Natalie Goes To Ireland

Ireland has been on my boyfriend’s, Liam, travel bucket list for quite some time now. See, while he may be very much an American who’s been here for a zillion years - his family still very much identifies with their Irish heritage. His mom was very obsessed with Ireland and even visited a few times in her life - so this year, we made it a point to visit with his family!

Now you may be asking - Natalie, what did you know about Ireland prior to visiting? The answer is simple: NOTHING. Lucky for me, I have two very good friends who are as Irish as they come and go back to visit their family every summer. So they gave me all the best recommendations on where to go and what to do - so I (and you) can skip the travel websites!

Let’s start off with an overview of our trip and then I can get into the nitty gritty details of each city.

August 3-4, Dublin

August 5 - Cork

August 6 - Killarney

August 7-8 - Dingle

August 9 - Doolin

August 10-11 - Galway

August 12- Dublin

dublin

As New Jersey-ians who’ve grown up in and around NYC, I pretty much compare every major city to New York in accordance to: shops, restaurants, “cool” neighborhoods, accessibility. etc. That being said, we LOVED Dublin. In terms of places to eat & shop it was 10/10. You will find no shortage of pubs and cute little bookshops to wander into. In terms of neighborhoods, we stayed right in the city center, Temple Bar, on Grafton St. As a tourist this is a fabulous location and I really recommend it. Pro tip: If you are coming in on any early flight, ask your hotel if you can do early check in. There is a charge depending on how early you need it (our flight got in at 5 AM), but it is well worth it to rest up. And last but not least, in terms of accessibility, you really just have to walk. There are not really Ubers, and public transit isn’t really on every corner. But like I said, if you stay in the city center, walking is easy! Oh and make sure you head to the Guinness Storehouse if you are fan!

cork

For most of our trip, we had a car to drive around but to/from Dublin we decided to do a train and it was the right choice! When we got off the train we picked up our rental car, checked into our hotel and then headed to Blarney Castle. You’ve probably seen people kiss the Blarney Stone at some point…. I did NOT do it because it’s literally just a man holding you off the side of an old tiny castle and how GROSS is that, that people kiss it all day?! NOT for me, but other people from my group did it… to each his own! The city of Cork reminded me of a little fisherman’s town on the coast. It had a Main Street, with shops and pubs as you’ll find all over Ireland. We were only here for one night, so I would need to do more exploring next time but we hopped around to some bars after dinner, and had a blast!

Killarney

What an insanely cute little town! So many shops and restaurants. For this city we stayed a little bed and breakfast outside of the main city part (Ireland is full of b&b’s and I would recommend staying at at least 1!). For lunch we ate at Reidy’s Bar, which does not look like much from the outside but is SO cute on the inside and full of little alcoves to sit in. After that we did some shopping and enjoyed the local street artists! Later that night we grabbed a pint a Connors pub, because my boyfriend’s family’s last name is Connors.

DINGLE

Once we left Killarney, we did the Ring of Kerry. This is a MUST if you are around this area. The sites were truly beautiful, for those who have done the Road to Hana I would compare it to that kind of an experience. You drive around the peninsula and stop where you want to stop. Here we stopped at the Kerry Cliffs, and OMG GORG! For this part of our stay, we stayed at a airbnb farmhouse (which used to belong to famous Arctic explorer Tom Crean). After so many days hopping around, it was really nice to have a city to rest and enjoy the countryside in.

Doolin

From Dingle, we went to the Cliffs of Moher. Which if you’ve read any travel website about Ireland, they probably told you to go here, it is a HUGE tourist attraction. The cliffs themselves were beautiful, but personally I was more into the Kerry Cliffs which were much more private. But I would still recommend making a stop if you are close by! The town of Doolin is very cute and in the countryside. We grabbed dinner at a local pub, and even on a Tuesday night it was packed and we were able to enjoy authentic Irish musicians going at it! It was quite the experience and we loved it!

Galway

Our last major city and one of our favorites! Galway had so much to offer: food, pubs, shops, music, you name it! Here we went to two of one of our favorite pubs from the whole trip: The King’s Head. It was FULL of people, so obviously a huge hot spot. And the live music was off the charts! From Galway, we also took a ferry to the Aaron Islands. It was a last major “attraction” of the trip and well worth it. It’s such a little place full of sunshine and people riding bikes all over! I even got one of their authentic “Aaron Island sweaters” which are handmade by locals.

Finally, we headed back to Dublin for one last night in the city and to rest up before our flight the next morning!

If I were to ever go back, what would I change? Well for starters, I would spend more time in each city so that you spend less time traveling and more time exploring. My favorite cities were Dublin, Killarney, Doolin, and Galway - so I would definitely do those again. This trip is not about how many attractions you see while you’re there, it’s more about enjoying your time. People watching and drinking beer at a pub…. sounds like a dream!

Happy Traveling!