Planning our first trip to Ireland
 

My wife and I are beginning to plan our first trip to Ireland. Our schedules require that we travel in early August and we're estimating a 10-14 days trip. Other than Dublin and Galway, we're open-minded. We'd appreciate any suggestions anyone would be willing to make regarding an itinerary. We're particularly interested in traditional music. In addition, we would appreciate any other suggestions that might be made regarding air flights (we're from Northern California), lodgings, and driving versus other forms of transportation. We're not inclined to formal tours.

Thank you.

jr:
Your going to love Ireland. The best way to tell you about our last trip to Ireland is to look at our travel blog here:
spaces.msn.com/cartersblog
There is so much to see, my wife says we will have to go back many times. We can't wait to return. Enjoy your trip!

Saturday afternoon in Galway is nice! There are a couple of pubs in the Pedestrian area that have afternoon 'Trad' music sessions. One is Taaffes; the other is something like Og Coeli just across the mall.

Other than suggest a day or two in west County Clare (Doolin, the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher, and Ennis), all the advice I can give you is to book ahead. Many Continental European Tourists visit Ireland in August.

If you can handle it, I would say that driving provides you the most flexibility; but I would wait until you're headed out of Dublin to rent your car.

Corofin is a small town south of galway City, and has traditional Irish music once a week, I believe on Wednesday's. Usually by teenagers who are about to participate in the all Ireland competitions. Drive through Connemara to Clifden, stay the night listening to music in the pubs, then drive around the coast line. Beautiful! Get a Michelin road map at your book store.

You'll have a blast - and researching it all ahead of time is almost as much fun as being over there! Of course, once you're over there you can throw away a lot of your best laid plans and just "wing it". That to me is even more fun. Ireland and it's people are incredible, although it has changed quite a bit in the last 12 years or so with the E.U. influence. Definitely plan on driving (automatic transmission) once you depart Dublin, which to me does not deserve more than a day or two. It's a great town, but there is too much else to see. Galway is another great place, and I would recommend that you do some serious souvenier shopping on it's mall. The pub that Ned mentions is Tig Ceoli, and I believe it's actually pronounced Chee Coley. With the time that you have allocated you should consider the Dingle penninsula and it's Slea Head drive. Some other faves include Paul's rec of Connemara's Clifden and Kylemore Abbey. Tour a castle and also plan on stopping off at a one of the ancient graveyards or ruined churches/abbeys that you may come across. Great photo ops. Intentionally get lost and converse with a local about how to find your way back. The Ring of Kerry is a waste to me (even though my family lives just off of it), but Kenmare is a beautiful little town to stop in. I actually enjoyed the self guided tour of Blarney Castle, but many others have not. I'll shut up for now, but this site and the answers it contains are the best resource out there. Ask often, and enjoy!

We went to Ireland for 14 days. We went all over Ireland. I really enjoyed the Connemare region Clifden is where we based ourselves.(We stayed at the Quays Inn and loved it.) From there we did trips to Kylemore Abbey, Drove to Rossveal and took the ferry to the Aran Islands. The landscape is very rugged and lots of Mountains. I also enjoyed Kinsale(stayed at the Old Presbytery) we toured Mizen Head and Sheaps Head peninsula's. Which I found to be more beautiful than Bearer or Ring of Kerry. I also loved DIngle (stayed at Emlaugh Lodge)

One of my favorite sights was the Rock of Cashel

We really only needed 1.5 days in Dublin-to do the tourist stuff. Its a big city which you can find anywhere. Good day trips would be the Wicklow Mtn region, Glendelaugh, Powers Court Gardens.
We noticed that most towns Always had traditional music playing in the pubs(sometimes they would start late like 9-10pm) but in Galway there seemed to always be music anytime of day and Tig Ceoli is a great place with great music.

The following may be of help to you
www.ireland.ie/getting around.asp
www.tourismireland.com (very good site)
www.irishmusicbars.com
www.townandcountry.ie
For Dublin www.visitdublin.com