With London behind us we forged onward through the English countryside to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, for a few days before catching a short flight to Dublin, Ireland. Both cities offered their own unique taste, both literally and figuratively. Read on for my Travel Hack Recap: Europe, Part 4 – Edinburgh & Dublin below!
Full disclosure: I’m not sure how many parts this trip will be split into. Ninety days of continuous travel was a huge undertaking on our part and documenting the details has been daunting enough for me to have procrastinated nearly 6 months to start doing so. But I’ll do my best to share the highlights and travel hacks along the way!
Travel Hack Recaps of Europe so far:
- Europe, Part 1 – Baltic Sea Cruise
- Europe, Part 2 – Baltic Sea Cruise (Part II)
- Europe, Part 3 – London
Where We Went
The first thing to note related to our activities through most of this European extravaganza is that we pre-booked a lot of tickets weeks, if not months ahead of time. Given the precarious nature of COVID-19 throughout the world at the time, most attractions were open but requiring advance booking for a specific time slot.
This had its pros and cons: a designated time slot meant guaranteed admission and minimal time waiting in lines, as well as reduced crowds; however, our flexibility was greatly reduced by being locked in to nonrefundable tickets with a particular entrance time. All in all, I’d say the pros outweighed the cons, but note that your experience may be different than ours depending on the restrictions in place.
Day 1 (Day 19 of the trip) – London, England to Edinburgh, Scotland
Though we only had 2.5 days in Edinburgh, we had significantly less planned there than we did in London. Known for its picturesque medieval-ness and dreary weather, we spent a good chunk of the time doing what the locals do: sit in a pub. After the 4+ hour train ride, a manageable walk led us from Waverley Train Station to our hotel (the Holiday Inn Express Edinburgh – Royal Mile) and we set out for some food and drink.
Bucket list item completed: drink scotch in Scotland.
Day 2 (Day 20) – Edinburgh, Scotland
Sandemans Free Walking Tour
After breakfast at the hotel, we walked a couple blocks up the hill to the most famous street in Edinburgh: the Royal Mile. It’s actually a collection of 3 main streets that start and stop along the way, but it marks the route from Edinburgh Castle down to Holyrood Palace.
We met up with our tour group for another go at a Sandemans free walking tour, which was reasonably insightful and entertaining. These tours typically take 2.5-3 hours and you usually get to see most of the touristy highlights of the city.
For lunch, we opted for some of the traditional local fare: haggis. It doesn’t sound the most appetizing when you Google it, but when in Rome, right? Tackling the haggis in meat pie form made it seem more palatable in our minds. Honest verdict: it was fine. Not terrible, but wouldn’t seek it out again.
Calton Hill
Looking for some physical activity instead of posting up inside another pub, we decided to hike to the top of Calton Hill. Calton Hill is a walkable distance from the Royal Mile (just on the other side of Waverley Station) and the hike itself isn’t terribly strenuous (my kind of hike). Aside from the odd Greek-style structures, the 360 degree views of the area are well worth checking it out.
After descending the hill and making our way back towards the Royal Mile, we of course settled in for some drinks as the skies opened and rain poured down on the city.
Day 3 (Day 21) – Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh Castle
Met with a dreary morning, we marched up to Edinburgh Castle undeterred (the featured image at the top of this post is from the castle’s portcullis gate). After all, we had nonrefundable tickets purchased for our designated time slot! Outside of the overall dark, medieval feeling of the castle and Edinburgh as a whole, what struck me most was how it was constructed precariously on top of a rocky outcropping at the top of a hill. Pretty impressive engineering for a place that dates back to the 12th century.
We wandered around the castle grounds and ducked into a few of the buildings, including viewing the Scottish Crown Jewels. The rain started to pick up again so we left the castle looking for shelter in the Old Town.
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland is probably super interesting, but we were soaking wet and just looking for a free place to dry off. Not a bad way to kill some time, but also not nearly as impressive as the British Museum in London. The rains let up and we set back out for libations, which is where things got interesting…
Her Majesty the Queen
Stopping for lunch in a local establishment, the TV was tuned to the BBC. The headlines stated that Queen Elizabeth’s doctor commented that her health was failing and that close family was called to join her at her summer residence of Balmoral Castle about 100 miles north of where we were in Edinburgh. “That’s odd,” we thought, “it must be serious if the normally tight-lipped royal family was actually making a statement about it.” After lunch we headed back to the hotel to see if we could follow it further. Our room’s cable was out, so we returned to the pub from our first night in town because we knew it had TVs and wifi.
Little did we know, there was a whole established protocol for when the Queen passed (Google “Operation London Bridge” and “Operation Unicorn” – these represented the plans for if the Queen died in England [London Bridge] or Scotland [Unicorn, the national animal of Scotland]). Operations included the BBC changing the color of its website banner from red to black, news anchors changing to black clothes, and a whole procession of events to take place depending on when and where the Queen died.
Slowly, though the news had not officially been made public, we started noticing these changes being made. The BBC’s website banner went black; the news anchors returned on screen in funeral attire after B-roll footage of the Queen’s life and legacy were played for viewers. Here we were in the very same country as the news of the longest-reigning British monarch’s death was finally made public!
Day 4 (Day 22) – Edinburgh, Scotland to Dublin, Ireland
Though the Queen’s casket would be passing through Edinburgh (Operation Unicorn) in the coming days, we were scheduled to head to our next city: Dublin!
We rode the tram to Edinburgh airport and hopped on the 75 minute flight to Dublin. Upon arrival, the Aircoach 700 bus transported us from DUB to the stop closest to our accommodations, The Wilder Townhouse (a Hyatt property). For dinner, we chose Against the Grain and had a beer and, surprisingly, the best fried chicken sandwich we would have on our entire trip.
Day 5 (Day 23) – Dublin, Ireland
Sandemans Free Walking Tour
Per usual, we joined a free walking tour the next morning to explore some of the city. Passing by Dublin Castle, the famous Temple Bar neighborhood, and Trinity College, we learned a lot about the complex history and culture of Ireland. From there our tour guide recommended a place for lunch and then we wandered around on our own. As in Edinburgh, the weather was quite dreary so there were a few pit stops to warm up and enjoy a beer.
Day 6 (Day 24) – Dublin, Ireland
Guinness Storehouse
This was the highlight of my time in Dublin. Not necessarily the tour of the Storehouse itself, as that was mainly just a long line of people trudging along to get their “free” beer from the Sky Bar at a cost of about $31 each. But as a Guinness enthusiast, I couldn’t not go see the place where it all started.
Bucket list item completed: drink Guinness in Dublin. Did it taste any better than Guinness anywhere else in the world? Probably not. But I savored it nonetheless.
Day 7 (Day 25) – Dublin, Ireland to Paris, France
A 6:40am flight meant that we were not able to take the more affordable public transit, but opted instead for a taxi to Dublin airport. Our flight ended up being delayed for over 4 hours! So we sat in a satellite terminal with nothing but a small coffee stand for that entire time. We were provided a 5 Euro voucher for the stand, but it wouldn’t scan correctly. Not a good look, Aer Lingus.
At long last, we boarded for Paris where we would meet up with some of Mrs. FIby35’s family.
How Much We Spent (and Saved)
Let’s take a look at the Travel Hack Recap spending breakdown for our 3 nights in Edinburgh and 3 nights in Dublin. I should note that during our entire 3 months in Europe, the US dollar was extremely strong. The exchange rate with the Pound Sterling was near 1.4:1 when planning and had improved to only 1.2:1 while we were there. The Euro, which we began using in Dublin, was at or near 1:1 for much of our trip, so everything was at a bit of a discount compared to historical exchange rates.
Spending in Edinburgh:
| Category | Budget | Actual | Notes |
| Flights | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
| Accommodations | $0.00 | $0.00 | 88,000 IHG points for 3 nights at the Holiday Inn Express Edinburgh – Royal Mile |
| Food/Drink | $180.00 | $190.56 | |
| Entertainment & Misc | $60.00 | $57.36 | Free walking tour tip; Edinburgh Castle |
| Transportation | $108.00 | $103.42 | $88 London-Edinburgh train; $15 tram to EDI airport |
| TOTAL | $348.00 | $351.34 |
Right around budget. We probably spent more on food/drink than we planned due to the weather and while following the news surrounding the Queen’s death.
Total savings from travel hacking:
- 3 nights at the Holiday Inn Express Edinburgh – Royal Mile would have been $545 and included free breakfast.
Even excluding the savings of walking and taking public transit instead of Uber/Taxi/Rental car, we saved over $500 by travel hacking this leg of our trip to Europe in Edinburgh.
Spending in Dublin:
| Category | Budget | Actual | Notes |
| Flights | $90.00 | $89.60 | 8,000 Avios points + fees |
| Accommodations | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
| Food/Drink | $210.00 | $143.27 | |
| Entertainment & Misc | $75.00 | $82.79 | Free walking tour tip; Guinness Storehouse tour |
| Transportation | $18.00 | $53.61 | Bus from DUB-hotel; taxi from hotel-DUB |
| TOTAL | $393.00 | $369.27 |
Dublin was surprisingly expensive for the size of the city. However, we still managed to stay slightly under budget.
Total savings from travel hacking:
- Flights from EDI to DUB were about $190 each at the time of purchase. We paid 8,000 points and $90 in fees for a savings of $290.
- 3 nights at The Wilder Townhouse would have cost $940 and included breakfast.
Even excluding the savings of walking and taking public transit instead of Uber/Taxi/Rental car, we saved over $1,200 by travel hacking this leg of our trip to Europe in Dublin.
Conclusion
Though I enjoyed both Edinburgh and Dublin, they weren’t Mrs. FIby35’s favorites so I don’t see us returning any time soon. Edinburgh has a dark and gloomy charm to it, but I understand that’s not appealing to everyone. Our time in Edinburgh will always be memorable due to the Queen’s passing. Dublin was great for me to visit the source of one of my favorite beers, but the city was expensive and unimpressive. Aside from one excellent chicken sandwich, the food wasn’t anything spectacular either.
I have heard great things about the Irish countryside and Scottish highlands, which we obviously did not explore on this trip. If we return to the British Isles someday I would consider adding some areas outside of the capital cities to our itinerary.
Up next: Paris, France!
Have you been to Scotland or Ireland? Did we miss out by confining ourselves to the big cities? Comment below!
