Minion Monies: How much did my trip to Ireland Cost?

The following will be an accounting of my 2022 trip to Ireland. If you’ve not read the blog, you can do so here. Or if you want a summary of the entire trip you can check that out here. It might provide some extra context to the costs below! All prices will be in Canadian (or converted into Canadian when it shows up on my CC bill). 

The Transportation ($1364.28)

The Flights ($1017.56 + 250 eUpgrade Fee)

Flying Air Canada to Dublin serves two purposes for me. Firstly, it allows me to take advantage of a promotion Air Canada is having that doubles the status qualifying miles and dollars for all trips to Europe:

While I normally don’t pick flights due to qualifying for status, the opportunity to get a priority reward which I can then apply for future travel is quite lucrative. Additionally, I can also apply eUpgrade credits to the flight. This allows me to upgrade into Premium Economy for a small fee and a more comfortable transatlantic flight.

Altogether, the flights cost me $1267.56 round trip to Dublin from Vancouver.

Trains  ($61.09)

My original round trip train tickets between Dublin and Belfast cost $44.29. However, because I arrived at the Dublin train station a little earlier, I ended up refunding my outbound leg ($23.74) and purchasing an earlier one way ticket to Belfast which cost $40.54.

Altogether my train tickets cost $61.09 after everything is added up. I’m thankful to the staff at the Belfast train station because this very call could have cost more. But they were kind enough to let me board the train with my “unprinted” return ticket. To read about that experience click here.

Buses ($48.36)

Upon arriving in Dublin, I booked a round trip bus ticket to Galway and back. This ticket was with GoBus and cost $48.36.

The other bus is with AirCoach. Thankfully one of their stations is right outside my Dublin hotel, so catching this bus back to the airport for my return flight was really easy. This bus cost $9.53.

Adding both bus tickets together we arrive at a cost of $48.36

Total Transportation Costs

Accommodations ($1044.23)

I based on travels out of three cities for this trip. So that means three hotels:

In Galway, I stayed at The Lane Boutique Residence.

For two nights in Galway this hotel cost me $292.66

Moving over to Belfast, I stayed at a small hotel in the centre of the city called The Flint.

I also stayed two nights here and it cost me $314.51

Finally, back in Dublin I stayed at a newer hotel called Point A Hotel Dublin. I stayed three nights and it cost $959.06.

While there is a bit of sticker shock with this price, I did end up applying some TD reward points to credit back $522 back which brings the cost of this hotel for three nights to $437.06

Total Accommodation Costs 

Food and Beverage ($474.68)

Thankfully, this Irish trip is one of the first trips that I’ve tried to note the cost of all of my food expenses (in anticipation of writing this article!) So I actually have a fairly exact number for the cost of most of my food this time! The total includes both meals, some groceries and a few drinks from different places. Altogether the food for this trip cost a total of $474.68

Miscellaneous Expenses ($317.08)

I did have a fair bit of miscellaneous expenses for this trip. I did end up paying for a fair bit of activities, experiences and day tours. Listed below is a bit of an accounting of the different things and it’s cost:

• Cliffs of Moher ($80.54)

• The Giant’s Causeway ($39.82)

• Titanic Belfast ($33.47)

• Book of Kells ($25.20)

• Guinness Storehouse Experience ($52.59)

• Jameson Whiskey ($85.46)

In total our Miscellaneous expenses come out to $317.08

Totals

If you add everything up:

We get a grand total trip cost of $3200.27. Averaging this out over 9 days we get $355.59 per day. This is a bit on the high side. While I did enjoy the trip, I did find it a bit pricey. I think this is to be expected since Ireland is considered one of the more expensive European cities to live and visit. In addition, with a weaker Canadian dollar the post conversion “sticker shock” also set in when I started reviewing the expenses. So it for sure should be a consideration if you plan on doing a similar trip.

Hopefully if you’re still reading to this point you find this helpful! If there is extra information you’d like to know, or have suggestions on how this can be done better, please feel free to drop a comment below and let me know!