Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Newbie inquiring about Ireland
Hello! I am new to posting on this board, even though I've been reading for awhile! I came over from the honeymoon board for some more advice. I found the honeymoon board was best for beach trips. My fiance and I are planning to go to Ireland at the end of May/ beginning of June. I have done lots of research and have got many ideas on what we want to do. A lot of posts though say to rent a car and neither of us really want to drive. We would like to fly into Dublin and stay for one day and then travel to the Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, Jamison distillery in Cork, Galway.. mostly the usual places to see. We would like to either do a tour that still gives us our freedom to explore a little or take public transportation (this scares me with missing trains even though I know I'd be fine). We were going to go speak with someone at AAA to discuss options but would love to hear other opinions and suggestions as well. Have any of you had a good/bad experience with hotels, tour groups, airlines, restaurants, etc. Thank you and have a great day!!
Re: Newbie inquiring about Ireland
If you rent a car you will have the freedom to come and go as you please and create your own experience. If you take a tour you will likely be in a large group in a cattle call environment, and have very little control over your days.
We went last year and rented a car. DH said the driving was much easier than he anticipated. We flew into Dublin, then drove southwest around the country and flew home from Shannon and we loved it! Here is our itinerary.
Day 1 - arrive in Dublin
Trinity College/Book of Kells/Long room
Chester Beatty Library
Christchurch Cathedral
Brazen Head pub
Overnight in Dublin (Best Western Premiere Academy Plaza hotel - very small room, but modern, clean and a terrific location)
Day 2 - we used the hop on, hop off bus this day and it allowed us to get around and see a lot. The first stop was literally across the street from our hotel
St Patricks Cathedral
Guinness storehouse
Kilmainham Gaol (old jail - way cool)
Grafton Street
St. Stephen's Green
Temple Bar area
Overnight in Dublin
Day 3 - pick up car (we used Hertz and picked it up in the city)
Drive to Kilkenny, and on the way stop at
Powerscourt House and Gardens
Glendalough
Overnight in Kilkenny (Butler Court)
Dinner and music at Kyteler's Inn - cool place!
Day 4 - toured Kilkenny Castle
Wanted to see St Canice's Cathedral but it was Sunday and they didn't allow visitors until after 2pm
Drive to Kinsale
Rock of Cashel on the way
We loved Kinsale - such a cute town down on the coast
Dinner at Max's Wine Bar
Music at White House Pub
Overnight in Kinsale (The Old Presbytery guest house - great place)
Day 5 - drive to Killarney
Toured Charles Fort just outside Kinsale which gave a great view across the water to see the entire town
stopped at Blarney Castle on the way to Killarney - total tourist stop, and in the summer or in large crowds I would not do this because you would be waiting in line forever
Dinner at Murphy's Pub
Overnight in Killarney (Killarney Royal Hotel - enormous room!)
Day 6 - drive the Dingle Peninsula via Conor Pass - absolutely amazing
We had lunch in Dingle and walked around a bit
Overnight in Killarney
Dinner at Scott's Bar
Music at Sheehan's - good traditional Irish music
Day 7 - visited Killarney National Park
Muckross House and Abbey
Torc Waterfall
Ladies View overlook
Drive up to our last stop near Shannon
Overnight at Dromoland Castle (what can I say - a true 5 star resort and it was amazing! The breakfast was incredible.)
Day 8 - Cliffs or Moher (one of the highlights of our trip for sure)
The Burren
Dinner - Bunratty Castle medieval banquet (fun!)
Music - Durty Nellie's pub
Overnight at Dromoland
Day 9 - fly home via Shannon airport
Post on MM about Ireland from today:
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/62413653.aspx
Someone posted about this below. You may get some info there.
We did a fly/drive/B&B package both times I've been and it worked out great. That said, I've heard good things about CIE Tours. I much prefer going out on my own over tours, but if you really want to go the tour route, they may be the way to go.
Our little Irish rose came to us on March 5, 2010
Don't drink the water.
Disclaimer: I am not an MD. Please don't PM me with pregnancy-related questions. Ask your doctor.