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Post Info TOPIC: Awesome Time.... THANKS. by clarklaw


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Awesome Time.... THANKS. by clarklaw






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Posts: 14
(8/20/02 9:47 am)

Awesome Time.... THANKS.


Hi Michelle. We are back from our two week trip. It was awesome. We had so much fun. Your book was so helpful! I could write forever, but I think I'll just hit the high and low (if you could even call them "low") points.

One of the many things that I loved about our trip was that we weren't rigid about what we "had" to see or do and therefore, we were able to a lot without feeling exausted or overwhelmed. I think this is important. After all, you can't see everything and I found that there really wasn't any way you could go wrong as everything seemed to be interesting and beautiful. We met a couple at one of our B&B's and they looked absolutely exhausted as they were telling us that they spent each night in a different city and were touring at least three tourist attractions a day. We spent two nights in each city and found that we loved each place so much that we could have done three nights and narrowed the scope of our overall trip. Our slower pace and flexibility allowed us to see and do a bunch of different things- like horseback riding in the mountains and on Ventry Beach- and still take a daily nap before going out to meet people at the pubs each night. We accomplished our goal of meeting lots of locals. I found that the Irish actually keep to themselves UNTIL you approach them to start a conversation. Once you have broken the ice, they are very friendly. In fact, we met a couple from Dublin in Kenmare while we were waiting to be seated for dinner and in the five minutes we had to talk to them, we managed to get an invite for the next day to go out on the River Kenmare with them in their boat. Of course, we took them up on the offer and had a great time. They were just one of the lovely couples we met. I could go on and on about the great time we had. It was magical. The first day driving was scary, but my husband caught on pretty quickly. Our favorite city was probably Dingle. It was really nice and the shopping was great. Our favorite B&B was Dualla House in Cashel. The Lodge in Kenmare and Heaton's Guest House in Dingle were also extremely nice. The Restaurants in your book were fabulous. I don't think I could have done near the job planning our trip without your help.

Upon reflection, there are very few things we would do differently. At the risk of sounding like a griper, I thought I would go ahead and mention our complaints about a couple of the B&B's. I only do this in hopes that it will help others. Our least favorite place to stay was Headley Court in Bunratty. It was our first stop and although it was very clean, we found the hostess to be sort of apathetic towards her guests and the beds to be hard. In addition, it was very difficult to rest between the loudness of her toddler banging on things outside of our window and her own personal television blaring in the kitchen. We also didn't care for the Launard House in Kilkenny. The host there was not very friendly and the showers- which he boasted on his web site were "the best in Ireland"- only remained hot for about three minutes.

Our trip was about as close to perfect as you can get. Apparently we were very lucky to have experienced some of the first sunshine the Irish have seen all summer. In fact, it barely rained at all. Thank you so much for all of your help!

Amber & Mike Clark



Michele Erdvig
ezOP
Posts: 726
(8/20/02 5:58 pm)
 
Welcome Back


Hi Amber & Mike,

Welcome home from Ireland. Thanks so much for your comments and for stopping by to post them for everyone to share. It sounds like a fabulous trip with lots of interaction with the locals. You are right that they can be shy at first but once they open up you can make friends for life.

Thanks for your feedback on the various B&Bs. I'm glad you enjoyed the restaurants in my book. And sunshine after all the rain they have been having...what more could you ask for?

I was delighted to have helped with your trip. Making things easy for people visiting Ireland is always my goal. Please pass my site along to anyone you know who is planning a trip to Ireland and keep in touch.

Best always,

Michele



Debbie
Unregistered User
(10/29/02 6:18 pm)

Headley Court


Just a note - I stayed at Headley Court in 2000 and found Kathleen to be a fine hostess. Her little girl & baby were charming.

We are staying there again for our last night , in April - I will report back then.



Debbie
Unregistered User
(4/16/03 4:22 pm)

I'm back from my trip too ( April '03)


I will post more details under my 'trip report'
but wanted to say that we too LOVED Dualla House. I think it was our favorite place to stay this trip.

We stayed at Headley court again this time for our final night, and found Kathleen to be very charming. We had a bit of a chat with her after breakfast, asking her how business has been , had she noticed a decline in travel since 9/11, and this current war. She was happy to chat with us, and asked repeatedly if we needed anything. Yes, the beds were very firm, but they were a welcome change from some of the too soft beds in other places. Have to love the jumbo showers there though ;) - they are double the size of almost any other B&B we were at. We would definitely stay there again.

__________________

"Ireland Expert"  Michele Erdvig

Click links for Michele's Book or Custom Ireland Itinerary

Visit Michele's Irish Shop for unique Irish gifts and beautiful photos of Ireland.

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