Ireland with young children
 

I will be traveling to Ireland in June for two weeks.

1. The first week we are renting a house in Clifden. Any recommendations for restaurants? what would two active boys (ages 4 & 5) enjoy seeing?

2. We have not planned the rest of our trip. What shouldn't we miss? (first time to Ireland for everyone) Accommodations? Resturants?

Thanks.

The rugged west coast of Ireland is littered with golden usually deserted beaches. You an exhaust the kids by letting them run free on the sands. The Burren area is very interesting with weird limestone formations giving a looner type vista. The Cliffs of Mohar are breathtaking but hold onto their hands as it is a long way down. Eat in any good pub usually better value than than a resturant. Most big towns will have the usual Big Mac fast food joints if the kids get desperate for a burger. Bunratty Folk Park at Shannon is a gentle interesting stroll and will take up an afternoon. If you get to Dublin there is the Zoo; The Guinnis Brewery and I would recommend a trip down the river Liffy in the centre of Dublin in a modern "Viking" motorised vessel. My kids loved that.Have a great time but take some warm clothing as it still may be a little cool in June.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I would second the beach option with your boys. My husband grew up in Ireland and spend many summer vacations on the beaches in Galway - he and his older brother asked to go every year.

Just outside Galway city, in Salthill, is a waterpark which sounds like a perfect kid place to me. There are also a few gaming/video arcades (called "Amusements" although I found them also geared towards adults and so are fairly smokey).

I would suggest perhaps a visit to a farm. This may or may not interest your boys depending (I'm guessing) on where you are from although animals always seem to go over well with kids. Turoe Pet Farms & Leisure Park is outside of Lochrea in Galway and looks like a good spot for a picnic and some play time. Maybe let your kids do ("help") with the food shopping, making up the sandwiches, etc. and then heading over to the farm for a picnic would make for a nice day out.

Go to www.GoIreland.com On the left side of the page is a list. Go down to Things To Do & See. A side menu will open and go to Environment/Wildlife. Then scroll down, again on the left, to Open Farms and a list will pop up for all the open farms in Ireland. Turoe Pet Farm is there on page 1.

I'm sure you can find nearby places to see/visit from this Go Ireland list -- everything from historic places to environmental things to do & see.

As for your second week it is really up to you, your interests, when you are there and how much (or little) you like dealing with crowds. If you head South into Kerry make sure to take the kids to Muckross Farms right across from Muckross House in Killarney (www.muckross-house.ie/farms/intro.htm) I really enjoyed it there and every kid I saw did, too!

Obviously castles are going to be a big hit. Bunratty in near to Galway and a day trip from Clifden, as long as you stay on the main roads. As mentioned you'll want to keep ahold of the kids as the stone is hard but they'll have a great time running about. I also like Cahir Castle in Tipperary. You can climb all over that one, too, but there are no handrails even up high on the battlements, just FYI.

I really could go on and on. Email me for more if you'd like! [email protected]

Cheers,
wendy

Wendy
Thanks for all the great suggestions. We are debating whether to go to Dingle or to the Ring of Kerry. Also, what do you think about young children and Dublin...
Jeanne

Jeanned

I just returned from Ireland last month and did both Ring of Kerry and Dingle. I have to say it's Dingle all the way for me. the Ring is nice but when you'll be there it will be crowded with people, buses, bicyclists, etc. Dingle will probably be busy, too, but not nearly as much. I intend to go back to Dingle next time and spend a few more days. You can easily do the Ring as well as the Muckross Farms from Dingle.

Dublin is a great place for kids! There is so much for them to see and do. One thing I would definately take them on is the Viking Splash Tour. (www.vikingsplashtours.com/) If that doesn't look like a fun kid adventure I don't know what is! The Zoo in Phoenix Park is supposed to be a good day out although I've personally never done it - well, not yet!

Dublinia in Dublin is a hands-on experience that is completely for younger kids. I went for the craic but it's not an adult sort of place with so many kids running about. Kinda like Toon Town only Vikings and not Mickey.

I would also consider a half day at the National Museum. Loads of stuff to see in there and a good display of Viking items upstairs. It's free which is always a plus so you can come and go as their attention spans do.

Visit http://www.nci.ie/holiday/visits/mea...n/newgran3.htm for Newgrange Farm in Co Meath. It's supposed to be a great day out, too.

Ireland has an extremely young population. Something like 25% of it is under the age of 16 so you'll find no shortage of kids. They are welcome most everywhere, even in pubs although I wouldn't keep them there past 8pm or so.

One thing you may want to try is crab fishing. My husband and I watched a family collect crabs off a pier for several hours one evening. All you need is a rock, a stick, a bucket or two, some string and a couple of rashers (bacon). Tie the bacon to the rock with the string and the other end of the string to the stick. Fill the buckets with sea water and maybe an extra rock or two. Throw your line over the pier for a minute and start rolling the string up. You'll have a crab or two attached to the bacon in no time! It makes a great game for the kids to see how many they can catch in a given amount of time. Just throw the crabs back in as you count them out to see who "wins" - It looked like a ton of fun - 'Dad' counted back the crabs, which weren't very big so didn't pinch much/at all, as he tossed them back into the ocean. At least he didn't seem to get pinched!

Enjoy

I'd vote for Dingle, too. Your boys might enjoy Oceanworld Aquarium on Dingle Harbor. There are also boat trips leaving from that area that track Fungi, Dingle's reident dolphin.

ttt for kathy99

Fota Wildlife Park in Cork is also a great place to bring kids. See www.fotawildlife.ie for more info.

The "amusements" around the country will no longer be smoky after the 29th March as the no smoking ban is being introduced.

The people who have posted all have great advise about Ireland. However there is something very important that you need to know for the safety of you and your children. The Irish are very aggressive drivers and drive on the left side. Pedestrians in Ireland are second class citizens. At times in Ireland I got a little confused about which direction the cars were comming from such as a busy intersection with multiple winding streets. They do not slow down for a cofused tourist who steps off of the curb looking in the wrong direction. I love the Irish but I don't like they way they drive.

My 5-year-old cousin always talks about the same things from her trip to visit us in Ireland: dressing up in costumes at a castle along with the scary video at the castle that gave her nightmares, getting whale-shaped fish-sticks and a treasure chest full of ice cream for lunch at a pub, sheep, and playing on the beach even though the weather was cold and rainy. She was pretty easy to entertain, particularly as there was always open space when we got out of the car for her to run around and tire herself out.

Jor-my impression of drivers in the Republic is exactly the opposite of you. I live in Northern Ireland, where drivers are a bit more sane, but across the whole island, there's much more consideration for pedestrians than there is in, say, the US. I'm always being waved across the street, and most drivers (aside from the little boy racers) watch out for cyclists, horses, sheep, pedestrians, etc.

Ann41, Have you lived in, say, the US? If you have, you know about the difference.