After our Scottish Isles trip we flew to Dublin to begin a small group tour of Ireland. We had not really enjoyed the bus trips on our Scottish trip, so we didn't hold out too much hope for the second trip. Boy, were we wrong. The trip was truly "The Best"!
Best Hotels
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Huge room at The Merchant Hotel in Belfast
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| Amazing service and grandeur of Ashford Castle |
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Another spacious room at Lough Eske Castle
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| Lough Eske Castle |
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| Interesting plumbing and many large bathrooms |
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Old Grand Hotel in Ennis - in addition to this sitting area,
our room had a sun porch for relaxing |
Best Food & Drink
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| Many beautiful and scrumptious buffets |
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Plentiful Guinness
I found Guinness bread to be the best! (no pictures, it all went in my belly) |
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| Opportunities to taste Irish whiskey |
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| Opportunity to make, and enjoy, traditional Irish coffee |
Best Stops & Activities
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| We learned a lot about the flocks of sheep and the amazing work of the sheep dogs |
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| We toured distilleries; large and small (this is Jameson) |
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| Smithwick Ale in Kilkenny |
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| The cliffs of Moher |
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| A trail ride on Charlie, an Irish cob |
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| Shooting Skeet |
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| Meeting local dogs |
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| Tour of Belleek factory |
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| Kylemore Abbey: a Benedictine estate with remarkable gardens in Connemara - but no Connemara ponies to be seen on our journey. |
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| Visiting resting places of famous folks |
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| Giants Causeway |
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| Titanic Belfast - an amazing, immersive experience learning about the work of the Harland & |
Wolff Shipyard
Best Tour Guide
Riding AND shooting? Sounds like the perfect vacation to me! Ireland is on our list, but it's a ways down there. We considered knocking out Scotland and Ireland together, but there's too much to do in each country to narrow it down to a week each.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping and reading my blog...just like old times!
DeleteWe planned two weeks for each...and even that wasn't enough to do either country justice! Being on a tour is great, cause you see a bit of everything, but it certainly doesn't leave time to explore and poke around little towns. I'd love to do a small RV for several weeks in either country!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed Ireland! Looks like you did some fun things!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't list everything we did, but suffice it to say, this trip truly surpassed our expectations.
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