Pepper Design Blog

Adventures in Ireland: Our Travel Guide

As promised, here’s a high level overview of our travel adventures in Ireland! Should you find yourself planning a trip abroad any time in the future, hopefully this little bit of travel experience will be of help. Enjoy.

Dublin
Where to stay: We rented a flat through AirBnB from Ian and Lisa (lovely couple) at a very reasonable price. A lovely way to start our trip!
Where to eat: We adored Camden Kitchen, an off-the-beaten path restaurant with delicious decor AND food.
What to see: Don’t miss out on Trinity College (and the Book of Kells), Christchurch Cathedral, as well as a walk through Temple Bar (lively pubs), Grafton Street (pedestrian-only shopping esplanade) and Stephen’s Green (beautiful park). Further on you’ll find Powerscourt (stunning gardens), the Wicklow Mountains (we attempted to get lost so we could drive through some ‘true’ Irish country) and Glendalough (our favorite).
Read our post: Check out more details here.

Kilkenny & Killarney
Where to stay: This was one of our last-minute arrangements (and all B&Bs were booked), but we very much enjoyed the ultra modern Pembroke hotel.
Where to eat: We loved Cafe Mocha for a nice steaming flat white and a yummy sandwich. This cafe is full of handmade pastries, chocolates, soups and salads in a quaint, tea shop setting. (They even have a room full of handmade ribbon that’s sold by the meter!). For dinner, we enjoyed the live music at Kyteler’s Inn but didn’t particularly love the touristy nature of the restaurant. Has a great story behind the original building (having to do with witches and such), if you do visit be sure to check it out for at least a look.
What to see: We strolled the town and meandered the sweet cobblestone streets, but we hear Kilkenny Castle is a great stop. And further on, the Blarney Stone! Also didn’t have time for this castle but it’s supposed to be a worth-while tourist destination. Cashel is incredible, don’t miss the Rock of Cashel. We didn’t stay overnight in Killarney but we did take a full day to explore the Killarney National Park (including the Muckross House, waterfall and recreated farm estates) near Dingle.
Read our post: Check out more details here and here.

Dingle Peninsula 
Where to stay: We thoroughly enjoyed the Towerview B&B in Dingle which is located just outside of the three street ‘downtown’. Tell Mary we sent ya. (Added bonus: her sweet daughters babysit).
Where to eat: An Canteen is unpretentious but absolutely delicious. Local music can be found in any number of pubs just around – this area is known for the handy musicians.
What to see: take a day to drive the full peninsula and enjoy the beautiful beaches along the way. We also loved the beehive hut historic stop (2 euro for beautiful views and fun rock forts).
Read our post: Check out more details here.

Adare, the Cliffs of Moher & Galway
Where to stay: We stopped in Adare at the suggestion of Mary at Towerview (see above) as a night over on our way to the Cliffs of Moher. Lovely town but not a necessity on the itinerary. We stayed at the Berkeley Lodge Guesthouse and Bhirdie is very sweet and accommodating!
Where to eat: Only a pub or two in town – plus an ice cream factory just down the main road.
What to see: Adare is known for its thatched roof cottages. Very cool. From here we drove on to the Cliffs of Moher – spectacular! It was recommended that we spend a full day driving all the way to Loop Head and up the coast, and had we not been short on time we would have made it happen. We drove from the Cliffs through the Burren to Galway – I can’t say the Burren is as much as I expected but it is a nice drive nonetheless.
Read our post: Check out more details here.

Inis Maein
Where to stay: AirBnB came through again with this rural island cottage from Eilis.
Where to eat: You have only one choice so it’s an easy one. Town pub. Actually I heard there’s a great B&B (built by an architect and his designer wife) that serves up a delicious meal during traditional tourist months.
What to see: An wish km loop takes you around the entire island but we cut in at about 4km and had a lovely time just wandering the maze of rock walls and discovering remnants of historic times as we went. We hear that the other islands have more to offer in terms of what to see and do, we definitely chose the more rural option!
Read our post: Check out more details here.

 Clifden
Where to stay: We were recommended Dunri Guesthouse based on it’s child-friendly nature and we really enjoyed our stay there
Where to eat: Of the two restaurants we tried out in Clifden our favorite was EJ Kings for the live band (great Irish music!).
What to see: Clifden is an excellent town to enjoy in and of itself – adorable streets and colorful buildings, kind people and lots of art/shopping to peruse (we managed to coincide our visit with a day of the annual Arts Festival), but it’s also a great launching point for discovering Connemara National Park, Kylemore Abbey (ran out of time, but would have LOVED to visit), white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, golfing, etc.
Read our post: Check out more details here.

Here’s the full road trip itinerary on the map. Big stars are towns we spent the night, smaller stars indicate stops we made along the way. Again, you can read about our trip and the day-by-day journey by checking out this, this, this and this post (and this one might make you smile).

What we missed… (but you don’t have to if you go)
In the south: Powerscourt, Waterford, Blarney Stone, Cork, Kinsale
In the east: Loop Head point, more time in Galway, Connemara National Park, Kylemore Abbey
And the entire northern counties . For next time.

Travel Adventures in Ireland: Inis Maein and Clifden (Days 8-10)

Today is our final post on our travel adventures in the beautiful country of Ireland. You can check out the day-by-day, play-by-play here, here, here & here for suggestions on where to go and what we loved, but I’ll try to sum all of that up shortly for the ultimate Ireland travel guide (Spenla family style). For now, I’ll leave you with our last three days, which we spent on Inis Maein (a small island off of the coast of Galway) and in Clifden (most perfect Irish town part 2 – part 1 for us is here).

Shortly after leaving Galway (where we stopped over for a delicious lunch) we boarded a ferry from Rosaveel to Inis Maein, a small little island (one of three just off the coast) that we discovered when searching for a little Irish vacation cottage to rent. First, I can’t believe we made the ferry. One of my guidebooks mentioned that the port was 22 km (not miles) from Galway – but it was actually closer to 50! We were the last ones to board and I was running like a crazy woman down the pier. Second, when we arrived that night we were a little bit worried… the island was empty! completely empty! (pros and cons for traveling outside the traditional tourist season).

That’s our wee cottage above. It was a bit bold to rent a desolate retreat online, but I figured we’d be in the mood for a little cozy relaxing as a family after 7 days on the road. And we weren’t to be disappointed. (Yep, it was as cold as it looks on the outside, but don’t worry, toasty fire and cute stone cottage interior awaited inside). Plus, there’s always the local pub.

We did enjoy a Smithwicks and toasted sammy when we arrived (one of six patrons at the only facility – of any kind, I think - in town) while we waited for the cottage to be unlocked by a local caretaker. Inis Maein is home to approximately 150 full time residents, and apparently a good deal of visitors at other points in the year.

The next day brought with it a decent amount of morning rain, but by the time we were up and about and walking the island the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. The agriculture specialty in these parts? Rocks! and walls and mazes everywhere.

We stumbled upon this  ancient chapel as well, and check out these amazing flat headstones. They were pretty much stacked on top of one another, over and over again. Makes you wonder how that works on the underside…

More touring of the small island…

The island was indeed a getaway of its own kind, but the highlight might have been returning back to the mainland via a 10 person airplane that shuttles folks to and fro. At just 10 Euros or so more per ticket, it was well worth the splurge to see Ireland from the air.

Our last two days were spent in the idyllic town of Clifden (which rivals Kilkenny for most majestic Irish town in my book). I cannot imagine a more lovely set of shops, pubs and beautiful windows (love me some photographs of windows and doors from around the world – they speak volumes to the culture, the people, the country…).

Kevin enjoyed a round of golf for his birthday (which was coming up very soon!) and Liv and I shopped a bit through the local stores.

Mmmm delightful. A final day of relaxing and enjoying some lazy time in a sweet village. This was also the location of Liv’s dancing video, and the locals absolutely did not mind her tagging along as we tried out different restaurants/pubs! (plus we weren’t the only one with kids, so that made us feel slightly less like bad parents…)

And that is our Ireland trip. Ten lovely days in one of the friendliest countries we’ve ever visited. The people, above all, were probably our favorite part. Friendly, kind, generous folks who look after you and who laugh heartily in conversations at pubs and street fairs, and when you quizzically ask them which direction such-and-such castle is in. Ireland, we’ve had a beautiful time exploring your lands. Thanks for the hospitality!

PS More on our family journey right here (you can start from the beginning of this crazy tour…).

Travel Adventures in Ireland: an Irish Dance to Start Your Day…

Hope this brings a smile to your day!