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Planning trip to Ireland

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lozina

lozina

Lifer
Planning to take my mother to Ireland for 12 days in early September. I plan to stay mostly in the South, in fact unless someone really highly recommends it I don't plan on crossing into Northern Ireland at all.

Now I did some research into older threads here and picked up a lot of good recommendations for places to see... these sounds great from what was previously recommended: Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, Cliffs of Donegal, Guinness brewery, Galway, Killarney, Limerick, Waterford (my mom will go crazy for the crystal), Kinsale, Cobh are all on my must see list.

I will be renting a car - hopefully automatic. I am not too concerned about the roads as I frequently go to Croatia and the roads there I guarantee are worse. Only thing though is at leas tin Croatia I drive on the right side of the road so that will be interesting...

One thing I was hoping to get info on was FOOD and where to stay, specifically. What B&B's or hotels that you stayed at would you recommend? I've heard people either love or hate where they stayed so I'd really like to try and avoid getting stuck with a place that is hated! One thing we'd really like to do is spend at least one night in a castle - have you done that? Where and how was the experience?

As for FOOD I am crazy about it so I'd like to be able to hit some of the best cuisines Ireland has to offer. I actually took a few notes from a No Reservations show with Anthony Bordaine (sp?). But are there any specific places you went to where the food was just ridiculously good?

edit: also just wanted to mention I've got the link from the older threads for rick steve's web site about visiting Ireland - very good info!
 
Originally posted by: between
why avoid Northern Ireland?
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It's all about time. It's not that i wouldn't love to go there but I've always tried to do too much on my vacations resulting in me getting stressed out and tired so I'd really like to try and take it easy on this one
 
Originally posted by: lozina
Originally posted by: between
why avoid Northern Ireland?
Click to expand...

It's all about time. It's not that i wouldn't love to go there but I've always tried to do too much on my vacations resulting in me getting stressed out and tired so I'd really like to try and take it easy on this one
Click to expand...

That's smart of you. There are people that have lived in Ireland all of their lives that haven't even seen all of their country yet, so it's absurd for a vacationer to try to do it in 12 days. Narrow down what you really want to see, and focus on those. Enjoy your time there. /jealous
 
When I went a couple of years ago, we booked B&B's mainly ... though it was with my wife and a small daughter, so we all shared the bed. Not sure how that would work with Mom ... regardless, it was about $80-100 per night on average.

Of course, I was in Northern Ireland only ... and while I can recommend it, I understand your time constraints.
 
Here is my itinerary so far, please let me know what you think and if I missed anything glaringly obvious I should do on my route... leaving some room to be a bit spontaneous - I hope.

Day 1: Land in Dublin. Visit Guinness storehouse to help recover from travelling. Spend night in hotel.
Day 2: Drive to Wicklow mts, spend first half day exploring the lakes/Glendalough. Then drive to Kilkenny spend night @ B&B
Day 3: Spend first half of day exploring Kilkenny, later drive to Waterford spend night possibly in Waterford castle hotel.
Day 4: Waterford crystal factory, explore Waterford. Spend another night.
Day 5: Drive to Kinsale, check in to B&B or hotel, explore Kinsale
Day 6: Travel to Cork or Cobh, explore. Return to Kinsale spend the night.
Day 7: Drive to Killarney by way of Ring of Kerry. Explore Killarney, stop by Mickross house. spend night in Killarney.
Day 8: Drive to Dingle. Explore Dingle and peninsula. Spend night in Dingle.
Day 9: Drive towards Galway stopping at Cliffs of Moher. Explore Galway. Spend night in Galway.
Day 10: Drive towards Cong. Explore castles. Drive cross country back towards Dublin. Spend night in Dublin.
Day 11: Do whatever else I can in Dublin. Fly back home
 
Originally posted by: lozina
Here is my itinerary so far, please let me know what you think and if I missed anything glaringly obvious I should do on my route... leaving some room to be a bit spontaneous - I hope.

Day 1: Land in Dublin. Visit Guinness storehouse to help recover from travelling. Spend night in hotel.
Day 2: Drive to Wicklow mts, spend first half day exploring the lakes/Glendalough. Then drive to Kilkenny spend night @ B&B
Day 3: Spend first half of day exploring Kilkenny, later drive to Waterford spend night possibly in Waterford castle hotel.
Day 4: Waterford crystal factory, explore Waterford. Spend another night.
Day 5: Drive to Kinsale, check in to B&B or hotel, explore Kinsale
Day 6: Travel to Cork or Cobh, explore. Return to Kinsale spend the night.
Day 7: Drive to Killarney by way of Ring of Kerry. Explore Killarney, stop by Mickross house. spend night in Killarney.
Day 8: Drive to Dingle. Explore Dingle and peninsula. Spend night in Dingle.
Day 9: Drive towards Galway stopping at Cliffs of Moher. Explore Galway. Spend night in Galway.
Day 10: Drive towards Cong. Explore castles. Drive cross country back towards Dublin. Spend night in Dublin.
Day 11: Do whatever else I can in Dublin. Fly back home
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: lozina

It's all about time. It's not that i wouldn't love to go there but I've always tried to do too much on my vacations resulting in me getting stressed out and tired so I'd really like to try and take it easy on this one
Click to expand...

What happened to taking it easy on this one!?!? I've only been to Dublin and Galway, but the best fish and chips I've ever had was in Galway. Best breakfast I've ever had was a small little pub just outside of Galway on the way to the cliffs of moher (don't remember the name, sorry).

The only problem I can see with your plans is weather and being in a place only a day. Seems like too much time spent checking in and out of hotels, packing and repacking, etc. and if the weather is bad in one place you may have to miss it completely.

I would suggest (and again, only a suggestions), to not plan everything to a T, spend 3-4 days in 3-4 different places and play it a little by ear. Ireland isn't "that" big, so you can still reach a lot of these places from certain central points.
 
Originally posted by: MixMasterTang

What happened to taking it easy on this one!?!? I've only been to Dublin and Galway, but the best fish and chips I've ever had was in Galway. Best breakfast I've ever had was a small little pub just outside of Galway on the way to the cliffs of moher (don't remember the name, sorry).

The only problem I can see with your plans is weather and being in a place only a day. Seems like too much time spent checking in and out of hotels, packing and repacking, etc. and if the weather is bad in one place you may have to miss it completely.

I would suggest (and again, only a suggestions), to not plan everything to a T, spend 3-4 days in 3-4 different places and play it a little by ear. Ireland isn't "that" big, so you can still reach a lot of these places from certain central points.
Click to expand...

Hehe, hey you should see my previous trips... I'd go to Europe and spend a day in a country before moving to another! Or for the bigger countries a day in a major or capitol city. So this itinerary I have for Ireland so far is way more toned down than my usual ones!

Thanks for the tips!
 
Rented an apartment in Dublin, which worked out pretty well. (Internet, washing machine, etc) Did an all day trip to the cliffs of Mohr, which was a blast. We also took a tour up into the mountains on one of the smaller buses. That was alot of fun because we got to go places the big tour buses couldn't go. And our guide was hilarious.

Food generally is expensive. If you hit one of the open markets (found one on cow street), you can get pretty good food cheap.
 
I would try and give your self more time in Dublin, and there are a lot more interesting things to see there than the Guinness brewery.

Last time i was there was for the Scotland vs Ireland 6 Nations match, so most of the time was spent in pubs. But the brewery tour was very overrated.
 
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