19 Day-(17 Full Days)-Ireland Trip Report
When: May 10th to 28th 2012
Day 1-3: Dublin (3 nights)
Day 4-5 Kilkenny area (2 nights)
Day 6-8 Killarney area (3 nights)
Day 9-11 Galway area (3 nights)
Day 12 Donegal area (1 night)
Day 13-14 Portrush N. I. area (2 nights)
Day 15-16 Belfast (2 nights)
Day 17-18 Navan area (2 nights)
Day 19 Depart Dublin
Here are some of my thoughts on some of the most talked about topics on the travel forums:
Accommodations: We’re not really urban people so we stayed in hotels for the 5 nights in Dublin & Belfast & B&B’s the other 13 nights. Some people like to stay right in the middle of town but I tried to book B&B’s just outside the major settings & was very satisfied with the choices I made. We were going to play it by ear & book accomodations as we went but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it & booked everything the week before we left. There were a few places I wanted to stay & didn’t want to chance it.
Weather: It only rained 3 times the whole trip. Twice while we were driving in the car & it stopped before we got to where we were going & once lightly on & off during the day but had no effect on our day’s plans. I actually got sunburn 1 day while golfing in Portrush. I doubt the weather could have been any better & we got a good laugh checking the weather back home to find it was cold & rainy with frost in the mornings. This was a lot closer to the weather we were expecting in Ireland than what we got.
Rental Car: We rented from Thrifty & opted to go with the full Super SDW insurance. The total cost was about $880 & we got a Volkswagon Polo with manual transmission & had no problem at all. I drove a stick shift for 20 years & although you shift with the other hand it really was no problem. The car had 12,000+ km on it & only 1 blemish which was documented in their paperwork. It was great on gas(40+ mpg)& even though I had to prepay for a tank of gas(their cost/litre was very competitive to the going rate for fuel throughout the country)it worked out fine since I was able to return it running on fumes. We ended up putting 2455 km on the car & spent $190 Euros on fuel including the 76 Euros on the prepay. I was told I could bring back the car full & get my prepay refunded but it wouldn’t have made much difference financially & I’m not jewish(jk) so I let it slide.
Roads & driving on the left side: The roads, although they were all paved, do come as advertised on most travel forums. We knew about this & took the advice to get the smallest car that would get us by. Good thing too because some of the roads we were on weren’t wide enough for 2 cars.
The “N” & “M” roads were just normal roads that any North American would be used to. Some of the “R” roads were also pretty good but some were very narrow & curvy & you couldn’t tell by looking @ a paper map which were which so it was a crapshoot. The roads seemed to get narrower & curvy as we went south then improved as we headed back North towards Galway then were really good in Northern Ireland.
As for the “L” roads, let’s just say don’t be surprised if you actually drive through somebody’s front yard. We also got a good laugh at the posted speed limits & quickly found out why you need extra time to get places. Unless it was a major road (N or M & a few R) there was no way you could even approach the speed limit let alone speed. The roads were windy & narrow & to top it off there were stone walls built a foot off the road almost everywhere, even on most of the “R” roads. This combined with the great scenery you’ll encounter make driving a slow affair. Don’t be in a hurry while driving, it’s not worth it.
As for driving on the left side the only time I ever had a problem with it was in parking lots where, for some reason, I seemed to revert to old habits. Don’t be afraid, it’s easy to get used to.
OPW Heritage Cards: These are cards we bought at the airport that give admission to any OPW(Office of Public Works) site(castle or historical)throughout the country. Best 21 Euros you’ll ever spend. I would have spent over 50 Euros each if I had to pay admission to everything we ended up going to & most(all)of them were very interesting.
Irish People: Could not have been more friendly. Everybody I met was friendly & helpful to a fault.
If there is interest, I could do a day by day trip report with lots of details including all my travel maps I’ve saved on Google Maps or I could just answer questions. Whatever you guys(& gals)want.
Originally Posted by Hockey Guy
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