Shannon Or Dublin?

Americanos

Hey guys!
I am currently planning a trip to Ireland for next fall and cannot decide which airport to fly into! I will be flying from New York and will fly any airline except American. I plan to spend most of the trip in the south, around Kerry and Cork. I have never flown to Europe before so if anyone has information on what the service is like and what Airlines serve the two airports. Does Cork Airport have any flights to New York? It sound like it may be more accessible to my area! I cannot find any flights, but is there any Airlines I have not searched that have flights to Cork?

JillyQ

Cork airport doesn't have any transalantic flights. All of of the other airlines serve shannon& dublin. For the area you want to visit shannon is the closest. It approx 1hr from kerry & 1.5 hours from Cork city.

él statutorio

If you want to fly to Cork you can't go direct from NYC. You'll probably end up flying to Cork via London Heathrow.

I generally fly from LAX to New York or Atlanta and then on to Dublin. My Family are all in Cork and I drive down.

Remember by American standards Ireland is pretty small. It's only a 3 hour drive from Dublin to Cork.

Personally I'd fly into Dublin, (as I don't like Shannon airport) you'll land in the morning and have all day to drive to Cork. You could also spend a night in Dublin and drive down the following day.

DoYouEvenLift

Depends what you're planning to do in Ireland really. If you're flying to Ireland for the countryside and best tourist spots then Shannon's the way to go since straight away you're surrounded by all the places to see in Clare, Kerry and Limerick. From there you could either go down towards cork or up towards Galway.


I think the best way would be down towards cork then go from there up towards Dublin and then from Dublin over towards Galway. If you have the time to add in parts of the North then go from Dublin to them.

biko

NY to Shannon with Aer Lingus then bus south.
I use Shannon for all my US flights, it's fast through and I like it. For your return it helps to have pre-clearence in the airport, as soon as you arrive in US you just pick bag up and get a cab, no checks.
Also Lingus transatlantic are pretty good value, new movies etc.

Americanos

I would be going to the glengarrif area of cork and the Killarney area of Kerry, which looks to be very far from Dublin. I do not want to get a connecting flight as I could not deal with that stress! Shannon seems to be the sensible option. You mention you don't like Shannon, why is that?

biko

When you fly to Ireland from US choose an evening flight. You'll arrive early morning our time.
During the day there are plenty of buses to everywhere http://www.shannonairport.ie/gns/Passengers/Go/by-bus.aspx

él statutorio

Americanos wrote: »

I would be going to the glengarrif area of cork and the Killarney area of Kerry, which looks to be very far from Dublin. I do not want to get a connecting flight as I could not deal with that stress! Shannon seems to be the sensible option. You mention you don't like Shannon, why is that?

It's fine to fly into I guess but it's old, dated and a bit of a dump.

If I'm in a situation where my flight out of Ireland is delayed, I'd rather be in Dublin than Shannon. They both have US pre-clearance. But that's just my own preference.

If you're going to Glengariff and Cork then Shannon might make more sense for you. Glengariff is about 45 mins from Cork city.

Americanos

Thanks for your Inputs!
Upon looking at flights in Late September I found 3 airlines direct from Newyork to Shannon, Delta, United and Aer Lingus.
Each airline charges around $910-$940, so I will want to know which offers the best service.
Would Dublin be any cheaper? What is the security like coming into Ireland?

Also, before arriving into Cork, I will want to do a bit of shopping. Where could I stop along the way?

How bad is shannon airport too? Will it leave me with a bad last memory of Ireland?

JillyQ

If you fly to Dublin Part Of the savings that you make on the flight will be taken up by transport costs to cork. I have flown in & out of shannon to the US on @ least 15 different occasions, its not that bad. Also on your way back to the US you will clear US Customs a hell of alot faster in shannon. Cork city is reasonable good for shopping.

Americanos

JillyQ wrote: »

If you fly to Dublin Part Of the savings that you make on the flight will be taken up by transport costs to cork. I have flown in & out of shannon to the US on @ least 15 different occasions, its not that bad. Also on your way back to the US you will clear US Customs a hell of alot faster in shannon. Cork city is reasonable good for shopping.

Going to Glengarrif, will I be passing through Cork? Is there any good malls there? What about Shannon city, is there anywhere there to Shop?

JillyQ

Shannon is not good for shopping in. Cork City Centre itself is good. There is a few malls (shopping centres) on the outskirts. You will pass through cork city on your way to glengarf

Aard

From Shannon to Glengarriff you go through Limerick and Killarney. Not Cork. Do your shopping in Limerick.

JillyQ

Personally I would avoid limerick for shopping.

ProudDUB

Americanos wrote: »

Going to Glengarrif, will I be passing through Cork? Is there any good malls there? What about Shannon city, is there anywhere there to Shop?

There is no such thing as Shannon City. The airport is named after the Shannon region & river & not a city. The small urban area around the airport is primarily housing estates (aka subdivisions) for airport workers and associated businesses connected to the airport. There is no city there, in the traditional sense. The nearest city would be Limerick, which is about a 30 minute drive away.

What kind of shopping are you planning on doing? If it is the traditional Irish stuff (sweaters, tweed, linen, pottery, celtic jewelry, Waterford crystal etc etc) wait and do it in Kerry, especially Killarney. That is the shopping mecca for American tourists. You'll have a wide selection of everything, shops that are set up to ship your stuff back to the US for you, as well as offering you tax free tourist shopping on the spot.

The shopping centres (malls) in suburban Cork City would be geared primarily to locals. They wouldn't really be set up to have things that a tourist would want to buy, just as Target and Sears stores in the US wouldn't necessarily have stuff that Irish tourists would want to buy.

Btw, Aer Lingus have a code share with American Airlines. So you may wind up flying on one of their flights without realizing it.

Aard

I hardly think detouring to Cork is worth it. If the OP wants a good shopping experience, she might as well go to Dublin. Compared to the capital, Limerick and Cork are not so different -- especially since Limerick's on her doorstep and Cork isn't.

Americanos

There seems to be a large difference in opinion! Is there much of a rivalry between the cities and their airports?

From google, I see a route through Killarney from limerick, I do not want to stick to highways as I would like to see the views. What are the N roads like there?

I do not want tourist shopping, I want a bit of mall shopping, clothes shops, etc. So from what I gather, Dublin has great shopping facilities, but is quite a few miles away. Since I have not completely made up my mind, would the flight to Dublin be worth it for the extra shopping facilities? What are the Dublin malls compared to the Limerick and Cork malls?

Earlier someone mentioned that Shannon was old, and a bit of a dump. Is this true? If it is so, they I may start to think fly Dublin.

I also never knew of this American flight share with Air Lingus, how will I know I'm not flying with American? After 2 VERY bad experience with American in the us (domestic) I would never ever use them again.

biko

Shannon is old and small but it's an airport, you land and leave to go somewhere else.
If you intend to do shopping in the airport, or that extra airport facilities are somehow important, then do use Dublin.

Dublin being the largest city in the country will of course have the biggest shopping centres. All cities in Ireland have fairly large centres, not by US standards mind, but still.

I usually fly United or Aer Lingus and there is not much difference really.

merchant of ennis

Americanos wrote: »

Going to Glengarrif, will I be passing through Cork? Is there any good malls there? What about Shannon city, is there anywhere there to Shop?

Here's a thought. If shopping malls are your thing you can save yourself $910 just by getting a bus to your local Walmart.

Hope this helps.

Louche Lad

Americanos wrote: »

There seems to be a large difference in opinion! Is there much of a rivalry between the cities and their airports?

From google, I see a route through Killarney from limerick, I do not want to stick to highways as I would like to see the views. What are the N roads like there?

I do not want tourist shopping, I want a bit of mall shopping, clothes shops, etc. So from what I gather, Dublin has great shopping facilities, but is quite a few miles away. Since I have not completely made up my mind, would the flight to Dublin be worth it for the extra shopping facilities? What are the Dublin malls compared to the Limerick and Cork malls?

Earlier someone mentioned that Shannon was old, and a bit of a dump. Is this true? If it is so, they I may start to think fly Dublin.

I also never knew of this American flight share with Air Lingus, how will I know I'm not flying with American? After 2 VERY bad experience with American in the us (domestic) I would never ever use them again.

There seems to be some confusion. Shannon isn't a destination - it's not a proper city or anything, it's essentially just an airport. (There is a small town beside it, but it's not worth going to.)

Shannon's fine as an airport - it was extensively rebuilt around a decade ago. I prefer Shannon airport because it's smaller and much easier to move around in, whereas Dublin airport you have to walk for miles.

For clothes shopping, Dublin is best, but there are adequate shops in Cork. Limerick also has some clothes shops, but they're not as extensive.

There are no malls in Ireland, not like the huge shopping malls in america. Also, clothes are way more expensive in Ireland.
Shannon is not a city, its an airport in a small region.

JillyQ

It is worth pointing out there is only 5:cities in Ireland Dublin (capital) Cork, Galway, Limerick & Belfast in NI. The rest are towns or villages.

highlydebased

Americanos wrote: »

Earlier someone mentioned that Shannon was old, and a bit of a dump. Is this true? If it is so, they I may start to think fly Dublin.

.

It's functional and it's fine. Some parts of the airport are fairly new and some old. You will get to Cork and Kerry much faster via Shannon if you don't mind a slightly less aesthetically pleasing airport than Dublin!

If your flight home was to be delayed it might be a boring place to spend time but the chances of that happening are very slim so it's hardly worth basing your decision on that.

zagmund

ProudDUB wrote: »

What kind of shopping are you planning on doing? If it is the traditional Irish stuff (sweaters, tweed, linen, pottery, celtic jewelry, Waterford crystal etc etc) wait and do it in Kerry, especially Killarney. That is the shopping mecca for American tourists. You'll have a wide selection of everything, shops that are set up to ship your stuff back to the US for you, as well as offering you tax free tourist shopping on the spot.

The shopping centres (malls) in suburban Cork City would be geared primarily to locals. They wouldn't really be set up to have things that a tourist would want to buy, just as Target and Sears stores in the US wouldn't necessarily have stuff that Irish tourists would want to buy.

As an aside, back in the day when I used to be in the US for work, one of the routines whenever someone was over from the UK or Ireland was to hit up Target (or "tarjay" in a French accent) & similar places for the relatively exotic/cheap/large quantities of stuff they have there compared to here. I know it was the equivalent of heading to Dunnes over here, but we still did it.

I'm not proud

z

zagmund

JillyQ wrote: »

It is worth pointing out there is only 5:cities in Ireland Dublin (capital) Cork, Galway, Limerick & Belfast in NI. The rest are towns or villages.

And Kilkenny.

z

endofrainbow

Btw, Aer Lingus have a code share with American Airlines. So you may wind up flying on one of their flights without realizing it.[/QUOTE]

not true - IE have a code share with United - not American Airlines.

JillyQ

zagmund wrote: »

And Kilkenny.

z

sorry forgot about the marble city