Hello friends!

So for the past 9 days I’ve had the pleasure of entertaining my mom on her second trip to Ireland (the first time was in the 80’s so a lot of things have changed!). One thing we were both in agreement about was the fact that we wanted to do a road trip to see the countryside of Ireland.

It was AMAZING. Traveling in early January was great since it had the benefit of being after the Christmas rush, while still getting to see most of the beautiful decorations (like myself, the Irish people cling to their Christmas spirit well into the next month). Since the high season of travel in Ireland is usually the summer (most commonly May to late September), we got the hotels for half price and the roads/passageways were much less crowded.

We grabbed an automatic car from Budget Car Rental, which is located up in Drumcondra in Dublin (they also have a site at Dublin Airport). I would definitely recommend getting an automatic rather than a manual, even if you’ve driven a manual before. The coordination it takes just to stay on the left and navigate the tiny side roads was enough to deal with. For the four days we rented the car, it was about 250 euro, and that was with the highest level of insurance, so that gives you a bit of a price range if you’re thinking of doing a drive yourself.

Day 1:

Our first stop was the western city of Galway! I’d been before and loved the vibe, with the cobblestone streets and the young population (the NUI Galway students make up a big portion of the residents), it’s the perfect place to stop and grab a pint. We walked around the NUI Galway campus, took in the cathedral and then had dinner at the Cellar Bar.

After getting our fill of the Galway scenery, we headed out towards our first hotel, which was in the seaside village of Spanish Point. We made the mistake of waiting til nightfall to begin the journey and had the unique experience of being lost in the dark on Irish back roads! Despite my mom’s insistence that we could just pull over and sleep, I was determined not to be woken up by a cow looking in my window, and we eventually arrived at our stop for the night. We stayed at the Bellbridge House Hotel, which was right by the water and had three beds in the one room, so it could easily accommodate a bigger group. We drank our fill of beer at the in-house pub and then went for a well earned rest.

Day 2:

The next morning we made our way along the coast and towards Kerry, where we were to visit some of my distant cousins in a town called Ballylongford. We saved about 100 km of driving by taking the ferry between County Clare and County Kerry and arrived in good time to meet with my family.

With our stomachs full of tea, we drove leisurely along the coast and through back-roads until we reached Tralee and decided to stay overnight. We stayed in the Grand Hotel, which was extremely comfortable (once we figured out the trick of opening the older door), and we once again toasted our own driving skills in the pub. Let’s just say this was a beer themed trip…

Day 3:

Post-gorging ourselves on free breakfast (when you book online!) and after stuffing copious amounts of snacks into our purses for later (we were very sly), we loaded into the car for day three.

We had nothing to do and no goals or meetups planned, so we just went along the ring of Kerry, stopping whenever we wanted tea or saw something cool. We ended up going all around the waters edge, seeing glorious views (when the fog parted, damn you January weather!) and old ruins.

One such ruin was Ballycarbery Castle, which was built in the 16th century and still largely intact despite no intense efforts to preserve it. We had stopped in the town of Cahersiveen for a cup of tea and saw the signs for the castle, with a bit of help from google maps, we soon came upon the edifice, emerging from the fog along the little harbor. We were the only people there, which meant we got to take an embarrassing amount of pictures. I climbed up to the top level, which was cool but also made me very conscious of my own mortality, as the collapse of multiple walls made the cavernous dark rooms beneath the upper walkways very visible. All in all it fulfilled my Lord of the Rings fantasies and was more than worth the stop.

From there we ventured along the Ring of Kerry and eventually hit Killarney National Park, which I would 100% recommend to ANYONE coming to Ireland. The mountains and overlooks of the park were amazing, with little pullovers in the street that let you stop and admire or take pictures. There was an old abandoned church, which looked super spooky among the hills, and tons of different hiking routes. Something for basically anyone who visited. GO TO KILLARNEY NATIONAL PARK… too much enthusiasm.

The windy, twisty roads of the park had left us tired, but completely in love with the area, so we decided to bed down in the town of Killarney at the International Hotel. The staff here were the best we’d interacted with on the trip, with lots of good advice on what to do in the town. With their help, we found a pub that had live trad music on that night (the pub attached to the Killarney Grand Hotel, which I’m pretty sure has music 7 days a week) and spent an hour listening to the different Irish melodies.

Day 4:

Our fourth and final day we had a time crunch since we needed to get the car back to the rental facility by 6pm. We woke up early and headed out to Muckross Abbey, which was founded in the 15th century on a piece of land that is not on the very outer corner of Killarney National Park. Since we were there around 8:30am, we were the only visitors once again, which was fun but also a bit scary since I’ve watched way too many episodes of Ghost Hunters International. The abbey was absolutely beautiful and very well preserved. There were upper levels you could walk around in and a courtyard with a huge yew tree in the center.

Next on the agenda was the Rock of Cashel. After a two hour drive, we arrived at the town of Cashel, once again quenching our thirst with a good old pot of tea at the Bake House, which was a really cozy cafe right in the center of town.

We made our way up the hill leading to the Rock of Cashel, stopping at the little souvenir shop at the base of the monument, where we were advised by the very kind shop owner that the film they show is crap, but the tours are fantastic. So, with this in mind, we headed up and bought our tickets, wandering around the grounds until our tour started.

The shop owner was correct, the tour was really good, giving us fun little tidbits about the place and the people who had inhabited it. One of my favorite factoids was that the statue of Jesus on the cross is the only one in Ireland that has him fully clothed, as opposed to having his upper half exposed. This was because the statue was placed outside and the monks, knowing how cold Irish winter could be, didn’t want him to be exposed.

Finally it was time to make the journey back to Dublin. I will definitely be going back to the Ring of Kerry and Killarney National Park, as they’re definitely the types of places where you can find something new every time you go.

Anyway, I’ll be posting a photo-centered post after this, just because I can’t resist showing off the beautiful scenery! If you’re thinking of doing a road trip and have questions about the route we took, shoot me a message! 🙂