Overview; We are a family of 4, two adults and two girls ages 11 and 14. This was my girls first trip to Europe. We spent a total of one month. We spent 10 nights in Norway, 12 nights in Scotland and 7 nights in Ireland in July and August, 2018.
This is my Ireland trip report, it was my second visit there. My husband had to leave us after Scotland, so this part of the trip was just me and the girls. I planned everything and did all the driving. With the departure of my husband, I had to be the navigator, so I upgraded our rental to include sat nav.
Itinerary; 3 nights Dingle, 3 nights in Agrahadoe (near Killarney) all in County Kerry.
Weather; We lost our good luck with the weather here. For the first couple of days it was rainy and while we had a few nice days, it was typical Irish weather.
We arrived in the am at Shannon airport and proceeded to pick up our rental car. I had reserved a manual, but since we had had automatics the whole time, I didn’t get to practice my manual driving skills and since I lost my navigator, I decided to upgrade to an automatic with sat nav. It was expensive, but I was very glad I did this!
Day 1- We headed out and stopped in the town of Adare for a rather pricey lunch at one of the cute thatched roof cottages Adare is known for. Then we drove to Dingle and checked into the Pax House B&B. This B&B was amazing, the best one of the trip so far. The only negative was it was about 1km from town and with the narrow roads and rainy weather, I ended up driving back and forth a lot. It wasn’t too much trouble, although parking could be difficult in Dingle.
The first night we had reservations at Global Village. A very nice and expensive restaurant. After seeing the prices we just decided to order appetizers. Then I took the girls back to the B&B and left them, while I went into town. I ended up at a concert at St. James Church. I had to buy a ticket, but it was half price since I came in halfway through. I enjoyed the concert, but there was no fiddle, which I missed.
Day 2-The breakfast at our B&B was amazing. Really gourmet and lavish. The girls and I loved it. This was the day I was going to drive the Dingle peninsula, but the weather was suckey. Plus, the girls were very resistant to another drive. So, we just walked around the town and went into shops. This is not my thing, but it’s what my daughter wanted to do. We stopped in at the Dingle Music Shop and I found the CD with the song I wanted on it and also found out they were having a concert that night. It sounded good and since it started at 7pm, I bought tickets for the girls and I. We had dinner that night at the Marina Inn, it was ok. The concert however was fantastic and the absolute highlight of our visit to Dingle. The girls loved the male Irish dancer. He was very cute, very fast on his feet and just so much fun to watch. I took the girls back to the B&B since they did not want to join me at the pub and then I went to Nelligan’s and that was fun. There was a woman who worked there that was organizing and instructing the patrons how to do some Irish dances. I did not dance, but it sure was fun to watch.
Day 3- This turned out to be a nicer day weather wise and I had booked an eco-tour for that afternoon. We didn’t do much during the day until our 2pm time for the boat tour. So, the boat tour was for me a disappointment. It was a three hour tour. While we did see some of the islands (but we did not get off the boat at all) and some dolphins joined us, overall it was an expensive thing to do and I did not feel it was worth it. That evening while wandering the town looking for a good pub with music, I ran into one of the tour guides my DH and I had last year in Ireland on our music tour. It was great to chat for a bit and of course, he was leading another tour.