Since I was young, I’ve wanted to go to Ireland. It has been my number one bucket list destination, but my mom always said that she wanted to go with me and bring me to the family farm. Finally, last year, my brother-in-law decided he was tired of everyone saying “oh, we’ll go next year” and he booked tickets to go. He lit the fire, for which I am extremely grateful, and the rest of the family followed suit. In the end, there were 24 of us from the States!!
Our trip was a bit of a whirlwind: Dublin (2 nights), Roscommon (1 night), Galway (2 nights), Dingle (2 nights), and back to Dublin (2 nights). I stayed an extra night in Dublin because my friends from London flew in for the weekend. I had absolutely the best time in the world – it was the perfect bucket list trip and I can’t wait to go back!
Hang tight, this is a long one!!
accomodations
- Dublin: Hilton Garden Inn Dublin City Center, The Blooms Hotel
- The Hilton is in a great spot, north of the river and about a 20 minute walk from Temple Bar area so it’s quieter & still centrally located (typically £122 a night). The rooms are nice and clean. The hotel breakfast is a bit pricey, but it was delicious. If you want to skip that though, there’s a Cafe Nero around the corner that will save you some £££!
- The Blooms Hotel is right around the corner from Temple Bar, so extremely centrally located, but warning that it’s a bit loud at night! They have a great bar attached to the hotel and is definitely a good spot if you’re looking for a fun, central hotel. It’s a bit dated, but does the job (typically £166 a night).
- Roscommon: Gleeson’s Hotel
- If you find yourself going to Roscommon, highly recommend Gleeson’s! Fab hotel breakfast, the rooms were nice (my cousin’s room had issues with the heating – too hot – but everyone else seemed ok), and it’s right in town (typically £100 a night).
- Galway: Airbnb
- This Airbnb fit two of our families – it was perfect. It’s right in downtown Galway on the docks and had laundry, 5 bedrooms, and a decent sized living room. The hot water situation was a bit tricky, but we figured it out. If you’re going with a big group, this is a great Airbnb!
- Dingle: Airbnb
- This Airbnb was also fantastic! We stayed separately this time, but it had three bedrooms, was a bit further out of central town, but you could still walk around 15 mins to get to town (it is all uphill on the way back though!). This was the best place we stayed I thought.
dublin (weekend 1)
I landed in Dublin Friday night and met up with my parents, aunt and cousins at a pub called Kennedy’s. I split a burger with my mom and had my first pint of Guinness in the homeland! We hung out for a bit & went back to the hotel, where I had a Jameson at the hotel bar with my aunt & uncle. I was so excited to finally be in Ireland with my family! Everyone was a bit jet lagged from flying in that morning, so we took it easy and went to bed at a reasonable hour.
On Saturday, we had breakfast at the hotel and went over to Trinity College, where we had tickets for the Book of Kells experience. They are in the process of cleaning and restoring most of the books in the Long Room, but they retained some and it was still really cool to see the library & the Book of Kells. If you’re interested in visiting, I recommend even though most of the books are gone! We walked around Trinity a bit, before walking over to Dublin Castle (we didn’t go in & honestly it is not impressive from the outside), and seeing St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We ended up at a random spot for lunch, which I didn’t get the name of, because we only had nachos and wings since we were a bit short on time! We hopped over to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour, which was really cool. We saw a rainbow at the top of the Storehouse while enjoying our Guinness & we definitely had the luck of the Irish on our side.
After Guinness, my dad, uncle, and I went over to the Jameson distillery for their cocktail making class. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip, because it was a small class (only 16 people) and you made three cocktails, with an additional tasting of whiskey. We had sampled some new types of Jameson (orange and cold brew) before going to the class, so let’s just say after the measly lunch of nachos & wings, we were VERY happy at the end of class. Very worth it!
We continued the party by going to the Irish House Party for dinner & a show. This was a fun, traditional Irish music session, with an Irish dancer. They had the Irish bag pipes (which looked extremely difficult to play) and we had a fantastic time singing along. We ended the night at The Old Stand pub, before heading back to the hotel and getting some much needed sleep!
roscommon
On Easter Sunday, we drove out to Roscommon to our family’s farm! We had the most amazing day, meeting our family (and a reunion for my parents!), watching the Easter parade, eating delicious food, and meeting the animals on the farm – a highlight was holding the newborn lambs! We ended the night at a pub in downtown Roscommon, J.C. Doorly’s, which my cousin said has never seen an American & then there were 24 of us there! We stayed until very late & my aunt and I ended up locked out of both the bar & the hotel – my cousin saved the day thankfully! The next day, my family and I went back to the farm for coffee and helped clean up the tables & chairs. We got to see the community center in Kilteevan, which had this gorgeous fresco ceiling. From Roscommon, we drove over to Galway for the next leg of the trip!
galway
Galway looks like it’s straight out of a movie scene, it’s so picturesque. We arrived midafternoon & walked around the city. We had dinner at Monroe’s Tavern, where my sister had the best cocktail of her life and it fit my dad’s requirements of having a real fire place. We went to Tig Choili for some pints and live music, which was one of my favorite parts about Ireland, the abundance of live music! The next day, the boys went golfing, and the girls explored more of Galway. We went to Blackrock Cottage for coffee & pastries before bundling up and watching swimmers & divers off of the Blackrock Diving Board in Salthill, which is a bit outside main Galway. It was FREEZING in the water, but there were loads of swimmers! After losing feeling in our toes, we went back to Quay Street for some shopping and lunch at a sandwich shop. The boys got back from golf and we drove out to the Cliffs of Moher where we spent the afternoon. We were lucky to miss the rain! We went to a random restaurant for dinner – the only place that could take 10 people without a reservation in advance and then Mom, Dad, and I went to Sonny Molloy’s, where we did a whiskey tasting! We ended the day with some games back at the Airbnb, which was a load of fun!
dingle
On the journey to Dingle, we stopped at Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, which was a neat castle to explore, along with the park that had recreations of what life was like for people in Ireland during that time. We stopped for lunch in Limerick at the Locke Bar, which had a fireplace & great food, and then continued onto Dingle. My brother-in-law had been driving the entire time & then the last hour of the drive to Dingle, my dad took over, which happened to be the most treacherous drive through Conor Pass – basically a one way road up one of the highest mountain passes in Ireland. It was breathtaking in beauty but also in the fear that we might fall off the cliff! We bopped around in the afternoon and then all 24 of us went to Marina Inn for dinner. The staff were so kind for having 24 people show up, pretty much unannounced! We finished the day at Murphy’s Pub and then Dick Mack’s for a drink & headed back to the Airbnb!
The next day, we did the Slea Head Drive, which is an ABSOLUTE MUST if you are in Dingle. The drive is incredible, with many pull over stops to take in the beautiful views. We stopped at Cashel Murphy, which is this rock formation that used to be a castle for Clan Murphy. The history was really cool and it was so neat to see how the rocks were brought to build shelter. The water was so blue – it looked like we were in the Carribean! I’ll let the photos below speak for themselves! We cut our drive a little short for lunch at Páidí Ó Sé’s Pub, which was one of the best pubs we went to on the trip & I had a delicious goat cheese salad! We got back to Dingle, had some ice cream at Murphy’s, went to this cool hardware store / pub, Foxy John’s, and had dinner at James Long. We had an early-ish night because we had a long drive back to Dublin!
dublin (weekend 2)
We got back to Dublin and met up with my family from Roscommon (who were in town!) at Toner’s. Baggot Street is the more local Dublin pubs, where all the Irish go (according to my family). My friends from London flew in and met us there! Many a pint of Guinness was had and it was such a fun end to my family trip, as they left on Saturday. On Saturday, my friends and I got breakfast at Stage Door Cafe, which turned out to be one of those restaurants where they rip on you (jokingly… I think?). We had a lot of laughs there! We grabbed a pint at Darkey Kelly’s and then went to the Whiskey Museum for a tour & tasting. This was very fun, cheap, and included the tasting in the ticket. We hit up Temple Bar for another pint, before heading to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour (my second of the trip!). We got our faces printed on the top of our Guinness this time, which was so cool to watch how they printed it. After 1000 Guinnesses, we met up with my cousin at another pub that was playing traditional Irish music. On Sunday, we got breakfast and took it easy, visiting random pubs and the Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Ireland!! We had such a nice weekend and it was the perfect end to my trip!
If you read this far down, thank you! I hope you enjoyed & I HIGHLY recommend a trip to Ireland! 🙂
aventuras de alyssa 