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Ireland trip recap

Posted by (Milwaukee) on

Hi everyone,

I like it when people post the experiences of their recent trip, so I thought I would do the same. Hopefully someone will find some of the information useful!

My husband and I were in Ireland April 23-May 4. We had a wonderful time. We drove 1,200 miles, making a clockwise loop from Shannon around the southern half of the country. We didn't make it to Dublin--we thought we'd save that for another trip.

Here is what we liked the best and liked the least. Please feel free to post or PM me for any recommendations of questions.

CITIES:
Favorites:
Dingle
Kinsale
Athlone
Galway

Least:
Killarney (crowded, too many tourists for our liking--although we did have a fun time in the bars there)
Shannon (just not much to do there)

REGIONS:
Favorites:
Connemara
Dingle Peninsula
Beara Peninsula
Wicklow Mountains
The Burren

Least:
The east coast from Wicklow to Waterford. Just not as scenic.

EXHIBITS/MUSEUMS:
Favorites:
Dunbrody Famine Ship, New Ross
Jameson Distillery, Midleton
Cobh, the Queenstown Story, Cobh
Wicklow Gaol

Least:
Irish National Heritage Park, Wexford: The reconstructed sights were kind of cool to see, but a big dissapointment was not knowing what anything was. There were no guides, no handouts, etc. There were boards with brief descriptions in six languages, but most of the time the English ones were ripped up.

PUBS:
Favorites:
Dick Mack's, Dingle
White House, Killarney
Sean's Bar, Athlone

Posted by
194 posts

(continued)

RESTAURANTS:
Favorite:
Flannegan's, Kildare
Dino's, Kinsale
Don't know the name, Ballyferriter (I think) Dingle Peninsula, it was the only place to stop for lunch as we made our way around the peninsula. It was a really cute place with an intersting menu: I had veggie chili in huge tortilla. It was the best lunch I had the entire trip.

Least:
Dingle Pub, Dingle. I had fish and chips and my husband had beef stew. It just wasn't very good food!

B&Bs
Favorite:
Stirabout Lane, Rathdrum (in the Wicklow Mountains)
Avalon, Shannon

Posted by
67 posts

Hi,
Thanks for all the good information. I will be in Ireland for 2 weeks and starting and ending in Shannon. I will be in Counties Clare, Cork and Kerry. Though I don't plan to be in Killarney city much I do want to do the National Park.
Will be doing Dingle Peninsula for the 2nd time - this time in more detail. Thx for pub info. I did find some great trad music in Dingle.
I have been to Connemara and Wicklow but will be doing the Beara Peninsula and perhaps Ring of Kerry, depending on how crowded it is. I hear that the Beara is prettier and more "wild" anyway.
I will probably be asking you some questions in the future but, for now, thanks for the background.

Posted by
194 posts

The weather was pretty nice. It was in the 50s the whole time. It seemed to rain a little bit every day, usually in the morning before we started our day.

Posted by
22 posts

Thanks Nicole for all the information. Something that I have found helpful when hearing of others adventures is, what age group the writer is? The reason is that it is likely that 60/70 yr might have a different outlook than 20/30 yr. Single persons might have different perspective than a middle age couple with one or two teens.
I appreciate all you posted and I am sure many others do also. It is nice to read of peoples expectations prior to a visit and then their thoughts and experiences after. It sounds like you enjoyed your visit. Have you posted any photos of your trip that we could see?

Posted by
194 posts

Thanks Chuck.

My husband and I are both 26--no kids. We're fairly seasoned travelers, and like a good mix of relaxation, historical/interesting sites and museums, and pubs/nightlife. I hope that helps a bit.

I currently don't have pictures posted, but I could get some up somewhere and post the link here. I'll look into it!

Posted by
158 posts

My father and I had wonderful trip - 8 days/London at Base2stay (A GREAT hotel just 2 blocks from Earl's Court)--- check it out! Location is quiet, service is great and lots of amenities.

The sights: boat trip to Hampton Court (good when traveling with my 77 year old Dad), seeing the sights including Big Ben, The Tower of London, the play -- Lion King, the play --- 39 steps (GREAT), Picadilly Circus, the War Room and eating at the pubs and a good, good breakfast spot Balan's in the Earl's Court area...check out the Fan Museum in Greenwich and don't miss Westminister Abbey!

Off to Sweden to visit cousins - rented a wood shed - part of a historic Halsingland farm - with great breakfasts near Hudiksvall --- three hrs N of Stockholm. Planted 60 trees in my cousin's forest --- visited an ax museum and at moose (shot by my cousin!). Loved the family time and hanging out....

IRELAND - well we both fell in love with the country and the people....have to take my husband there next trip....for a real splurge stayed at Clontarf Castle in Dublin -- at at the Beachcomber Pub -- spent a wonderful morning in the village of Howth (written up by RSTEVES) --- took the train to Farrenfore and rented a house just outside Abbeyfeale. Toured the Ring of Kerry and the lovely Dingle Pennsiula, Cliffs of Moher and found a pub - Fred's Bar that is full of real characters!! Muckross House was quite impressive and even though it gets a bad rap...we went to Bunratty Castle and enjoyed it. We ate at Durty Nellies....quite a place! Found our house on imagineireland.com...great service and fun website.

Disliked: Hotel Connect near the Stockholm airport - HORRIBLE beds and the poor attitude of the airport personnel in Copenhagen while changing planes. My Dad needed a wheel chair but we were informmed the airport employees don't do wheelchairs .....

all in all a WONDERFUL TRIP

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