Ireland Trip Ideas

[TheHaitian]

Bumping this... going to Ireland for 4 nights in September and need some ideas.

[NastyWoman]

Others will tell you Ireland specific stuff. My advice to you is find a good app. that has playgrounds near you on it. Playgrounds saved plenty of trips when (now) xH and I dragged the kids around the workd. DS2 remembered and 2.5 years ago when they took DGS1 to Hungary, he used an app to find playgrounds. Big improvement from the maps we used, but same effect: if you keep Carlie moving enough she'll be mostly fine doing stuff that is not necessarily geared towards a toddler. 

Also works if one of the adults is not into whatever it is the others want to do. Most importantly -> have fun! 

[tskeeter]

Hi guys, I’m back.

Well, it’s been a busy few weeks. So, I’m catching up my posts now that we’re home.

Saw a banner hanging on a fence that announced a performance by the local theater group. Got tickets and attended a very good performance. We were the only people in the audience who were not local, so folks were curious how we ended up at a performance in their theater. The guy who handled ticket sales introduced us around. Turns out that the theater group had won an all Ireland competition a few years ago. No wonder the performance was so professional and well done.

MIL and SIL arrived and spent 10 days with us. We put together an itinerary that included Irish history (The National Museum of Archeology and Kilmainham Gaol), monastic ruins (Old Mellifont Abbey and Monasterboice), a castle (Trim Castle), a large country house (Castletown House), prehistoric tombs (Newgrange, 500 years older than the Pyramids of Giza), shopping in Dublin, and time visiting where my MIL’s mother grew up. We also got in some traditional music at a ceili that was part of a traditional music festival weekend in a town a few miles down the road. (Another sign by the side of the road find). We didn’t know what a ceili was. We found out it is an Irish square dance. With specific sets of dances. I figured this was going to be a bit of a deal when I realized that a lot of the guys were carrying in little duffle bags that contained their dancing shoes. Mostly folks in their 50’s and 60’s, with some younger and older folks scattered in. Great music and fun watching the dancers.

To say our airb&b was cozy for four people would be appropriate.  SIL, a formidable woman, told of getting up close and personal with the bathroom radiator after a shower.  Wonder how long it will take the BIL to wonder about the new “hot” tattoo on her backside.


After MIL and SIL left, we went back to Newgrange to take a look at Nowth, another prehistoric hill tomb with lots of carved curb stones. Signed up for the winter solstice lottery drawing to visit Newgrange during the solstice, when the sun lights the entry tunnel into Newgrange all the way to the burial sites in the center of the tomb.. since we both signed up, we’ve got a 2in 36,000 chance of seeing the solstice in December. Unless all you guys go and sign up and screw up the odds.


Got the rental car turned back in at the airport with both mirrors intact. Driving on the left and using a manual transmission weren’t bad. But, some of the roads could get a little claustrophobic if you met a milk truck or a tractor.Squeezing past each other is part of the adventure.

We had an Irish cell phone all of the time we were in Ireland. One of our B&B’s didn’t have WiFi, so we used my iPhone as a hotspot. Worked well and was convenient to have an Irish cell phone number to use for local calls to family and acquaintances. I got a Tescomobile SIM card for my phone. The €15 for the SIM card included a month of phone service and 10 gigabytes of data. I thought that was a pretty good deal. However, we had ongoing challenges with Tesctmobile’s Coverage. The connection would drop and then not reconnect automatically when a signal was present again. I’d do the prepaid SIM card again, but with another carrier.

I bought a new point and shoot digital camera for this trip. I know most folks use their phones these days. I need the image stabilization available on many cameras to compensate for my shakey hands. The 25 power zoom is handy, too. Used the phone to provide the WiFi to upload pictures from the camera to the iPad. Now that we’re home, I’ll transfer the pictures to our desktop, too. I think I’ll get a set of prints from the pics, then pick the best shots to crop, enlarge, and the like. We like having pics from our travels hanging on the wall.

[tskeeter]

Jun 2, 2018 20:35:40 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Bumping this... going to Ireland for 4 nights in September and need some ideas.

Carl, take a look at my last post. It has a tour itinerary for sights in and around Dublin.  It was tailored to my SIL’s interests, so it doesn’t include some sights, such as Trinity College and the Book of Kells.  But, it will give you some ideas and help you get an “overview of Ireland” type of experience.

I think all of these sights are reachable as bus tours.

The main Tourist Information Office (TI) is on Suffolk Street, about a half block from the entrance to Trinity College and College Green.  There are several operations that look like TI offices across the street from Trinity.  They are fronts for bus tour companies.  I think you’d be better served by a visit to the real TI on Suffolk Street.

[TheHaitian]

Jun 5, 2018 19:30:46 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Jun 2, 2018 20:35:40 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Bumping this... going to Ireland for 4 nights in September and need some ideas.

Carl, take a look at my last post. It has a tour itinerary for sights in and around Dublin.  It was tailored to my SIL’s interests, so it doesn’t include some sights, such as Trinity College and the Book of Kells.  But, it will give you some ideas and help you get an “overview of Ireland” type of experience.

I think all of these sights are reachable as bus tours.

The main Tourist Information Office (TI) is on Suffolk Street, about a half block from the entrance to Trinity College and College Green.  There are several operations that look like TI offices across the street from Trinity.  They are fronts for bus tour companies.  I think you’d be better served by a visit to the real TI on Suffolk Street.

Thank you!