Dublin/Ireland

[choripan 790]

Looking for recommendations for a week in Ireland. Wife and I have been before and done a lot of the big sites both in the city and the countryside, and partied it up in Dublin and Galway, but our group will be different this time because we surprised our moms with a trip later this summer.

Background: The team will be 2 late fifty-something moms who are novice travelers and that have never been out of North America/the Caribbean, 2 mid thirty-somethings who are well-traveled and usually do the "airbnb in a neighborhood and pretend we live there for a a week" thing (prior to babby), and 1 one year old babby.

Tentative plan is, by day:

1. Land mid-AM at Dublin Airport. Rent van and drive to Cobh to Heritage Museum, buy the moms the "check your genealogy" package. AirBnb in Countryside around Cork, maybe on Wild Atlantic Way.
2. Drive to Blarney Castle before tour buses arrive, then drive up to Galway along the coast. Spend evening in Galway, maybe look for a "Cook Irish Food" experience or something like that.
3. Cliffs of Moher before buses arrive followed by lunch and an afternoon sheepdog/farming demonstration. Spend another evening in Galway
4. Drive to Dublin. Stop at Tullamore Dew distillery en route. Check into AirBnB in central location in Dublin. Moms go to Riverdance show that evening while we return rental van and cab back into town.
5. Kilmainham Gaol and St. Patricks/Christ Church/Both. Moms babysit while wife and I go out.
6. Do the Guinness storehouse tour. Evening, find a place with live Irish musicians so the moms can experience that.
7. Wake up and head to airport to fly home.

So broadly, we'd be doing a clockwise circuit around the southern half of the island. Putting together an itinerary has been challenging because the moms are relatively non-adventurous while we prefer to go off the beaten path and have done most of the Ireland highlights before. The baby is the tiebreaker and we'll keep it simple and with a pretty open schedule.

Overall, though, is there anything we're missing? Anything we should reconsider? Appreciate any help y'all can offer and thanks.

[PencilPusher 454]

Have been fortunate to have spent several years making annual trips to Ireland for work and then took my dad there last Spring. That's a pretty good southern route given your timetable. Perhaps on 2nd night instead of going all the way to Galway, stop in Co. Clare and stay at Dromoland Castle. The moms will probably like that. There are lots of activities at the Castle and the guy that does the carriage ride on site is definitely an interesting Irish storyteller. You can hit out to the cliffs the next morning...probably actually closer from Dromoland than Galway.

Galway is a fun town as you probably know...one of my favorite spots. 

O' Connors pub around the corner from the Merrion Hotel in Dublin usually has pop up trad sessions on any given night. May actually have better luck in Galway with trad music sessions though. 

 

 

 

[choripan 790]

This is great feedback. Thanks a ton. Liking the idea of a castle stay, and one night in Galway might be enough, given our situation.

[PencilPusher 454]

Glad you liked it. Ireland is one of my favorite places in the world...hope the Mom's enjoy it as much as my dad did. 

[MidTexHorn 822]

I'll horn in on OP's thread, although I don't have any advice since I've only been to Dublin for a long weekend on one occasion. We're taking our adult kids on an 11 day graduation trip at the end of May with a somewhat similar route to OP's. We have a rental car reserved for a week of the trip and already have the Airbnbs and B&Bs booked. Other than getting the lodging reserved, I've tried to keep the schedule open to do whatever we want whenever we want. Here's a breakdown of the planned schedule:

Day 1 - Leave Austin

Day 2 - Arrive Dublin, stay at Kelly's Hotel near Temple Bar

     Will probably just wander town, hit the Guinness Storehouse and multiple pubs

Day 3 - Leave Dublin, drive to Kenmare, stay at Airbnb across the river from town

     Plan to stop at Glendalough and Rock of Cashel en route. This will be a long drive day

Day 4 - Kenmare

     May golf or drive parts of Beara Peninsula. Girls may do spa at Park Hotel Kenmare

Day 5 - Leave Kenmare, drive to Dingle, stay at Pax Guest House

     Plan is to stop in Killarney and take the boat ride through the lakes and then bike the Gap of Dunloe

     Pub crawl in Dingle

Day 6 - Dingle

     If weather is nice, will probably take boat to Blasket Islands with hope of seeing whales/basking sharks

     If weather isn't nice, will probably take Slea Head drive

     More pubs at night

Day 6 - Leave Dingle, drive to Galway, stay at Airbnb near docks

Day 7 & 8 -Galway

     No real plans here other than to eat and drink well. Ireland/US friendly will be going on in Dublin one night, so plan to hit a pub to watch that.

Day 9 - Train to Dublin, stay at Airbnb upstairs of the Dame Tavern

    Suspect my liver will be hurting by now. No specific plans other than to wander town

Day 10 - Dublin

     Maybe golf in morning

     LCD Soundsystem show at Malahide Castle on our final night in Ireland

Day 11 - Fly back to Midland

I'm really fired up about this trip!

[chitwood 155]

Love Dingle. Think. We talked about it on previous board. Wife and I went to Ireland last year. Flew into a Shannon, one night in Kenmare, three nights in single, one night in Galway, one night in Westport and one night in Shannon near the airport. Absolutely loved all of it, but especially Dingle and the Dingle peninsula. 

[MidTexHorn 822]

5 minutes ago, chitwood said:

Love Dingle. Think. We talked about it on previous board. Wife and I went to Ireland last year. Flew into a Shannon, one night in Kenmare, three nights in single, one night in Galway, one night in Westport and one night in Shannon near the airport. Absolutely loved all of it, but especially Dingle and the Dingle peninsula. 

Yes, I think we did talk about it on the old board. Really looking forward to some of those pubs in Dingle, they sound awesome.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

The National museum in Dublin is well worth the visit.  LOTS AND LOTS of Gold horde finds and gold artifacts, and the added bonus of the .......Bog mummies.

[PencilPusher 454]

MidTex - I'll throw in some things.

Dublin Pubs - Try to hit O'Connors while in Dublin - best place in town to see an impromptu trad session - it is out of the Temple Bar area - around the corner from the Merrion Hotel. Also, try to find Dawson's.....the smallest pub in Ireland....it is in the "basement" of a building. Probably less than 20 people can fit in the place. Worth it to say you've had a Guinness (or Irish beer of your choice) there. If you are looking for a Dublin pub crawl experience, try the literary pub crawl. It is entertaining and you''ll learn a lot about Irish lit while getting lit. 

Second the National Museum 

Galway - Pub crawling in Galway is loads of fun, especially because it is so compact and a college town to boot (National Ireland University-Galway). Several of the pubs are great to hear trad. Might consider taking a day trip either into the Burren (perhaps wander over to the Cliffs of Moher) or into the Connemara (nice drive out to Kylemore Abbey and/or through Cong)

 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

22 minutes ago, PencilPusher said:

MidTex - I'll throw in some things.

Dublin Pubs - Try to hit O'Connors while in Dublin - best place in town to see an impromptu trad session - it is out of the Temple Bar area - around the corner from the Merrion Hotel. Also, try to find Dawson's.....the smallest pub in Ireland....it is in the "basement" of a building. Probably less than 20 people can fit in the place. Worth it to say you've had a Guinness (or Irish beer of your choice) there. If you are looking for a Dublin pub crawl experience, try the literary pub crawl. It is entertaining and you''ll learn a lot about Irish lit while getting lit. 

Second the National Museum 

Galway - Pub crawling in Galway is loads of fun, especially because it is so compact and a college town to boot (National Ireland University-Galway). Several of the pubs are great to hear trad. Might consider taking a day trip either into the Burren (perhaps wander over to the Cliffs of Moher) or into the Connemara (nice drive out to Kylemore Abbey and/or through Cong)

 

A leap from the cliffs of Mohr would be a spectacular way to off one self.  The view is amazing, and the scale of the place is hard to take in at first.

 

Yeah, love the Galway nightlife.  

[RCRanger03 1049]

If you're into authentic trad music in Galway go upstairs in The Crane Bar, and there generally something real going down.

My advice on Ireland is always to spend as much time outside of the cities as possible. Rural irish folk are simply the best people I've ever spent time with.

[Anastasis 23469]

 

Edited April 18, 2018 by Anastasis

[otisdog 365]

While in Dingle try to take the tour of the Dingle Distillery. The tour guides know more about our prohibition and how it affected the worlds whiskey trade than anyone from the US. Very informative. Plus, they now actually have whiskey - hadn't come out of the barrel yet in 2016, when we were there, so we drank their gin.

[midtown 3345]

Heads up for anyone renting a car in Ireland that you might get a standard like I did.  

16 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

A leap from the cliffs of Mohr would be a spectacular way to off one self.  The view is amazing, and the scale of the place is hard to take in at first.

A woman was blown off a few days before we were there.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

8 minutes ago, midtown said:

Heads up for anyone renting a car in Ireland that you might get a standard like I did.  

A woman was blown off a few days before we were there.

People go right up to the edge of the areas where it's nothing more than dirt overhangs in some cases.  Pretty scary vistas up there.

[Ldogg53 514]

If you'll be in the Cork area for Blarney Castle then try to make a swing by the Jameson Distillery in Middleton.  It's on the way from Dublin to Cork and is a quaint little spot with some good history.  It was a fun little 2hr deviation.

[nycHorn 3006]

Last summer I was in Dublin for work and had a weekend break.

So me and the lady went to Dun Laoghaire - pretty simple seaside town.  Good for a day trip if the weather is nice.

Also ended up at L Mulligan Grocer.  Cool pub food and great beer.  Had a delicious Whiplash Saturate - super cool can of beer, nice and strong.

 

Usually I just keep near the hotel and drink my Guinness at McDaids.

 

[midtown 3345]

I last went to Ireland 14 years ago.   Flew into Dublin where my ex wife was doing some MBA stuff.  I spent the day walking around and doing general touring stuff.   Stayed in Temple Bar. Day later we took a train to Westport and stayed at a BNB.  Then we rode bikes from Westport to Cong, stayed a night then rode from Cong to Leenane.   The bike tour company would have out bags waiting.  Then a taxi to a bus stop and then a bus to Galway.   A few nights there then rented a car and drove to the Cliffs and then onto Shannon then back to NYC.  

[Bernard 879]

GF and I did 7-8 days in Ireland in late April 2014. The only reservation we had was a rental car and a hotel in Dublin the first night. We drove around by day checking out various points of interest. When the sun go low, we popped into the next town and found a hotel. Then hit the pubs at night. There were always plenty within walking distance. Great fun. You don't need and AirBNB to live like a local in Ireland. Just go to the pub. It's like the neighborhood living room. Lots of them are kid friendly, especially in the smaller towns. YMMV in the summer travel season, but we got our first choice of lodging every single night except one. Our general route was straight west to the Cliffs, then a big loop around the south and back to Dublin for the final night out.

All of a sudden I'm craving a pint of Guinness and some fish and chips. 

Bernard

Edited April 18, 2018 by Bernard

[MidTexHorn 822]

Just got back to Midland from our trip to Ireland. Had a great time, drank way too much, etc. Had surprisingly warm weather for the entire trip, only really rained once while in Galway. We were actually slightly disappointed the weather wasn't a bit more typical since we were really looking forward to avoiding the Texas heat, but it's hard to complain about 75 and sunny even if the pubs are a bit stuffy at that temp. A few deviations from the itinerary that I posted up above, including spending first night south of Dublin in the Glendalough region which was really cool. Some favorite moments and recommendations below, as well as a few things that weren't quite what we hoped.

1) Galway was an absolute blast. What a fun town. My favorite night of the trip was the night it rained as we were wandering around down by the river so we ran over to the Crane pub and found an unbelievable trad music session upstairs with about 15 locals playing. Not touristy, just the real deal. We stayed in an apartment a block away from all of the action.

2) Probably a tie for our favorite night was seeing LCD Soundsystem at Malahide Castle north of Dublin. Took the DART train from the city center (very easy), stopped in Malahide (which is a cute little town) for some nice seafood before the show, then walked over to the castle grounds. Weather was gloriously sunny, upper 60s with a light cool breeze, grass was green and comfortable, shitters were clean and well maintained, they had people patrolling the grounds picking up trash. If ACL Fest was like this, I'd go more often. Just an all around perfect evening with, as James Murphy said, "the longest fucking sunset I've ever seen."

3) Driving was an experience. Took me 24 hours to get used to it, but was fine after that. The roads are shockingly narrow when out in the countryside and in the older parts of the cities. Driving in Cork on many streets that were two way but were narrower than any one way street I've seen in the States was interesting to say the least, but I figured it out and grew to enjoy it. My wife was stressed out with the roads though and she really didn't enjoy our driving days. Traffic jams in the middle of nowhere due to tractors and sheep crossing are a real thing.

4) Stayed at an AirBNB above the Dame Tavern in Dublin (right across the lane from the more famous Stags Head Pub) and really enjoyed that experience. The Dame wasn't too touristy, more of a locals old man pub, which we all loved. There was a large balcony/patio overlooking the Stags Head and the street below which was great for late night drinking as the pubs shut down. On summer weekends they have street concerts right out front which would be a lot of fun. Showers in the place were Irish "quirky" to say the least, but overall a fantastic stay.

5) Our biggest splurge stay of the trip was at the Pax Guest House in Dingle. Check out the pics and reviews on Tripadvisor, they're 100% accurate. Place is unbelievable, view is mindblowing, and the breakfasts can't be beat. Very impressive operation.

6) Dingle on the whole was a bit of a let down for me. We all enjoyed it, but it just felt overwhelmingly touristy to me and I just wanted to get away from all of the Americans by the time we left. I think I'd enjoy it more in the off season. That said, there are some really cool old pubs and great seafood here and we did have some good times. One of the best meals of the trip was a pretty pricey bowl of amazing seafood stew at Doyle's.

7) Favorite meal of the trip was probably a tie between the aforementioned seafood stew at Doyle's in Dingle and a ridiculous seafood feast at Klaw in Dublin. Klaw is a total hole in the wall, maybe 15 seats total. We crammed into a small table that was literally half hanging into the kitchen. You walk through the kitchen, barely skirting a very hot stove, grill and various boiling pots of seafood, to get to the bathroom (no way they could get away with this in the States). Their Dublin Bay prawns cracked in half and lightly grilled in some butter were mindblowing - one of the best things I've ever eaten.

😎 Made a fairly last minute decision to spend first night in Glendalough rather than Dublin and glad we did. It was a beautiful leisurely drive there through the Sally Gap on Old Military Road which helped me get my left-side driving legs under me and we enjoyed hiking around the national park.

9) Cliffs of Moher are indeed spectacular, but I could've done without the stop. It's one of those have to see it things, but after 15 minutes it's just some really impressive cliffs and we were ready to move on.

Happy to answer any questions that folks have. I may update this post with pics if I ever get around to uploading them.

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by MidTexHorn

[MidTexHorn 822]

Couple more things I forget to mention:

1) Galway reminded me very much of an old European seaside version of Austin back in the 70s before half of California moved in and started turning the place into Dallas. One afternoon while drinking at the Salt House Bar (highly recommended), we struck up a conversation with a strikingly beautiful Irish girl who was on a one year sabbatical from her teaching job and had taken a part time position as a waitress in one of the local pubs. She had the lightest blue eyes I've ever seen,  but I digress. She said Galway has been called "the town where ambition goes to die" and I can see why. If I was ever to drop out of the rat race and go become a professional alcoholic, Galway wouldn't be a bad place to do it.

2) We rented bikes in Killarney and rode around the national park there. Had intended to ride the Gap of Dunloe, but there's no way I was going to get my wife to bike those roads. Still had a blast though and it was a beautful way to spend a few hours.

3) Didn't get to see much of it while on the drive from Dingle to Galway, but The Burren was a really interesting area and we wished we'd been able to devote at least a few hours to exploring it. Very odd look to the place.

4) Otisdog - we did hit the Dingle Distillery tour and had a great and informative time with the old guy and enjoyed his take on the current state of US politics. Got to taste their gin and whiskey. My wife drank gin and tonics with the Dingle Gin for the rest of the trip.

Edited June 7, 2018 by MidTexHorn

[gecko 1104]

MidTex, I was there 5/23 through 5/29 - KIllarney, Dingle, Cliffs of Moher, etc.  Did we overlap?  Were you at Blarney Castle on 5/28?  Saw a guy in a black "Texas" t-shirt roaming the grounds.

You missed out not doing the Gap of Dunloe.  The road was narrow but there weren't many cars.  Mostly horse drawn buggies with olds on board.  We walked it.....very impressive.  The return boat ride to Ross Castle was amazing.

And yes.....driving is an adventure.  I got used to it pretty quickly.  Driving in Cork was a really experience though.....

 

[PencilPusher 454]

20 hours ago, MidTexHorn said:

Couple more things I forget to mention:

1) Galway reminded me very much of an old European seaside version of Austin back in the 70s before half of California moved in and started turning the place into Dallas. One afternoon while drinking at the Salt House Bar (highly recommended), we struck up a conversation with a strikingly beautiful Irish girl who was on a one year sabbatical from her teaching job and had taken a part time position as a waitress in one of the local pubs. She had the lightest blue eyes I've ever seen,  but I digress. She said Galway has been called "the town where ambition goes to die" and I can see why. If I was ever to drop out of the rat race and go become a professional alcoholic, Galway wouldn't be a bad place to do it.

2) We rented bikes in Killarney and rode around the national park there. Had intended to ride the Gap of Dunloe, but there's no way I was going to get my wife to bike those roads. Still had a blast though and it was a beautful way to spend a few hours.

3) Didn't get to see much of it while on the drive from Dingle to Galway, but The Burren was a really interesting area and we wished we'd been able to devote at least a few hours to exploring it. Very odd look to the place.

4) Otisdog - we did hit the Dingle Distillery tour and had a great and informative time with the old guy and enjoyed his take on the current state of US politics. Got to taste their gin and whiskey. My wife drank gin and tonics with the Dingle Gin for the rest of the trip.

That is about as apt a description of Galway as can be had....definitely one of, if not my most favorite Irish city and agree that it would be a great place to "drop out". Only complaint would be that the weather as a general rule is shittier in the West of Ireland because it is the first stopping point for all of the stormy weather that blows off of the North American continent along the Jet Stream. Other than that, Galway is great....glad you enjoyed Ireland. 

[MidTexHorn 822]

1 hour ago, gecko said:

MidTex, I was there 5/23 through 5/29 - KIllarney, Dingle, Cliffs of Moher, etc.  Did we overlap?  Were you at Blarney Castle on 5/28?  Saw a guy in a black "Texas" t-shirt roaming the grounds.

You missed out not doing the Gap of Dunloe.  The road was narrow but there weren't many cars.  Mostly horse drawn buggies with olds on board.  We walked it.....very impressive.  The return boat ride to Ross Castle was amazing.

And yes.....driving is an adventure.  I got used to it pretty quickly.  Driving in Cork was a really experience though.....

 

That wasn't me - never made it to Blarney Castle. Yeah, I'm bummed about missing the Gap. It was probably the top thing I wanted to do on my list, but due to my wife having some panic attack issues about the roads I had to make a last second decision to skip it. She's just not a very adventurous traveler. In hindsight maybe should've hiked and boated like you did, but everyone did have a blast biking around the lakes so it wasn't a total loss.

[MidTexHorn 822]

Oh, forgot to mention that we discovered what may be my new all time favorite beer in Cork at the Franciscan Well Brewery - their Chieftain IPA. Holy shit was it good. It was a low alcohol (5.5%) and mildly hopped session IPA and we all fell in love with it. Found it at a few other places around Ireland. Gotta see if they export to the US, but I doubt it.

[PencilPusher 454]

3 hours ago, MidTexHorn said:

Oh, forgot to mention that we discovered what may be my new all time favorite beer in Cork at the Franciscan Well Brewery - their Chieftain IPA. Holy shit was it good. It was a low alcohol (5.5%) and mildly hopped session IPA and we all fell in love with it. Found it at a few other places around Ireland. Gotta see if they export to the US, but I doubt it.

Franciscan Well is an excellent microbrewery.....was hard to find in the rest of Ireland outside of Cork and the South, but pretty much every place we went in Cork had several taps of Franciscan Well. The Chieftain is an excellent IPA. Ireland is undergoing a craft brewing revolution.....10 years ago, most pubs had Guinness, Smithwicks, Kilkenny, Bulmers, Carlsberg, and some American Light Beer on tap. Now you can find a bit more variety. Hell, Guinness is even rolling out some craft beers nowadays.

[NOMAAA 1696]

headed to the open this summer.  great ideas on this thread.  we are staying in belfast during the open and afterwards i am looking at a day/night in edinburgh.  is that worth it, or should we just stick to ireland?  basically have the monday after the open until the following monday.  saturday the 27th is reserved for galway.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

21 minutes ago, NOMAAA said:

headed to the open this summer.  great ideas on this thread.  we are staying in belfast during the open and afterwards i am looking at a day/night in edinburgh.  is that worth it, or should we just stick to ireland?  basically have the monday after the open until the following monday.  saturday the 27th is reserved for galway.

If you're heading along the southeast coast then Dublin, Cork, Killarny are all great places for a day or two as you make your way back up the western coast to Galway, which is a great pub town.

[Underdog 28611]

Jr spent most of his Honeymoon in Ireland(7-9 days), started off in Galway and made their way driving up to Belfast and north of there for Ferry to Scotland?  He loved Galway and Ireland in particular but thought that Scotland was more scenic, kicks himself for not spending more time there(4days).  They ended their HM with a couple of days in London.  

[RCRanger03 1049]

IMO for Ireland stay out of the cities (although if you have to choose one Galway is the choice). The best of Ireland is the small to medium towns and hanging out with the folk. The Irish are the most hospitable people I ever met

Lived in Westmeath for a year. Got engage there. Have been back numerous times.


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