Folks. It’s been years since I paid any attention to the Pub, but now I need your help with some travelling tips. I’m going to Ireland next week together with my girlfriend. We only have airplane seats so far, since we’re both of the spontaneous type we wouldn’t dream of locking ourselves to one place by renting a hotel room. We will be flying to Dublin and arrive late at night, so we’ll probably catch some sleep on our luggage together with the backpackers waiting for their early morning check-ins. From there it’s pretty much an open game. We might catch a buss going south from Dublin and explore south-western Ireland. However, I’ve done that a few years ago, so we also thought about going to Westport or something, maybe even Donnegal. We’ll probably not stay for one place the entire week, and we will probably spend a few nights in Dublin on the way back as well.
Could I please get some travelling tips from you more seasoned Ireland travellers or inhabitants concerning places to see, ways to travel, bed and breakfast or inexpensive hotel rooms which are not likely to be full booked? If you reckon we should pre-book before we go, then say so. All help is appreciated. We travel the 17th and will be gone for a week.
Well, it all depends on what you like to do ettc. I prefer hostels over B&Bs and hotels, but I doubt you’re in the same boat.
That being said, I’d suggest you go in B&Bs instead of hotels, first of all because you get to meet nice people, and second of all because it’s cheaper. I get the feeling there will be a bit less american tourists this year and you might have a bit of vacancies in B&Bs, you could then try to bargain and get them to lower their prices. That’s what I did last time.
As to where to go… I prefer the west coast but that’s because I prefer the music from there and I like to avoid big cities, so that’s a personnal thing. But a week is short, not sure what you can really do.
okay, sounds good. So whats the best way to find the best B&Bs? Do you go to the local tourist office (or whatever it’s called) and ask, or do you just knock on the door when you see a B&B sign?
You’ll have no problems sleeping in the airport, though I recommend taking shifts so someone has an eye on your stuff.
I too prefer hostels and if you want to go that route I can recommend a book about them.
Don’t bother with Westport, there was nothing there really. Travelling by bus works really well but if there are any off-the-beaten-track places on your list make sure the bus goes there! I had serious problems getting to and from Feakle in Clare when I attended a music festival there.
Westport is a nice little town. I don’t know what you expect if you think ‘there’s nothing there’. It’s a great base for trips to Achill, Croagh Patrick, Castlebar and parts of Connemara.
The thing about the Feakle bus is getting a bit old too.
Edit - Actually, no. I don’t apologise. The original comment wasn’t directed to you. Feel free to ignore my future posts if you don’t like them.
Though I admit that just because I didn’t like Westport doesn’t mean it’s bad, and perhaps I was a bit harsh casting it off like that. Some of my friends have had good times there. But I do stand by my Feakle bus story - it was really hard to get to and from that town without a car! Worth it for the concertina lessons, though!
One problem with Hotels in Ireland, Henke, is that they don’t make their money from people staying. They make their money from the bar, and from having discos and music nights on the premises.
You’ll find plenty of people with stories of desperately trying to sleep while the entire building reverberates to something welcoming and traditional like “I wish I was back home in Derry.” I wish I was joking about this but I am not.
I’d recommend you check what Festivals are going on, and avoid them, as you won’t find a spare bed within miles of any Festival Venues if you haven’t pre-booked weeks or months in advance - plus rooms will be more expensive during a Festival.
I spent a week in July a few years ago travelling the SW of Ireland, mostly following the coast round from Kinsale to Tralee, didn’t pre-book any rooms, and had very little trouble finding somewhere every night. I was driving a hire car though, so if there were no rooms, it would have been easy to drive on to the next town.
I stopped off in Clonakilty, Kenmare, Killarney and Tralee. Killarney is a very touristy town, but I really liked it because it was lively, if a bit “Irish Rover”~ised. Kenmare by contrast was dead the night I was there, as was Clonakilty, and I had a quiet meal in a pub before going to bed early, because there was nothing else to do.
Tralee had a good museum, but I was the only person there! I left my camera on a seat right at the start, and was able to go back and retrieve it later as nobody else had been through.
It’s fun to be spontaneous, but a good idea to have at least some plan of what you’d like to see and where you’d like to go, or you can feel like you never saw anything. By the end I felt I had spent too much time driving and too little time just looking and enjoying the atmosphere. If you have no car, that won’t present a problem.
You’d be best to book in advance for B&B’s. It’s always best to book, if you can, although there are good numbers of them. But without booking, you may find yourself having to do more travelling than you need.
I was in Westport a few times, for a few days each time a good while ago and out of season once as well, staying in the hostel in freezing conditions trying to keep a baby warm. Anyhow, I don’t think it’s any worse than other Irish towns of it’s size and in lots of ways it’s actually nicer. It certainly has the benefit of it’s location in an area with lots of places to go. I personally don’t go for the whole Molloy hype but loads of people go to the town just to sit inside your man’s pub.
As for your Feakle bus story, you’ve aired that a few times since and I have at least once dealt with the festival bus service that has been available since you were there.
Giving http://www.buseireann.ie/ and let Henke figure out how to get to what he wants to to and what he wants to see would have been more constructive I think.
It’s a big place, people come with different expectations and are looking for different things to see and do. The best way is to play it by ear, stay put somewhere you like and move on if the weather is against you or the location doesn’t do it for you, go with the flow and take it handy. It’s as simple as that.
Let’s say I have replied enough questions from people asking, in PM or e-mails, questions of a weight and magnitude like this one: ‘Can you let me know what the weather is like in Ireland in July because I need to know what socks I should wear while I am there’ without receiving any acknowledgement of the message sent in reply to their query (an answer they could have easily found themselves, had they bothered) to have put me off posting a reply to any old question.
I like ‘genuine’ questions, from people who show an interest and have done their homework and who are trying to find out something that may not be readily available on the net.
We’re back. Had a nice week too, although it cost about twize as much as I had planned, which makes me a bit sick. But anyway…
We spent 3 nights total in Dublin, and 4 nights in Killarney. I’ve been there before, and it’s nice. A little bit too touristy, but there where less american tourists this year, and those are usually the ones that are seen and heard the most anyway
It wasn’t harder than to walk a mile or so up in the mountains where no other tourists bothered to go and we were fine. And as far as traditional music goes, we got our share in a little pub in the Temple Bar district in Dublin which was curiously tourists-free.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I found the links posted by avanutria to be particularly helpful.
