London and Dublin with kids advice?

[laughinplace199]

We are thinking of taking a family vacation this summer and want to spend a few days in London, a few days in Dublin, and then we will visit DH's relatives in Galway.

Our kids are 17, 15, & 10. Any suggestions of must-do attractions in London and Dublin? I've never been to either city.

Thanks!

 

[BadPinkTink]

Waves hi, Im from Dublin, and have lived in London and Galway.

Theres a very broad scope, if you tell me what you are interested in I can advise you further eg, do you like historical things, museums, modern touristy stuff?

London is huge and has so much to offer, do you want to see the main tourist sights, go to a show, go shopping, do historical stuff??

How long will you be in each place?

Flying Round trip eg USA to London, London to USA or USA to Dublin, Dublin to USA or USA to Shannon (Galway), Shannon (Galway) to USA will be cheaper than USA to London, London to Dublin, Shannon (Galway) to USA.

For travel between Dublin and Galway will you be renting a car or using public transport. Do you just want to travel Dublin to Galway ( approx 3 hrs drive) motorway (freeway) straight through in one journey or break up the journey with an overnight somewhere in the middle of Ireland?

 

[laughinplace199]

Waves hi, Im from Dublin, and have lived in London and Galway.

Theres a very broad scope, if you tell me what you are interested in I can advise you further eg, do you like historical things, museums, modern touristy stuff?

London is huge and has so much to offer, do you want to see the main tourist sights, go to a show, go shopping, do historical stuff??

How long will you be in each place?

Flying Round trip eg USA to London, London to USA or USA to Dublin, Dublin to USA or USA to Shannon (Galway), Shannon (Galway) to USA will be cheaper than USA to London, London to Dublin, Shannon (Galway) to USA.

For travel between Dublin and Galway will you be renting a car or using public transport. Do you just want to travel Dublin to Galway ( approx 3 hrs drive) motorway (freeway) straight through in one journey or break up the journey with an overnight somewhere in the middle of Ireland?

Wow - you've lived in all of the places we will be visiting! How lucky for me that you saw this thread!

We are just in the early planning stages now. Will be going for 2 weeks in June. I'm guessing we will spend 3-4 days each in London and Dublin and the rest of the time with family in Galway. We want to hit the main tourist sights in London and Dublin. Additionally, in London, we definitely want to see a show. The thing that's slightly challenging is keeping all the kids interested since two are teens and one just turned 10.

I'm glad you mentioned the flights because our original thought was to do London, then Dublin, then fly home out of Shannon. Will rethink that!

I think we will rent a car to go straight from Dublin to Galway. Just not sure how much driving we want to do since driving on the opposite side of the road will be a new adventure for us.

 

[BadPinkTink]

ok, lets start with the flights. This would be my advice, based on having travelled to USA from Dublin, London and Shannon.

USA to Dublin round trip - Depart USA, land Dublin.
Option 1 - Land Dublin in the morning, collect bags, then get afternoon / evening flight to London
Option 2 - Land Dublin, collect backs, overnight at a hotel at Dublin airport, fly to London next day
Option 3 - Land Dublin, stay in Dublin for few days, then fly to London

Dublin to London round trip
This is a very regular commuter route, flights almost every hour with multiple airlines to all 3 London airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and London city. The flight time is approx 1 hour. The flights can be quite cheap, depending on how far in advance they are booked but checked luggage is not included in the flight price, its an add on extra. Checked luggage weight allowance is alot smaller than transatlantic checked luggage and they are also strict with carry on bag sizing.

London to Dublin
Option 1 - Fly London to Dublin, stay a few days in Dublin, use public transport to get around, then get rental car to drive to Galway
Option 2 - Morning flight, pick up rental car in Dublin airport, drive to Galway, arrive evening time

Dublin to Galway
Drive to Galway, stay a few days, Drive back to Dublin
Option 1- Leave Galway in the morning, get an evening flight to USA
Option 2 - Leave Galway at whatever time, stay over night at hotel Dublin Airport, fly back to USA next day.

The reason I am suggesting flying USA to Dublin, Dublin to USA is because
1. There are alot more options to fly from Dublin to London than from Shannon. Dublin is a London hub, Shannon is not
2. Dublin (and Shannon) have what is called USA Pre Clearance, London does not. This means that when you fly to USA from Dublin Terminal 2, you go though USA Homeland Security in Dublin airport. There is a second security clearance area for passengers flying direct to USA in Dublin Terminal 2. This means that when you land in USA you go directly to luggage claim and dont have to go through passport control.

 

[laughinplace199]

Wow. This is great info! Thank you!

DH and I will sit down tonight and look at these options. It'll be great to get started on the planning.

 

[BadPinkTink]

@laughinplace199 you are welcome. Get back to me with your thoughts about airlines and airports. The highest priority would be your USA to Dublin flights, then you can fit your Dublin to London flights around that.

 

[sunshinehighway]

You didn't mention where you are flying from. Norwegian has some really great deal from the US to London. It's bare bones so you pay extra for everything but it's worth looking at because they really have some great prices. Oh and if you play around with the currencies you may even get a better deal. I recently booked a roundtrip to London (nonstop) and ended up saving money by using the UK site and paying in pounds.

 

[laughinplace199]

You didn't mention where you are flying from. Norwegian has some really great deal from the US to London. It's bare bones so you pay extra for everything but it's worth looking at because they really have some great prices. Oh and if you play around with the currencies you may even get a better deal. I recently booked a roundtrip to London (nonstop) and ended up saving money by using the UK site and paying in pounds.

Thanks for the advice. I will shop around.

We are flying from Boston.

 

[saucymb]

My husband and I are planning to take this sort of trip with our 3 boys in 3-7 years. We want to do London, Scotland, and Normandy over about a 2 week period. When DH and I visited London a few years back, our favorite part of the trip for him (and surprisingly me as well) was the Imperial War Museum. If your family is at all interested in military history, especially 20th century military history, this is the museum to visit. We planned to spend 3-4 hours there, but ended up spending about 8 there I think and would have returned if we had had time later in the week.

I'm a former travel agent, and thus I have been "planning" this trip since my oldest was a toddler! Money is the biggest factor for us, but I have found that groupon has excellent travel deals. For example, right now there is a 10-day England/Ireland trip for $1100 per person (departures from JFK or Boston, a bit more if leaving from LAX). That includes airfare, car rental and 8 nights hotel. There is an option to extend as well. So for us, something like this would make really great sense with a little tweaking. There can be significant savings going this route.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[laughinplace199]

My husband and I are planning to take this sort of trip with our 3 boys in 3-7 years. We want to do London, Scotland, and Normandy over about a 2 week period. When DH and I visited London a few years back, our favorite part of the trip for him (and surprisingly me as well) was the Imperial War Museum. If your family is at all interested in military history, especially 20th century military history, this is the museum to visit. We planned to spend 3-4 hours there, but ended up spending about 8 there I think and would have returned if we had had time later in the week.

I'm a former travel agent, and thus I have been "planning" this trip since my oldest was a toddler! Money is the biggest factor for us, but I have found that groupon has excellent travel deals. For example, right now there is a 10-day England/Ireland trip for $1100 per person (departures from JFK or Boston, a bit more if leaving from LAX). That includes airfare, car rental and 8 nights hotel. There is an option to extend as well. So for us, something like this would make really great sense with a little tweaking. There can be significant savings going this route.

Good luck and have fun!

Great advice. Thank you!

Good luck with your planning!

 

[punkin]

This is funny. I just booked tickets to Dublin and am in the process of figuring out how to get to Great Britain.

 

[BadPinkTink]

This is funny. I just booked tickets to Dublin and am in the process of figuring out how to get to Great Britain.

Where in UK do you want to go to? www.ryanair.com and www.airlingus.com are the 2 main airlines from Dublin to UK.

Ryanair is the budget, no frills airline, similar to Southwest. They do flight only prices which can be very cheap, depending on how far in advance you book. During the online booking process you have the option to add 1 piece of checked luggage (15kg max weight) per person. Their carry on luggage is 1 piece per person and must have certain dimensions and be under 10kg. At the departure gate they can be very strict about carry on luggage and you will be charged a fee to gate check the carry on if it is over the dimensions. With Ryanair, they dont have check in desks in airports, so you check in online before you go to the airport and print out your own boarding card. If you loose your boarding card or dont print it out before you arrive at the airport they will charge you a fee to reprint your boarding card.

Air Lingus are a legacy / Irelands National airline. For their short haul routes to UK they operate very similar to Ryanair. Flights are cheaper the more in advance you book. They also have 1 piece per person carry on rule which must be certain dimensions and under 10kg. They also do the flight only pricing with checked luggage an add on extra during the booking process. They have 2 options for checked luggage 15kg max or 20kg max, each charged different prices. With Air Lingus you can check in online OR at the airport check in desks.

The flight time from Dublin to London is approx 1 hour. Both airlines serve light snacks / sandwiches which you pay for either with cash or card on the flight. Both Ryanair and Airlingus have hourly flights to London. For other places in the UK flights are less frequent around 4 times a day.

 

[punkin]

Where in UK do you want to go to? www.ryanair.com and www.airlingus.com are the 2 main airlines from Dublin to UK.

Ryanair is the budget, no frills airline, similar to Southwest. They do flight only prices which can be very cheap, depending on how far in advance you book. During the online booking process you have the option to add 1 piece of checked luggage (15kg max weight) per person. Their carry on luggage is 1 piece per person and must have certain dimensions and be under 10kg. At the departure gate they can be very strict about carry on luggage and you will be charged a fee to gate check the carry on if it is over the dimensions. With Ryanair, they dont have check in desks in airports, so you check in online before you go to the airport and print out your own boarding card. If you loose your boarding card or dont print it out before you arrive at the airport they will charge you a fee to reprint your boarding card.

Air Lingus are a legacy / Irelands National airline. For their short haul routes to UK they operate very similar to Ryanair. Flights are cheaper the more in advance you book. They also have 1 piece per person carry on rule which must be certain dimensions and under 10kg. They also do the flight only pricing with checked luggage an add on extra during the booking process. They have 2 options for checked luggage 15kg max or 20kg max, each charged different prices. With Air Lingus you can check in online OR at the airport check in desks.

The flight time from Dublin to London is approx 1 hour. Both airlines serve light snacks / sandwiches which you pay for either with cash or card on the flight. Both Ryanair and Airlingus have hourly flights to London. For other places in the UK flights are less frequent around 4 times a day.

I'm thinking fly into London and out of Edinburgh. Ryan air scares me a bit. we will have luggage since we're there for 2 weeks. I figure 2 bags of 23 kg for 4 people. I'll have 3 who travel light and 1 who can't leave home without dragging her whole closet and makeup cabinet.

 

[BadPinkTink]

I'm thinking fly into London and out of Edinburgh. Ryan air scares me a bit. we will have luggage since we're there for 2 weeks. I figure 2 bags of 23 kg for 4 people. I'll have 3 who travel light and 1 who can't leave home without dragging her whole closet and makeup cabinet.

instead of cramming everything into 2 bags, divide it up into 4 bags, 1 per person each under 20kg. 23kg /50 lbs is the max for transatlantic, but it will cost hugely for the short haul UK flights. On both airlines checked bag charges are €15 for 15kg bag, €25 for 20 kg bag. They charge €10 per kg over your weight allowance, so if you paid for 15kg bag on your booking but when you checked in your bag weighed 20kg you would be charged €50 extra at the check in desk.

For Ryanair
You can carry one cabin bag weighing up to 10 kg with maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm, plus 1 small bag up to 35 x 20 x 20 onboard the aircraft.

For Air Lingus
Cabin baggage must weigh less than 10 kgs / 22 lbs in total carried in one bag per passenger and be small enough to fit in an overhead bin or under your seat. The maximum dimensions for a cabin bag are 55cm x 40cm x 20cm

 

[sunshinehighway]

Thanks for the advice. I will shop around.

We are flying from Boston.

That's great. There are some really good flight options from Boston to either London or Dublin. They are both easy flights from Boston. Both Aer Lingus and Norwegian have overnight flights.

 

[Magpie]

I visited London with my daughter a couple years ago. I'd highly recommend researching the attractions you might want to see and purchasing your "must do" tickets ahead of time. For instance, you can get tickets for SeaLife (formerly known as the London Aquarium), the London Eye, Madame Tussaud's and the London Dungeon all packaged together for one price. (Check out www.thedungeons.com/london)

Then, once you've figured out your "must do"s, you can start to pull together a touring plan. For instance, the London Eye, the London Dungeon and the Aquarium are all right next to each other, and you can quite easily spend the entire day checking out all three.

Madame Tussaud's is near Baker Street, so make a great pairing for another day. Also, the London Museum is nearby (although personally I could spend days there!).

The Harry Potter Experience at Warner Bros Studios is a great deal of fun, but is a bit tricky to get out to if you're not used to navigating the trains. This is another one you'll need to purchase a ticket for, in advance, online.

The Tower of London is well worth seeing. Take your time and be sure to sit in on some of the presentations and tours ongoing throughout the day. As well as see the crown jewels! I considered this one a full day experience, but it really depends on your touring style. I like backstage-style tours and always sign up for whatever's available.

Find yourself a centrally located hotel near a tube station, and plan your routes on the underground ahead of time. You'll feel a lot more confident, if you know where you're going. We stayed at the Best Western Victoria Palace near Victoria station and got a great room rate, because we booked very early.

And, just like you're visiting Disney, you'll be fighting crowds, almost all year around. So, unless your pre-purchased ticket has a specific time on it, be sure to show up at least 20 minutes before the attraction opens.

By the way, you don't have to visit a specific attraction every day you're in London. Just exploring on your own is a great deal of fun, too. Walking around we saw the guard change at Buckingham palace, found Princess Di's memorial garden, saw people riding horses in the park, discovered a bookstore full of such rare old books that the proprietor had to buzz us in past a locked door to see them and ate at a cool restaurant where you ordered on your interactive table/screen.

Also, don't forget to take in a play, if you've got time! We saw Wooster and Jeeves in an immensely old theatre.

 

[Oh Kay!]

Our kids are 17, 15, & 10.

My kids (all boys) were exactly those ages when we visited London, Paris, and Normandy this past June. We spent 5 days in London (arrival day and 4 full days).
The sights that they loved the most were Tower of London, British Museum, and Churchill's Bunker.
We went to 3 shows: Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, The Play That Goes Wrong (slapsticky comedy) at Duchess Theater, and a piano concert at St. Martin-on-the-fields.
Unsurprisingly, they liked The Play That Goes Wrong the best though they enjoyed the others as well.

 

[laughinplace199]

My kids (all boys) were exactly those ages when we visited London, Paris, and Normandy this past June. We spent 5 days in London (arrival day and 4 full days).
The sights that they loved the most were Tower of London, British Museum, and Churchill's Bunker.
We went to 3 shows: Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, The Play That Goes Wrong (slapsticky comedy) at Duchess Theater, and a piano concert at St. Martin-on-the-fields.
Unsurprisingly, they liked The Play That Goes Wrong the best though they enjoyed the others as well.

Great info. Thanks!

 

[K and K's Mommy]

We are also going to London this summer!! That said, my mom is doing most of the planning with a travel agent because she and my dad are taking us and my brother's family for her 70th birthday, their 50th anniversary. I have one day to plan before we meet up with everyone.

My kids (all boys) were exactly those ages when we visited London, Paris, and Normandy this past June. We spent 5 days in London (arrival day and 4 full days).
The sights that they loved the most were Tower of London, British Museum, and Churchill's Bunker.
We went to 3 shows: Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, The Play That Goes Wrong (slapsticky comedy) at Duchess Theater, and a piano concert at St. Martin-on-the-fields.
Unsurprisingly, they liked The Play That Goes Wrong the best though they enjoyed the others as well.

Did you like the Globe Theater? My kids have put that on the short list before we meet up with my brother's family. I think my 15 and 17 year old would enjoy it, but not sure about 12 year old.

 

[Oh Kay!]

We all liked the Globe very much. Just sitting in the theater is an experience. DS10 obviously didn't understand everything he saw, but he wasn't bored. I think it helped that we saw a comedy, with a lot of sight gags.