David: I'm delighted to hear you have enthusiastically read 3 guidebooks. Yay! You are well informed. I confess to having a shelf in my bookcase devoted to guidebooks on Ireland...and I've only been to Ireland once so far! Here is my first bit of advice. You must throw your Rick Steves Ireland guidebook in the trash...but you should keep only the Dingle Peninsula section of the Rick Steves guidebook. Rick's info on Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula is great. However, the rest of Rick's Ireland guidebook is truly his worst guidebook and we found it to be inaccurate and unreliable and misleading. (I'm a Rick Steves fan...love his Italy guidebook for example...but was very disappointed in his Ireland guidebook for 2005, which I read cover to cover, and I have browsed through his more recent Ireland guidebooks which don't look much better. Notice that Rick Steves doesn't even mention Ireland at all in his Best of Europe 2009 guidebook!!! I am reading Rick Steves Best of Europe 2009 and he skips Ireland entirely in that book! Only Great Britain appears with London and Bath...no Scotland, no Ireland.

Michelle Erdvig and her delightful guidebook for Ireland are excellent...and you have already read it I see. Always trust Michelle over Rick Steves for Ireland...

I have also been to New Zealand twice. I adore the south island of New Zealand. Ireland is different than New Zealand. In the south Island of New Zealand, the scenery is so astonishing that you could indeed do a fast-paced drive-by tour of the south island of New Zealand and still see a lot of incredible sights. However Ireland is different. For us, a lot of the charms of Ireland are found when lingering in the pubs in little villages...hearing world-class musicians playing for the love of music in little pubs...standing in the ruins where people died in the potato famine and imagining how they felt living there, with that lovely view, and nothing to eat...lingering on a wild coast where there is not a sign of civilization in sight...finding quiet little spots where you could swear that fairies live... If you drive by too fast you will miss all of that. You'll miss the old Irishman who follows you to your car and sticks his head in just to chat out of curiosity as to where you come from and what brings you to Ireland...

On our first visit to Ireland, we had 3 nights in Dingle to explore the Dingle peninsula and it wasn't long enough...we didn't have time to go out to the Blasket Islands, which even my teens wanted to do. After seeing the Blasket Islands visitors center on the Dingle peninsula, we wished we had more time so we could have taken a boat out to the Blasket Islands. That's just an example of how Ireland calls you to linger...

I loved the music at Matt Malloy's pub in Westport so much that my husband and I returned there a second night and heard different and amazing musicians each night...we also checked out other places in town but Matt Malloys' was our favorite. My daughters and I found a chocolate shop in Westport where a local woman chatted with us. She ended up deciding to give us some blessed holy religious metals for protection on our journey . Where else but Ireland does that happen?? She wasn't preaching to us at all, she was just enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and we got to chatting about Ireland. She said she didn't see too many Americans in WEstport.

Anyway I just thought I'd give you a little glimpse of unexpected moments you might miss if you go too fast.

You will have an amazing trip! You have prepared well. There are many experienced people on this forum...plus Michele, the Goldilocks of Ireland!

David

Sounds like you like the same things we do, scenery emphasized, so I will tell you what our trip this summer will include. On previous trips we have toured 16 of the 32 counties in the republic, however the last two trips we have based in what we consider the most beautiful scenery in Ireland.

We will spend one week in Kerry (Killarney) and take day trips from that central location.

Drive to Dingle (Slea Head Drive). Drive over Connor Pass, beautiful on a clear day.

Tour Killarney National Park. Drive up to Ladies View, Stop at Muckross House (Gardens and Mansion)

Trip through the Gap of Dunloe (my favorite scenery)

Trip to Beara Peninsula, drive over Healy Pass. Narrow winding roads, beautiful and scenic.

Visit Ross Castle in Killarney and take the tour!!! One of the best restored castles in Ireland.

Drive up to Galway and stay for 5 Days. Boat trip to Aran Islands and tour Connemara area. Again the beautiful scenery.

All the places I have mentioned, we have visited before and long to go back for the beautiful scenery.

Others will have their favorite places, but those are ours.

Have a great trip, it wont be your last to Ireland. You will get hooked.

Judy M.

Because the boat schedule is fixed, we will have to leave where ever we are the morning of June 3 and drive to Enniskillen, shop for provisions, and be at the boat by 15:00. If that means we have not gotten to things we want to do back to the southwest of Enniskillen, then there will be some doubling back to pick up where we left off. However, we can take different routes coming and going and take time to sight see on the way.

Given our limited time, just like every trip we take, there is just not enough time to do everything. Therefore we try to pick the best low hanging fruit. While on the boat, we will be moored at a dock at night (probably a different one every night) so we will get a chance to do the towns, villages, and attractions around Upper and Lower Lough Erne. The boat is a slow the pace way down, stop when we want week.

-- Edited by exexx on Thursday 3rd of March 2011 03:19:53 PM

-- Edited by exexx on Thursday 3rd of March 2011 07:20:26 PM

David,

Welcome to my forum. Let's see if we can decipher your trip.

Arrive May 24 into ? airport: Overnight KILKENNY * I am going to guess and say Dublin arrival

May 25 - June 2: Kenmare, Dingle, Doolin, and Galway

June 3 - 8 on boat

June 9 - 16: West, NW, Westport & Derry

17 - 19: Dublin

Depart June 20 from Dublin airport

Did I figure out the plan correctly? Perhaps you might like to post a proposal so we can all look at it and add our suggestions?

Michele

David,

You might add Cahir Castle and Swiss Cottage to the day you drive from Kilkenny to Kenmare. I suggest a couple of days in Kenmare.

Michele

exexx wrote:

---

Six weeks to go and we have a schedule and reservations:

Day 1, Arrive Dublin, overnight Kilkenny, Park Villa
Day 2,3,4 Kenmare, Abbey Court
Day 5,6 Dingle, Milestone B&B
Day 7,8 Doolin, Cullinan's (eating splurge)
Day 9,10 Salthill (Galway), Sunrise Lodge
Day 11-17 On Cruiser on Lough Erne and Erne/Shannon Waterway
Day 18,19 Westport, Cillcoman Lodge
Day 20 Ardara, Gort na Mona
Day 21,22 Derry, Saddler's House
Day 23,24 Ballycastle, Ardaghmore B&B
Day 25,26,27 Dublin, Willow House
Day 28 Depart Dublin

Now to start work finishing the list of must-do's and like-to-do's for each location and along the travel between locations.

---

 

 Wow, sounds like a good plan! I may take some tips from this!

It does sound like a lovely trip - I envy you the extra time! My trip is only 18 days :) I'd second what Bit recommends, adding to Ardara from Dublin.

When I think 'best' castles, I like the ruined ones rather than the restored ones. To me, ruined castles tell more of the story of what happened to it, and are more picturesque, romantic, whatever you wish to call it. Others prefer the restored ones, with Victorian furniture or Tudor wall hangings - so 'best' is a bit of a subjective thing.