Allabouttravel

I am off to Ireland for the first time. Leaving on Saturday and staying until the following Sunday. I have questions about a B&B, my itinerary, and driving in Ireland:

1) Has anyone stayed at The Grange B&B in Galway? We are staying there our first night in ireland and don't know much about it.

2) Is this itinerary realistic?

Day 1: Arrive at Shannon airport and drive to Galway
Day 2: Galway
Day 3: Westport (day trips to either Achill Island, Croagh Patrick or Connemara National Park)
Day 4: Donegal Town
Day 5: Glencolumbkille (visit Slieve League)
Day 6: Roscommon (my boyfriend wants to visit the famine museum)
Day 7: Enis or Adare (which one is more interesting?) We plan to visit the Burren and/or the Cliffs of Moher on this day
Day 8: Departure from Shannon airport

3) I am petrified about driving in Ireland. I won't actually be driving but I am the worst passenger in the world. To ease my mind, should I upgrade to an automatic? How much more expensive is that option?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Budman

On your last day and visiting the Cliffs of Moher, might I suggest you stay in Bunratty?

I personally had no problems driving with a stick shift. Like driving on the left, you just have to shift with the left hand. It only took me a couple of minutes to get the hang of it.

The roads are very narrow and tight with a lot of rock walls covered with ivy so think you can't even see the walls. As the passenger, my wife spent most of the time leaning towards me.

Have a great trip!!

waffle18

On my first trip to Ireland I got to drive and be a passanger. (My husband learned to drive a stick shift that trip, too. That rental car was never the same again...)

We had a few horrific arguements due to the fact that I would start shouting "GET OUT OF THE DITCH!" whenever he began drifting towards it - as you are prone to do since the driver is used to being on that side of the road. To remedy this (my yelling, his nervousness) we developed a 'code word' that would alert him to his drifting and I could let him know his driving was starting to scare me. I simply said the word "ditch" each time he began to drift that way. I would repeat said word as he continued to drift over saying it more often and with increasing degree of volume until he corrected himself. This remedied many an agurement.

Tips for Driving in Ireland
-- tag team drive; you look for road signs and look ahead where you are going on a good map (not the rental car map...)
-- go slow, especially around bends on back roads.
-- believe the signs. If they show a sign with a laying down K then that means the upcoming road actually looks like that. Also the speed to go around said bends is whatever they say it is - no more!
-- beware of large, fast trucks. They won't be aware of you.
-- pull off the road to let others by if only for your own sanity. You are on vacation and not in a hurry while they are probably not.
-- if you miss your turn off going around a roundabout, go around again. (And you must say "Look kids! Big Ben!&quot
You both will do fine once you get the feel for it. It takes a lot less time than you think.

Your itinerary sounds just about right. I agree with Budman to stay near Bunratty for your last night. Either that or go to/stay near Ennis. Adare is nice but the drive through Limerick probably won't be.

Have a great time!

Wendy

Allabouttravel

Thanks for your posts! You both have good attitudes about driving in Ireland. I definitely plan on using waffle18's DITCH tactic :}. As for Bunratty, I had never even heard of it or considered it. But thanks to your posts, I will now change my itinerary for that last day. Thanks a lot! I

MaryZ

You'll be in the car a fair amount, but it's doable and you'll be driving through a fantastic part of the country.
I think Ennis is SO much more interesting than Adare. Ennis is a busy little town with lots of restaurants and pubs and activity. Adare just doesn't do it for me---feels too much like a thatched cottage theme park.
The trip to the Famine Museum in Strokestown is worth it. The boyfriend is right.
Renting an automatic adds significantly to your car rental expense. We don't do it, but are used to driving standard shift cars at home.

NEDSIRELAND

I agree with MaryZ on Ennis vs. Adare. Your last day will be a Saturday and Cruise's Pub has its best Traditional Irish music weekend nights.

Adare, Ireland's 'tidy village' isn't really much nor, in my humble opinion is Bunratty (which has a Castle and Durty Nellie's Pub).

Ennis has several hotels: the Old Ground; the Temple Gate and the Queen's. It has ample shopping such as Beleek's (on Abbey St.), restaurants and pubs. It's a great 'wind down and walkabout' city. And it's about 30-min drive to Shannon airport.

Allabouttravel

What I have decided to do is read up on both Bunratty and Ennis and let my boyfriend be the deciding factor. It seems like both places are good to visit. After reading the posts, I am starting to feel more at ease about driving in Ireland. My boyfriend and I both drive stick here in the States so maybe if we practice for a while in an empty parking lot somewhere, we will quickly get the hang of it. Thanks for confirming that the Famine Museum is a good attraction. I didn't really want to go but now I am a bit more intrigued.

waffle18

I have found that the times when you *really* need to be alert and aware while driving is a) when you first pull out onto the road after stopping someplace and b) if something unexpected happens on the road.

Now I realize it's hard to think about being alert when something unexpected happens so let me clarify. Say you are driving happily down a good sized road -- one lane coming and going and traffic passing each other at a constant and good rate -- and a dog -- or what have you -- decides to cross the road directly in front of you ((&amp). Your natural tendancy is to move over to the right towards where the curb usually is and away from danger. Doing this, however, puts you directly into the path of oncoming traffic! Not a good idea. So consider what you "would" should something like that happen but do so before it does happen. Eg we once had a car pull out from a side road directly in our path and my first instinct was to move to the right and out of the way. Luckily, I was able to stop in time from hitting the car that pulled out (& he had pulled on from the right weirdly enough) and from going into oncoming traffic. It's an odd, odd sensation.

As for the other, when we tour we stop a lot for photos over beautful views -- say "cheese!" -- as well as stopping to do the touristy things. It's when you are pulling back onto the road that you will automatically drive onto the right side of the road. It's not until you see someone coming straight at you do suddenly realize YOU are on the wrong side of the road. It just helps to have 2 people aware and double checking each other.

The really scary part is that once you are back home you will sometimes tend to drive on the wrong side of the road. I will tease my husband and say, "um, dear, we are NOT in Irleand" when he does this. The tendancy will fade rapidly but just be aware that you may experience it!

Safe travels,
Wendy

sejwoods

I was the designated driver for our 8 day vacation - my husband panics at even the THOUGHT of driving out of his element (even in the U.S.!) and my mother couldn't find her way out of a paperbag, so it was up to me to drive. I loved it! It's been awhile since I've driven stick shift and the only problem I had was in a couple of the towns we had to stop in traffic at the top of hills and I stalled it a couple of times.

To prepare myself, on the airplane going over I made Post-It notes with drawings showing the correct lane to drive in and to pull into out of parking lots, and the correct way to do a roundabout. I also made a Post-It with the route numbers and town names we'd be passing through the first day. When we got in the rental car I placed my Post-Its where I could see them well and off we went. I could just glance over at the diagrams to reassure myself and we didn't have to keep pulling out the map to see where we needed to go. Worked like a charm!