Hello!

My wife and I are planning a trip to Ireland next May for 9-10 days and we need help!

Goals:

1- Stay in one or two amazing castles, the other nites in Boutique Hotels or B&B's
2- Road Trip!
3- relax and great food

What ideas do y'all have?? We have heard that Southern Ireland would be our best bet- we have heard great things about Ashford Castle, worth it??

By Southern Ireland do you mean the Republic of Ireland or the south part of the Republic?

Waterford Castle is pretty amazing but a bit out of most loops.

Fly into Shannon most likely, but maybe Dublin if flights are less. Now that I think about it, we don't have a preference to Southern Ireland

We toured Ashford Castle Sept.'10. It was beautiful but a bit "stuffy" for our tastes. Same goes for Adare Manor. Her's what we really liked:
www.greenmount-house.com in Dingle. Dingle was the best scenery IMO, in Ireland.

www.shelburnelodge.com in Kenmare

If you are interested, here's our 2 trip reports from Sept.'10 and May '11. We much preferred the West Coast.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-surprises.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

Check out the following castle hotels:

Clontarf Castle, Dublin
Lough Eske Hotel, Donegal
Castle Leslie, Monaghan
Ashfort Castle, Clare
Drumoland, Clare
Abbeyglen, Clifden. Galway
Markree, Sligo

hi cant help with logging, but try and see west coast - cliffs of moher/sleive league cliffs and northern ireland is historical - derry, belfast - giants causeway-a naturally beautiful place - of course dublin!! have fun!!