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As posted elsewhere in this site, this summer Serena and I went to Ireland.
We planned our holiday merging the fly-and-drive style with the traditional main-european-city-short-visit approach.
Internet played a major role in the planning phase: nearly all our what/when/where questions were answered by either official sources or web-enhusiasts pages. All our bookings – from air tickets to car rental to each and every B&B – were made on internet. Now it’s my turn of writing down some notes about what’s hot and what’s not… maybe it will be useful to somebody of you who most likely I will never know.
Here follows a short overview of our journey. In case you like to have further details, just email me!

• ROAD TRIP

08.aug
We landed on time at Shannon airport. After few minutes we were driving the rental car (a brand new Opel Astra rented at a sub-compact rate) towards the Auburn Lodge, Ennis [N19 > N18].

09.aug
We went back to Ennis (the Auburn Lodge is just few kms away from Ennis’ centre on the road to Galway) [N18]. We took the N85, then the R476 towards Corofin and Kilfenora and the R481 to Ennistymon. From Ennistymon we followed the N85 to the Cliffs of Moher. Then we took the N67 through Lindoon Varna, Ballyvaughan and Kinvarra to the N18, which took us to Oranmore. We followed the N6 to Galway. Later on, to reach the Ardmor Country House in Spiddal from Galway centre we followed the directions for the N59 until we found those for the R336 which goes from Salthill to Spiddal.

10.aug
We drove west from Spiddal to Rossaveel [R336 > R372], where the Aran Island Direct ferries leave for Kilroan (Inis More).
We came back to Ardmor Country House in the evening.

11.aug
We drove to Maam Cross [R336] where we took first the N59 and then the R341 through Roundstone to Clifden. Here we found again the N59 which we followed for some kilometers. We passed Letterfrack, the Kylemore Abbey and the Killary Fiord. Just after Leenane we took the R335 to see the Doo Lough Valley. We passed Louisbourgh and we followed the road to Westport, where we stayed for the night at the Altamont House.

12.aug
We took the N5 to Castlebar. We turned left on the N58 to visit the Foxford Woolmills. We then took the N26, the N5 and the N17 in Charlestown to get on the N4 heading to Sligo. Few kilometers south of Sligo, we visited the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery. We passed Sligo and we took the N15. On the way to Donegal, we saw Bundoran and Ballyshannon. We stayed at The Gap Lodge in Barnesmore for the night, 7 kms north of Donegal.

13.aug
We followed the N15 to Ballybofey, then the N13 to Letterkenny and the N56 to Dunfanaghy. In Dunfanaghy we took a narrow panoramic road to Horn Head. We then got back on the N56, which we left immediaterly for the R257 to see the Bloody Foreland area. Again we end up on the N56, heading south to Ardara through Dungloe and Glenties. We visited Killybegs [N56 > R263] before going to the B&B Gort Na Mona near Ardara (3 kms from the centre).

14.aug
We took the inner road to Glen Gesh Pass. We went to Carrick and then to Teelin looking for Bunglass and the panoramic path to Slieve League. Later on we got back on the R263 to Donegal where we took the N15 to Sligo and the N4 to Boyle, where we stopped for the night at Cesh Corran B&B.

15.aug
We followed the N4 and M4 to the centre of Dublin. We returned the car and… we started walking!

• THINGS TO SEE

Visit the Cliffs of Moher
Drive through the Burren and the Connemara
Rent a bycicle in Inis More
Visit the Donegal and find out why they say “up here is different”

There are lots of travel guides that will explain you how nice Ireland can get. If you search for the above mentioned names in google, you’ll find busloads of local sites that will give you much more info than I can do.
The same sites who convinced us to head north through the Burren, the Connemara and the Donegal instead of going south to a much more turistic, croweded and famous part of Ireland. Going north or south is, after all, closely related with what you expect from an holiday abroad. Lively places or lovely ones?
They say of Donegal that “up there is different”. I friend of mine, Cees, who sailed twenty years ago to Killybegs described it to me as very remote place, blasted from the past. The Donegal has changed a lot in the last years and on some extent I would say it’s the most advanced and better governed area we’ve seen during our journey. But still it retains the magic of a place that seems to belong to another continent and another time. I will never forget what I felt standing against the wind in Horn Head, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Or driving across the Alaska-like views in Bloody Foreland area.
If you’re goint to the Aran Islands, then you have to rent a bike and cycle around in Inis More. You will never forget it. And what to say about the time spent in Connemara: the continuosly changing landscape, the Doo Lough valley, Roundstone. Walking in the colorful streets of Westport.

• DUBLIN

We spent in Dublin totally four days (flying out on the fifth day). We stayed at Russell Court Hotel, located in a key position for our daily “raids” in town. It’s less than five minutes from Grafton street and close to everything you’re going to see.
Dublin offers a wide range of attractions, from the more obvious ones like the Trinity college and the Book of Kells to unexpected ones like the Guinnes Store and the Jameson distillery (both are worth to visit). We loved an intense guided tour to the history of the tiny St Audeon’s Church, one of the oldest in town.
I must admit that shopping is one the things we enjoyed the most. Dublin is not as expensive as you would expect and there certainly are stores like Zara and Penny’s where you can find good bargains. I believe that shopping in Grafton street, Dawson street and O’ Connell street is the fastest way to enjoy the liveliness of the town and it’s part of the Dublin experience.

• ACCOMODATIONS

To book in advance our stays in Ireland we mainly used three resources:
- Ireland Lonely planet travel guide
- Ryan Air Hotels
- Town and coutry
Lonely planet helped us in finding the right spots where to spend a night;
Ryan Air was great for seeking the perfect hotel bargain (like in Dublin);
Town and Country is a wonderful service, one of those you would like to have available in every journey: you pick three B&B among the thousands they propose you, they think about the rest!

• RESOURCES

Aran Island information website
Aran Island Direct ferries
Argus Rent a Car
Foxford Woolmills
Lonely planet
Ryan Air
Ryan Air Hotels
Town and Country