This first blog is going to be tips and tricks for those considering Ireland and the second post will be all the personal stories about our trip.
So you’re considering a trip to Ireland, good job! Ireland is stunning and should be on your list. I spent hours researching if we should risk renting a car, going in November, and the things to do. Here I’ll guide you through my findings and hopefully save you the time.
1. November?
I had a really hard time deciding whether doing this trip over Thanksgiving was going to be a huge mess. I read blog and blog about rain, wind, shortened days, places being closed, etc. But... we went anyway here is what we found:
- It did rain. Of course, it’s Ireland. Bring umbrellas and rain jackets or ponchos and you’ll be fine. Out of 9 days we had 2 days of pure straight rain. About 2 days of sun and the rest were totally mixed.
-We did not experience wind. We even went to some of the windiest places and had no wind.
-It IS dark. Oh boy it is dark. The sun comes up around 8 and sets around 4. You have got to move fast during the light because there are some roads you do not want to drive in the dark. This being said we were still able to do everything we wanted and we used our nights to relax, eat, travel sometimes, read, etc. Would we have liked to go in summer when the days are full and you can do more? Of course but we still managed fine with the 8 hours a day we were given.
- Places DID close earlier. Most places the last admission was 3:30 so you HAVE to plan your days or you will miss out.
- Some smaller places were closed for winter but we only experienced that with tiny castles the rest was open.
2. Driving/Car Rental
- To be transparent I didn’t drive and am thankful I didn’t. My husband drove the whole time and we returned the car unharmed! :)
- Insurance. The best way to do this is to use your Chase Credit card. Deny ALL insurance ALL of it even basic CDW and book the car on the Chase CC under the name of whomever will drive. Do NOT forget this. If you book it and someone else is driving you will have to pay a second driver fee. I had a hard time finding an online place that would let me deny all insurance. I ended up going to budget. Go to Budget pick a car: the smaller the better, make sure you deny all insurance. It will put a hold on the car but not charge you anything. Then call Chase and tell them you need a letter to drive in Ireland. They will email it to you. The car rental will ask for this letter so bring it.
- Most cars are manual and will save you on gas and the rental price. If you know how to drive stick do this to save $. It is weird doing it with your left hand but my husband managed just fine.
- Get the smallest car you can. We got a citigo and it was great! It held our 2 rolling carryons and backpack in the small trunk. The backseat would have been big enough to fit a large checked bag.
- You do have to pay a ton of fees. Fee for airport, fee to go to Northern Ireland, etc.
- They will put a 5,000E hold on your cc if you deny all insurance but if you bring the car back unharmed this goes away.
- They will charge you 91E for gas and if you bring the car back full you get the 91E back.
- There are tolls and one of them is cash only! You need cash! They did take pounds which was a lifesaver bc we didn’t have cash.
- We did the whole island and had about 8E in tolls.
- The car cost us about 120E for 9 days.
- We filled up three times maybe three and a half. Gas was 1.45 per liter which adds up. I would say we spent about $200 in gas.
- The roads are narrow and there are stone walls lining them. It was a bit scary at times but for the most part totally fine just stay between the lines.
- Almost all roads were small back country roads. There was only one freeway type road and never over 3 lanes. That was on the way to dublin and was the first road that was like back home. The other 80% of the island was one lane roads or two lanes one in each direction. The one lane roads have pulls outs along them so you can pull over for a car to pass.
- Street lights aren’t really a thing and the roads are dark. There were a few nights my husband was very unhappy driving the tiny, twisty, back roads in the rain and fog.
- There are a lot of weird street signs. Do a little research before you go.
- Go on google maps and download an offline map of Ireland. This is essential. This will give you full access to maps and driving directions. Do it on everyone’s phone who is going incase one phone dies. You can then place pins and save them on all the places you are visiting. Do not forget to do this for your hotels. We did this and were totally fine without internet the entire journey.
- Bring a cigarette plug charger for the car. Or one of those chargers that doesn’t need to be plugged in.
- If you want music or podcasts download before and bring an aux cord.
- I would 100% recommend getting a car. It gives you complete freedom to explore and it isn’t as scary as people make it out to be.
3. Eating
- Food is expensive. When you go to dinner you will expect to pay about $20 per person in a restaurant. Some lunch specials will be around $12 but we normally spent $20. Grocery store is of course cheaper and bread, meat, and cheese in the grocery store is very affordable.
- There really isn’t fast food or as they would say carry out. Some of the bigger towns had a place called Apache Pizza and the gas stations called GreenApple have Subway. The only big town with fast food is Dublin and Belfast. The towns are just made up of small restaurants.
- They eat dinner later. Restaurants won’t do dinner until around 6. Many restaurants are not open before 5:30. Some will advertise all day food.
- Most if not all hotels have restaurants and this is a great choice for eating as well.
- If your hotel offers breakfast and you can buy it as part of your package do it. Breakfast was usually 10 to 16 E so if you can book a room with it, do. Breakfast consists of: beans, eggs, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, and some sort of bread. The fancier ones then have a cold selection too: museli, cheese, cold cuts, yoghurt, fruit, etc. Our nicer hotels had beautiful breakfasts. We usually ate breakfast and them did nuts and bars for lunch and went out for dinner.
- The gas stations actually have quite a bit of food: fruit, scones, bread, cheese, meat, etc.
4. Budget/ Lodging
- Northern Ireland is cheaper than Ireland. While you would think because they are on the pound it would be more expensive... no. Buy your souvenirs, snacks, fill the car, etc here. Food was cheaper, gas was cheaper, the grocery store was way cheaper, hotels, everything.
- Everything costs $ even all the nature things. People will say you don’t have to pay etc but the fact is there is no where else to park and taking your time trying to find other places to park isn’t worth it. If you read that at Giant’s causeway you can just walk through the tunnel- that is only if you parked somewhere else and walked in. If you park at the visitor’s center you have to pay. There are people standing outside who will check. To be honest I have no idea how much we spent.
- Don’t eat out everyday. Use the grocery stores.
- We spent about $1500 on air tickets because we wanted to go over Thanksgiving. You can get tickets way cheaper than this. I would say $500 RT and under is a must book and feel good about. We spent $750 but I would totally spend that again to do this trip.
- Our hotels and airbnb averaged $100 a night. We splurged one night and spent about $300 to stay in a really nice castle (Dromoland) which was amazing! We got the cutest cabin in the woods with a wood burning fireplace for $80. That place is called the Wood Cutter’s cabin and I fully recommend.
-The Lake Hotel was in a beautiful spot with gorgeous views and a lovely breakfast. $130
- We stayed at Horse and Jockey $100 outside of Cashel and their bakery is awesome. The restaurant was really yummy too.
5. Temperature
- It was a range from 40-50 on our trip during the day. We wore thermals twice on the days we were outside all day and it was closer to 40. I absolutely love the thermals from Uniqlo. They are thin and so cozy. Gloves, a scarf, and hat were also nice. Loved having my waterproof boots since we were in water quite often. We used our umbrellas and were glad we had them. If you take a day pack always have them in there. We brought ponchos but totally forgot we had them.
- It was not as cold as we thought it would be and for the most part were fine in leggings, books, long sleeve shirt, vest, and jacket.
6. The Whole Island?
- Most take two weeks to do the whole island. We did it in 7 days. Was that insane? Yes! Did we do it? Yes! Would I do it again? Yup!
- I usually plan a trip as if I am not going back. If you are like me then do the whole island. If you plan to go back to places then do half and spend more time in each place. Our trip was not for the faint of heart and we spent 50% of it in the car. I wish we had 10 full days but we needed time for travel on both ends.
- If I had to cut anything I would cut Dublin and Belfast. We didn’t dislike either but with a crunched schedule... skip it.
Here is how we did our trip and my notes on it:
1. Left Thursday night from LAX and arrived via London to Dublin Friday night.
Slept just north of the airport in an airbnb.
* pay extra for a direct flight
2. Day 1: Drove to Belfast did the Titanic museum and St. George’s Market and then drove to The Dark Hedges.
*The Titanic Museum was ok. I was expecting more Titanic, aftermath, and maybe relics but it is more history of Belfast, shipbuilding, how Titanic came to be. It is a really nice museum but with our short time I would have skipped it. That being said skipping it makes for one LONG drive to Northern Ireland. We spent about 1.5-2 hours. Don’t skip the shipbuilding ride: it was cool!
* I loved St. George’s market. You need cash. This was the only thing we used cash for besides the one toll. If you are a foodie or love markets like I do, go here for lunch! I’m still dreaming of the scone I had here. We spent about an hour and a half bc we had to find an atm.
* We then raced up to The Dark Hedges. You can park your car at The Dark Hedges Hotel. We have never seen Game of Thrones but the trees were great and a nice walk. You need about 30 minutes here.
*We slept in Corelaine. I would have slept right by Carrick-A-Rede bridge if doing it again.
Day 2
Carrick- A-Rede bridge, Giant’s Causeway, and Dunluce Castle + a long drive to Sligo
* Carrick is a must do. It is stunning. The cliffs, colors of the water, and little bridge are amazing. The bridge is much smaller than I thought but go here! I think it was like 8E a person. It is so pretty. We were lucky and got sun on this day.
* Giant’s Causeway, a must. Park at the visitor’s center, pay 12.50E per person and get the audio set which is included in the price. Walk down. If you are going to bus take the bus up to save time but walk down and listen to the audioguide. We spent about 1.5 hours here but wish we had longer to do the hikes. You could spend hours and hours here doing the hikes.
*Dunluce castle was cool. Maybe like 4E a person and beautiful views. There is a subterrain part but it was closed while we were there. We did this in about 30 minutes because we had to get on the road.
* If I was redoing this trip I would have given myself two days in the north. One day for Giant’s Causeway and to hike and one day for Carrick and Dunluce and to drive.
* We slept in Sligo to break up the 5+ hour drive to Galway.
* Of you wanted to lengthen your stay I would go to the Abbey and the Aran Isles.
Day 3: Galway and Cliffs of Moher
We drove to Galway and walked the adorable town. I wish we had an extra day and had taken a day here to do the Aran Islands. I easily would have traded Belfast or Dublin to do these islands. We then raced to Cliffs of Moher and after slept at the Dromoland castle.
* Aside from giving a day to Galway and the Aran Islands I suggest if going during bad weather you make sure you sleep somewhere with driving distance to the cliffs incase they are totally fogged out the day you planned to see them. You do not want to miss these.
* We arrived to the cliffs about 3 and it was complete fog. We were devastated and left. But, realizing we would miss the Dingle Peninsula if we left we turned around and went back. I am so glad we went back because the fog lifted, the sun came out fully, and we had a glorious sunset and two hours there. When you buy a ticket they will let you use it the next day if it is foggy.
* You will want at least two hours here and good walking shoes. We started at the right and then walked the entire cliff length on the left. the views are you go to the left get more and more amazing around each bend. You will want to keep walking and not just go where the main visitor’s center is. It will say extreme danger, use caution, leaving visitor area but there is still a path. If you can be there at sunset... wow. We were at the very last point at sunset and it was stunning.
* We stayed at Dromoland Castle an hour from the cliffs which was great but I wish we had more time to explore the castle grounds. In my ideal world I would have arrived at check in and left at check out. They have a lake, boats, archery, amazing bath tub, hawk walks, just so many things. Make sure you get breakfast it is fancy and so good.
Day 4: Dingle Peninsula
This day we did the drive around the Dingle Peninsula and then drove to Kilarney to sleep.
*This day was pure rain and fog. Honestly I don’t know if I would do it if it was raining and foggy again. It’s a lot of drive time. Especially if you have already been doing a trip at crazy speeds. Ben said he would do it again even in the rain.
* We did the following:
- stopped in the town and ate murphy’s ice cream
- stopped and saw some of the Beehive huts
- look at the cliff side even though it was total fog
- stopped at Dunquin Harbor: get out and walk down the road- that is where the views are awesome
*Take a picnic lunch and eat it on one of the pull offs.
* Download a driving tour. I saw one where you would set your mile marker and then it would give you points of interest along the way. I thought opening the webpage would allow me to view it but it didn’t so take pictures or print it out. I would have liked this place better if it wasn’t rainy and foggy and if I knew what I was looking at.
Day 5: Ring of Kerry
We started at the Lake Hotel and did the full loop.
*I would put two days here. On the first day I would do the loop and on the second I would focus on Kilarney National Park.
*The Ring is stunning! We drove clockwise and the first half of the drive to the Kerry cliffs was magical the second half was blah.
* Make sure you have at least an hour at the cliffs. This was our favorite spot in Ireland. Go to the right and look over the right rail and wow! Then walk the entire thing. Go up the hill to the point. The cliffs are magical. If it was summer we would have done the boat tour to Skellig island.
*Bring a picnic lunch you won’t want to use precious time in a restaurant here.
* I would have loved one entire day in Kilarney national park. It is so pretty! I would have taken time to hike. We stopped at Ladies View, Molls Gap, and the waterfall. The drive in the park 🥰 perfection.
Day 6: Dunloe and Cashel
This day we planned to go to
Cork/Cobh and Cashel but loved the National Park so much we decided to spend the morning at Dunloe’s gap instead of Cork/Cobh.
*Dunloe’s gap is worth it! Lots of people we saw parked at the bottom and waked up the entire thing. That would have been a long and lovely hike if we had time. We drove it and wow!
* We then headed to Cashel and got there after the last tour which was at 2:30. I think you would really benefit from a tour. Our experience would have been more meaningful if we had a tour.
Day 7:Dublin
We did Trinity College, Temple Square, St. Stephen’s Park, and Ha’Penny Bridge.
*We didn’t love Dublin and if trying to do the island in just a week we recommend skipping Dublin. It wasn’t our favorite way to end vacation.
* The traffic is HORRIBLE and I say that as someone who lives in LA. It was the worst traffic I have ever been in. Park once and walk. It took us over two hours just getting in and out of the city.
* There is tons of food here- so plan to eat out
*Trinity College was pretty cool and seeing the long room was awesome even though it is smaller than it seems.
* Temple Square area was how I pictured Irish pubs.
* If you like exploring cities you will enjoy Dublin but for us Ireland is about the countryside and beauty of the land.
