Tere!

In March, 2023, I went to Ireland again! It was my third time going there with my current passport, and the fourth time in my life!

I actually wanted to go there in June, but owing to the changed tax in the Tallinn airport, Ryanair, a European LCC, cancelled all the flights and has stopped the operations to seven cities from Tallinn as of the end of March, 2023. Hence, I had to change my flight schedules.

This time I had travelled there for eight days – spending the first day and the last three days in Dublin and four days in Northern Ireland based in Belfast –. Northern Ireland is in the Irish island whilst the currency is British Sterling Pounds (GBP) as it’s a part of the UK. I wanted to use GBP in cash so I withdrew 100 GBP in cash, and used my Estonian bank card (EUR) simultaneously.

The budget of this whole trip was surprisingly 1,800 EUR. This was because I wanted to drive a car in Ireland, and yet since I changed my trip plan, I couldn’t get an Estonian driving licence by then. The 100 GBP withdrawn is part of this budget.

Let’s see the total expenses.

Destination		Dublin/NI
Budget (total)		1800
Transport	Flight	€97.05
	Public	€41.04
Accommodation		€631.65
Food		€129.57
Leisure	Sightseeing	€61.72
Souvenirs	For myself	€54.20
Souvenirs	For others	€32.00
Insurance		€20.00
Others		€125.39
Sum		€1,192.62

As you can see above, I eventually used two-thirds of the entire budget… I travelled there by myself this time, and I could save some money because I could book flights, accommodations and museums anytime. Probably therefore, I could save some money even though I changed the travel plan in February, happening in March so suddenly.

Also, both in Belfast and Dublin, I didn’t use the public transport that much, and I walked a lot, due to which the average number of steps per day was 14,000 or something. What is more, in Belfast, tickets for doubledeckers called Metro were valid for 45 minutes, so (I don’t know if it’s really allowed but) I used one ticket to change the Metro.

As for the withdrawn 100 GBP, the details are below.

Transport	Public	3.9
Food		62.78
Leisure	Sightseeing	2
Souvenirs	For others	3
Others		10
Sum		£81.68

Around 20 GBP were left here as well. I don’t know when I will go to Northern Ireland or the UK per se, but I want to go to Northern Ireland and Scotland which I have visited before again, and want to visit Wales too, so it wouldn’t be too bad to hold some GBP.

Concerning the travel insurance, I bought a policy on ACS called Globe Traveller, which includes European countries including the UK for 15 days that include both trips to Ireland/the UK and the Netherlands because in Estonia we have to take at least one more than 14-day holiday per (calendar) year. Therefore, I divided the whole policy price into two: 20 EUR for the Ireland trip and 10 EUR for the Netherlands trip just for myself (my calculation). That’s why you can see 20 EUR there.

Also, as of March 2023, I didn’t make the whole holiday plan yet, I could use the leftover of 600 EUR for unplanned trips.

I didn’t mean to save money, but I didn’t buy that many souvenirs, and sometimes I cooked at the accommodations, buying foods at supermarkets for breakfast or dinner. However, if you eat out more often and purchase more souvenirs or more expensive souvenirs, then you might need more than what I spent.

Lastly, I felt the price in Belfast was cheaper than Dublin.

Aitäh! 🙂