How to Take Your Kids to Ireland--Time of Year and Booking Flights

Planning a trip to the Republic of Ireland with your family? Let our experiences traveling with two tween-agers help you see the country, meet locals, connect with history, and keep to a modest budget!

Previous: Introduction

 
Step 1: Decide When to Travel 

What time of year? 

If you're like us, you're probably looking at traveling in summertime when the kids are out of school. To avoid the biggest crush of tourists and to get slightly better prices, try to go as early in June as you can. We were there June 6th-21st and didn't have a problem with hordes (and even had a couple places mostly to ourselves).

 

Flowers blooming, jacket under arm just in case.

Although we only had three non-cloudy days, it wasn't particularly cold and it didn't get dark until after 11 p.m., so there's lots of daytime to explore. Plus, Irish schools were still in session, so while we ran into a couple museum field trip groups, the local families weren't holidaying yet. (If you're a homeschool family or have other flexibility, check Rick Steves' recommendations on other times of year to travel.) 

How long a trip?
Traveling overseas with children involves a lot of transition. Plan on two full days book-ending the trip to be "lost" to airplanes and airports. Then, factoring in the amount of time it takes to pack/unpack and adjust to time zones on either side of the trip, it would almost not be worth it for us to be gone less than two weeks. We were gone 2.5 weeks all-told, and that was perfect.

Step 2: Reserve Flights

There are many ways to go about choosing your flights. We chose the cheap way, which was certainly not the most comfortable way, and it wasn't as easy as calling a travel agent and saying, "Book something for me." BUT we got round-trip tickets to Dublin from the U.S. West Coast for about the same cost as flying from California to New York and back. Obviously, there are lots of factors for what will be available, but here's how I found the lowest-cost tickets out there:

• Use a search engine like Orbitz or Travelocity. I like Orbitz, because you can...
• Enter flexible dates. Prices fluctuate based on day of the week, so if you're not locked into exact dates for departure and return, you'll have more options. (If you're wanting to redeem or earn miles with a specific airline, you'll have to find out if they have blocked-off days.)
• Decide if you can handle flights with layovers. My sister with a toddler says, "Never again," but my tween kids handled one layover okay. IN FACT, we got a bonus 16 hours to explore Iceland, but that's another story. 
•  WARNING: Before you lose your head over a too-good-to-be-true price, double-check that it is round-trip, and find out exactly what the price includes. We got "unbundled fare" on Iceland's WOW Air, which means that the ticket price included our seats. That's it. No baggage, no cups of water, no headphones or movie screens, no breakfast. You get what you pay for, but this method can still be cheapest, even when you add in some of the "extras."
• Once you've found a flight that looks good, check that airline's website directly. It's possible they might have an even better deal.
• Pay ahead of time for baggage (almost never free for budget flights). Figure out how many bags you'll need and pay for them online, which is often cheaper than buying at the airport. See more about packing under "Luggage and Logistics."
• Opt out of paying to choose your seats if you're not picky. Don't worry, an airline is going to seat your family together automatically.
• It's up to you whether you pay a little extra for cancellation privileges. I went ahead and added it for peace of mind, and it didn't increase the total that much.

Luxury it is not, but it got us there!

Next: Steps 3-5: Dublin and Car Rental