Ireland–Getting there

With our tenth anniversary quickly approaching, Paul and I wanted to take a special vacation to celebrate.  We discussed going to the wine country of California and back to New York.  While these discussions were ongoing I got the weekly TravelZoo email and an offer from Aer Lingus Vacation Store was at the top of the list.  It was a Castles of Ireland Vacation with six nights of luxury.  Sounded appealing.  I forwarded to Paul to see if he was interested.  After a bit of discussion and checking with the grandparents to see if they could keep the kids – we booked it in mid September!

Here is the short description of the trip from the Aer Lingus site.

Our new Castles of Ireland package is a unique Ireland vacation which combines popular areas of Ireland with the special experience of spending the evenings in Castle Hotels. Travelers will spend their first night at Dunboyne Castle, located within easy access of the airport and just outside of Dublin. The next day, start discovering hidden gems all around Ireland including 5-star Kilronan Castle in the north and 5-star Dromoland Castle in Clare, perfect bases to explore picturesque Ireland. For your final night, travelers will return back to Dublin for a night in charming and friendly Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel. Spend your nights like true royalty; while enjoying all of major sites and hidden spots waiting to be discovered!

• Day 1: Depart USA to Dublin, Ireland
  Day 2: Spend your first night at Dunboyne Castle, located just outside of Dublin
• Day 3 - 4: Next stop is Roscommon, where you will be staying at 5-star Kilronan Castle Hotel for two nights
• Day 5 - 6: Move south to County Clare to the beautiful village of Newmarket-on-Fergus and 5-star Dromoland Castle for a two night stay
• Day 7: Back in Dublin you'll spend you final night at Fitzpatrick
• Day 8: Depart Dublin, Ireland to USA

Our travel dates were November 12-20.  We left the Tuesday before the week of Thanksgiving and returned the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We thought the timing would be great because we would essentially get two weeks off and have time to spend with the kids after our return from Ireland and before our return to work.  Timing ended up being okay, but not awesome.  I had been positioning with a client (TRA) for a few years and we received a RFP late in the week prior to our departure that was due the week I returned.  Thanks to Ken Hall being willing to lead the proposal effort, we were able to continue on with our plans.