Step 1 – Roundtrip Flights & Locations

This trip would be a total of 10 days (11 if you can’t the overnight flight on June 9 to London). I always start my trip planning by booking the roundtrip flights. If I can avoid a layover, I will, so that’s how we got our roundtrip flights from Philly to London-Heathrow. We left at 10pm on June 9 which got us to London by 10am local time. The returning flight home was delayed to 1pm and got us home by 4pm ET.

Next, within step 1 was identifying which cities we wanted to visit and how much time to spend at each. We had a more limited window (10 days) than I would have liked, but my PTO wasn’t going to cover a 14 day trip, sadly. We still made it work! Aside from London, we decided on visiting Dublin and Edinburgh. The math of it all ended up being 3.5 days per location – this includes the local flights to/from each city.

Step 2 – Lodging

We chose Dublin as the second stop of our trip, followed by Edinburgh, then back to London. We typically stay in Airbnbs because they are typically cheaper than hotels, still accessible to the hot spots, and provide a more local feel. Our London Airbnb was located a 8-minute walk from the Farringdon train station. It was incredibly expensive to stay close to the city center, and Farringdon was an easy way to hop on the Tube to get to the city center. It was also a 38-minute ride from the airport, so we wouldn’t be too terribly far for when we had to get back to Heathrow.

The Dublin Airbnb was the trickiest one to find. It is very expensive to stay in or around Dublin, whether it’s Airbnb or a hotel. Most Airbnb’s are in a shared living space with the owner, which I wasn’t too keen on. The one I found was a private room and bathroom within someone’s home. The reviews were incredible, so I felt comfortable with booking here. The host met us upon arrival and was the nicest man ever – he provided us a map with several suggestions for food and activities. We were able to do laundry as well!

The Edinburgh Airbnb was a mother-in-law suite-type situation. We had our own private entry on the side of the house and it felt like our own house with 2 bedrooms, a large bathroom, and kitchenette. The owner lived in the same house but was totally separated by a dead-bolted door that separated the living spaces. The host met us upon arrival as well and was very welcoming. They even left us homemade Scottish treats, champagne, and juice.

The last London Airbnb was for one night, and we had to be close to the airport. I found a loft bedroom with a private bedroom and bathroom that was also in someone’s townhouse. The host met us upon arrival with the key and showed us to the 3rd floor where we would be staying. It was only 2 stops on the Tube from the airport, making it easy to navigate without a long commute to London-Heathrow.

Step 3 – Local Flights

We obviously started our trip in London for 3 days. After London, we planned for Dublin. There are so many ways to travel around the UK and Ireland, but for time’s sake, we stuck with local flights. **BONUS – I used our credit card points and transferred them to airline miles (Aer Lingus) making the flights free, just had to pay fees and taxes. The flight from London-Heathrow was as 12pm and we landed in Dublin by 1:30pm. This left us a whole evening to begin exploring Dublin and getting cozy in our Airbnb.

From Dublin, we were headed to Edinburgh- we flew on Aer Lingus again using airline miles. Our flight from Dublin was at 10:10am and we landed in Edinburgh by 11:15am. It was a super easy flight and navigating the airports were very easy too. We were able to check-in to our Airbnb early to drop our bags and begin exploring Edinburgh starting at 1pm giving us a half day already.

To finish up the trip, we had to get back to London. We flew again, but on British Airways, using airline miles. We left Edinburgh at 12:55pm and landed back in London by 2:30pm. The local flights were a no-brainer for us due to how fast it got us to each location and the ability to transfer credit card points to airline miles. We ended up saving over $500 in transportation just by using our credit card points!!

Step 4 – Local Transportation

One thing we love about going overseas is the public transportation. Unlike the States, overseas public transportation has got it figured out. It is reliable, cheap, and easy to figure out (if you use Google Maps). I researched the public transportation for London, Dublin, and Edinburgh leading up to the trip and it seemed like something I could figure out once I got there. Upon landing in London, we used Google Maps constantly. It tells you exactly which station to walk to, which line to take, how many stops, and what stop to get off at. This was truly a lifesaver and made traveling around London so easy.

We walked over 20k steps a day in London and used the Tube for everything. Dublin was a different story. The only public transportation we used in Dublin was the Dublin Airbus 700 that got us to/from the airport. There is a public bus system in Dublin, but we didn’t end up using it. Dublin is the only place we used FREENOW (equivalent to Uber/Lyft) due to where our Airbnb was and having to get to certain places at certain times for tours.

Lastly in Edinburgh, we used the Airlink 100 to get from the airport to the city center. From the city center, we used the public buses (Lothian Buses) to get to a bus stop closer to our Airbnb. We did a day trip to Glasgow on the train using ScotRail for $30/person roundtrip.

We particularly loved that all of the public transportation was tap-to-pay, so we didn’t have to worry about buying bus tickets and load them up every few days. The Tube in London calculates at the end of each day, so each of us spent about $18-25 per day using the Tube. The Lothian buses max out at $5 so we didn’t spend more than $5/per person each day in Edinburgh.

Step 5 – Activities

Now that all the logistics are figured out, I could focus on the activities and sights we wanted to see. I researched what activities were likely to sell out and focused on those tickets. If I saw some tickets were usually available same day, I made note of it and worried about it later. The first ticket I booked was the bus tour from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway, since this would be the only excursion we take that needed to be planned way in advance. Everything else I booked about 2-4 weeks before the trip. And with free time while on the trip, we booked things the day of no problem, as well.