Ryanair ups checked baggage cost to €20

News is coming out today that Ryanair is increasing its costs for checked luggage from €15 to €20 for July an August this Year. This comes hot on the heels that Ryanair are also discussing introducing toilet charges on all flights under an hour.

The cheek of Ryanair at this stage should not be surprising. They say its to encourage travelers to bring less baggage. Carry on luggage can weigh up to 10kg and each seat holder even children can have a carry on bag. This is the obvious way around the charge.

At this stage the bag I am carrying will cost more than the seat. Ryanair as many predicted are becoming the bus of the sky. What will it be next, I assume the time where I carry my checking luggage and drop it on a conveyor belt at the plane is next. Possibly standing room is the way future.

Families are the most fearful of this increase as simply, they carry the most stuff on holidays. Ryanair are also increasing the cost if you at the last minute want to check in a bag at the airport. This has risen from €30 to €40 per bag. That would really put a dampener of the holiday. Oh and that’s each way!

I always wondered, if I traveled with my girlfriend and we had one checked in bag and my bag was over the weight limit, is there any stopping me from opening the bag and putting on every piece of clothing in the bag. Apart from looking stupid (Which I am more than happy to do), is there anything else that will happen?

Before I come across as a real Ryanair basher, I would just like to put forward one thought. If I was a group renting a bus. If the bus hadn’t enough room for the baggage I wanted i would have to either rent a bigger bus or a trailer. That isn’t seen as family bashing, its just the way it works. So as a Ryanair traveler (who never checks in luggage), why should I have to pay increased fares for families to have a checked in bag each? I also can make sure I go to the toilet before boarding meaning I never have to pay the toilet charge.

In summary the important thing to think about if considering Ryanair is preperation !

Prepare your luggage arrangements before you book flights.

Prepare your body before boarding – go to the toilet, get food/drink before boarding.

Prepare your check in for outward and inward flights.

Prepare to be taken for a ride if you make a mistake!

Ryanair €1 toilet charge gets the go ahead

1000’s of us hate to use the airline an Michael O’Leary is sure to infuriate passengers further by pressing ahead with the controversial toilet charge across all flights lasting an hour or less.

Ryanair claim they are doing it for the benefit of passengers. Charging for toilet usage allows them to reduce costs allowing them the ability to offer cheap fares. They are working with Boeing to integrate a coin slot (€1 or £1) onto its fleet numbers more than 150.

Ryanair plan to remove 2 of the three toilets on board, they can add 6 seats. The theory is that passengers will use the toilets in the terminal facilities before they board.

Where will Ryanair draw the line…..probably nowhere! Michael O’Leary is a very shrewd business man who will cut costs wherever he can and it is unlikely this will be the last shocking charge Ryanair implements for the benefit of passengers.

To be honest, we can all hold it in for an hour so it shouldn’t affect the regular flyer too much. I wonder how much of this is to scare people from getting up from their seats during short-haul flights. The cabin crew could traverse with the expensive drinks as well as the shopping cart which boost the Ryanair coffers.

Next it will be treadmills instead of seats to help power the plane, Ryanair claim it will help the environment and reduce costs! Lazy people who just want to relax during their flight will have to pay €5 extra as well as a handling fee for the seat.

Electric Cars on their way to Ireland!

http://http://www.flickr.com/photos/f-r-a-n-k/359123912/ / frankh

Most people will remember the old TV shows like Space 1999 and Lost in Space. We are now well into 2010 and where is my unicolour jumpsuit or steak dinner in pill form? Even Hollywood predicted we would be using hoverboards by 2015 in Back to the Future II. Although we haven’t developed as many predicted, 2010 will go down in history with the introduction of the usage of electric cars to Dublin. Although it is quite possible that people have owned electric cars in Dublin, the first ever charge points have been unveiled in Dublin powered by ESB.

ESB plan to establish 1500 across Dublin, Galway, limerick, Cork and Waterford. This means for the first time, having an electric car is a viable option. until now a motorist would only be able to travel as far from their house allowing enough power to get back home and recharge.

I expect the pick up of people buying electric cars to be slow. Many people myself included don’t particularly like change and its not something I would consider yet.

But what would make people switch. Since we operate a tax system based on CO2 emissions, will people need to pay any tax at all? Could we open up bus lanes to electric cars? Could we offer free public parking? There are many incentives we could offer for early adopters.

The cost of running these electric cars I assume is minimal? No more expensive petrol bills! I think it will be a while before I get my hoverboard but I may get my electric car by the end of the decade.

What to do in Dublin this Easter?

Easter weekend is upon us and its important to take advantage of the 4 day weekend, those of us lucky enough to be working. There is lots going on this weekend in Dublin and I will only mention a few of them.

1:Star Wars Invasion
Hot on the heels of the orchestra performance in the o2 arena, invasion brings a much more visual presence of the hit movie series. The main feature of the show has to be the presence of original actors David Prowse and Kenny Baker who stared as Darth Vader and R2-D2 respectively. Also featured is a full size Y-Wing Fighter and Imperial Scout Fighter. Reasonably priced too starting at around €14.

2:Easter Horse Racing in Fairyhouse
Easter weekend welcomed the arrival of the Irish Grand national running this Monday. Monday is also ladies day so get your frocks and wallets out (if you have either).

3: Trim Balloon Festival
Although not technically in Dublin, its not too far away and sure to be a lot of fun. Fingers crossed the weather is good for everyone going as well as the hot air balloon show there is also lots for the family to do including face painting, egg hunts and traditional markets.

4: MacBeth
For something a little different, why not attend a showing of MacBeth, the famous Shakespearean play. The show starts this week and runs for a limited period and represents my wild card suggestion of the weekend. Stay off the beer for a night and enjoy a night at the theater.

I am sure there are plenty of other things going on and feel free to leave me a comment letting me know of events in your area.

No Passport? What to do!

http://www.istockphoto.com/

Ireland and Molesworth street in particular are in chaos with up to 50,000 people on the waiting list for passports. Fear has caused panic much of the backlog building up since people heard the work to rule status followed by social welfare staff. Potentially people are going to miss their hard-earned holidays which are even more valuable in today’s climate.

But is there anything you can do? Is your holiday in the next few days. People have queued for hours outside the office hoping to be seen but to no avail. Word from inside the passport office says that they are processing passports on an emergency basis but angry scenes again on Molesworth street beg to differ. People are beginning to  protest themselves with one man barricading himself inside the office and refusing to leave without his passport.

A few handy tips though to keep in mind:

1: Traveling to the UK an Irish citizen only needs a form of photo ID (Driver’s License, Government-issued ID etc) but this is at the discretion of airline company you use.

2: Kids under 16 can travel with a parent without their own passport to the UK.

3: As Ireland are not member’s of the Schengen Agreement, all travel for Irish citizens to continental Europe requires a valid passport.

4: Contact your holiday provider to confirm if your holiday insurance covers this predicament. I am guessing not.

There is no end in sight for this debacle with the news that thew union has issues protective strike action. In another disaster for the government, their only hope is that the common man see the union as the bad guy of the situation and sympathize with the battered government.

April – Hot Topics on Info Ireland

With the second post in this series we will be looking at three more topics that have brought significant traffic levels to Info Ireland. This is the second article in this series, and as with the first article I will look at the topics in more detail and provide links to the relevant posts.

10 Things to Do Related Terms

We get a lot of visits for the top 10 things to do in places or during time periods. Content presented like this makes a lot of sense for tourists because it presents the information in a concise manner. Please bear in mind these are my opinions and what I would like to do and are being taken from articles I have written on the topics previously:

1 – The Ring of Kerry
2 – Connemara and the Sky Road
3 – Dingle (Daingean Uí Chúis)
4 – A round of Golf
5 – Cruise on the River Shannon
6 – Newgrange Passage Grave
7 – A Pub Crawl in any town
8 – The Burren
9 – Festivals such as the Dublin Theatre Festival, Galway Arts Festival, Kilkenny Cat Laughs
10 – The Guinness Storehouse

Related Articles
– 10 Things to do in Ireland Before You Die []

When I went looking for more content on this topic on Google I was surprised this topic hasn’t been covered by every single travel website in Ireland. The existing articles were poor, self promotional and unrelated so it is not surprising we receive so much traffic on this term.

10 Things to do in Dublin

I think these are the standard top 10 things to do in Dublin, but like all lists it depends on what your interests are.

1 – Guinness Storehouse
2 – Temple Bar
3 – Grafton Street
4 – National Museum of Ireland
5 – Dublin Castle
6 – Dublin Zoo
7 – Trinity College
8 – Georgian Dublin
9 – Kilmainham Gaol
10 – Glendalough

Related Articles
– Top 10 Things to do in Dublin Before You Die
– Dublin’s Top 10 Things To Do
– 10 Things to do in Dublin

Irish Marathons

I think more and more Ireland will become a tourist destination for Marathon runners. There is the prestige of the Dublin Marathon and the appeal of the recent return of the Cork Marathon. But more than any other marathon in Ireland, the Connemarathon stands out as being unique in not just Ireland, but the world.

Related Articles
– The Irish Marathons
– Connemarathon
– Adidas Dublin Marathon
– Cork City Marathon
– The Irish Marathons For Those Who Dare

If you have any suggestions or topics you would like to see added, edited or addressed on this blog please do not hesitate to comment bellow.

Originally Posted on the Travel in Ireland Blog.

Info Ireland – Travel in Ireland Blog by Travel in Ireland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at the Info Ireland Blog.

Hot Info Ireland Related Topics

Every day, week and month the same queries feature highly within the search referral data for Info Ireland. This new monthly post will look at the hot topics being searched for on Info Ireland and attempt to give more information on each, and provide links to our most visited resources. Each month I’ll analyze a number of our most popular topics as searched for by our visitors and provide more information in a short and concise way.

1 – M50 Toll Bridge
Post: How to Pay the M50 Toll Bridge

The amount of traffic this blog continues to receive related to the M50 Toll Bridge and payment of tolls and fines is simply put, way above any other topic. For those of you looking for information on paying the toll on the M50, here are the three options:

1 – Pay Online at eflow
2 – Pay at Payzone outlets located nationwide
3 – Phone 1890 50 10 50

I think most people are looking for the M50 toll phone number as it is the easiest way to post pay the toll. I recently went onto the eflow.ie website to look for the phone number for a friend to pay the toll. The phone number is listed on the homepage, but it is not exactly easy to find. Incredibly if you click on Pay a Toll under payment, the website lists all the options to pay a toll. You would think this would be the ideal place to list the phone number, but incredibly all the website had to say was:

“Over the phone, using our dedicated customer Lo-Call number”

With this in mind it is no wonder this topic features so highly in the Info Ireland logs. The amount and variety of queries we receive each day related to this topic is very high.

2 – Sky Road Ireland
Post: Clifden and the Sky Road

This is an interesting one because while this is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular drives in Ireland, I would of thought there would be much better resources online related to the Sky Road. I’ll look at putting some future development work into this section in the near future with the possible addition of a Google Map and a GPS waypoint file.

3 – Scenic Drives Ireland
Post: Top 5 Scenic Drives in Ireland

While being very related to the topic above, this post was as a result of a lot of reading, research and much effort on my part and is probably far more deserving of attention than the topic listed above. The post provided detailed information (and in some cases maps). Information was provided about the following five scenic routes in Ireland:

– Sheep’s Head Peninsula
– Dingle Peninsula
– Bantry to Killarney
– Copper Coast
– Galway to Westport

If you have any suggestions or topics you would like to see added, edited or addressed on this blog please do not hesitate to comment bellow.

Originally Posted on the Travel in Ireland Blog.

Info Ireland – Travel in Ireland Blog by Travel in Ireland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at the Info Ireland Blog.