Ireland last minute recommendations
 

Hey everyone. I leave for Ireland in 16 days and am taking last minute recommendations for anything!!

I have never been to Europe before so I am not for sure as to what to pack that would be different from my last vacations. (ie: cruises, trips in the US, etc.) I know I need to bring a European wall plug.

Here is our itinerary:
Night 1: Dublin
Night 2: Cong
Night 3: Galway
Night 4: Killarney
Night 5: Cork
Night 6: Cork
Night 7: Kilkenny
Night 8: Dublin

The tours we have booked so far are: Guinness in Dublin, Kilmainham Gaol Tour in Dublin, and Falconry in Cong.

The tours were interested in booking are the Jameson Whiskey tour, horseback riding in Killarney National Park, Dunmore Cave, Titantic Experience, Blarney Castle, Muckross House Tour.

We have our rental car booked through Europcar and ensured we get a GPS with the rental.

Any must try restaurants at one of our stops, must do tours, packing/travel tips are so appreciated!

You'll need a UK plug adapter, not a European adapter.

Elberko - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000Y...KZ2WOXS5&psc=1

That's what I'm looking at buying. Will it work?

Sure, it has a UK plug.

Personally, I prefer 2-3 simple/cheap plug adapters:
https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/uk-power-adapter

I usually have a few things I want to plug in at the same time.

I just ordered 3 of them. Thank you very much!!

One thing you might hear love is that you're going to be packing and unpacking a lot on your trip. I had a 13-day trip planned back in 2013 and I think I might have booked 5 different places. Ok that's changing places every couple nights.
Unfortunately I can't give you very much advice because my trip didn't go quite as planned. I was in a car accident on the fifth day and spent 11 days in the hospital. I ended up spending 47 days recovering in Kilkenny which was actually really awesome haha
Do you have your lodging booked for Kilkenny already?

Civiclx- Sorry to hear about your trip! Bummer about the car accident but awesome about your extra time! (Not sure if you were able to enjoy it at all...)

Yes, I do have my hotel in Kilkenny booked. It is refundable though, so I could switch it if wanted. I booked the Spring Hill court hotel. I tried to find hotels that had free parking to limit the amount of $ spent on parking. All but one hotel has this! This hotel in Kilkenny also offers free breakfast, which is nice.
Do you have any recommendations for what to do? We are lookin at doing Kilkenny castle, dunmore cave, jerpoint abbey, Kells priory, and possibly smith wick. Have you done any of these? We haven't booked any of those tours.

And about your packing and unpacking comment, I did expect that. We won't be able to "settle" into any place but that's ok for me. I'd prefer to experience more of what Ireland has to offer than stay in one or two major cities. Bonus is I don't usually unpack on my one week trips anyways :)

Hi! Thank you but to be honest, it turned out to be an alright trip. I LOVED just being in one place for so long and not having to get up early and go rush off and do any touristy things. Most of my days I would just walk around and I loved taking a book up to the castle park or to one of the cafes and read and people watch. I would order a dessert and a diet coke or a hot chocolate and just relax :)

I did do Dunmore Caves and a tour of the Castle while I was there and both were cool. I had actually gone to Kilkenny the day before my accident but I didn't do a lot while I was there. Little did I know that I would be back haha

Yeah, I'm pretty easily entertained so I thought the castle and the caves were cool. I'm not a very experienced traveler and I went solo so I didn't have a real good itinerary planned out even before my accident. I did see Glendalough which I really enjoyed.

I don't know that hotel but I'm sure it will be great. I stayed at the Bridge View B&B the whole time I was recovering and I really enjoyed it. By the time I left, I was calling the hostess my Irish mom haha I wish I could be more helpful as to what to see and do but I just kind of had fun doing everything and I was there and didn't have any schedule so I didn't have to worry about managing my time or making sure I did only the best things.

Where are you from?

Muckross House Tour. No need to book. Do this on Day 4 in the afternoon.
http://www.muckross-house.ie/ You might not have time for horseback riding.

Take Gap of Dunloe tour on Day 5.
http://killarneydaytour.com/our-tour/gap-of-dunloe/

https://teelingdistillery.com/the-experience/

Jameson will be closed till just before St Patrick's day, they are doing a remodel. Teeling is good though and they really make it there not just a museum. Make a reservation though because they are busy.

You do realize that the car steering wheel is on the right side and you drive on the left side of the road. A right turn is like our left turn. It takes a while to get used to. I hope the driver has a good passenger to help the driver keep on the correct side of the road, especially on right turns. The back seat passengers can keep their eyes closed in order to not keep screaming. Good luck!

If you do not like big cities, stay in Kinsale instead of Cork. Also I think night 5 is better spent in Killarney.

Civiclx- thanks for all the tips! It can be overwhelming planning a European trip, especially since I've never been before! I am from the Chicago, IL area.

Dugi_otok- Thanks! I won't pre-book muckross house then. I would be bummed if we didn't have time for horseback riding. It looks beautiful.
And yes, we do know that the driving will be different up front. Hopefully my boyfriend can get the hang of it fairy quickly. I double checked with him numerous times before booking a rental car that he felt comfortable enough to drive. We want to experience a lot of what Ireland has to offer though, and that means moving around to different cities!
Why do you think 2 nights in Killarney rather than Cork? I'd be open to change it if necessary.

Macross- I did see the Dublin location is closed till St. Pattys day, but the Cork location is open! Is this still a good location to go to? Where is Teeling? I haven't heard of that one yet.

"St. Pattys day" you might want to avoid that statement.. Its St Patrick or casually St Pat. never given a girls name.

https://teelingdistillery.com/where-we-are/

If in Midleton then do got see the tours there.
Cork has a lot to offer imo. You can go to Midleton, Ballycotton, Cobh, Blarney and explore the city of Cork.

>> Why do you think 2 nights in Killarney rather than Cork? I'd be open to change it if necessary. <<

The activities in Killarney:Killarney National Park and Gap of Dunloe with jaunting cars, pony carts, horseback riding, Mucross House Tour are worth a whole day plus. And that does not include the famous Ring of Kerry with its' fabulous ocean and mountain views which is worth a half to full day.And then there is the singing pubs(do not know about wintertime) that deserve two nights. After a long drive from Galway to Killarney you won't have much time to do anything that day. Blarney Castle can be toured the morning that you leave Cork for Kilkenny. So nothing against Cork, but your itinerary can only have one two day stop. I recommend that be Killarney.

tony2phones - Thanks for the tip. Want to ensure I don't oftend anyone there.

Macross - I'll look into Teeling, too!

dugi_otok - Ok! I do agree that both places have so much to offer. I struggled picking which place to do overnight two nights in a row, since we only do that once on our trip.
You think it is worth the hassle of getting both hotels refunded and rebooking them?

Dugi_otok - I just went ahead and canceled my hotels for killarney and Cork and rebooked. So Day 4&5 are now in Killarney and Day 6 is in Cork. Thank you so much for the heads up. I looked at drive times/distances while planning my trip but it must have spaced me on how long of a drive it is from Galway to kilkarney, and we will obviously stop along the drives too.

What would you do on day 1 in Killarney and day 2 in Killarney?

I'm looking at booking my cliffs of moher online a head of time to skip lines and save money.
Should I just book the $7 standard ticket? Has anyone done the cliffs and cruise? It is $20 for a one hour cruise and a visit to the cliffs of moher?
I don't see a place to book that online.
I'm trying to book as much as possible before hand to save money and limit out of pocket expenses on our trip

>> What would you do on day 1 in Killarney and day 2 in Killarney? <<

I am assuming that the day that you are driving Galway to Killarney you are stopping en route at places such as the Burren, Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty, Adare, etc. and therefore will not arrive in Killarney early enough to sightsee in Killarney. So on the next day(your only full day) I would tour
Killarney National Park- Mucross House and Abbey,go horseback riding, some gap of Dunloe,Torc Waterfall, possibly Ladies View, Moll's Gap, Knockrere Demesne, Ross Castle etc.

The next day I would consider driving the Ring of Kerry (counter clockwise)exiting at Kenmore. Then I would proceed to Cork.

>> I'm looking at booking my cliffs of moher online ahead of time to skip lines and save money.
Should I just book the $7 standard ticket? Has anyone done the cliffs and cruise? It is $20 for a one hour cruise and a visit to the cliffs of moher?
I don't see a place to book that online. <<

I have not taken the cruise.I would just book the standard ticket and spend the time in the Burren.