Planning

Obviously a trip overseas takes a lot of planning, and as this was the first one we'd taken together, we did a lot of it. We started early (over 6 months before we left) by gathering books-both informational and inspirational-finding flights and places to stay, renting a car, and figuring out our top locations that we wanted to visit. We came up with a list of things we really wanted to see, then came up with a strategy of seeing those things. Below is a list of the tools we used during the planning stages.

Websites we used

Vacation in Ireland (official tourist site for Ireland): This website is actually a really useful website. We used it to search for B&Bs, which we stayed in exclusively during our stay. Spend a lot of time browsing the site, and also ask them to send you a B&B package (for free) that will help you choose which ones you want to stay in. It's also got a great trip-planning feature to save all of the places you want to stay in and things you want to see. Definitely recommend it.

Kayak.com: This is a great website for finding the cheapest flights and rental cars. We used this to book both.

Books we read (from the library)
Rick Steves' Ireland Rick Steves is a must-have for travel, and always has great tips. We used this to help to know what to expect in the different places we wanted to stay, as well as the best times to go to different places (like when the Guinness Storehouse is the least crowded).

Rebels of Ireland by Edward Rutherford is a great read (according to Amanda-I didn't get around to this one) for people who like to read historical fiction. It's always nice to know a little bit about where you're visiting though!

How the Irish Saved Civilization is a great book (with only a slightly inflated title) that taps into the character of Ireland and highlights some of the historical narrative of the Irish people in the "isle of saints and scholars." Entertaining, informative, and easy to read.

I Never Knew That About Ireland makes great bathroom reading before the trip, and was actually a useful one to take along with us. Broken down by province, it has a lot of interesting tid bits that make a tour guide redundant. It was a Christmas gift that turned out to be more informative than I had hoped.

Brendan is another historical fiction book about St. Brendan which tells the (possible) story of his trip to North America, with the history and mythology surrounding St. Patrick interwoven into the story. Another of Amanda's recommendations. In a later post I'll show a picture from our visit to the spot that he set sail from on the Western coast.

Apps we downloaded
The first time we went I didn't have an iPhone, but on our trip to the UK this summer I plan on getting it activated for use in the country, primarily for Google Maps Mobile. In Boston this last summer this app was a lifesaver, giving us the quickest route times for buses and trains and allowing us to leave the car at the hotel our entire stay. We did, however, have an iPod, on which I downloaded the Dublin Bus app (now available for free) and got around quite easily using public transport in Dublin, although Google Maps may make this app irrelevant now.

If you're going to be staying any length of time in Dublin, I recommend Lonely Planet's Dublin app, which will give you a great descriptions of everything from great pubs to which museums are the most underrated (here's a freebie: it's the Chester Beatty Museum). This app will also let you know which places are worth eating at and which ones are best bypassed. While we didn't go to Belfast, I'm sure the app they have for it is worth the $5.99 as well.

These are just some of the things you will want to use when planning your own trip. In the end we found that we wanted to go around the entire island, starting in Dublin and ending in Dublin. On the map we made a huge counter-clockwise circle, with a lot of stops along the way. Hopefully some of the following posts will show the benefits of our planning, while also saving you some of the research time that we've spent already!