What is the simpliest and cheapest way to get from Nottingham to Dublin & Glasgow?

Question

In upcoming spring, I might visit my friend who will be studying abroad in Nottingham U. My 21st birthday is St. Patrick's Day so I definately wanted to hit up Dublin for that. Glasgow is in the question just because I always wanted to go there and visit the surround areas. However, there is two problems, 1) My school break is only 8 days and 2) I am a poor university student. hehe.

*Note: Wow, these Yahoo! Categories are really limited for these types of questions... sorry "Ireland" category.

Answer 1

Take a train from Nottingham to Holyhead in Wales. If you have a britrail pass it should be covered, otherwise the round trip is about 60 pounds. You need to transfer trains at least once, maybe twice; with the wait times it takes about 4 or 5 hours.

Take a walk-on ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. This costs about 40 pounds, and takes about 1 hour, 40 minutes. (This is with Irish Ferries, there are other lines you could look up).

This is a 6 to 8 hour trip depending on the wait times, so plan to stay overnight. Also, many people recommend the Liverpool Ferries, but the transit time there is 8 hours.

Contact Eurail and Britrail and see if any of the passes cover the trains and the ferries.

For Nottingham to Glasgow, simply take a train. If you don't have Britrail, you should book well in advance and get a local to help you with a low fare. It's about a 4 hour trip, and you should make it an overnighter.

Good Luck.