we were interested in seeing using sticky notes while referencing our larger map as well. When we were finished we could tell at a glance which areas of the country held the most sites of interest for our trip.
Now comes the hard part. You have your overall budget... subtract the cost of your airfare and rental car...take that number and divide it by the estimated cost per day. Your daily budget should include lodging, food, gas, admissions, and souvenirs.
Budget
Total Budget. $8,000
Airfare @$1,000/person
Car Rental. $1,000 (estimating between $300 and $500/week)
Left $6,000
Accommodations using hotels or B&B's start at about 80 euro per night up to ? It's good to include breakfast when you book your accommodation. So we'll use 100 euro per night as a number. Add in 20 Euro for gas, 20 Euro for admissions, 60 euro for food so a good rule of thumb is 200 to 250 euro per day. This is not budget travel. You won't be staying in hostels or sharing a bathroom. If you want more expensive accommodations add more per day, less expensive subtract some euros.
For our sample budget we would take our $6,000 remaining dollars after airfare and car rental and divide that by our 200 per day and we would be able to stay 30 days. If you up the daily fare to 300, you could stay for 20 days. Make sure you add in the estimated exchange rate: dollars to euro as that will reduce your dollar amount. $6000 dollars now would be $4,870.74 Euro
4,870.74 Euro divided by 200 per day gives you a stay of 24 days and at 300 euro per day is about 16 days.
You get the idea.
It's a good idea to do the same thing with a bus tour. A two week tour is about $4,000 + airfare+meals that are not included. That's per person. So if there are two of you traveling, double the cost to $8000. Divide the total cost by the number of days and come up with a daily rate.
If you decide on the do-it-yourself route, read the next post.
It's really good to have a map of Ireland that is all on one page and big enough to distinguish individual towns. That helps to give you an overall sense of the distances between sites and what sites are grouped together.
However, you also need a larger atlas that will show you specific areas in a larger format. We chose, Collins Ireland Comprehensive Road Atlas. We located each place we were interested in seeing using sticky notes while referencing our larger map as well. When we were finished we could tell at a glance which areas of the country held the most sites of interest for our trip.
Now comes the hard part. You have your overall budget... subtract the cost of your airfare and rental car...take that number and divide it by the estimated cost per day. Your daily budget should include lodging, food, gas, admissions, and souvenirs.
Budget
Total Budget. $8,000
Airfare @$1,000/person
Car Rental. $1,000 (estimating between $300 and $500/week)
Left $6,000
Accommodations using hotels or B&B's start at about 80 euro per night up to ? It's good to include breakfast when you book your accommodation. So we'll use 100 euro per night as a number. Add in 20 Euro for gas, 20 Euro for admissions, 60 euro for food so a good rule of thumb is 200 to 250 euro per day. This is not budget travel. You won't be staying in hostels or sharing a bathroom. If you want more expensive accommodations add more per day, less expensive subtract some euros.
For our sample budget we would take our $6,000 remaining dollars after airfare and car rental and divide that by our 200 per day and we would be able to stay 30 days. If you up the daily fare to 300, you could stay for 20 days. Make sure you add in the estimated exchange rate: dollars to euro as that will reduce your dollar amount. $6000 dollars now would be $4,870.74 Euro
4,870.74 Euro divided by 200 per day gives you a stay of 24 days and at 300 euro per day is about 16 days.
You get the idea.
It's a good idea to do the same thing with a bus tour. A two week tour is about $4,000 + airfare+meals that are not included. That's per person. So if there are two of you traveling, double the cost to $8000. Divide the total cost by the number of days and come up with a daily rate.
If you decide on the do-it-yourself route, read the next post.
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