Mrs. Chalupa and I hope to travel to Ireland sometime in the near future and we need advice on what to see and where to visit. Any suggestions? Must sees? Foods to sample/avoid?
Also, if we stay for “only” a week, should we:
Any other travel advice? (Never been to Europe…understand a little about different electricity, drinking the water, money exchanges, etc.)
A little help?
I’m biased, having had the luck to live in Belfast for 9 months about 7 years back, but I would personally suggest spending most (or at least part) of your time in the North. Nothing against Dublin or Galway or Kerry or whatever, but Belfast and Derry are both really neat cities with a lot of culture and history and beauty. If you do decide to go to Belfast, let me know and I’ll try to give you some more ideas.
I, personally, would prefer to travel alone with a partner than with a group. That way, you get to set the itinerary and you can generally avoid the silly and touristy stuff. Beyond that, it’s a question of what you’re interested in: Do you want to explore the rural areas or the cities? Would you like to learn more about the Irish writers? Do you like the touristy stuff (not that there’s anything wrong with that? Are you interested in the politics or the history? Are you going to be doing genealogy? Those questions will determine what you do.
It’s a small island, about the size of Indiana, I think, so you could do a fair amount of it. However, if you could stretch it out to more than a week, that’d be great.
As for food, there was a wonderful coffee shop that had the best cherry scones behind the place I worked in Belfast. As for scary things, black pudding tastes wonderful, but you don’t want to ask many quesions about what it’s made of. :eek:
Upon your arrival, go immediately to the neighborhood pub.
Drink one pint of Guinness and you’ll feel like you’re right at home.
Drink several pints and you’ll feel like attacking some Protestants. 
Go to the Guinness factory. Spend the entire week there. I’ve never been there, but that’s definitely what I’d do if I were in Ireland.
My only visit to Ireland was the Dublin dopefest, and while I had an absolute blast, it’s probably not the typical vacation scenario - if it were, the city would probably be somewhat more worn down
I would suggest staying in Ireland for the entire week - if for nothing else, then to avoid spending precious holiday time on transit.
I personally absolutely fell for Dublin - and it certainly could merit a week-long visit of its own - but half a week in Dublin and half a week touring the countryside a bit - small villages, B&Bs etc. - would probably count as the ideal Ireland excursion in my mind. Be sure to take the litterary pub-crawl if you’re at all interested, it’s great fun.
As for do’s and don’ts for Europe travellers, I’ll be happy to let some of our American globe-trotters step in with advice - being from Europe, I have no idea about what would come as a surprise to you.
S. Norman
mrs beagledave and I had our honeymoon on the old sod…
check out http://home.revealed.net/ddwyer/Irish_Pics.html
also check out the links at the bottom of that page for travel ideas…
Get the “Rough Guide” to Ireland if you want ideas to stay away from the heavily touristed areas…
IMHO rent a car…avoid travel groups. You can but good quality road maps to Ireland at large bookstores (or order them). Drive on the left side of the road…not too many traffic signals…lots of “turn abouts”
Prices vary by the time you go…cheapest is the fall…most expensive is the summer and Christmas
1 word: Dingle. If there is heaven on earth, it’s on the Dingle Peninsula…puts the Ring of Kerry (it’s more famous cousin) to shame…even though the Ring IS pretty.
There are 2 Irelands…Dublin, and the rest (assuming we’re talking the Republic of Ireland)…both are worth seeing…they are very different.
As far as money goes…we used strictly Visa and ATM cards (for cash) . The nice thing about ATM cards is that you get close to the bank rate in the exchange rate (of course, there is a service charge per transaction…so make your withdrawals in large amounts so you don’t get tons of service charges). There IS a VAT…keep your receipts to recover at least some of it…
Yojimbo will dispute this…but avoid the blood sausage 
unless you have a strong stomache…
email me for more specific questions…it’s one of my favorite topics
I’ve only been to Dublin (same trip as Snormy), but it was excellent. One of my favorite parts was a literary pub crawl we all went on; two actors recite various famous works of Irish literature and in between you go to some of Dublin’s most noteworthy pubs. They mix in loads of interesting facts about Dublin & Irish literature and at the end there’s a quiz for prizes. I’ve also heard great things about an Irish music pub crawl, but I didn’t go.
Advice?
Be careful crossing the street…I kept forgetting about that pesky drive on the left thing. Then again, I wuz drunk.
Blood pudding wasn’t so bad really. Kind of bland. The white pudding was kind of bland, too. I say try it, no doubt you’ve eaten things with more questionable ingredients.
I’d say stay in Ireland for this trip. A lot of people make the mistake of trying to cram too much into their European vacation and don’t enjoy it so much.
You should come schedule your trip for my big birthday bash! I’m sure the lovely person whose apartment I’ve commandeered for this event won’t mind two more. 
If you can’t come for my birthday (at which I promise to sing the poopah chalupa song) do have one night with the DubDopers. All of them are great.
I’m sure I’ll think of more things later. I know y’all are going to have a blast!