I’m 99.99% a lurky turkey around here, so hello! I read a couple of older threads about vacationing in Ireland, but I decided to go the non-zombie route and start my own thread.
I know this isn’t a travel forum, but you guys are smart and I trust you. Unless you claim to be a hot chick in a wheelchair, of course.
I’ve NEVER been on a real, travel-to-somewhere vacation before, so I’m super overwhelmed. My wife and I plan to visit Ireland around September 21-29. The only firm plan right now is a concert in Dublin on the 27th, so this is our rough schedule as of now:
Sept 21 - fly in to Cork, pick up rental car (I know I have to reserve it in advance)
Sept 22-25 - do various things in the Cork area
Sept 26 - return car, do stuff in Cork itself, take bus to Dublin
Sept 27 - concert
Sept 28 - do stuff in Dublin
Sept 29 - fly home from Dublin
My questions are…
Does it make sense to fly into Cork and out of Dublin, or will that make life difficult in some way?
What fun/exciting/touristy things are worth doing in the Cork and Dublin areas?
Is driving a good idea? If not, how would we get around to more scenic areas?
How do I find good hotels/B&Bs/etc? Got any recommendations?
What questions SHOULD I be asking that I’m not?
And an extra special bonus question…
Are the Irish generally cool with same-sex couples? We can play “best girlfriends” if needed, but would prefer not to.
I guess this is the part where I say that we don’t drink, at all, ever, so we’re not interested in pubs and the like unless there’s a non-alcoholic reason to visit.
I don’t have any specific replies for you right now as I’m fairly tired but if you have any specific questions, especially about Dublin, don’t hesitate to PM me. I live here and have helped other dopers out before with tips. By the way September 27th is Arthur’s Day, a bullshit holiday made up to sell Guinness. Typically on that day Dublin is a bit loco with public drunkeness (more so than usual), so be warned!
If I can piggyback a similar question onto this one, I am actually flying into Dublin this Saturday before leaving on a tour and will have the entirety of Sunday free to sight-see in Dublin. Any recommendations of places I simply must visit? How about good pubs with live Irish music?
It’s worth doing the bus tour of Dublin sights and then deciding where you want to go. The Book Of Kells, The National Museum (both Kildare Street & Collins Barracks), St. Michan’s Crypt (mummies) are all worth a look imho. For “authentic” traditional music it’s hard to beat The Cobblestone in Smithfield, although Smithfield is a bit away from the main drag. In Temple Bar, the kinda seedy centre of the tourist trail there are numerous bars with live ballads and trad sessions of a Sunday, The Quays, The Oliver St. John Gogarty, The Auld Dubliner, The Temple Bar all currently advertise afternoon sessions.
I’d recommend these too to AsparagusP although from the POV of not drinking, I’d say the Cobblestone would be a better bet. Some of the other places I mentioned are liable to be full of lager louts or what not.
Several years ago Pepper Mill and I went to Ireland. We flew into Dublin and out of a different airport, and had no problems.
We didn’t visit Cork, but we saw Dublin. As mentioned, see the Book of Kells. See Grafton Street. If you like Irish writers, you can visit their homes or take a literary tour (I’m a big George Bernard Shaw fan, so we saw his house). Get a city map and do some touring.
We rented a car. I’ve driven in the UK, so I wasn’t thrown by the idea of driving on the left. But, unless things have changed since we went, auitomatic transmissions are either impossible to get at some places, or expensive. If you can’t drive a stick shift, renting might not be an option (Pepper can’t drive stick, so I did all the driving).
If you do rent a car, you can venture farther afield. We went to Tara and Newgrange and Kells near Dublin, and drove quite a distance around Ireland (which was our plan), seeing plsaces like Russborough House and Glendalough.
I was in Cork some years ago and enjoyed going to visit Fota Wildlife Park. It’s got it’s own little train station close by so it’s easy to get to from the town centre, and it has a large walkthough area so you can get very close to some of their animals.
Thanks for all the great ideas so far… it helps a lot to have specific suggestions so I can check them out and make plans.
An Gadaí, thanks for warning us about Arthur’s Day, sounds like a perfect example of not-fun for us. The show we’re seeing isn’t part of that so hopefully we can avoid all the annoyance. I’ll look into the places/sights you’ve suggested and may send a PM later.
aesop, Kinsale looks gorgeous and exactly the kind of thing we would enjoy! Are there any specific places we should make sure to see there?
CalMeacham, thanks for the info on car rental. I only drive automatic so that might put us in a difficult spot. I don’t mind expensive (this is my first vacation EVER so there!) but it’s good to be forewarned. Hopefully I can reserve a car online or something…
Anyone else?
Oops, Meurglys posted while I was writing this! The wildlife park looks like fun and completely different from what I’d think of myself… thank you!
Automatic cars are more common now in rental places but you pay a premium for them versus manual/stickshift. Roads are way better now than in the past too, with motorways connecting Cork and Dublin and other cities but rural roads can still be interesting, for want of a better term. Narrow roads, blind corners, random farm animals etc. are some of what you might have to contend with in rural Ireland.
Agreed – they do a good job of keeping the roadside plant growth clipped back from the road, but there are plenty of sharp, blind corners, beyond which may be a huge truck, a car coming the other way, cyclists, or a herd of cows. It doesn’t help that many country roads are narrower than my driveway (not an exaggerration, I swear). The Fear of Imminent Death kept me from driving very fast on the roads.
we were given a tour by a native Irishman (an associate from work) in his car. I couldn’t possibly drive as fast and carefree as he did, knowing what I did about potential road hazards. He showed his Irish-Spider-Sense by halting abruptly as we rounded a corner, just missing plowing into a herd of cows.
So be careful, even with automatic transmission, if you drive out in the country.
Not sure you can do that, if you’re buying a return ticket, but I stand to be corrected
Ah jays I wouldn’t know myself, I only live here
If you want to see the country there’s no other way to get yourself around. But I will warn you (and anyone else visiting) that driving in Ireland is an experience you’re not going to forget
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Can’t offer any recommendations though
You are aware that Ireland is very expensive, aren’t you?
Don’t really know TBH!
Begone foul beast, and don’t darken our doorways again!!! (jk)
If you like history, Charles Fort is a good bet. It’s also wonderfully scenic (as is so much of Ireland). As for food & drink, we hit several places but always seemed to end up back at the Bulman in Summercove (part of Kinsale). The pub looks out over the harbor and the views are stunning. We stayed in a B&B in Summercove and really enjoyed it.
Speaking of which, my wife and I stayed in B&Bs all over Ireland. Some we reserved ahead of time, others we stumbled upon at random. They are everywhere. And we were also there in September. It can get quite chilly in the evenings, and in some places they don’t turn on the heat until October. We found this out the hard way!
Go see the Little Museum of Dublin. It really is little - two rooms full of quirky miscellaneous stuff from the last hundred years of Dublin history. The main unifying theme is ‘whatever we could get our hands on’. I like it a lot.
On the same-sex couple thing - I don’t know what situation you had in mind (asking for a double bed in a B&B? kissing in a restaurant? holding hands on the street?) so it’s hard to give a solid answer, but in general, I don’t know anyone in Dublin under 40 who would have any thoughts at all about a gay couple. There are plenty of older people who’ve been Catholicised into believing that Gay Is Wrong but they know that Jimmy and Joe three doors down are lovely and the Church obviously doesn’t mean they’re evil - basically, people who have a problem with homosexuality in theory but not on the individual level, so they’re unlikely to leap at you on the street and threaten you with hellfire. Some small B&Bs down the country might be weird about two women in a double bed, I don’t know, but if you ask for a double room in Dublin I can’t imagine anyone batting an eyelid. Same if you walk down Grafton Street holding hands. There are neighbourhoods where that would get a reaction, but they’re not ones where I’d advise tourists to go anyway. If you give a more specific idea of the situations you had in mind, I might be able to say something more sensible.
