We made our first trip to Ireland in May 2017 with another couple and we are already planning to go back! Ireland is a great place to visit and there is no shortage of things to do. We spent two weeks and you need all of that time. The weather was quite good with only a couple of days of light rain and it did not stop us from doing anything at all.
We flew into Dublin and spent three nights before joining our six night bus tour that returned us to Dublin where we had one more night before taking the train to Belfast where we stayed three nights. I will outline our travels city by city after covering some basics.
- Overall Considerations
Money wise, you will need Euro for Ireland and Irish Pounds or British Pounds for Northern Ireland. Best spend your Irish Pounds before you leave Northern Ireland. We did have some Irish Pounds when we went to London and a Pub did take them after the waitress talked to her manager.
The Guinness and other beer is excellent in the Pubs and the Pub food is very tasty and we did not hesitate to eat at a Pub. The fish is always fresh and the chips (fries) are hot. The Irish stew was good as was the bangers (sausage) and mashed potatoes and gravy. Surprisingly, we did not gain any weight in Ireland and it must have been because of all the walking as I had two to three pints of beer a day!
We did not rent a car in Ireland because they drive on the other side of the road and the cars are almost all standards. Combine this with narrow roads and we thought we would leave the driving to someone else. In Dublin and Belfast we walked or took tours. The six-day bus tour was with Royal Irish Tours and they were excellent. They are a Canadian travel company specializing in Ireland and we would have no hesitation going with them again. https://www.royalirishtours.com
The bus was not crowded and there was a dedicated driver and a separate tour guide providing information as we travelled. There was a washroom on the bus; however, it was not needed as there were plenty of stops on our daily travels.
- Dublin
It felt like a slow process to clear Customs when we arrived in Dublin. Perhaps it was a number of planes arriving at the same time or maybe we were just tired from the overnight flight. We took a cab from the airport to our hotel and there was a fixed fare from the airport to the downtown. This went well and no issues. We stayed at the Albany Guesthouse and made the reservation four months in advance. It has a good central location; however, the Trip Advisor reviews are correct – if you get a room facing the street it is noisy at night from the nightclub down the street. I contacted them a week before our trip to see if we could get a room off the street and, given we booked so far in advance, I thought we would be fine. We were not and they made no effort to get us a different room. We will not stay there again.
We were close to St Stephen’s Green and Trinity College and I think this is the area to stay in. It is nice walking through the park and people really get out and use the park. On a Sunday it was full of families and people enjoying a gorgeous day and having picnics. Trinity College is well worth the tour and you must see The Book of Kells and visit the historic library.
We did a City bus tour and it covered the many highlights of the river, churches and parks. It gave us a good sense of what we needed to go back and see in the two full days we had in Dublin.
The Guinness Brewery was good to tour and we finished off with a pint at the top of the building overlooking parts of the city. We were able to walk here from the downtown area where we stayed.
We had an afternoon beer and snacks at the Brazen Head which is Ireland’s oldest Pub established in 1198. Good all around.
There is no problem walking around Dublin and finding restaurants and pubs. The shopping is mostly tourist “knick knacks”. You can also get your Starbucks fix as needed.
If you have three or four nights in Dublin you should be able to easily cover all the places you want to see.
- Bunratty
We stayed at the Bunratty Castle Hotel (not the picture shown below) the first night of our bus tour. https://www.bunrattycastlehotel.com.
Royal Irish tours booked all the accommodation and we were not disappointed. Large, comfortable rooms in all cases and I would say 4 stars. Durty Nellie’s Pub is a short walk from the Hotel and they have great beer and pub food. We ordered inside and sat on tables outside in the sun. Very pleasant and a good place to start the country tour.
- Killarney
We spent three nights in Killarney and did day tours to the country. This was very nice because we were not moving suitcases every day and there was a good feel to come back to the same place every night. The hotel was the Earls Court and the breakfasts were wonderful. https://www.killarney-earlscourt.ie. We also had dinner there a couple of nights and it was good as well.
From Killarney we toured the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula. On the way we visited a working sheep farm and we were given a demonstration of how the sheep dogs work the flock based on commands from the farmer. This was one of the highlights of the trip. The farmer had 3,000 sheep covering 3,000 acres of land. The land is rocky and hilly and probably only good for sheep farming. The price of raw wool is not good at one Euro for one sheared sheep and the farmer makes a living by giving the demonstrations to tourists.
We also did a horse-drawn carriage ride through Killarney National Park and our driver was third generation. The tour departs and returns from the downtown Killarney.
After leaving Killarney we stopped at Blarney Castle and Gardens on the way to Kilkenny. Of course, we had to kiss the Blarney Stone which is at the top of the castle and you must navigate a winding staircase to get to the top. The view is quite nice and the gardens are worth seeing.
- Kilkenny
We were in Kilkenny for two nights right downtown at the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel. https://www.kilkennyormonde.com.
The hotel has a good location for walking and we found a local pub called The Field that was just down the street and around the corner. They had live Irish music in the evenings and we went there both nights we were in Kilkenny. The manager was good to talk to and it was a good Irish experience. http://www.thefieldkilkenny.com/
We toured the Waterford Crystal factory, the Irish Stud Farm and Gardens and an Irish Famine Ship while in the Kilkenny area. They were all quite good. The Famine Ship brought Irish settlers to North America in the 1800’s when the potato famine left many Irish starving with no economic means to support themselves. A very good history lesson.
- Belfast, Northern Ireland
From Kilkenny we went back to Dublin and the bus tour ended for us. The next day we took a two-hour train to Belfast in Northern Ireland. The train was comfortable and the time passed quickly as we visited with a couple of women from Northern Ireland who had come to Dublin for a concert.
We stayed at the IBIS Belfast Queen’s Quarter which is located in the university district. https://www.ibisbelfastqueens.com/
The hotel is modern and was a good choice for us. It was easy walking downtown for restaurants and sightseeing. The price was good for what was provided and you could have breakfast for an extra charge if you wanted.
We really liked Belfast. The best tour we did was the Black Taxi Tour. A must to do to learn about the history of the troubles between the Catholics and the Protestants. http://blacktaxitours.com.
They tour driver picked us up at the hotel and we went for almost two and a half hours. There was a lot of information to absorb and there is still a wall that separates parts of the Belfast. Once we were done he even dropped us off at the Titanic Museum.
The Titanic Museum is very well done and definitely worth spending the afternoon touring. Many people do not know that the Titanic was an Irish ship built in the Belfast Shipyards. The museum does a good job outlining the history and respecting the loss of life on her maiden voyage that ended in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland.
Another highlight was the Giants Causeway. We did a day tour out of Belfast with Paddywagon Tours and we would not go with them again. The bus sound system was poor and the front drivers window kept fogging up and the driver was using a cloth to clear it. At one point he even got a passenger to wipe the side window so he could see his mirror.
We made a couple of stops on the way to see a Game of Thrones filming site as well as a walking bridge on the ocean before getting to the Giants Causeway. We walked down to the Causeway site and took a bus back as it started to rain. The site itself is amazing because the rock formations can not really be explained as they are so unique.
The two weeks ended far too soon and we can’t wait to get back to Ireland to visit Galway and revisit Killarney, Cork and Kilkenny.
My second cup is now empty……………………………….