This post is a (months later) update of our workation in Ireland in Mar/Apr including the planning, what it cost and how it went.
Planning
This 6 week workation was part of 2.5 month workation between Portugal and Ireland. See details of the Portugal portion here.
Flights
Per the Portugal update, we booked the below route for about 2,872$ (1,967€)
- Montreal – Lisbon return (2,424$/1,660€)
- Bus Lisbon – Portimao (80$/55€)
- Faro – Cork 1 way (214$/147€)
- Dublin – Lisbon 1 way (154$/105€)
- Lisbon accommodation 2 nights (Free via homeexchange)
Accommodation
Accommodation in Ireland is expensive and hard to come by. It took a good bit of searching but we managed to find a lovely spot close to the sea. As it was not in the city we also needed to rent a car to get around which added to the expense.
Sites I checked to find accommodation:
- Daft.ie – search for short term rentals or holiday homes
- Homeexchange.com
- Booking.com
- Hogans Irish Cottages
- Trident Holiday Homes
As we wanted to catch up with as many friends and family as we could we decided to split the trip up.
We spent 3 weeks in Cork, 2.5 weeks in Mayo/Sligo and 4 days in Dublin.
In Cork, we stayed in one rented accommodation that came to 2,654$ (1,818€) for the 3 weeks. We also had to pay an additional sum at the end for utilities which came to 365$ (250€).
For the 2.5 weeks in Mayo/Sligo, we spent 1 week in Ballina for free using our guest points from Homeexchange. A few nights in Strandhill with Mr.MH’s sister and the remainder at Mr. MH’s home.
For the 4 days in Dublin, we split it between Mr. MH’s siblings.
We also had a 2 night stop over in Lisbon to break up the return trip which we again had for free through Homeexchange.
Car Rental
There used to be a day when I would go out of my way to save money by using public transport, but my relationship with money has shifted over the years, especially now that we have Little MH. Now, I am willing to pay a bit more to make things easier on ourselves. It was also important for us to be able to get out to visit our friends and family while we were in Ireland so renting a car made the most sense.
Renting a car in Ireland is, let’s say, interesting.
I’ll try to summarise how best to go about it, to save hassle and added costs.
Before you book:
- See if you have a credit card that offers car rental insurance as an added benefit or see if you can apply for one before your trip.
- Call the credit card insurance provider and get a letter in writing that states that coverage includes the Republic of Ireland. The wording has to be exact. The car rental will not accept terms like “Worldwide” or “Ireland”, it has to state Republic of Ireland specifically for them to accept the waiver. The credit card company may point you to the standard terms and conditions but insist that you get a separate specific letter with the card holders name on it.
- Make sure the credit card is in the name of the person that will be driving, if it isn’t, see if you can order a supplementary card with their name on it
- Make sure you have enough credit to cover the 5,000€ hold that will be placed on the card for waiving the car rental company’s insurance.
When you book:
- Make sure you select an automatic transmission if you can’t drive manual as most cars will be manual, especially if in our case, you converted your Canadian license to Irish, there may be a restriction to only be licensed to drive automatic cars.
- Make sure you waive the car rental company’s insurance when booking.
- Use the credit card that has the car rental insurance as a benefit for the entire booking. The name on the card should also be who will be the driver.
- Decide who will be the driver if you don’t want to pay extra to have both people covered to drive. As above, the driver is whose name should be on the credit card used to waive the insurance.
When you pick-up:
- Make sure you have the letter printed off that states your credit card’s insurance includes coverage in the Republic of Ireland, or better yet send the letter by email in advance to the car rental to ensure they have no issues with it before you arrive.
- Make sure you have the credit card in the name of the person who will be driving
- Make sure you have 5,000€ free on the card for them to place a hold. This will be held for the duration of the rental.
- Make sure you have an in-date license to present
- Walk around the car, taking a video and pictures, to show any damage already on the car, before you drive off the lot.
You can only rent a car for a max of 1 month so if you need it for longer you can just do another booking and get another car for the remainder of the trip. You’ll need to pay again for the extras like car seats and one-way transfer fees if you’re dropping at a different location but that’s not too expensive for the hassle you save from taking public transport with 2.5 months worth of luggage and any groceries you will have accumulated from the stay.
We booked through rentalcars.com and got an automatic Toyota Yaris for the full 6 weeks for 1,112$ (761€) and paid an additional 445$ (304€) for 2 car seat rentals and 2 one-way fees as we had to swap cars at the one-month mark. So about 37$(25€)/day total.
School
We continued some of the activity books we got from the school but also borrowed some lego’s from Little MH’s cousin and some new activity books from friends. Social-wise, we had so many play dates, catch ups and sleepovers with friends and family. It was wonderful.
During the week, Little MH got to go to the sea, climb some sand dunes, go to an indoor trampoline park, meet an Irish wolfhound pup, eat award winning ice-cream, drive a car out to Coney Island, visit playgrounds and other activities.
What it cost
The below details what it cost for the 6 weeks in Ireland in Mar/Apr. Flights are proportioned 60% to this portion of the trip and 40% to the Portugal portion. It also includes a 2 night stop over in Lisbon on the way home. The total cost excluding ongoing costs at home was 9,901$ (6,782€) which averages 6,601$ (4,521€)/month.
| Item | EUR | CAD | |
| Accommodation | 2,068 | 3,019 | |
| Food/Drink | 1,642 | 2,397 | |
| Flights | 1,059 | 1,546 | |
| Transport/Parking (Car Rental, Petrol, Tolls, Ubers) | 1,489 | 2,173 | |
| Entertainment (Night out, Spa, Sightseeing, Activites) | 439 | 640 | |
| Shopping (Clothes) | 85 | 124 | |
| Costs at home (Rent, Mobile, Internet) | 1,563 | 2,281 | |
| Total | 8,345 | 12,183 |
- Accommodation: As above, the only costs we paid for accommodation was for our 3 weeks in Cork.
- Food/drink: included groceries, take-aways and restaurants.
- Flights: included 60% of the costs of our flights from Montreal to Lisbon, Faro to Cork, and Dublin to Lisbon for 3 people.
- Transport/Parking: included car rental, petrol, tolls and ubers.
- Entertainment: included a night out, a spa day for me, the trampoline park, and entrance to see the Palace of Monserrat on our stopover in Lisbon (highly recommended).
- Shopping: includes a clothes top-up for Little MH who had outgrown some of the clothes we brought.
- Costs at home: included rent for the full 2 months (not proportioned for 6 weeks), mobile and internet.
Our current estimates on what we will spend per year in Canada is 64,000$ (44,000€) or 5,333$ (3,652€)/month. Averaging out the 6-week stay into the average for 1 month the stay in Ireland was about 1,500$ (1,000€) more than that not including the ongoing costs at home or 2,800$ (1,900€) more per month including ongoing costs at home.
How it went
Overall, it was a great stay. It was a big contrast to Portugal where we saw very few people. Once we were in Ireland, we had catch-ups with friends or family once every few days. We:
- had a dinner and a few sleepovers with some of our best friends
- had a birthday party at Little MH’s cousin’s house
- had a few friends call out to us at ours
- had a dinner with Mr. MH’s whole family and all of Little MH’s Irish cousins at a restaurant
- climbed and ran down some sand dunes (I still have sand in coming out of my shoes months later)
- had the best dinner I’ve had at a restaurant in quite some time (check out Stoked if you’re ever in Strandhill in Sligo – go with a group and order one of everything (tapas))
- had proper catch ups with family.
I also got to go into the office and catch up with workmates and had a full spa day and dinner with a friend. I also got to go for my morning walks in beautiful locations a lot warmer and greener than I would have at home, some through forests, by lakes and by the sea.
For our stopover in Lisbon, we met up with some new friends I had reacquainted with when we were in Portimao, and went to Sintra, had some of the freshest and best pastel de natas I’ve had so far, went to the Palace of Monserat (some of the nicest architecture I’ve ever seen, Little MH was so excited and impressed to be in a real castle – it looked very regal), took the scenic route back to Lisbon through the most Western point of Europe (Cabo da Roca), and stopped in Cascais for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant where they have all the dishes prepared on a table for you to see before you order.
After all that, however wonderful, I was dysregulated and tired and looking very much forward to getting home and back into a routine, keeping in mind that I was still working 3-4 days a week between all those visits and activities for most of the stay.
Once home, while my Dad collected us from the airport, my Mom turned the heat back up in our house and had a fresh pot of homemade soup and homemade apple crisp with apples off last year’s tree waiting for us in the oven when we got home. My Dad had also finished the extension he had been working on in the house so we had a whole new space to expand into. These are just some of the things that continue to remind me that the move home was the right choice for this chapter of our lives.
The first few weeks home were very low-key, not including the first few days where I rearranged all the furniture to make the best use of the new extension.
I had also put on an extra kilo from all the restaurants, pastries and fresh food, so definitely tried to up my exercise game to shake that, which I’ve thankfully been able to do (months later). Totally worth it.
Lessons learned
The only thing I think I’d do differently about this trip, next time, would be to do a bit less moving around so I don’t get so dysregulated. Other than that it was pretty great.
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