This will be the 1st time that my family will travel outside of the US. We are planning now to vacation in Ireland for 10 days in mid to late June 2011. I know it's way in advanced but I'm a organized woman that doesn't like to know what she is doing first. It's myself ,my husband, 19 yr old son and 12 yr old daughter. Here's the plan: Land in Shannon, drive to Limerick, to Tralee, to Cork, to Kilkenny, back to Ennis so we can be rested for the trip back out of Shannon. I hope to be flying in to Shannon early morning and flying out late. Is that good drive time for 10 days? What can we see in those towns? How many days to stay in each town? I know I want to see Cliffs of Moher and Mizean Head and I want to detour to Donovan's Castle (husbands ancestors lived there). I don't care about kissing the pee soaked Blarney stone but to see the grounds and the castle, yes. I have no desire to go to Dublin either. I want to mostly stay where it's green countryside. Any suggestions?
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9371 posts
I'm curious how you chose those towns if you don't know what you want to see there. Limerick, in my opinion, isn't worth visiting. It's a dirty city full of traffic. You'd be better off spending time in the Dingle area, or somewhere more scenic. Check out some guidebooks at your local library or book store to get an idea of things you'd like to see. You haven't given us any idea of types of things your family likes to do (museums? hiking? history? shopping?), and we'd be better able to help if you gave us more specifics.
Posted by
OP
Holiday, Florida, USA
5 posts
Limerick and Cork is where my husbands family comes from. They are 100% Irish. All of his grandparents came over from Ireland. Mostly in Limerick we just want to see what it's like and to see the area where they lived. We want to see castles, cliffs, forts, caves, pubs of course, my husband only drinks Guinness but he wants to taste it in Ireland. Anything in Adare we can see? I want to see the coast mostly, I love the sea. I'm doing a lot of research online but it's always better to ask before we get there. So far I have these sites that we want to see if we can: Cliffs of Moher, Mizen Head, Banratty Castle, Rock of Cashel, Lough Gur, Aillwee Cave, Charles Fort, James Fort, Desmond Castle, Carrigaphooca Castle, Roches Castle, maybe Aran Islands, Dingle, Ring of Kerry, Rock of Cashel, King John's Castle, we want to go into Cobh, Kinsale, Dunmore Cave, Kilkenny Castle. As you can see I like Castles! Do you have any suggestions where we should stay in any of these towns or somewhere nearby any of them. What's better to stay in B&B's or hotels?
Posted by
OP
Holiday, Florida, USA
5 posts
I want mostly all scenic with a little detour of shopping.
Posted by
Germantown, MD
111 posts
we (my parents and me- it was my 40th birthday present) flew out of Shannon in the late afternoon to London on our last day and stayed up in Galway. we drove to the Cliffs of Moher and then headed to Shannon airport. We also stayed in Wicklow when we were near Dublin. Ring of Kerry is amazing...plenty of green countryside there! actually, we drove from Dublin to Cobh- near Cork- to Galway staying 2 nights at each place and pretty much the whole country was green countryside.
I drove quite a bit and driving on the left was not as hard as thought it would be. But some of the Irish roads were exciting!! a lot of turns and not a lot of room on either side of the road in some places...Dublin is pretty small really. You can drive back to the West from Dublin on the major highway in fairly short time.
Kissing the Blarney Stone was overrated but I did find a 5 euro note laying on the ground afterwards.
Posted by
OP
Holiday, Florida, USA
5 posts
Randy thank you for commenting! We are going in 2011 cause we are combining celebrations for that year, sons graduation from high school, daughters 13th birthday, and our 20th wedding Anniversary. We really don't want to be rushed around. Husband just wants to sit by some cliffs and drink Guinness, silly man he is. We would just like to see the true Ireland.