This is the day we have been waiting for ever since our plane took off from Dublin Airport on March 18, 2020. Americans will soon be able to vacation in Ireland for the first time in over a year! We have been waiting to write this post for about 10 days because the details were not clear, and we wanted to make sure the government would not change its mind as a result of the increase in the 7 day rolling average case count in Ireland. We now think it is likely the date will be honored since we are so close to the published date.

Picking out what to bring to Ireland is a major part of the travel preparation process. While I do not claim to be as much of a packing wizard as some travel guides, I do have enough experience to be at least a little helpful. If you are not sure what to pack or you need some new ideas because you have been using the same packing list for years, here is the one I have perfected over our last couple of trips.

The title of this post is one of the most common questions we are asked by friends and family. I think this is mostly because they are confused about how we can afford to go to Ireland once every year or so for two weeks at a time. The real answer to that is that I (Ryan) am a miles and points nerd, but that is a topic for another post. You are probably here to see how much you should budget for your trip. The easiest way to do that is to tell you how much we spent on one of our last trips. 

Picture this: you have just landed in Dublin and it’s about 9:00 in the morning. You have been advised to stay awake all day to better acclimate to the time change, but that seems like a daunting task after an overnight flight.