Arthur's Blog: In the Battle for Visitors to Ireland, Brian Moore International Has Lowered the One Week, Air-and-Land, Cost to $749

If you can't commit to Ireland on or before June 29 (the deadline for booking Sceptre Tours' $899 bargain package combining trans-Atlantic air, hotels for seven nights, and a one-week car rental), you're still not out of luck. Brian Moore International -- another longtime specialist in packages to the Emerald Isle -- is offering a weeklong fly/drive program to Ireland this autumn and winter for as little as $749. For that sum, you receive round-trip air between New York and Dublin and a rental car (manual transmission) for one week. Although, this time, hotel accommodations are not included, many visitors to Ireland will prefer spending around $50 a night per person for bed-and-breakfast in Irish guesthouses located up and down all the main roads of that country.

You end up spending around the same as you'd pay to Sceptre Tours, and you don't need to meet Sceptre's June 29 deadline.

Brian Moore's $749 price (which sometimes dips to as low as $709 and $729, and sometimes climbs to as much as $779) is offered on scattered dates starting October 28 and continuing through the end of February. It's a complicated pricing structure, for which you'll need to consult the company's booking charts). But by being reasonably flexible in your dates of departure, you can go to Ireland for an exciting week of motoring to all the major sightseeing attractions, and for far less money than to England or anywhere else in Europe. This is a major travel opportunity.

Add-on prices from other U.S. cities? Brian Moore (www.bmit.com; tel. 800/982-2299) lists them from no fewer than 40 U.S. locations, and they are all quite moderate.

Brian Moore has been operating trans-Atlantic for more than 30 years, and is currently a subsidiary of the giant TUI corporation, one of the largest travel companies around.