This is a trip I’ve wanted to take for ages, and now we have an incentive. The accordion player in our band will be in Moville Ireland for most of August and he and his wife have invited Charlene and me to stay with them in the house they’re renting. We’d hit some sessions in the pubs at night and do some playing which should be amazing.
What we’d like to do is take two weeks (longest vacation in my life!), see some of Scotland, then head over to Ireland and up to Moville, seeing sights along the way.
I can figure out getting a flight to Scotland, but beyond that have no idea how to proceed. Something along the lines of getting a car and driving from inn to inn would be nice. Getting from Scotland to Ireland is a question.
Any and all advice on how to plan and implement this trip would be most welcome. Are there travel agents who can help set up an itinerary? I have no idea how to start.
You fly into Glasgow or Prestwick or Edinburgh?
You gonna hire a car?
There is a car ferry from Stranraer (SW Scotland) to Larne (near Belfast) (Stena Line).
Or from Cairnryan to Larne (P&O Ferries). Cairnryan is very close to Stranraer.
1 hour sailing, 6 or 8 crossings a day.
Some car hire companies let you return a car in a different city, if you plan to fly out from somewhere else.
Check out http://www.europcar.co.uk/. They used to be best for price, better than Avis or Hertz.
Two weeks is not much to see Scotland and Ireland. Scotland in a week is too tight IMHO, you can spend it all in the car. Depends what you want to see I guess.
Do what the tour companies do and call it a “Taste of Ireland and Scotland”. Then you won’t have to worry about not seeing it all, which is more than enough reason to plan another trip in the future.
If you fly to Edinburgh, you can take a day to see some of it, hire a car, drive some smaller roads through the borders towards Dumfries, on through Galloway to Stranraer or Cairnryan, fetch the ferry to Larne, then Belfast and accross N. Ireland to Moville. You can do the trip from Edinburgh to Moville in a day, or break it up as you please. Plenty of B&B places everywhere. Way back you could go via Glasgow, to see the city, or just for a faster road to Edinburgh.
I know nothing about how car drivers think and am not very interested in helping anybody use a car here, but if you want to see Scotland using public transport (which is what I use) I might have some suggestions.
It’s been thirty years since I was on the Larne Stranraer Ferry, and I would cheerfully go another thirty years. Of course it could all be different now. It is short. That is its virtue.
The Antrim Coast road is something to see. Most coast roads - in the UK at least - tend to be at least half a mile from the coast. The Antrim Coast road is not like that… You could take the ferry and drive up the coast all the way to Moville, and that would be a journey you would remember. Lots to see along the way.
I’ve toured Scotland by bus, and Scottish bus drivers are friendly and considerate in ways I’ve not encountered in buses elsewhere. It’s a fair suggestion.
The cost of ferry transport, if you take a car, is exorbitant in August (nearly $400 return at current rates). You would be better flying into Scotland, hiring a car here for when you are in Scotland, fly to Belfast and hire a car there for use in Ireland and fly home from Belfast.
Just a guess on my part but I would think this would be the most stress free way of travel. And I’m curious, what type of folks would be rinding public transport in this country. The woman who sits next to me at work regularly has to ride the public transport home and she occasionally does performance art of the people who have only a slight grip on reality and manners. She should be on stage. Maybe commuter public transport in the USA is less eventful.