Christmas Shopping in Ireland
“Happy Christmas” as the Irish would say in English or “Nollag Shana Duet” as the Irish would say in Irish (Gaelic). Either one will work during your Christmas Shopping Trip to Ireland.
Preposterous? Hardly. Many people make an annual Christmas shopping trip to New York. Consider the cost of your transportation to NYC, add the high cost of the hotel rooms and consider how much you spent on the tickets for a Broadway show. Not exactly a bargain!
Too far to travel for a short trip? Those that live in the Northeast go to the West Coast for a weekend. A flight to Ireland takes about the same amount of time! Why not mix it up a little this year with a shopping trip to the Old Sod?
You could do the trip in three nights but why not stretch it to four since your biggest expense is the flight? Round trip flights and a four star hotel will cost you as little as $1050 to go to Dublin, $1300 to go Belfast and $1175 if you choose the shortest flight to Shannon and spend your nights in Galway. Bump it up to a 5 star hotel right in the center of the Dublin shopping district for another $300. By the way, all of these prices are per person sharing.
If you’re concerned that four (or even three) days of shopping in the same city is too much, go to another city. If you fly into to Dublin, you can get to Belfast in a little under two hours and Galway in a little more than two hours. Or you could fly to London, Edinburgh or Glasgow for the day for under $200.
If you do choose Dublin and get tired of shopping there is plenty to do. There are several excellent walking tours to choose from including a Historical Walking Tour, Traditional Irish Musical Pub Crawl, the 1919 Rebellion Walking Tour and my favourite, A Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. There are also several excellent museums and exhibits including the famous Guinness Storehouse. Finally, there are several Michelin starred restaurants and no trip to Dublin is complete without a visit or two to the pubs!