Rory, 

Welcome to my forum! How nice that you are returning again to Ireland. Since you have seen much of the south and because you are traveling in July, I would suggest visiting places you have not been before. Plus you will be leaving the well-worn tourist track and (hopefully) the crowds behind. 

Northern Ireland is amazing and the Antrim coast rivals the SW of Ireland. Donegal is huge with a fabulous coastline. Sligo has lakes, waterfalls and Yeats' "Land of Heart's Desire" sandwiched between the mountains and the sea. Westport is a lively and picturesque town. Achill Island is one of my favorite secret places (an island off the Mayo coast). Connemara is unique with its bare mountains, lonely loughs and picturesque coastline. Galway is a lively city and the Aran Islands are just offshore. 

Have I whetted your appetite for the northern loop yet? I think that you and your group will be perfectly happy seeing whatever parts of the north you can in the time available. As you may have noticed from your previous trip the hard part is always trying to fit in all your "must sees" within your time frame. 

I am sure you have a few books about Ireland. Study up a bit on the places I mentioned to see what you think and what you would like to see. We will be happy to help you fine-tune your itinerary here. Or if you need more personalized help, just drop me an email. 

Michele

-- Edited by Michele Erdvig at 01:08, 2008-01-09

Rory,

Shhhhhhhhhhhh, Michele is catnapping.

Self-catering works well if you have many things to see within a reasonable radius. I usually average in one week of self-catering in all of my trips over. You can actually find some very reasonable self-catering cottages, between $400 - $600 euro in the North and Northwest, July being high season, you will want to narrow down your locations quickly and begin looking at reserving your lodgings. Realize that by cooking a self-catering cottage, you are committing to a saturday to saturday, full week, commitment. In the off season, some do mid-week breaks of three day stays. However, in high season, which is when you are traveling, very few offer such deals.

One caveat, the logic of self-catering, fixing meals in, sounds good. However, we found that the only meal we consistently made ourselves was breakfast. We always seemed to be out and about around dinner time. That being said, the benefits to self-catering, the feel of settling in to an Iirsh routine, room to spread out and not be on top of one another, can outweigh the negatives.

I am a promoter of the North of Ireland. I love its ever changing landscape, the open warmth of its people, and the fact that it is less traveled by tourists. The Slieve League Cliffs are, in my opinion, more awe inspiring than the Cliffs of Moher. Achill Island is indeed a treasure trove and not to be missed.

I look forward to helping you tweak your itinerary.

Slan Beo (Take Care),

Bit

-- Edited by CowboyCraic at 11:20, 2008-01-09

Almost every garage ( filling station?) here now does good hot food at reasonable prices.... When I was collecting in Ardara before Christmas I was amazed at how many "eateries" there were in that one small town. All smelled delicious too..... 

Bit,

My husband and I got a horrendous case of food poisoning once in Malin. If it hadn't been so painful it would have made an excellent comedy skit for the Irish version of Faulty Towers. Fortunately, it has only happened three times in 35 years of travel.

Michele