CC Travels

Here are some tips and tricks I’ve learned through personal research to start an itinerary and save money while traveling.

Favorite Flight Tracking Websites:
-Kiwi: Great for flight deals, especially with the “Nomad” tool for multiple destinations.
-Google Flights: Reliable and user-friendly.
-SkyScanner: Excellent for comparing flight prices.

Important Reminder: Always clear your cache and search history before searching for flights to avoid price hikes.

Finding Flight Deals:
-Kiwi’s “Nomad” Tool: Ideal for planning multi-destination trips.
-Kayak Explore: Perfect for flexible schedules and spontaneous travel. It shows the cheapest travel times worldwide and can be customized by price, length of stay, and season.

How do you want to spend your time? Are you in it for the outdoor activities? Relax by the beach? Party so hard you can’t remember the entire trip? Historical landmarks? Foodie central? All of the above?

Commit to prioritizing your trip.

For my first self planned trip to Ireland, I split my itinerary into two major destinations as I didn’t want to overload my itinerary. I would have loved to have traveled up to Northern Ireland, but there was plenty to experience just from Dublin to Galway.

• Pick your Must-See’s and Must-Do’s (my personal list is below)
  • Dublin City Centre
  • NYE in Temple Bar
  • Cliffs of Moher
  • Kilmainham Gaol
  • St. Patricks Cathedral
  • Trinity College and Book of Kells
  • Ha’Penny Bridge
  • Glendalough Monastic Settlement
  • The Brazen Head
  • Quay Street in Galway
  • Kilmacduagh Tower in Gort
  • Rock of Cashel

As a beginner, I started with Inspirock and created my own itinerary specifically for Ireland. This site truly helped me plan 75% of this trip and it is a great resource. I selected 6 days in Ireland and was able to customize every little thing down to the very minutes spent at each location. It will show you the distance and travel time between each destination so you can plan out your means of transportation. Need ideas of what to do while you’re on your dream vacation? Don’t want to miss out on anything, but you’re not sure where to start? Like how do you know what NOT to miss out on if you don’t even know what you could be missing out on, ya know? Not sure how it will all squeeze into 24hrs? When will you eat? WHERE WILL YOU EAT? Trust me, use this site. Thank me later.

I broke up my own itinerary day by day, accommodated for the travel times in between cities, and I never once felt rushed or like I was missing out. Set your must-see’s and do’s and once you’ve got the strict guidelines set, it’ll be much easier to plan out the rest.

So now you’ve got your plane ticket and the rough draft of your itinerary planned out, what’s next?

Sleep, you’ve got to be able to sleep during your travels. Don’t fight me on this, between the jet lag and your brain trying to absorb every little moment, you’ll need to rest. I personally always need a schedule and that includes confirming where I’ll lay my head down at night. For that, I ONLY use Booking.com to find lodging. That includes hostels, apartments, B&B’s, hotels, and everything else in between. I’ve been using it for years and once you have completed 6 reservations all booked through the site, you get what’s called Genius membership benefits, for free. I am now at Genius level two, which provides me with additional discounts. A majority of places offer benefits such as a 10-15% discount, early check-in priority, late check-out, and a free drink upon check-in. You’re basically Beyoncé now.

*** If you book through my special link https://www.booking.com/s/35_6/652ccd93 upon reserving the deal, once you’ve checked out and finished the stay, we’ll both be credited $15 to our Booking.com accounts for any future reservation! Another way to save.

With my itinerary already planned out, I was able to reserve lodging months ahead of time to secure rooms. Booking.com is great for that because of a TON of free cancellation options. Read the fine print of each location, but most free cancellations are free up until a week or so of the reservation date. Give or take a few days. I’ve even had some reservations I could cancel within two hours of the check-in day without being charged. This is AMAZING for last-minute plan changes and comparing deals.

After splitting all of the lodging costs with my travel partner, Tom, it came out to about $300 (USD) each for the entire week. While that was a great budget for first-time trip planners, I could have brought it down to $100 each if we wanted to stay in hostels. It just depends on what kind of accommodations you want. Staying in the privacy of a hotel room with your own shower is preferred for comfort, but if you don’t plan on spending much time in your room other than to sleep at night, I would recommend looking into highly reviewed hostels. Find places that have breakfast included so you can save an additional $10-$30 a day. Also, learn how to pack. I brought an entire large suitcase and now looking back I wish I would have properly packed a small 40-50L carry on backpack. This minimalist option also stops the risk of an airline losing your luggage.

As for transportation, Tom handled that portion through Sixt car rentals as he was the only one of us with experience driving on the left side of the road. I don’t know the cost breakdown, but the process was very smooth and I would absolutely recommend using this rental company if you’re in Ireland.

Other minor details include checking your international phone plan options, researching traffic laws and basic signs (yes, they’re different), currency exchange (do this at the airport once you land, not while you’re still in your home country), proper clothing for expected weather, etc.

Another consideration in specific terms of Ireland, always plan for rain. I wish I would have focused more on practicality rather than fashion because honestly, no one cared about how cute my sweater was at the end of the day. However, I really really REALLY cared about not having a waterproof coat during a downpour or how tender my feet were in heeled booties. All things that have since been learned from.