Ireland in 11 days...tons of sheep, beer, and friendly people!!
 

My husband I returned 5 days ago from our 11 day vacation in Ireland. We had such an amazing time! I want to thank everyone on this website who helped me with my itinerary and with the questions I had. I got some really great advice! I apologize in advance for the length and detail of this trip report...it is just too hard to describe how much fun we had in less words!

Day 1- We arrived in Dublin from London Heathrow on May 19th at 8:30 in the morning. I picked up my Dublin Pass (that I had pre-paid for online) at a tourist information station in the airport. I purchased the 1 day pass. We walked outside the doors and the blue Aircoach buses, which were free with our Dublin Pass. We took the 30-40 minute drive into the city centre. It was a very pleasant experience overall. The buses were nice and it was hassel-free. We got off at the second stop, Grafton St. We walked 10 minutes to the Brooks Hotel. They were very gracious and let us check in right away at 10am. They also gave us a very good map of the city. We got settled in our room and rested about 30 minutes before heading off to explore Dublin at 11am.

Our first order of business was to find the origintation point for the Hop-On Hop-Off bus. We had pre-paid for these tickets online so we had to start from their designated origination point rather than just being able to HO-HO wherever you want from in town. The tourist information center across from the Trinity College entrance directed us to where we needed to go. We got on the bus and listened to them share a little bit of history about Dublin with each of the places they passed. I enjoyed it. I was hopeful for the funny commentary I had heard about these buses, but we got on a Multi-lingual bus, so there was only prerecorded information available in the language of your choice. Our first departure from the bus was at the famed Guinness Storehouse. We worked our way through all of the displays/pictures. We began going faster and faster through each floor until we reached the Gravity Bar for our free sample. I wanted to be interested in the stuff below, but honestly, we found it a bit boring. The views were very nice from up there and we had some great Guinness.

After a few pictures, we got back on the bus and headed towards the Kilmanham Gaol. We got there right after a tour had started so had to wait a while for the next one. I found the jail depressing and cold, especially after our "Guinness-High". I am glad I saw it because it was beautiful and full of great history. The tour of 90 min seemed a bit long to me, but I was jet-lagged and hungry. We got back on the bus and made our next stop at the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. It was about a 5 min walk from the bus stop and not very easy to find. If anyone is on the bus because they have difficulty walking about, they might want to skip this stop. We took the tour and I became a certified whiskey taster at the end. I was even presented with a nice certificate as a keepsake. They take volunteers for this at the beginning of the tour, so if anyone going is interested, then raise your hand quickly!

After the tour we decided to walk back to our hotel. it was about a 20 min walk through Dublin, but we didn't mind. We stopped at the famous Brazen Head pub since it was so close to the Jameson Distillery. We had a pint and some appetizers to hold us over till dinner. We were back to our hotel by 6pm and rested about an hour or so before heading to Temple Bar for drinks then to dinner at the Hairy Lemon near our hotel. This was a very busy but fun day!

Day 2- Holy Moly!! We woke up at 2:30pm!! I guess the jet-lag finally caught up with us. We didn't set an alarm because we wanted to get our rest...but I could have at least set it for noon! This really put a damper on our day. We didn't really have any set plans, so it wasn't catastrophic...just a waste of the short time we had in Dublin. The only thing on my list to do was see the Book of Kells. We did that before they closed at 4:30, then we spent the rest of the day wandering all around Dublin and stopping at various pubs. We decided to make reservations at the Millstone because it was near our hotel and their menu looked nice. It was a very good choice. We headed to Temple Bar after dinner. I really liked this area. We are 30 years old and didn't find the place crowded with drunken college kids like alot of other people have claimed. I am sure there were plenty, but we found it to be a really fun and upbeat area. Got to bed that night around 1am.

More to come....

Your detail is great. Thanks for that. I look forward to the More to come... ! ~DrToonz

My motto is : I can sleep at home. When in Europe, set the alarm, get up and don't miss a thing. (But I do sneak in a nap on arrival) Loved Dublin. Favorite memory: Tea the the Merrion Hotel.

Waiting for more

Would love to hear more. The detail is great. I leave for my first Ireland trip in 97 days!

Looking forward to the rest of your report. Keep up the details, very interesting.

knwolf:

You certainly did a lot on day 1 following a long flight.

Tell us about The Brooks Hotel please.

Sandy
PS - You may want to email the editor to remove your duplicate thread to avoid confusion

Looking forward to the rest! :)

Day 3- We woke up on time and were ready to head to Kilkenny via Glendalough. The Thrifty Rental Car city centre location did not open until 9am on a Sat, so we decided to have breakfast at this cafe on Grafton called Bewleys. I had read a nice review about it and we decided to try it out. The breakfast at the Brooks Hotel looked wonderful, but was 15E per person! We enjoyed our breakfast at Bewleys. This is where we had our first taste of Irish bacon. Irish bacon is really thick like ham, but has the cured taste of bacon. My husband loved it...I prefer my bacon thin and crunchy. After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to the Thrifty rental location. I had originally planned on walking, because it didn't look too far on a map, but that would have been a mistake...especially with our luggage.



There was a line at the rental counter. It took us about 20 minutes to begin talking with someone at the counter. There were a couple of guys in front of us who didn't have a reservation and the lady at the counter had to send them away. Sometimes it pays to plan ahead!

I was nervous about the car rental because I had read alot of reviews about the entire process being a nightmare. I won't say it was a nightmare, but it wasn't pretty. The woman at the counter tried to sell us their upgraded insurance for an extra 100E. I was going to use my World MC for the insurance, but you could tell that they were not fond of this idea. They asked if I had a letter. I did have one, but left it at home. She said she could call to confirm. This took about 15 inutes because she "couldn't find the international phone number to call." I wasn't going to give up...which is what I think she was hoping for. When she finally "found it" she played the recorded contract on speakerphone. She new exactly what prompts to push and what she was waiting to hear. She said that World MC coverage does not cover damages to other vehicles, and that their coverage would. My husband was ready to get out of there, and didn't really want to drive around for a week worrying about the car and the possibility of hitting someone else. In the end, we decided to get the coverage. I was very upset to find out upon getting home, however, that we were charged in dollars instead of euros. I had even asked her before signing because the receipt listed the amount in both dollars and euros. She said that it was euros. Stupid me for signing. This cost me an extra $22. I have been talking to the manager at that location since I have come back to get that corrected....we'll see what happens.



After that whole mess was over, we got in our automatic Toyota Corolla and hit the road around 11am. We had rented a navigation system as well, and we were very happy that we did. It was very helpful the entire trip. We took the scenic military road rounte and found it to have some beautiful scenery. We decided to get out of the car and hike around a waterfall on the way. We then continued onto Glendalough. It took us 2 hours to get to Glendalough, including a 20-30 minute stop at the waterfall. Glendalough was a zoo that day! It was a beautiful Saturday, and I guess alot of people were trying to enjoy the beautiful day as well. We paid 4E to park at the upper lot becuase the free lower lot was full. I was glad we did, because the upper lot is right where all the hiking trails start. We took the very easy "Green" hike. It took us to the monastic ruins, which were beuatiful. They were giving tours, but we just walked around an explored ourselves. We left Glendalough after about an hour.



It took us 1½ hours to drive to Kilkenny. We checked into the Rosquil House, which was very nice. I will say, it seemed more like a hotel room than a B&B, but it was still very comfortable. We walked into town. It was a 10 minute walk to the start of the city, and a 15 minute walk to be smack dab in the middle. We stopped in a few bars and had some pints. We didn't get to tour the castle, but we walked around the grounds and got some good pictures. We had a wonderful dinner at an Asian cuisine place called Yindees. I had a wonderful Massaman Curry and my husband had Pad Thai. It was probably our favorite meal while in Ireland! After dinner, we decided to go to Kytelers Inn for some music and pints. I had read good reviews about Kytelers, but I wasn't impressed. The music was supposed to start at 10, but it was 10:30, and they still hadn't started. We were tired and decided to retire for the night. We took the very nice, relaxing walk back and were in bed by 11:30pm.

Too bad you didn't get music at Kyteler's - that was the musical highlight for our trip in 2006. Of course, they may very well have had different bands, I think the one we saw only came once a week, and even that could have changed since. Caladh is the name of the band we saw.

Glendalough is one of my fave places in Ireland.

knwolf, I am really enjoying your tale. Please continue. Will you be able to share your pictures? I love looking at people's travel pictures! thanks!

Yes, please carry on. What did you think of the little lanes in Kilkenny - and the unusual shells embedded in the quarried black marble?
Don't worry about Kytler's Inn - except for the fact it dates back to 1324 and that it's run by the great grand-daughter of Charles Dickens!

More! More! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. This is great!

Day 4- We woke up about 8am and had a lovely breakfast at the Rosquil House. My husband ordered the traditional Irish breakfast and had his first taste of black and white pudding (which he described as tasting like a veggie burger). I just had toast and cereal. Phil, the host, was very helpful in planning our route out of town. The agenda for the day was to head to Kenmare via the Rock of Cashel. We took the N76 south to the R691 towards Cashel. The drive from Kilkenny took about 90 minutes. We had a difficult time finding the right roads to take to get to the parking for the Rock of Cashel. Finally we parked our car and walked towards the castle. Be sure to have 4E available for parking. No attendant is there and no change is given. It was so very beautiful! My only complaint was that the building is currently being renovated so a lot of it was hidden behind white sheets and metal scaffolds. We decided not to take the tour and to just walk around. This is a great place to get some cool pictures. Inside the cathedral was so breathtaking. We only were at the Rock of Cashel for about 20-30 minutes. I am sure we missed alot of history by not taking the tour, but neither of us really felt up to it. We both really wanted to get into Kenmare early enough to see some of the town before it got dark.

We left Cashel around 11:00am. The drive from Cashel to Killarney was about 2 hours. We decided to stop in Killarney for lunch. We were hoping to find a Subway for lunch because I had seen a Subway in Kilkenny with a unique menu. They had a Chicken Tikka sub...and I have a love affair with Indian food, especially chicken tikka! As we were driving through the town we noticed the famed pub The Laurels. We decided to have a pint of Guinness there before hunting down a Subway. The pub was really clean and cozy. There was an interesting sign in Gaelic above the bar. The bartender told me that it meant something like "To be drunk is better, to be trashed is worse." After our beer we walked around looking for a Subway. We almost gave up when we spotted one down an alley. I tried my Chicken Tikka sub and was slightly disappointed. It wasn't awful, but it tasted like chicken with taco seasoning.

We then got in our car and started heading towards Kenmare. We were happy to leave Killarney and were glad we were not staying there overnight. The town was very cute, but VERY crowded and touristy. We took the N71 from Killarney to Kenmare. This section of road is part of the Ring of Kerry. The scenery was beautiful, but there were just so many people on the roads. We had originally planned to drive back up the next day to the Killarney National Park to hike the Gap of Dunloe. After experiencing the crowds on that drive, we changed our minds. We got into Kenmare around 4pm and checked into the Sea Shore Farm. Let me just say that this was the most heavenly part of our trip. The view from our room was just gorgeous. I couldn't stop staring outside. Our gracious host Owen gave us a helpful map of Kenmare and made some suggestions for dinner. We took the 10 minute walk into town and walked the the "triangle" of the three main roads. After checking out some menus in the windows, we decided to have dinner at an Italian restraurant called Prego. We made our reservations before walking around the town some more.

We stopped at a place called Foley's Pub. Our bartender, Patrick, was very friendly. Little did we know this would be one of our favorite pubs in Ireland. We were in Kenmare for 3 days and we went to this pub every day. It was the pleasant conversation with Patrick that kept us coming back. We hung out around town until it was time to have dinner at Prego. We were very pleased with the service and the atmosphere of the place. There were so many delicious sounding entrees that it was hard to choose. My husband ordered the lasagna. I couldn't decide between the risotto and and a mushroom pasta dish. When I asked the waitress which was the better choice, she said she could do half-servings of each for the price of one. Perfect! There was a pizza on the menu that was tempting both my husband and I as well. It had apples on it, among other things. We decided to order it as an appetizer since "we are on vacation." We ended up using that phrase a lot while over there :) The food came out and looked lovely! The pizza would have been enough to fill both of us up alone. We decided to save most of it for lunch the next day. My "half" portions were as big as the regular portions, I am sure. My husband and I had to share all the food, and I must say, we made a respectable showing. We paid for our meal (finding it very easy to skip dessert) and began to walk towards our B&B.

Then we heard music.

We walked into a bar called the Coachmans to see if we might be lucky enough to get our first true taste of Irish craic. There was an accordion player named Michael O'Brien and he was incredible! His talent was amazing. You can google him and hear samples of his music online. I just couldn't get over how he could play with such speed and precision. There were times when he even looked possessed! Everyone in the bar began clapping and tapping there feet at one point, and I was in heaven. So this is the music I have heard about...it was everything I expected. We were able to catch the last 45 minutes of his performance. I was so enchanted with his music that I had to buy his CD. We then took out our flashlight and began the beautiful 10 minute walk back to the Sea Shore Farm and I went to bed a very happy tourist!

A note about Kenmare:
Kemare was the highlight of my trip. I have such fond memories of the town. You will have to forgive me if every sentence has the word beautiful in it and ends with an exclaimation mark. :) It was my favorite part about Ireland! There are so many reasons I loved it! The #1 reason was the Sea Shore Farm. I loved the hosts, the views, the breakfasts, and the walk into town. It just wouldn't have been the same anywhere esle!! The small, one-way road into town was a DELIGHT to walk. There were hardly any cars on the road and it was just beautiful! There is a lovely bridge called Cromwell's Bridge that you can see on the walk. Even if you do not stay at the Sea Shore Farm, you must walk to see this bridge. Words cannot describe how idyllic it is. It is also one of the few remaining bridges of its kind. The two rooms on the bottom floor of the Sea Shore Farm have a small seating area outside with the most beautiful view. If you can arrange it, try to stay in room #2. It is a corner room on the bottom floor.
I noticed a couple of other B&B's that I had researched prior to my trip while in Kenmare. The Sallyport was on the opposite side of town and the walk into town would have been on a busier road (unless there is a secret path I did not see.) Virgina's Guesthouse (rated #1 on Trip Advisor) was smack dab in the middle of all the action. There is nothing wrong with this, however it would not have given me feeling of being in a quaint Irish village/countryside that the Seashore gave me. Ok, I will stop my advertising for now...

but the Sea Shore Farm really was that awesome!! :)

Thanks everyone for your kind comments and interest in my trip. I will post some pictures in the near future.

Sandy, I liked the Brooks Hotel. It was expensive and there was nothing really fantastic about it except that it was in the perfect location. Would stay there again only for that reason.

Tod, I did not know that history of Kytlers Inn. Thanks for sharing. I am also sad to say that I did not notice any shells in the marble. My husband and I only were in town from about 5 to 10:30pm. We were too busy running around trying to see some of the main sights that we must have missed the less obvious, unique stuff.

Sorry it is taking me so long to finish this report, but each description of a day is taking me about 45 minutes to type. Thanks for your interest!! :)

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write up each segment. They are informational as well as personal. Please keep at it!

Wonderful trip report. Keep it coming!

So happy to hear about the Seashore Farm as I have reserved it for two nights in September. I love hearing about your trip. Thanks for posting :)

Keep up the diary of sharing your trip. We are 19 days and counting before our departure...

knwolf:

Thank you for taking the time to post details of your lovely holiday. It is very much appreciated.

Sandy

Day 5- Waking up in beautiful Kenmare! We looked out the window and saw the gorgeous view of the ocean and some cows. We took our time getting ready since we didn't have any set plans for the day. We had originally planned to hike the Gap of Dunloe, but changed our minds after seeing how busy it was. We had our first breakfast at the Sea Shore Farm. I had the smoked salmon and eggs. My husband had the poached eggs and toast. Both were very good. We chatted with Mary Patricia and Owen for a bit. We told them we were interested in finding a place to hike around and take some nice photographs. Owen recommended Gleninchaquin Park. I had seen this park featured on Samanta Brown's Passport to Europe television program. This park had several hiking trails available that varied in difficulty and length. We thought that sounded like the perfect thing for us. Before we left, we took a short walk on the property to the shore of the Sea Shore Farm. Both Owen and Patricia were born and raised in Kenmare, both from opposite sides of the bay. The Sea Shore Farm was Patricia's home as a child. She had lived there all her life. What a beautiful place to spend your lifetime!

We collected our necessary supplies for the afternoon and left to find Gleninchaquin Park. We found the place very easily thanks to Owen's directions. It was a ten minute drive on the R571 to get to the turn off for the park. Then it was about another 8 miles or so on a very small dirt road...one lane I might add. When we encountered a car traveling in the opposite direction, one of us would have to back up to an area large enough for the other car to pass. Luckily the road was not that busy. We saw plenty of sheep up close and personal on this drive. Every 5 minutes I would yell at my husband to pull over so I could take pictures of the lambs. :) Gleninchaquin Park was sort of tucked away, and so we were unable to see it as we approached. But once we turned the corner, we were rewarded for the difficult drive with such a beautiful waterfall and the most picturesque sheep farm I could have imagined!

We parked and paid the fee of 5E per person to the owner of the property who was standing in the dirt parking lot. There were several different hikes available, each assigned a color. We chose the Red hike which went around the waterfall. The woman told us it would take about an hour and wasn't too difficult. In order to reach the starting point of the hike, we had to walk through the sheep farm. And once again, I went picture crazy. I could have stayed there alll day, but we saw a van of about 5 people pull up to the parking lot. Fearing they might chose the same hike and be trailing us the whole hike, we took off at a fast pace. It was a VERY hot day. I had on a short sleeved top, but even that was too much. I ended up having to hike around in my tank top undershirt... thank goodness there were only sheep to witness my revealing attire. My poor husband did not have the luxury of stripping down, so he had a bit of an uncomfortable hike. The Red Trail was very nice, but not quite as easy as I was anticipating. I would definitely recommend this hike only to the physically fit who do not have small children. We did get some beautiful views of a couple lakes along the way.

At the end of the hike, there was a beautiful river walk. If anyone is not fit enough to do some real hiking, this would be the perfect substitute. It was a beautiful area surrounded by a river with several small waterfalls. It also provided the much desired shade we wanted after an hour hike in the sun. We got some beautiful pictures. It took us about 1½ - 2 hours to complete the whole thing. This was probably one of my fondest memories of Ireland. I think the reason I enjoyed it so much was that it was a spontaneous, unplanned morning. I had spent SO much time planning every single day down to the smallest detail...that this was a welcomed change. We drove back to Kenmare and had our leftover pizza from the night before for lunch. We took a nap and hung out in the room for a little bit before heading into town for a couple of hours.

We walked into town, stopping to see Cromwells Bridge. We had seen the sign for it the previous day, but didn't take the 30 second walk from the road to see it. Mary Patricia told us the endearing story of when she was a young school girl that she would sometimes scramble up it if the clock-tower bell started ringing so she wouldn't be late to school. Otherwise the bridge was not really used much. She seemed disappointed that such a beautiful piece of history was not marked with signs telling people to stay off the bridge. I coulnd't believe how beautiful the bridge was! I went back to see it several more times while we were in Kenmare and took a zillion pictures of it. I never did take a picture that captured how amazing it really was.

We walked around town looking at the menus of the 3 more popular restaurants in town: Packies, the Lime Tree, and Mulchaly's. We decided on Packies, only to find out later that they were closed on Mondays. So we settled on the Lime Tree...only to find out that they were closed on Mondays. We decided that we would rather try D'Arcys that Mulchaly's since we thought the menu looked better. We had a few pints in various pubs...our favorite being Foley's. We chatted with the bartender Patrick again. We went back to the Sea Shore Farm and rested until dinner time. We had a lovely meal at D'Arcy's. I had the scallops and my husband had fish and chips. My only complaint about D'Arcy's was that the atmosphere was lacking. The room we were in was dark and cold and quiet. It seemed a bit awkward until I had a glass or two of wine in me :) We walked around Kemare a little more after dinner and then retired for the evening. Another lovely day...