Movin' along

Dude · Guru

Movin' along

Michele Erdvig · Host

Dude,

1. I just looked at Kemwel's fine print. They mention mainland UK and No. Ireland together when they say additional insurance is required. I have never paid extra for going into No. Ireland. You should, however, tell your car rental company on arrival that you are traveling to No. Ireland. Note it on your contract if you want. I think the extra charge is for taking the car on a ferry to the UK. To be absolutely sure you can call them: 1-800-678-0678.

2. Check opening times locally. Sometimes on Sundays they open later in the day. In that case, doing the Inishowen 100 might be best on Sunday.

3. I stopped by Lough View House in 2005 and it was very nice. However, they only had rooms with one double bed per room. I don't know if they could be configured differently with advance notice.

4. They are both very good and right next door to each other. Bunratty Lodge has a slight edge because their triple room has two bathrooms. That might be a plus with everyone getting ready in the morning.

Michele

Michele Erdvig · Host

Dude,

I just looked at the website for Lough View House and I can see a room with two beds pictured. Perhaps when I stopped by they did not have that configuration and they have recently added it. Because I distinctly remember her telling me that she had no rooms with two beds. Maybe my request in 2005 made her re-think the room layouts.

Michele

Dude · Guru

Michele Erdvig wrote:

Dude,

I just looked at the website for Lough View House and I can see a room with two beds pictured. Perhaps when I stopped by they did not have that configuration and they have recently added it. Because I distinctly remember her telling me that she had no rooms with two beds. Maybe my request in 2005 made her re-think the room layouts.

Michele

I had e-mailed to see if they had any triples and they don't, but I guess we can spring for a single. Every other place we are thinking about staying has a triple except for Ballycarton House in Limavady. Now we just have to fight over who gets the single!

Dude · Guru

Michele Erdvig wrote:

Dude,

1. I just looked at Kemwel's fine print. They mention mainland UK and No. Ireland together when they say additional insurance is required. I have never paid extra for going into No. Ireland. You should, however, tell your car rental company on arrival that you are traveling to No. Ireland. Note it on your contract if you want. I think the extra charge is for taking the car on a ferry to the UK. To be absolutely sure you can call them: 1-800-678-0678.
I'll just called Violet at Kemwel and she says that EuropeCar, which we will probably have, has a one-time fee of about $36. This is to cross the border for any length of time at all. Good thing we didn't have an issue the four times we have gone to Belleek without it!

2. Check opening times locally. Sometimes on Sundays they open later in the day. In that case, doing the Inishowen 100 might be best on Sunday.
The websites are inconclusive, although the Bridge looks to be open until 6:00 and admission is up to 45 minutes before that. How do the Dark Hedges work--do we park somewhere and walk down the path, or do we drive? Is it hard to find?

3. I stopped by Lough View House in 2005 and it was very nice. However, they only had rooms with one double bed per room. I don't know if they could be configured differently with advance notice.

4. They are both very good and right next door to each other. Bunratty Lodge has a slight edge because their triple room has two bathrooms. That might be a plus with everyone getting ready in the morning.
Hadn't thought of the bathroom issue but with three women getting ready for the Ceili and then spending our last night before departure, two bathrooms sounds like it would be worth every penny of the difference. Thanks for pointing this out.

Michele

Thanks, Michele. I don't know how much more enjoyable our first two trips would have been had we known about your site, but now I wouldn't even consider making a trip without you and all my good friends here.

Michele Erdvig · Host

Dude,

EuropCar has never charged me a fee for going to Northern Ireland. I always tell them I am going. I just called them and they say there is no fee. Their number is 1-877-940-6900.

I have directions in my book on how to find the Dark Hedges from Armoy. There may be another way in but that is the way that I know. When I was there, there was no other car the whole time. Just a woman walking her dog. It is a road not a path. You can drive it or you can park by the side of the road and walk through. My husband parked at one end and I walked through since I was taking tons of photos. It really is gorgeous.

I am always happy to help. That is what my forum is all about. And I have to say that the forum members make my forum what it is.

Michele

daffydill · Member

We flew into Dublin last September. We rented a car from Eurocar and crossed into Northern Ireland and drove there for almost two weeks. EuropCar did not charge us anything extra for this. I did notice, while reading the fine print, that we would have needed permission to travel on ferries. By the way - we had a Ford Focus hatch back, manual transmission, and it was just great. It was comfortable, handled well and was ideal for our luggage. We bought a cell phone at Dublin Airport - at the Vodaphone store -for 49.99 Euros. I can't remember the call rates but they were reasonable. There are Vodaphone stores all over Ireland and Northern Ireland and it was real easy to buy more time. Good luck. DD

Dude · Guru

Well, we'll just budget for the fee, just in case, and if there's no charge, why there's more to spend on food and/or souvenirs. I have permission from the other travelers to go ahead and start booking accommodations so it's getting really real, if you know what I mean.

The Dark Hedges sounds really fascinating. We will definitely check them out.

Thanks for the info, Daffy. We are still dithering about autos. How many in your party, and how much luggage? I have graciously offered to shift gears, cutting the price considerably. Perhaps why one of the sisters was nervous about the "road race" of the Inishowen 100!

daffydill · Member

Dude,
Our party consisted of two people. Myself an old guy in his 70s and a younger guy who did all of the driving. We had more luggage than we should have had. I overdid the 'heavy' clothes thing. In addition to both a light and a medium weight jacket I brought a large heavy hooded jacket, two sweaters and some other stuff that I never used once during the time that we were there. We had a total of three large pieces of luggage - each about 61 inches overall plus two carry on bags and a day pack. I would certainly take a lot less next time around. Good luck.

Dude · Guru

Daffy, we are three women so will need more luggage than the equivalent number of guys would, but we are learning how to pack. We also plan to do laundry about halfway through so that will help. It sounds like we would fit in the Focus, but we'll have to see what we finally decide on.

Thanks for the info and the good wishes.