An Irish Aviation Enthusiasts day out – with Irish Ferries and Aer Lingus
Or Train vs Plane – The Irish Edition
In this adventure
- Cheap flights? Not at £95 one way…
- Birmingham to Holyhead with London Northwestern Railway and Transport for Wales
- Irish Ferries Holyhead to Dublin Ferryport (Club Class)
- Morning Adventures in Dublin
- Irish Aviation Enthusiasts Day hosted by Dublin Airport
- Back to being a passenger in T2/T1
- Aer Lingus Regional EI3276 Dublin to Birmingham
- 25 hours and 36 minutes later
- Embracing the Community
Editors notes: It’s your friendly awake, sleep deprived and mostly caffeine driven writer and editor Kevin here. Whilst the Singapore and Bangkok trip report is taking more time than I would like (mainly as it’s actually quite hard to marry up images to posts – especially when your hard disk is nearly full) the following trip report actually flowed rather quickly from my fingertips, into Google Chrome, past Grammerly and into the edit suite. (Event the photos were easy to slip into this). As such, this trip report will slip in when I’ve got a minute to hit the publish button (as opposed to others which need creative writing or images put in the right place).
Bottom Line: I’m going to try publishing two trip reports at once. This always ends in comedy.
The usual rules about grammar, spelling and everything else applies otherwise. Now sit back as I put myself through the “fun” of SailRail…
Cheap flights? Not at £95 one way…
Earlier this year, Dublin Airport kindly reached out to me and asked if I would like to attend an Aviation Enthusiasts day, held by the airport team.
Well, the simple answer of yes comes to mind.
With the date of the 28th September locked in, nasty part hit – flights. Or rather the lack of thereafter. Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus prices went through the roof when I look for the outbound segment, leading to a question of flying in the night before.
Whist the flight prices were good, the hotel prices… well. Put it like this: I need to become a hotelier in Dublin. It’s the easiest way to become a millionaire from the looks of things
With my options diminishing, there was one ray of hope – why not take the train and boat.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to another edition of Train vs Plane (with the plane going to win hands down this time, but that’s beside the point. Let me have my fun.
SailRail has been a thing for many years – with the London – Dublin route the home of the Irish Mail train… the traditional route between the two capitals. This is offered both with Stena Line and Irish Ferries.
From Birmingham, both are £39.50 one way. Not a bad price at all (and near enough the same price as my flight).
As for the return flight, it’s the 6 pm from Dublin – yes, another Aer Lingus Regional flight on an ATR72-600. Why this flight instead of a Ryanair flight? It gets me home at a reasonable time… which came in at a reasonable £38 or so.
And considering sleep would be a precious commodity this trip – it would be helpful to get home in comfort.
So, lets head… to the train…
And Sail away, sail away, sail away…
Sail away, sail away, sail away…
(C’mon. I could not resist that).
Next: Trains and Broken Laptops
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