I wanted to post a thank you to all that helped the questions I had planning my trip to Ireland. My husband and I had the most amazing time there and can't wait to go back ;)!. I'm sitting at work and completely bummed that I'm not still in Ireland :(!!
For those of you planning your trip to Ireland - here is what we did - and you may be able to get some ideas:
Day 1: Dublin - saw Trinity College, Book of Kells, took a nap!, and then explored O'Connell Street and Temple Bar District. Ate at a wonderful restaraunt called Gruel (kind of like a dive, but very cute/cafe like on the basement level). Stayed at Bewley's - and really liked it. It was quite a nice building. It's a bus ride to the city centre but we didn't mind. It was nice to see the city from the route. For 109 euro's a night we thought it was a good price and location. We did catch a cab back one night (day 2) b/c the buses stopped runnning - i think it was about 7 euro's which wasn't terrible.
Day 2: Dublin - Saw Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, Kilmanham (sp?) Goal (which I really thought was interesting). We ended up eating at an italian place right next to the TI in Dublin (forgot the name). Then went to a pub (I think near Grafton street) and met some locals who were great at teaching us how real irish drink :) - It was great!!
Day 3: Drove to Clifden - got up late so didn't reach clifden until 6:30pm or so. Clifden was a cute town - I think that we could have stayed in Galway and just did a day trip to Connemara and been fine.
Day 4: Drove to Connemara nat'l park - hiked Diamond Hill - which I would highly recommend if the weather is nice. We had amazing views, and thoroughly enjoyed the landscape. After the hike (approx. 3 hours - pretty steep at the end, so may not be good for those with bad knee's) - we drove to Galway and stayed the night there. Great music in the pubs - especially Tig Coili. Quay St. Pub was mostly tourists - although the music was good too. I preferred Tig Coili however. Ate dinner at McDonough's - great fish and chips!
Stayed at Park House Hotel - which is in a GREAT location. We had breakfast included in our price which we thought was a good deal (we paid about 100 euro's a night - for two people including breakfast).
Day 5: Day trip from Galway to Cliffs of Moher/Burren. I highly recommend doing the Burren along the coast - after the Cliffs of Moher b/c the lighting was perfect for us! Cliffs of Moher are amazing - we walked passed the "no trespassing - private property sign" - and that is where we got the best views of the cliffs. A bit scary if it was really windy - but otherwise we felt safe. Went to Kings Head Pub for music/drinks. Great duo (Auntie Clockwise) - played good blues/folk rock music at Kings Head.
Day 6: Galway to Dingle. We had originally planned on going to Killarney for two days - but cancelled that idea and went to dingle instead. I think it was a great decision - dingle was GREAT. We explored the town the first night and had a great food at Old Smokehouse. We watched the Liverpool/Milan game at one of the bars - and were disappointed to watch Liverpool lose :(. It was a great game till the end though :)! Stayed at a B&B called Greenmount - it was nice. Great views from our room (we had a superior room). The only negative was that there was construction going on at the B&B - they are expanding - so I thought we should have gotten a discount b/c of the construction - but oh well.
Day 7: Dingle - we did Slea Head Loop - the weather was horrible though...extremely foggy (our first day of bad weather). So we didn't see much of the views - but we did enjoy the forts/bee hive huts, etc. along the way. After we did the loop, we got back to the B&B - and took a walk to the lighthouse (through the cow pastures) - brought a couple beers and light snacks with us. It was a great walk - 1 hr each way - and at the light house, we sat on the rocks (walk down from the lighthouse) and had great sightings of Fungie!! He said "hello" to every boat that passed by!! It was a great way to see Fungie (for free) and a wonderful walk. So - highly recommended!! We went to the pubs again and listened to local music!
Day 8: Dingle to Kenmare - we did the slea head loop again b/c the day was beautiful before going to Kenmare. We actually saw the Blasket Islands on this day - we were thinking they were a figment of everyone's imagination b/c we couldn't see a thing on Day 7!! I would HIGHLY recommend the Slea Head Loop over Ring of Kerry if the day is nice. The views were amazing - i felt like i was standing in a post card! Kenmare is a great town also. It was very cute - and lively - it may have been really lively b/c it was bank holiday weekend when we got there. The B&B we stayed at was very good - Shelbourne Lodge. I highly recommend it - however, I would ask NOT to be located in the first room up the first flight of stairs on the right. We were put there at first and it was really loud - it is right about the kitchen and we could every movement/sound. SO, when we asked for another room - we got a room in an attached "cottage-like" area - where there are only two rooms. There is a sitting room on the first floor and the two rooms upstairs. It was beautiful/quiet and the grounds were gorgeous - they have a grass tennis court guests can use, great gardens, and wonderful breakfast (they owners also own Packies - a good restaraunt in town). We had dinner at Mchullahy's (sp??). The food was excellent - highly recommended. OH - forgot to mention, on the way to Kenmare, we also saw the Muckross House. I wasn't too impressed by the Muckross House itself, but the Killarney Lake, etc. were beautiful.
Day 9: Kenmare - day trip Ring of Kerry. I highly recommend going the clockwise direction on the ROK - and go early - you can totally miss the buses by starting around 8:30am, drive up via Kenmare, make it Skellig Ring by 10:30 am - do the Skellig Ring - by the time you get back to the ROK, you will have missed all the buses going in the opposite direction. We weren't too impressed by the ROK - maybe it was b/c the weather wasn't amazing - but after the Slea head - ROK was just ok. So, after we did the Skellig, we turned back and went to Kenmare instead of doing the entire Ring. Maybe that was a bad idea - but we were ok with it! We had dinner at Horseshoe Pub and Restaurant which was pretty good. We then went to Crowley's pub which was a fun atmosphere :).
Day 10: Bunratty: We went to the medival banquet - which was PACKED (we did the 5:30pm show). It was definitely interesting - and the food was ok. I enjoyed the wine though :) and we met a great couple from Canada at our table. This was a good thing to do on our last night - kinda cheesy, but entertaining.
Day 11: Flew out of Shannon :(.
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The driving on the left side of the road was a bit difficult - we got a stick and had no problem transitioning to the left side with stick . For me, the difficulties was in navigating roads that in the US would be 1 lane - but in Ireland are 2!! I didn't hit anything so that was a definite plus :).
OH - and for those posters who responded to my dilemma about my passport name (maiden name) not being the same as my ticket (which was in my married name) --- I didn't have any problems with the airline/customs etc. I showed the ticket agent my official marriage certificate at check - in and they didn't give me a hard time at all. Apparently the marriage certificate is an official legal document and so it is ok to use if you ever run into this issue!!! Well at least it worked for me :)!!!!
Thanks again for all those who helped with the planning - it was a wonderful and memorable 2nd year anniversay trip for us!!
Sonal