Sometimes, the deal is just too good.
It’s a warm and sunny Saturday here in Vancouver, a clear sign that winter is now well behind us. We’ve packed up our snowboards and winter gear, pressure washed our backyard patio and planted new flowers in the garden. Spring is now in full swing on Canada’s west coast. With the changing seasons come new travel opportunities, and this year is no different.
We’re excited to announce our next big family trip – we’re going to Ireland!
Why Ireland, you ask? Well, sometimes, when the deal is too good to pass up, you change your plans and take advantage a sweet deal.
Ireland has been on our radar for years, but, for some reason, something has always come up that prevented us from visiting. Most recently, we planned to attend the Rugby World Cup last year in England and we were going to include a stop in Ireland while in the area.
That trip didn’t end up happening, so we put it to rest and moved to other opportunities.
Over the past few years, many of our friends and fellow travel bloggers have traveled to Ireland and shared their stories. As we read their stories and flipped through their Instagram feeds, we couldn’t help but get excited about visiting this magical land.
Then, a few months ago, we learned that Cameron’s mother would be working in Dublin for several months, so we revisited the idea of traveling to Ireland. We jumped online and began researching flight options to see if a trip to Ireland was even feasible.
Traveling with 2 kids is expensive, especially when you’re flying over the Atlantic.
We prefer direct flights when we travel with our boys, and don’t mind paying more for this convenience, but there are limited options for direct flights from Vancouver to Europe.
Most flights go directly to London, Paris or Frankfurt, which is not far from Dublin, but, when you factor in layover times, it makes for an incredibly long travel day.
Here’s how it all came together.
On a whim, I checked with Aeroplan to see if I could find any direct flights from Vancouver to Dublin. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Air Canada Rouge is now offering direct flights from Vancouver to Dublin three times a week, beginning in June 2016.
We plugged in our ideal dates and did a double take – the direct flights to Dublin were only 36,000 miles and just over $300 in taxes. We couldn’t believe it!
We don’t typically think about redeeming our Aeroplan Miles for long-haul flights to Europe because the taxes are often way too expensive to make it worth while. Normally a flight to Europe requires over 60,000 miles and the taxes are over $500.
So, you can see why we jumped at this offer.
Big changes for Aeroplan members
Over the years, we’ve felt that there’s one glaring disadvantage to Aeroplan’s loyalty program – not being able to use Aeroplan Miles to pay for taxes. It’s a complaint many Aeroplan members have with the program.
When you redeem your miles, you don’t want to pay a bunch of taxes that, in some cases, are almost half the price of the normal airfare. We’ve been there. We’ve even opted to pay full price for flights and save our miles for another day because the taxes were too much.
But that’s all about to change.
As of April 1, 2016, Aeroplan now allows members to use their miles to pay for the taxes on flights. You can read about the new program here.
We’ve been waiting for this change for years and are happy the day is finally here.
We need your help!
We will be in Ireland for two weeks, beginning June 18. After a few days in Dublin we plan to pick up a rental car and road trip around the country. But we don’t know where to start.
Our boys have made it well known that they want to see a castle. We plan to explore as much of the countryside as possible, including visits to the Cliffs of Moher, Giant’s Causeway, Rock of Cashel and the Wild Atlantic Way.
Have you been to Ireland? What should we do? Where should we go? Is there a “must see attraction” that we should include on our itinerary?
We’re still in the early stages of planning the trip, so we welcome your feedback, travel tips and recommendations.
Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Photo credit for the Ireland photos in this post can be found by clicking on the image.
Disclosure – Aeroplan is one of our travel partners, however expressed opinions are entirely our own. We are long-time supporters and users of the Aeroplan rewards program.
We, fellow Canadians, were there a few years ago. Loved it!!!
Check out the articles on Travel To Little Known Places, Ireland. You might find a few helpful tips as a result of our misadventures. Smile..
Ireland has been on my list for years, so I am excited to read about your visit!
Ireland is wonderful! I’ve spent a lot of time there for business (just north of Dublin) and also then some vacation time after.
In terms of castles, my favorites are Malahide castle (restored and lived in not too long ago, there’s also a nice playground on the grounds, and beautiful gardens), Trim (in ruins), Rock of Cashel (in ruins), and Cahir castle (in ruins). Barryscourt castle is supposed to be nice too (and according to somewhere better than the nearby Blarney castle). I haven’t been, but Drimnagh castle is the only castle remaining with a moat still in place!
In Dublin, most of the museums are free. I enjoyed the National Museum of Decorative Arts and the Guinness storehouse more than I anticipated. The Cow’s lane market and Meetinghouse square markets are fun on Saturdays. And definitely make sure to eat at the Queen of Tarts! As in the rest of Europe, people tend to take eating out more serious than in America, so if you’re eating dinner late (especially on a weekend), I’d recommend making a reservation. If you want to eat early, a lot of places in Dublin have good early bird specials though.
South of Dublin, a classic day trip is to Powerscourt gardens and then to Glendalough to hike around (plenty of easy flat hiking for kids, but also some hills available!).
My favorite area of Ireland was the southwest, down in Dingle and near the ring of Kerry. I didn’t care much for Killarney as a town, so I’d recommend to instead split your nights between Dingle and Kenmare in that area. The ring of Dingle and ring of Kerry are wonderful scenic roadtrips, plan a day for each. Walking through the Gap of Dunloe is also beautiful, and you can also take a boat out onto the lake near there (and even bike-boat-bike from Killarney over the lake and the gap, but perhaps not with tiny ones). It wasn’t open when I was down in that area, but the Ewe Sculpture garden is on my list to visit one day, and it looks like it’d be fun for kids.
Galway is one of my favorite cities, although with kids I’m not sure how much of the nightlife you’d get to enjoy. At least check out Tig Coili for their afternoon trad sessions for some real Irish music. It’s drop-in with whatever instrument you have, so it’s always different. Galway’s main draw though is a good nightlife base for day trips, so if you’re not going to go out at night at all staying in a B&B in the countryside (like say in Doolin) may be better.
In northern Ireland, the Giant’s causeway is phenomenal. I had friends who stayed at a hotel across the road, and they got the coastline to themselves for over an hour first thing in the morning (in the afternoon the giant tour buses start showing up). Carrick-a-rede rope bridge is cool, but probably not kid-friendly. Belfast is a beautiful and fascinating city, I definitely want to go back and spend more time there.
Also, I think the ‘Ireland has bad weather’ is oversold. Yes, it’s never going to be sunny and 80 for even one day nevermind several, but I’ve spent multiple contiguous weeks there in March, April, May, and October, and the weather was absolutely beautiful the entire time. Sure it rained occasionally, but the periods of rain were generally short lived and really never the drastic downpours you see where I live (New England).
If you are going to be in Belfast be sure to check out Titanic Belfast. It is one of the most unique exhibits I have seen with lots of hands on and interactive areas for the kids to enjoy. I second the Queen of Tarts suggestion – fantastic little bake shop!
Wow guys … this sounds like the beginnings of an amazing summer vacation. hope the weather treats you well on the Emerald Isle!
As a Cork woman, I must insist that you visit the Ireland’s largest county. Kinsale, my hometown on the coast is a must. Great pubs, great food, great beaches, breathtaking scenery and so much to do.
When in Dublin, make sure you go to the Chester Beatty library, located in Dublin Castle, it’s a real treat.