‘How to look like a Billion Dollar Babe

From pub crawls in Dublin to exploring the jagged coastline and countryside B&Bs, we’ve got Ireland covered

Travel Location: Ireland (Nov. 14 – 21)
Travelers: Matthew Sand and Becki Golden

Where you stayed: With images of Guinness and a red-haired nation dancing in our heads, the trip began in the capital city of Dublin. It truly hurts me to say this, but Dublin was just ... OK. It’s a major metropolitan area (not unlike Chicago) with people of all shapes, colors and sizes. We spent a day and a half there, and I think it’s fair to say that was sufficient. Having said that, Dublin does have its charm. It’s a very friendly and walkable city with plenty of sights (Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Guinness Factory, etc.), shopping (O’Connell Street area) and nightlife (Temple Bar district). Although very touristy, one of the best ways to hit the highlights is by a hop-on, hop-off bus. Friendly and usually funny drivers will take you to all the places of interest.

My parents went on a two-week vacation to Ireland a couple years ago and told me to truly see Ireland, get out of Dublin and get onto the countryside. So that’s exactly what we did. We picked up a rental car early Saturday morning in Dublin. Note: In Ireland, you drive on the left side of the road. If you’ve never done this before and are a bit skittish, like I was, Saturday morning is a great time to pick up your rental car because 95 percent of the city is still asleep, most likely due to Friday night’s activities. From Dublin, we headed to the southern coast and a small fishing village called Kinsale. Located in County Cork, it’s a picturesque town of about 2,200 people, complete with a quaint downtown full of shops and restaurants. We stayed in a bed & breakfast in the center of town called The White House (I suppose appropriate for Americans like ourselves). Of the towns we visited, it was hands down the most visually appealing. Some Irish celebrities even have vacation homes there, kind of like the Martha’s Vineyard of Ireland.

We left lovely Kinsale and headed to the equally quaint town of Kenmare, in Country Kerry, on Ireland’s southwest coast. Situated between the Ring of Kerry and Ring of Beara, it’s an ideal base point for lots of unbelievable sightseeing, as well as good restaurants and shops. The drive to Kenmare from Kinsale took us through Killarney National Park. While this was one of the most challenging drives of my life, the scenery was well worth it. When we weren’t driving on the edge of a mountain, there were plenty of places to stop off for some picture-taking. Kenmare was also the sight of our “accommodation splurge.” On my parent’s recommendation, we stayed at a bed & breakfast about a half a mile outside of town called the Shelbourne Lodge, an old house run by a couple with six fantastic bedrooms, a great sitting/dining room and even a grass tennis court in the backyard for any Roger Fedderer fans in your group. Although it cost a couple of extra Euros, it was well worth it. After hearing we were from Chicago, the owner told us that Mayor Daley had stayed there on his visit a couple of years ago. We even ran into a couple from the northwest suburbs who were traveling with their two kids. Small world.

The last two towns we stayed at were Listowel and Ennis on Ireland’s west coast. These were mainly chosen based on locations of sights we were interested in visiting (the Dingle Peninsula and the Cliffs of Moher). Both towns had plenty going, but it was tough to stack up to Kinsale and Kenmare. Compared to the other towns we stayed in, Ennis (population 20,000) seemed like a thriving metropolis. As I understand, Ennis is kind of like the Austin, Texas of Ireland, known for its great live music.

For the first 27 years of my life, I had never stayed at a bed & breakfast. This was about to change. With the exception of the Northeast (Maine and Vermont) and Northern California, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that America is a “hotel country.” In Ireland, B&Bs seem to be the norm. I have to admit, the concept was a bit foreign and took some getting used to. I mean, you’re sleeping in someone else’s house. Most of the B&B we stayed in were set up like hotels, where we felt fairly removed from the owners who lived there. But I remember walking up the stairs to our room at one particular B&B and seeing school pictures of little Billy and Sally on the wall — very odd. I felt like I was an intruder in their home, but the owners couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating. The rooms we stayed at in all the B&Bs were very clean (and thankfully equipped with personal bathrooms). I was also amazed about how trusting you would have to be to run one. In most cases, we just called the day of or day before and asked if we could stay there.

Getting around: Ireland by plane, bus, boat and car. With the exception of horse-drawn carriage and hovercraft (a la “Back to the Future Part II”), I think we utilized every form of transportation in our travels around Ireland. After flying in to Dublin, we utilized buses, boats and a car to get from place to place. I found driving to be one of the most challenging but rewarding parts of the trip. It definitely took a day or two getting used to driving on the left side of the road, and I was constantly forced to remind myself to make wide right turns and sharp left turns. Some of the roads there weren’t as much roads as slightly oversized bike paths. This can make driving a little tricky when there’s a semi (and in some cases a tractor) coming at you in the opposite directions. When you’re not on the edge of one of the many steep, jagged mountains or going around the countless roundabouts, the sides of the roads are bordered by shrubs with a one-foot-thick stone wall behind it. For the most part, shoulders on the side of the road were non-existent.

I found the scenery in Ireland to be some of the most breathtaking I’ve ever seen (pictures don’t really do it justice), but the Emerald Isle makes you earn every mile. Rarely will you find a straight shot or four-lane highway to your destination. The roads are hilly, bending, full of blind spots and often just wide enough for two cars to pass. I’m sure the four days I spent driving in Ireland took at least five years off my life, but the white-knuckle routes were well worth it.

Luckily, I found other drivers to be very courteous and patient — sometimes too patient. Outside of Dublin, the speed of the country seems to slow down a bit. No one really seems to be in a hurry to go anywhere. I have a feeling that one of the reasons no one’s really in a hurry to get anywhere is because no one (except for the natives) actually knows where the are. I say this because one thing that Ireland does not have much of is street signs or a whole lot of street lights. That’s fine if you spent you’ve spent your whole life growing up there, but as a foreigner, this made getting around even more difficult.

The people, the culture: Living up to the hype, the people in Ireland couldn’t have been friendlier. The locals we encountered were extremely down to earth, helpful and generous toward tourists, especially outside of Dublin. Overall, I found the culture to be very relaxing. Living in a large city, I often find myself racing around frantically to work, eat, shop, etc. It was welcome change to sit back and relax a little.

Activities of note: Although we just thought Dublin was OK, one of the highlights of the trip came on our last night in the capital city. The Literary Pub Crawl, put on by two local actors, took a group of around 30 people (mainly Americans on the night we went) around the local pubs in downtown Dublin where famous Irish authors were known to have thrown back a couple of pints. Before entering each pub, we were given a little history lesson on the pub itself and often the authors who used to hang out there. Even though the last book I read in full was “Bo knows Bo” when I was in sixth grade (not exactly a classic), it was interesting to visit the places where more famous literary minds like James Joyce and Oscar Wilde did their drinking. The two actors were truly entertaining and seemed to get more entertaining the more pints we had in our systems.

Being a guy who enjoys his music, another highlight was seeing live Irish music in a pub in Ennis. It was spot on with the mental picture I had in my head. In a cozy, dimly lit pub complete with fireplace, two local musicians treated us to about two hours of traditional Irish music.

Another highlight was the Cliffs of Moher. I wouldn’t say there’s enough to do to spend a whole day there, but it’s a great place to kill a couple of hours, and it has some of the greatest scenery I’ve seen in my life. We were lucky enough to be catch the cliffs on a sunny day. Bring your camera.

While drinking with actors, listening to musicians and dangling off cliffs were great, the highlight of the trip for us was the drive around the Dingle Peninsula. The Dingle was about a two-hour drive from Kenmare and took about 2-3 hours to drive around. You could spend days on the Dingle if you wanted, but unfortunately we had a schedule to keep. We happened to be there on a rainy and windy day. Despite the weather, it was one of the most fantastic places I’ve seen in my life (I actually think the clouds and rain added to the ambience). For those “Lord of the Rings” fans out there, the scene was something directly out of a Tolkien novel. We ended up taking a route called Slea Head Drive that hugged between the mountains and the ocean. Words and pictures do little to describe the scene.

The costs: Traveling during the off-peak season really cut down on the overall cost of the trip. We really lucked out and caught a great airfare on Aer Lingus (an Irish airline) for about $375 round trip. The rental car was another $300 for five days (it would have been half that if I were brave enough to rent a car with a manual transmission). The hotels and B&Bs ranged from 140 Euros a night to 60 Euros a night for two people. This mainly depends on where you want to stay. One thing to consider when traveling now is the strength of the dollar compared to the Euro. When we were there, the exchange rate was about .57 Euros for one U.S. dollar — not a great time for an American to be traveling abroad.

What makes you want to go back: There are lots of reasons I’d love to go back, but I’d say the people and the Dingle Peninsula would be reason enough for me. I’d also like to check out some places we didn’t see this time around.

What you’d do differently: One thing I would do differently next time is go during a different time of the year. As I understand it, the weather in Ireland is pretty consistent the entire year, and it was very comfortable when we were there. However, it got dark there about 5 p.m. at night and was still pretty dark at 8 a.m. Since there was a lack of street lights and signs, we had to be at our destination by 4 p.m. or risk getting lost. I think a couple more hours of daylight might allow for more sightseeing. I would consider getting a GPS system next time around. With street signs at a premium, it couldn’t hurt.

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