We purchased an Ireland road trip through Groupon; this was our experience while planning
- Abigail Gaston
- Oct 21, 2018
- 6 min read
A few days ago, my boyfriend, Jeff, and I returned from a 6-day Ireland road trip. We purchased our Ireland adventure through Groupon Getaways approximately 3 months ago. The Groupon we bought really was the total package. It was an 8 day (6 days in Ireland and 2 traveling days) with round trip airfare, full bed and breakfast accommodations, and a rental car; all for only $799 each!
The travel company who owns the vacation deal on Groupon is Great Value Vacations. In order to complete the booking, after purchasing the Groupon, we had to navigate to the Great Value Vacations website and select our travel dates, as well as add any additional travel options.
We chose to add onto our vacation the 8 additional tour options package for only $99 (these are all self-guided tours). We also chose to add the VIP car insurance. The VIP car insurance certifies that if anything should happen to the vehicle while in our possession, we are not financially responsible; i.e. zero liability (I highly recommend this, especially in Ireland). Within 24 hours of scheduling our vacation, I received an itinerary confirmation which included our airfare, rental car, added tours, and a website to schedule our B&B's.
How to ensure you get your preferred seats on the airplane
Great Value Vacations presents you with a link titled “Check My Trip.” Here you will create an account and log in to check your flight status, etc. That said, I found it better to go straight to the airlines website to check my flight information,as well as change our seats to ones more preferred. You should be able to see your confirmed seats on the airlines website a few days after your itinerary is sent to you by Great Value Vacations.
Scheduling your B&B’s
Our first night in Ireland was spent at Roganstown Hotel & Country Club which is located about 15 minutes from the Dublin Airport and 20 to 25 minutes from Dublin City Center, traffic depending. Our hotel arrangements with Roganstown Hotel & Country Club were taken care of by Great Value Vacations.
The other five nights, however, we scheduled ourselves through the B&B Ireland website. B&B Ireland is sort of like an Airbnb website but Ireland specific. The hotel accommodations linked to the Great Value Vacations Groupon can only be reserved through B&B Ireland’s website. It is actually very easy; choose the Ireland city you wish to reserve a B&B in and a list will appear. Once you decide which B&B is most suitable to your vacation, enter the voucher number presented on your Great Value Vacations itinerary, click submit, and in just a few minutes you will receive a confirmation email with your chosen B&B.
The booking process in general is very quick; the part that takes the longest, at least for us, was deciding which B&B we wanted to stay in. The reason for this was that we wanted to make sure our B&B's would be within walking distance, for the most part, to the nearest city or village. Therefore, we used map quest to determine the ones within walking distance and then chose the one with the best rating from there.
Something to keep in mind when booking a B&B in or near Dublin is that there are not any approved for your Great Value Vacations Ireland trip that are within walking distance to Dublin City Center (where you really want to be). If this is not important to you, great! We wanted to be within walking distance of all the fun things to do and see in the city of Dublin and not worry about having to drive, so we chose to use Expedia and Hilton points to book hotels in Dublin City Center and Temple Bar District.
Additional Tour Vouchers
The optional 8 tours for $99 is actually a pretty good deal if you can make room in your itinerary for all 8 Ireland destinations. We were unable to fit two of the events into our itinerary and therefore likely lost out on a few bucks. That said, if you can fit them all in, you are getting all 8 at a discounted price with Great Value Vacations, then purchasing them individually. The additional tours are as follows:
- Trinity College and The Book of Kells exhibit
- Guinness Storehouse tour and tasting
- Christ Church Cathedral – Dublin
- Kilkenny Castle
- King John’s Castle
- Blarney Castle and Blarney Stone
- Bunratty Castle and Folk Park
- Cliffs of Moher
Rental Car
I highly recommend purchasing the VIP car insurance to go along with your rental car. It will cost you around $250; however, it is worth the added cost. Ireland roads are incredibly narrow and there are more S-curves and uneven terrain than I have seen in any other area we have driven.
Plus, there were many times where tree branches were dangling in our lane and traffic was coming toward us going the other direction, so we could not move over into the other lane to avoid the twigs brushing against the side of the rented vehicle. Also, parking lots and garages are very tight; new found Ireland local friends informed us that there are many fender-benders that take place and random scratches that accrue on cars in the parking lots and garages.
Oh, did I mention this happened to us? Yes, we were sideswiped in a parking structure. Thankfully, no dents occurred; just some paint smudges. The tight roads and trees were enough to justify VIP insurance, but the parking garage incident sealed the deal. Very thankful to have purchased it.
Travel Preparation
After choosing your B&B’s and possibly changing your airplane seats, there really is not anything you need to do after the Groupon purchase and Great Value Vacations trip confirmation. You do, however, need to go to the Great Value Vacations website prior to departing for your trip, login to your profile, and print off your travel vouchers. You will have one travel voucher for each hotel/B&B, one for your rental car, and one for each tour.
In regards to your flight to and from Ireland, make sure to checkout your airlines website to understand what is included on your flight. Great Value Vacations booked our flights with United Airlines out of Chicago's O'Hare international airport. We had a straight flight to Dublin from Chicago; the flight duration was 7 hours. This flight included in-flight entertainment via a seat back monitor screen and all the latest movies, television shows, games, and so on.
On the way home from Dublin, our United Airlines flight did not have seat back entertainment. They did, however, have free streaming of all the same movies, etcetera, to your own personal devise (cell phone, tablet, lap top). In order to utilize the free streaming, you must download the United Airlines app and the app must be downloaded before the airplane takes off; once in the air you cannot downloaded it. Make sure to research your flight and its offerings. 7 hours on an airplane goes by much quicker when you have something to keep you entertained throughout the duration.
Overall, the purchase, travel confirmation, and preparation process was incredibly easy. Our vacation taken through Great Value Vacations was quite the memorable experience. Our favorite thing about this vacation package is that it allows you to create your own itinerary at such a low cost.
This travel itinerary has an open schedule. This means that you can either schedule and book everything ahead of time or book on the road while on the go. We chose to plan out our itinerary and book everything ahead of time. That said, we did make a few changes to our travel itinerary while in Ireland and it was incredibly easy to alter our plans via the B&B website and through email to our previously chosen B&B's.
I highly recommend this Ireland road trip vacation package through Great Value Vacations. You really have so much control over it and can make it your own. Pack your itinerary with as much as possible, or get the big Ireland events in but keep it pretty relaxed too, or plan nothing and just wing it; this Ireland vacation truly is built for all.
The vacation package I purchased has expired; however, there is a similar one through the same travel company that can be located here! If you decide to add this trip to your upcoming vacations, I surely hope you share your journey or send questions our way; all you have to do is email us!
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