B & B's West and SW rec?
 

Rec. for near Gap of Dunloe? Ballyvaughan? Connemara? Clifden?
Thanks

Can I recommend a B&B in Kinvara since it's just a few miles east of Ballyvaughan? If so, I recommend Fallon's.

Roundstone is a beautiful small town in Connemara. I haven't stayed overnight, though, so don't know the B&Bs.

We are leaving Castlegregory for Killarney and want to do the Gap of Dunloe that morning. We booked at this place and she e-mailed me and said the bus picks up there at 10:00am.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~applecroft/ ((b))

Budman, I did not know one had to book for the Gap of dunloe I assumed we could just show up and get on the next tour. Please explain the tour. We will be driving from Dingle to Killarney to stay 2 nights and on arrival in Killarney we wanted to do the Gap, Muckross house etc. Being August and busy I will go this site closer to departure and book if I have to, but please clarify. Thanks Faye. P.S:did you book your Kinsale accomodation I did not notice any comments from you about that as yet. I seeem to remember you will be leaving in May, I hope you will post on your return so 1st. timers like myself can get some info . Also I would be interested to hear your observations re: Beara and Mizen head as we will have to choose only one to do this trip.

For Clifden try the Buttermilk Lodge. Its a short walk to the village and what I would consider a more upmarket B&B. We stayed last August and paid the rate of all the other B&B's were charging when we stayed and it was much nicer and had lovely breakfasts with pancakes (Irish style) etc.

If you want to pay a little more try the Abby Glen Castle Hotel in Clifton. If you don't stay here you can always just book dinner its worth it and ask for a table with a view to the sea.

Drumcreehy House in Ballyvaughan is great. We stayed there in 2001. It's purpose-built and very bright and cheery. It's just a short distance out of town toward Kinvara.
Martha

Hi Dock:

The tour leaves from various hotels and pickups can be arranged from many B&Bs. The main departure point as I remember was from the tourist office. The tours usually are booked in this fashion:

You pay in advance for the bus ride to Kate Kearney's Cottage, the boat ride through the lakes and the bus ride back to your car from Ross Castle. You might be pretty wet at that time. I suggest rain pants even if it doesn't rain. If there is much wind, the large lake can get pretty rough and the boat is very small. You can pay for the jaunting car ride in advance also, but usually you can get a better deal if you do a bit of bargaining. My sister was an obvious mark even though I started walking. I don't know how much she paid.

You can also rent a bike and it's my understanding they will boat that back for you, but I didn't see any bikes on the boats I was on. There are a couple of pretty steep climbs and the bikers I saw were walking their bikes up these.

You probably don't have to book the tour way in advance and most B&B owners can help you with that when you arrive. That said, you will be there in August and it might not be a bad idea to book early. Killarney will be a zoo that month.

As far as Mizen and Beara, both are wonderful, but I still have a lot of Beara left to see. I think that the next time that I hit the south, I'll book a room on Beara for a couple of nights so that I have no choice but to tour the whole thing. I've stayed on Mizen a few times and it's neighbor Sheepshead is wonderful and uncrowded. The walk out to the lighthouse is muddy, but a fine adventure.

Here is a link to the pages on my last trip that included some time on Mizen:

http://www.geocities.com/obeirne_ire...rookhaven1.htm

The other crookhaven page and the first sneem page tell some of the adventures in the area.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Bill