Ireland trip advice

Strongly recommend Dick Mack's in Dingle town.

 

No hops are used in Ireland. They're not native. That will make your Irish ale taste a little different.

 

You guys are all over it. Our biggest fear is that we're trying to shove too much into this vacation. For the Dublin and Belfast portions, we'll have our own tour guides. My college buddy -- a loud, brash Texan -- is married to a woman from Belfast, so I think they've got that stuff covered.

It's after we leave that concerns me.

Not worried about the vehicle situation. All our vehicles here in Afghanistan are left-side sticks. We'll take our GPS after we update it.

That'd be awesome, man. I can pitch that idea to the wife. I think she may go for that.

Unfortunately, Mrs. t_b_f is not a golfer. I'd love to do it, but I don't see her wanting to spend a day on a golf course.

This is the question that has plagued us the entire planning process. Can we see more by actually doing less? However, which parts do we cut out? We don't want to miss the Cliffs or the Ring of Kerry or Galway or Cork, so what do we cut out? Donegal? My friend there highly recommends it, so I sort-of don't want to miss that, either.

 

One further sports suggestion, three bags. If the ponies are running anywhere near where your travels take you (horse racing kind of migrates from place to place around Ireland in a very erratic schedule), you should check it out. It's a really different experience than a U.S. track, and very much a worthwhile tourist experience of Irish local culture.

 

You could say the same on a much smaller scale of the dog tracks there.

 

This. We went to the Curragh in 2005, and it was so different from the U.S. experience. I couldn't believe there was this cool horse track plopped in the middle of this gorgeous expanse of green as far as the eye could see. Didn't get a chance to check out any of the breeding operations. Next time.

25-horse fields took some getting used to.

Didn't mean to add more baggage to your ever-growing list of stuff to see, three bags, but I'm a horse nut. This whole Ireland thread reminds me of the Pebble Beach thread, where somebody suggested that you had to go twice: the first time to play the course, the second time to just soak it all in. Don't forget to soak it in.

 

Little more info on my deal. You get the b and b in a voucher. And then right before you go you select where you want to stay. There a web site where you book. And then you pay by giving the b and b the voucher. We decided like a day before we left where we wanted to stay and booked. Though we wished we had just picked one and made that our base of operations. Everything you want to see is an hour drive tops from most places in the west.

The rental car was included and we had a voucher for that too. Picked it up from DUB and made the drive to SNN in around two hours or so.

Great deal and imcludes all the taxes.

 

Update.

Plane tickets purchased. Hotels booked. Car rented.

Itinerary looks like this:

2 nights in Dublin
2 nights in Belfast
1 night in Donegal
2 nights in Galway
1 night in a castle near Adare (between Galway and Dingle)
1 night in Cashel (between Dingle and Dublin)
1 night in Dublin prior to leaving

We're so, so excited. It's been a dream of mine for many years to take Mrs. t_b_f to Europe and see some of the sights I've been able to see, thanks to Uncle Sam. We're finally going to make this thing a reality.

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

 

Damn, I'm not even going to tell you to have a great time, because with that lineup, you are completely dialed in. Say hi to Galway for me. And ... and ...

Oh, and have a great time. You've earned it.

 

Have a pint o' guinness, for strength!

 

Love, love Dingle and the Kerry Peninsula. Have family in Annascaul, on the road from Tralee to Dingle. Great area.

Edit: Just saw your schedule, that should be a hell of a lot of fun. Good luck.

 

I got beaten up in Donegal when I was 10 years old.