Hello! I’m Alison and I’ll be the Brennen blogging most frequently. My husband of eight and a half months and I are in the process of planning our honeymoon to Ireland and England – and could not be more excited about it! I’m a teacher so we knew that getting married in September would limit our honeymoon opportunities, but thankfully, after a number of failed attempts, we have been rewarded with a fabulous adventure!

We are leaving for Ireland and England on July 28, 2014 and will be gone for two weeks. As of tonight, this is our itinerary:

Itinerary:

July 28, 2014 – Overnight flight to Dublin via Air Canada

July 29, 2014 – Hotel: Windsor Lodge, Dun Laoghaire (Dublin)

Arrive Dublin (10:40am), transport to Dun Laoghaire via AirCoach

July 30, 2014 – Hotel: Windsor Lodge,

July 31, 2014 – Hotel: Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire (Dublin)

August 1, 2014 – Hotel: Royal Marine Hotel

August 2, 2014 – Weston-super-Mare, England with Family

Flight Dublin to Bristol via Ryanair; Buzz Bus to Weston/Locking

August 3, 2014 – Weston-super-Mare with Family

August 4, 2014 -Weston-super-Mare with Family

August 5, 2014 – Hotel: The Lilac Door, West Dulwich (London)

Travel to West Dulwich (London) via train from Weston-super-Mare

August 6, 2014 – Hotel: The Lilac Door

August 7, 2014 – Hotel: The Lilac Door

August 8, 2014 – Hotel: The Lilac Door

August 9, 2014 – Hotel: The Lilac Door

August 10, 2014 – Hotel: Radisson Blu Hotel Dublin Airport 

Flight London to Dublin

August 11, 2014 – Flight Home via Air Canada

---

We have worked hard to find hotels/B&Bs that are affordable and memorable. (We’ve also tried to find rooms with king-sized beds for my 6’4″ husband!) The accommodations come highly recommended by a number of sources, from Rick Steves to Trip Advisor – and usually a combination.

While we are in Dublin, we are staying in Dun Laoghaire, a “seaside suburban” town, recommended via a Rick Steves podcast we listened to a few months ago. He promised cheaper hotels and an authentic Irish experience. We are excited for both! Our intention was to stay in relatively cheap, as authentic as possible, bed and breakfasts…and for the most part, we are. BUT…we are also going to be on our honeymoon! While we were looking for places to stay in Dun Laoghaire, we stumbled upon the most gorgeous hotel – the Royal Marine. When we planned our initial, ill-fated “mini moon” to Savannah, GA, we planned to stay in one reasonable hotel and one…not so reasonable. Why not continue the same plan? We are excited for the authentic Irish experience at Windsor Lodge…and are super excited to see how the Irish do luxury down the street!

We really struggled to find a hotel in London. If a hotel is what we want, it’s way too expensive. If it’s in our price range, it’s not exactly appealing. We looked at every neighborhood in London, from Notting Hill to the Docklands, and came up short every time. Like what we wanted for Ireland, we really wanted to stay in a B&B, but they were SO expensive! We just couldn’t justify $250 a night for an “authentic” experience. We were thisclose to booking an easyHotel when we discovered The Lilac Door. It’s ranked 4/512 B&Bs on TripAdvisor and is located in West Dulwich, a suburb of London. Knowing that it’s not on the tube line initially turned me off, but it is an easy 10 minute train ride to Victoria and, of course, has those amazing reviews. It’s also very reasonably priced and includes breakfast. No brainer! We’re really excited for that one – what a coup!

So there you go – a lot of work to find three hotels. 🙂 More to come as we put together more pieces of the puzzle!