A fish tale: Food costs in Ireland

In “Euro May Be Rising, but Airfares to the Continent Are Falling” [Travel Insider, Aug. 3], a Los Angeles-area traveler says of a trip to Ireland in [July] with his girlfriend, “Dinners were rather expensive -- about $25,” and “You can only eat so many fish and chips.”

I have been planning trips for clients from the U.S., to the United Kingdom and Ireland, for almost 30 years, and I can honestly say that I have never heard such rubbish.

Is he including drinks in the $25? For $25, I could point him to a good dinner, including a beer or a glass of wine, in just about any town in Ireland. For $25 worth of fish and chips for one meal, he would get enough to feed about four people.

I pity his girlfriend. The guy took her across the Atlantic and fed her endless meals of fish and chips?

Imagine if you got a letter from someone from Europe who had visited the United States and said, “Dinners were expensive -- about $25,” and “You can only eat so many hamburgers.”

Some people really should not travel.

All this talk of fish and chips has made me peckish. I think I’ll have fish and chips for dinner.

Jim Gavin

Wisborough Green, England