Update

So there have been questions on the budget, timeline, etc. The timeline is basically as follows:

25-arrive Dublin

26-Dublin

27-Dublin-Berlin

28-Road Trip

29-Road Trip

30-Road Trip

31-Road Trip

1-Road Trip

2-Road Trip

3-Paris

4-Paris

5-Paris

6-Paris

7-Paris

8-Paris-Dublin

9-Dublin-USA

 

As for the budget, a rough estimate of:

Hotels: $150 USD a night per couple

Food: $100 USD a day per couple

 

Transportation will already be taken care of, so there are a few misc things like airport transfers, metro passes, etc that will be added on. As for activities, the nor cal contingent is planning $100 USD per couple per day on average. That being said, when Amber wants to buy a 500e chandelier in Paris and have it shipped for another 100e, we will need to use 8 days of activity money to offset this wonderful purchase... not that we would EVER do something like that.

KLu

Schedule / Dates

25-arrive Dublin, overnight

26-Dublin, overnight

27-Dublin-Berlin, overnight

28-Berlin

29-Berlin-Rothenberg/Romantic Road

, overnight (4 hr drive)

30-RR-Rhine River, overnight (2 hr drive)

31-Rhine River/Colmar/Baden Baden/Black Forest, overnight (2:30 hr drive)

1-Rhine River/Colmar/Baden Baden/Black Forest, overnight

2-Colmar-Paris, overnight (4 hr drive)

3-Paris, overnight

4-Paris, overnight

5-Paris, overnight

6-Paris, overnight

7-Paris, overnight

8-Paris-Dublin, overnight

9-Dublin-USA

A little closer yet...

$799 -- Spring in Ireland: Ritz-Carlton 6-Night Trip w/Air

By Candace Hilbert
Travelzoo Staff, New York

A six-night stay at a Ritz-Carlton for under $1000 is a hot deal. Now throw in roundtrip air to Ireland, a rental car and spring travel dates -- all for $799 per person -- and it’s a jaw dropper.
Depart Mondays or Tuesdays, March 12 - April 30 to get:

• Roundtrip airfare to Dublin from New York City; +$20 Boston; Chicago +$70
• Six nights at the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt in spacious Deluxe rooms
• Rental car with unlimited mileage
• Upgrade an automatic car with GPS and get a suite at the Ritz for $75 per person
• 20% discount on all treatments at the on-site ESPA Spa

Located 16 miles outside of Dublin, the Ritz provides both countryside serenity and easy access to the city. Play a round at one of the two on-site golf courses or hop in the rental car to take a day trip to Kilkenny, Waterford or Belfast.
KLu

One Way Flights: IAD to DUB and CDG to JFK

Today on Aer Lingus:
June 2nd, One Way Flights, from Dulles IAD to Dublin DUB = $800 per person
June 7th, One Way Flights, from Dulles to Dublin = $800 per personJune 9th, One Way Flights, from Dulles to Dublin = $830 per person

Aer Lingus doesn't fly Paris back to Dulles, so we'd have to do Paris CDG to New York JFK. It also looks like its not a direct flight, that we'd fly Paris to Dublin to JFK.

Today on Aer Lingus:
June 16th, One Way Flights, from Paris CDG to JFK = $550 per person
June 21st, One Way Flights, from Paris CDG to JFK = $620 per person

So doing the One Way flights, this way it would cost about $1,350-$1,450 per person.

The other option is that a One Way flight from Paris to Dublin = $90.00 per person and takes 45 minutes, so we could buy Round Trip flights IAD to DUB and also a One Way from CDG to DUB for a total of $1,090-$1,140 per person.

Savings of $260-$310 per person.

How FUN is all this coordination?!
KDiego

Flights DUB to SXF

Sticking to the days/travel in KLu's "a baby guinness shot" post, on Day 5 we would fly Dublin to Berlin, Germany.

Today on Aer Lingus: Flights from DUB to SXF are $58.00 $78.00 per person on Monday June 13th (Day 5 if Day 1 is June 9th). Funny because the flight is actually only half of that but the taxes and fee charges make up the other half. FYI that's 2 bags per person on this flight.

You know what...I just realized those are probably all in Euros not Dollars...oops. I need to re-calculate that.
Today 1 Dollar = 0.741053 Euros / 1 Euro = 1.34943 Dollars.

And I also just realized that we need 1 way to DUB and then 1 way Paris back to USA. So I'll need to re-calculate that too. ugh

KDiego

Flights JFK to DUB

So I'm doing a little flight research, just to get a better idea of total trip cost (and mostly to make sure my budgeted $4k is going to actually be enough).

Today on Aer Lingus: Roundtrip Flights from New York to Dublin are roughly $775 $1,050 per person (That's leaving on June 2 and returning on June 23, which is a 21 day trip and I think a bit longer than what we're looking for, but you get the idea). I'm not sure if that's a sale, it doesn't seem like it, but it sounds like a really great decent price nevertheless.

Leaving Thursday, May 26th and returning June 9th (15 days) is roughly $745 $1,000 per person.
Leaving Thursday, June 9th and returning June 23rd (15 days) is roughly $775 $1,050 per person. (This timeframe is kinda my preference right now).
Basically what I'm getting at is that dates and number of days are flexible, all giving us $800 $1,050 per person to get to Dublin.

Looks like the cheapest days to travel are Monday through Thursday. So we probably need to decide if we want to do that, to save some cash, or if we want to travel on the weekends, to save some vacation days. And its looking like the savings is only about $30 $40 round trip/per person, so I don't care either way (cash vs vacation days).

OH WOW - It's actually much cheaper to fly out of Dulles IAD! June 9th through June 23rd from IAD to DUB is only $685 $925. And IAD is actually much better for The Diegos because we're planning to use my free SWA flights to get from west coast to east coast, and SWA flies to IAD but not to JFK or Chicago O'Hare (they do LaGuardia and Midway though, so we could make it work if we had to).

KDiego

Closer... This can be good through June 15.

$599 -- Ireland in Spring: 3-Bedroom House, Car & Air

Spring vacation to Ireland for $599 per person, including a six-night stay in a three-bedroom cottage and more.
Depart March 27 - May 31 on the following days:

• New York City-Shannon on Wednesday or Sunday ... $599 
• New York City-Dublin on Monday or Tuesday ... $599
• Boston-Shannon on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday ... $629
• Boston-Dublin on Monday or Tuesday ... $629

This package, based on four travelers, features:

• Roundtrip airfare to Ireland
• Six nights in a three-bedroom private cottage at the Bunratty Castle Gardens
• Manual car rental with unlimited mileage (+$50 per person for automatic with GPS)
• One authentic Irish coffee at Durty Nelly's
• Travel June 1-15 for $100 more per person

The cottages of Bunratty Castle Gardens are set in a medieval village in County Clare. Visit the 15th century Bunratty Castle, historic Limerick, Galway, the awe-inspiring Cliffs of Moher or drive the Ring of Kerry. County Clare is also home to some of Ireland's top golf courses.

Blackout dates:  April 6, 13, 17, 27; May 4 (packages available at a higher price)
Book by Dec. 31.

KLu