Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report- SW Ireland Part

Hello! My wife and I just returned from an 8 day stay in SW Ireland and I wanted to share some thoughts as many of you helped us plan for this trip. Maybe something I post will help a fellow traveler. I'll try to keep this as short as possible but I apologize upfront if this gets a little long. Here we go starting with some flight information:

We flew American Airlines via Chicago to Shannon. This was our 2nd trip to Europe traveling via Continental the 1st time to Paris. The Continental flight was a lot nicer. More room, private TV screens at each seat & better customer service. AA wasn't terrible but I felt like we were packed in like sardines. Poor planning on my part as for some dumb reason, I booked a window and middle seat for both trips. I took the middle seat both ways and realized I should have booked two aisle seats across from each other so the wife and I could still talk and we could get up whenever we wanted to stretch our legs without bothering someone. Lesson learned for next time if flying a similar seat configuration.

Shannon Airport: fairly small and easy to navigate especially compared to a major city airport. Immigration, customs etc. were a breeze. FYI, if you fly back on a Sat. morning I would advise arriving at the airport at least 3 hours before the flight if you have a rental car. We stayed about 5 miles from the airport and our hostess at the B&B told us we would be o.k. to leave for the airport between 7:30 & 8:00am for a 10am flight. She seemed to thank I was silly wanting to leave any earlier but she was nice about it. We left around 7am and it was tight to get everything done by 9:30. We rented from Europecar and they have a poor car rental return set up that caused us some delay. Lots of people going to the States on a Saturday morning so long lines for everything. I imagine travel during the peak season would be worse.

The driving experience: not terrible and I have to admit I was a little nervous before the trip. Really nothing to worry about. I actually adapted to driving on the left quickly. If you rent a car, I suggest getting the smallest car you can. The roads in SW Ireland are very tight especially with tour buses. We had a Ford Focus and at times I wish I had something smaller like a Nissan Micra (what we were suppose to get). The wife got a good laugh the 1st day as I would be driving along quite well and a tour bus would approach from the other lane and I would give her an "oh my gosh" and put her close to the bushes. Some roads are only wide enough for one car at a time. The roundabouts etc. were easy to pick up on. Having someone to navigate made it a lot easier. After about 2 days in the car I was really comfortable with everything except using the rearview mirror. Back to the navigation real quick, the road signage is really bad in spots and the signs 1) come up on you quickly at times and 2)signpost may have 4 or more arrows with options. This made it a little stressful as you have to make some quick decisions or you'll get off course. Luckily, it was pretty easy for us to notice when we got off track. We never got further than 2-3 minutes down the road before realizing we needed to turn back.

The people of Ireland: We thought they were great. 99% of the people we met were very friendly and helpful. We even had a guy draw us a map in Limmerick when some contruction got us knocked off course. The best interaction with locals we had occurred in Dingle when a group of about 20 kids literally pulled us into Murphy's pub around 5pm when we opened the door to find out why the place sounded so lively from the street. Come to find out these kids had just graduated college in Cork and they had been at the pub since 11am. They welcomed us by rubbing our heads, offering hugs and handshakes and asking us to sing songs with them. We spent about 2 hours at the pub and had a good time talking to the kids and other tourist who had also been pulled in. It was def. something that would have been good to capture on video.

B&B report: We stayed at the following: 4 nights at Virginia's Guesthouse in Kenmare / 2 nights at Heaton's Guesthouse in Dingle / 1 night at Cullinan's Guesthouse in Doolin and 1 night at Bunratty Lodge. I would recommend all of these accommodations. Noreen and Neil at Virginia's were so nice and Noreen made the best breakfast of. Nula (sp?) and Cameron at Heaton's were also very nice but their place is larger = more guest = we didn't get to spend as much time with them. The staff at Cullinan's was the least friendly of all the places we stayed but they weren't really rude it's just that they didn't say very much. Finally, Mary at Bunratty Lodge was very friendly. All the accommodations were clean, in good locations and had plenty of space. We got to visit with Noreen and Neil a lot so we probably enjoyed our stay in Kenmare the most. For what it's worth, I would recommend staying in Kenmare vs. Killarney. Killarney seemed way too busy with tourist. Kenmare made a nice base for our activities in that region. Nice little town with bascially 2 streets of pubs, shopping and food options.

So, what did we actually do?
Day 1: Arrived in Shannon and drove to Kenmare. Spent the afternoon in Kenmare. Had dinner at Odonnaphain's (sp?) pub. Good pub food for 10-15 euro per person.

Day 2: Sea Kayak excursion with seakayakwestwork out of Glengariff. I highly recommend this trip. This was probably our favorite part of the vacation & neither of us had been in a Kayak. The excursion takes you around the Bantry Bay. The scenery was incredible. To me, it was very much like the Pacific NW here in the states. The Bay has a seal colony and we had seals following us on the trip. It was very, very cool. The trip was 100 euro for a 3 hr. excursion and it was well worth it. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving the Beara Pen but did not make it to the tip as we got lost on a road and decided to head back toward Kenmare around 5pm. Tried to have dinner at several restaurants but everything was booked so we ate at Odonnaphain's again.

Day 3: We did Killarney National Park. Had dinner at the restaurant right below Virginia's called Mulcahey's (sp?). Anyway, it's suppose to be the best or one of the best rest. in Ireland. The night we were there, some big Ireland TV Food celebrity was there but we didn't recognize her. She was the Irish Martha Stewart. The food was really good but it wasn't the best meal we had in Ireland (more on that later). We spent just under 100 euro for dinner, dessert and couple glasses of wine.

Day 4: Drove the ROK. Nice drive with some very scenic views. There is a place along the drive with a huge parking lot that has an incredible view over this farm country and the ocean. There's a huge hill you can hike up for a better view. It was the only spot on the drive that I remember with a huge parking lot. One of the best views on the trip. We drove counter clockwise and had no trouble with buses or traffic. At the end of the drive we actually did the Gap of Dunloe. We did the jaunting cart 1/2 way into the Gap. It was 50 euro which I thought was a little steep but we enjoyed the guy who took us and we had done a lot of walking on the trip so I guess it was worth it. That night, we had dinner at Bacaus in Kenmare. Very nice meal.

Day 5: Drove to the Dingle Pen. Spent some time on Inch beach and took the boat in Dingle to see Fungi. We've seen dolphins before and the rate was 16 euro per person so to me it was no big deal. The wife really wanted to go so we went and it was actually really fun. There's some very nice views from the boat and it was nice to be on the water for an hour. Had dinner at Jack Benny's pub. The food was pretty good.

Day 6: Slea Head drive. Very scenic but the weather was terrible. It rained the whole day but we got some really cool photos with the fog rolling around the hills. We also drove Connor's pass and we were back to Dingle by late afternoon. Surprise dinner experience of the trip. We had heard good things about Tir na Ri Chinese on Green Street and decided we needed a break from the pub and Irish food. It was really, really good. I found it intersting that they serve chips with the chinese. I think we were the only people in the place who had rice. Kinda weird to see someone eating General Tso's chicken with french fries.

Day 7: Drove to Doolin area and saw the Cliffs of Moher. We actually decided to drive the Burren that night also since it stays light until 10:30 at night. We ate at McDermott's pub and it was good.

Day 8: We decided to drive to Galway so we could spend 3-4 hours in the Town Center. We had heard from several people that Galway was really cool so we decided to check it out even if it was a brief stay. It was neat but nothing jaw dropping. I'm glad we went. We left Galway around 2:30 and headed to the Shannon / Bunratty area. We took in the castle then headed to dinner at The Red Door. This was the best meal we had on the trip. We had an early bird 3 course meal for 25 euro each. Better food, better presentation, better portions and better value then the "top" rest. we ate at in Kenmare. If you're going to stay around the Bunratty Castle I highly recommend The Red Door.

In our opinion what attractions should you not miss? The Dingle Pen / Killarney National Park / The ROK drive / Doolin and the Doolin Music scene. You've got to stop by Dick Mack's pub in Dingle - say hi to Oliver. Check out Foxy John's pub in Dingle (combination hardware store / pub and bike rental). If you can take the sea kayak trip I also really recommend that. It was a blast.

Well, I guess I've covered a lot of ground. I'm pretty tired so I'll finish this up. There's so much I haven't covered but feel free to post a question if you have one and I'll try to give an answer in the next couple of days. I migh add some more thoughts once I get refreshed. Cheers!