Ireland, Summer 2011 tips & advice

[bekkiz]

The Rick Steves guide book is a must, it made our trip perfect! Lots of out of the way things to do and see.

We drove, it was not a big deal at all. You may want to spring for an automatic (it's a bit more expensive) and figuring out a manual on the other side was the trickiest part! I also agree that the smaller the car the better We never got lost, but we also had the green Michelin book that had good maps in it. A GPS would be even better.

We started in Dublin (flew American IIRC) and departed from Shannon. I personally loved some of the sites around Dublin (Bru Na Boinne and Powerscourt Estate) so I would never tell anyone to skip that area!

The Burren, north of Shannon was also wonderful.

My favorite town was Kenmare. We were there two nights, and used it as a base to see the Ring of Kerry. Dingle was SUPER cute too. I think we were in Ireland for a total of seven nights, and we had a very aggressive touring plan, but I actually felt super relaxed the whole time. I think it's all the sheep

 

[DMRick]

I think it's all the sheep

I loved one of the golf courses that had a sign..Miust pay fine if you hit the sheep LOL!!

OP, whatever you decide, have a wonderful trip. We'll be back in May (we're cruising first, so we'll be in both the west and east of Dublin for two days on the ship, then taking a water ferry over at the end of the cruise from Wales for 10 days), prob even more often, now that we have a granddaughter living there. She'll be here in the states (and her parents of course) in November to celebrate her first birthday. She gets to travel around Ireland a lot, since all of our family takes turns now going over, and we are all still sight seeing. Northern Ireland makes her mom nervous, so we prob won't be going back there for awhile, but I think we have seen all we want to there anyway.