Ireland Blog posts/books

[hz80408]

We're booked for a 7 night trip at the end of September for Ireland. We booked a package already, so we have hotel and rental car; but I'm now starting to research specifics so we can get a rough itinerary together.

Any blog posts or must see/do's to rec?

We'll be staying in southern Ireland (our hotels are in Kilkenny, Blarney, Limerick and Dublin; but we want to drive to coast; maybe Ring of Kerry or Mohr, etc). TIA

[dreamtraveler]

I just returned from a trip to Ireland a few weeks ago. We went through Sceptre Tours and based ourselves in Adare. We traveled to Dingle and Doolin for a few days each as well. The cliffs were amazing and I loved the small village of Doolin. Instead of the ring of Kerry, we did the slea head drive, which was beautiful. Let me know if you have any specific questions I can help you with!

[hz80408]

Jul 19, 2012 11:19:36 GMT -5 dreamtraveler said:

I just returned from a trip to Ireland a few weeks ago. We went through Sceptre Tours and based ourselves in Adare. We traveled to Dingle and Doolin for a few days each as well. The cliffs were amazing and I loved the small village of Doolin. Instead of the ring of Kerry, we did the slea head drive, which was beautiful. Let me know if you have any specific questions I can help you with!

We booked through Sceptre also! Any concerns or issues with them? As my research gets more indepth, I'm sure I'll have some questions pop up.

[dreamtraveler]

No problems at all. I was a little nervous, but we were able to pick our seats for the plane three days after booking the package. There was one small mistake on the hotels end because they had us for a different amount of days. I just would suggest following up with all of your accommodations directly as it gets closer to your trip. Renting the car was easy, but the driving was a little nerve wracking.

[omeomi]

I'm not much help with blogs/references...

I've only been to Dublin, and it was a great city. A lot of people do the Guinness tour, but I never did. I had a great time just walking around and I took the hop on/off bus to get around (a 24 hour pass is around $20). For me, the best part was just being in the middle of the culture.

One thing I will say, I'd advise against kissing the Blarney Stone. It's pretty well known among the natives there that there are quite a few rat people that like to urinate on it knowing that the tourists will be kissing it. Ew.

[mdgirl]

Ditto about the Blarney Stone. We have a cute picture of us kissing each other in front of it instead.

In Kilkenny we went to a great bar -- there was a small group of musicians playing and everyone was singing. I think it was near the castle.

Keep an eye on the weather when you want to go to Moher. It was clear when we got there but then fog rolled in and you couldn't see a thing.

We loved the Guinness tour in Dublin, and an Irish co-worker of mine at one of my old jobs said that some locals do it just to get the pint at the end because it's the most perfect Guinness pour in world.

[sporky]

here's the link to the trip report i did for my old blog: travel-jc.blogspot.com/search/label/ireland

we started in dublin then drove southwest, up the coast, and flew out of shannon. we stayed in kilkenny, lismore, kinsale, tralee, and newmarket-en-fergus. i highly recommend checking out some of the west coast. we did the dingle peninsula and the cliffs of moher. i'm happy to answer any questions that may help you too!

[mbcdefg]

I went in Summer 2010. Unfortunately I didn't keep a blog of my trip

Ring of Kerry drive was awesome, Dublin was OK, Guinness tour was fun, Jameson tour was OK, Blarney Stone was OK, Kinsale was a cute little town, (I think it was) Killarney was way too touristy, Lahinch was a nice beach town.

Most of the cities and popular spots felt no different than American cities. Being in the countryside and off-the-beaten-path places felt more like we were truly traveling and experiencing something different.

Defintiely have some ice cream while you're there ... gahhhhhh, so good. And chocolates. We brought home Cadbury from the grocery stores as easy, cheap souvenirs for our friends. Ireland's dairy products in general were very tasty. Things like shepherd's pie and beef and Guinness stew were always a good meal. Fresh Guinness is awesome.

I would bring a hooded rain jacket. MH and I bought Columbia windbreakers and wore them almost every day.

[hz80408]

Thanks for all of the responses and advice!

EWWWW on the Blarney Stone; that is good to know! I love the idea of kissing in front of it though!

Also pretty interesting on the big cities having an American feel. We're really excited to have the rental car to try to explore more of the countryside and smaller towns.

I'm sure I'll have more questions as the trip nears, but thanks for your advice thus far!

[MommaK]

I agree about Slea Head/Dingle being an exciting drive. It was out first stop and I was blown away by the beauty of the scenery!

Kinsale is the cutest little village/town near the RoK. If you do Dingle, I would advise taking the short route of RoK, and stop in the little village of Sneem (the starting point of the drive, out of Kinsale). Continue on from there and you will see the bridge from the movie Quiet Man (John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara).

If you get the chance, Galway is a fun place.

As for Blarney, the filfth on it was as much a deterrent to me. I had to go up but I made a point of using a sani-wipe and not actually "doing" the whole kiss thing, but I lived vicariously through my "Flat Grandson":

[hz80408]

Jul 19, 2012 13:28:00 GMT -5 sporky said:

here's the link to the trip report i did for my old blog: travel-jc.blogspot.com/search/label/ireland

we started in dublin then drove southwest, up the coast, and flew out of shannon. we stayed in kilkenny, lismore, kinsale, tralee, and newmarket-en-fergus. i highly recommend checking out some of the west coast. we did the dingle peninsula and the cliffs of moher. i'm happy to answer any questions that may help you too!

I'm just getting to your blog now and finding it really interesting! I'm sure I'll have questions in the future. TIA!