Ireland: Flights, car and 6-night castle stay for $948

For a special short getaway to Ireland this winter, recruit your favorite three friends or family members. Based on four people sharing a three-bedroom villa, a fly-stay-drive package offered by Sceptre Tours can be had for as little as $948 per person, including taxes, from Los Angeles. Your castle awaiting on the Emerald Isle is Adare Manor Villas, ranked the third-best resort in Europe in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards.

Deal: The package for you and your three companions includes round-trip airfare to Shannon, Ireland; six nights of accommodations in the village of Adare in County Limerick; a car rental; entrance to the Belleek Pottery Visitor Centre, along with a tour and museum admission; and a coupon booklet for the region.

Your group will share a three-bedroom unit at the Adare Manor Villas. If you can get yourself past the golf course, shopping and other activities on the 864-acre grounds, you might consider day trips to  Limerick, Killarney, Bunratty, the Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry scenic route, among other destinations. And you’d be able to do so with your rental car, which will be a stick shift unless you upgrade.

The cheapest package rates fall in the winter low season between Jan. 7 and March 10, 2010, with packages from March 11 to April 30 being about $100 more per person per trip. May to June is still higher, and July and August even higher.

Tested: From Los Angeles, you’ll likely be making two stops to reach your final destination. The dates I tested involved stops in Chicago and Dublin before arriving in Shannon. Still, for this kind of deal, we can conjure up some patience, right? The best package rate I found upon testing was $948 total per person, including taxes, in early February.

I checked out CheapTickets.com to compare flights on the same dates, and found round trips for around $700, after taxes. Once you factor in the cost of the manor villa (over $450 per night for the unit), the car (at least $200 or so for a week), the Belleek pottery center admissions (valued at about $10 per person) and the rest, you’ve got yourself a great deal.

Contact: Sceptre Tours, (800) 813-5297

— Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Top photo: Adare Manor Villas in County Limerick, Ireland. Credit: Adare Manor Villas

Bottom photo: Guests enjoy breakfast at Adare Manor. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 5:57 am by Susan Derby and is filed under Deals, Europe, Hotels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.