Ireland on the cheap....
Written: May 24 '06
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Pros: Friendly people, great history, public transportation is reliable and on time.
Cons: Cities are very dirty, food is very expensive.
The Bottom Line: Our problems in Ireland were our own fault. It is a nice country with friendly people and worth visiting, just to say we did. Worth doing at least once.
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| en7489's Full Review: Ireland |
My wife and I live in Germany and decided take a trip to Ireland over a long weekend.
Unlike other trips where we usually plan things out fairly well (rent a car, pre-book hotel room, map out things we wanted to see, etc), we didn't do that this time. We booked the first night in advance at a bed and breakfast and decided to just take things as they came from there. Our only real "must-do" was the Guiness Storehouse tour. Because we planned on moving around and using public transportation, we only packed on suitcase and a couple carry bags.
I chose to break this review down by day instead of by subject to give you an idea of how much you can (and can't) squeeze into a day.
Day 0: Zero day was arrival at the airport. Since we arrived at about 8PM, we grabbed a taxi to the bed and breakfast. By the time we arrived and settled in it was well past 9:30 PM, so we hit the sack ready to get out and about the next morning.
Day 1: The bed and breakfast was a cozy little place that was a very warm atmosphere and a fairly decent room. We were served breakfast in the morning, as do all B&B's in Ireland (and everywhere else we've been in Europe). We highly recommend staying in B&B's versus hotels if you are on a budget, they are smaller and have less amenities, but are normally cheaper than a hotel. Make sure you ask for a room that is "Ensuite", so your bathroom is in your room and you don't have to share a community bathroom with other guests (unless you don't mind that). Most rooms are Ensuite, but it doesn't hurt to ask to make sure you don't get surprised. Our room cost us approx 70 Euro for the night.
After breakfast, we took a bus to downtown Dublin and got off somewhere toward the east side of downtown. We started walking through the downtown area and we were very disappointed in how dirty and crowded everything seemed to be. We wound our way through the Temple Bar (which is a district, not a bar - though there is a Temple Bar Bar) where we stopped for a cup of cappucino in a small cafe. The insides were as dirty as the outside, the toilets were especially nasty. We continued our way through the city on foot, where we stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral. St Patrick's was a beautiful cathedral and well worth the visit. Both the outside and inside were well manicured, and has a deep sense of history. Inside, there are flags, guidons, and paraphanelia from all the Irish military units that have served in wars during Ireland's history.
We finally arrived at the Guiness Storehouse in the mid-afternoon. In our opinion, this was the real highlight of Dublin. It was cool to walk through and see the entire process of how Guiness is brewed, from growing the hops to delivery and everything in between. It's a five story "museum" and has the Guiness Storehouse Gravity bar above it all. The Gravity bar is a glass walled bar that provides a 360 degree view of the surroundings. For your entrance fee (14 Euro) you get a free pint of Guiness, either at the Gravity bar or in the restaurant. We decided to grab some lunch at the restaurant and had what would turn out to be our best meal in Ireland (taste and price-wise).
After the Guiness Storehouse, we took the train to Malahide (to the north side of Dublin) and visited the Malahide castle. Malahide castle is a beautiful castle with a self-guided tour. It is sort of pricey (22 Euro per adult), but we had the Dublin Pass (which I'll discuss later) so it was free for us. It sits on beautifully manicured lawns and woods and was pleasant to walk through, both inside and out.
After that, it was time to head back to Dublin since we had decided to keep our room for another night (this time it was 80 Euro for the night since it was Friday). We ate in a pub with a carvery, which is basically a bar with a small cafeteria line. The food wasn't bad, but the price was about 22 Euro per plate, not including drinks. Since the Euro rate fluctuates so much, I really can't tell you what that would be in dollars now, but at the time it was about 25-27 dollars a plate.
Day 2: After breakfast, we checked out of the B&B and took a taxi to the train station. We headed north to Drogheda, which we had been told was one of the oldest and nicest towns in Ireland. We found another B&B, this time for only 60 Euro, but we got what we paid for too, it was a "no frills" B&B. We dumped our stuff off and headed for the bus station to go to Bru na Boinne, where we wanted to visit Newgrange and the other two megalithic tombs in the area. Unfortunately, the other two Newgrange is one of the megalithic passage tombs that was built some time around 5,000 years ago. I believe there are six of them in all, but Newgrange is one of the better known ones because of it's unique lighted passage. During the winter solstice the sun shines through the passage and illuminates the entire passage all the way to the center of the tomb. Since it is so small inside, they hold a lottery every year for selected visitors to be able to be inside during the winter solstice. Our visit was in April, so we were out of luck on that one, but they do have an electrical lighting system that simulates the effect. It was a very humbling experience and another highlight of the trip. The other two in the area (Knowth and Dowth) were closed, so we hopped the bus back to Drogheda to explore. I don't want to offend anyone, but the place was a dump. It was dirty, crowded, and it seemed as if there was nothing there except shops, people working in shops, and people shopping. The things we saw in the shops were nothing fantastic either, and seemed even more overpriced than things in Dublin. We got back late and made the mistake of eating in a hotel restaurant, which cost us about 80 Euro. The food was good, but not that good for that price!
Day 3: The following morning (after a fantastic breakfast by a very warm and friendly innkeeper) we hopped the train back to Dublin. We wanted to get down to Waterford (on the south east coast) and visit the crystal factory, but time caught up to us and we also became victims of the Sunday public transportation schedule. We hit Connolly train station in Dublin about 9 AM, where we found out they do not run trains to Waterford, those go out of the Huston station. So, we hopped a bus to Huston station, where we were told we missed the train by 5 minutes and the next one didn't leave until 2:30 PM. An attendant told us we could try the bus station, which is conveniently located near the Connolly train station, back on the other side of town. We hopped the bus back to the bus station (called Busarius), and found a bus that left at 11:30, but would be a three hour drive. We took that, actually arriving in Waterford at about 3PM.
Since we still had our luggage with us, we knew we wouldn't make the last tour of the Factory, so decided to hit our alternate location, Dunmore East.
Dunmore East is a scenic little fishing / tourist town south - southeast of Waterford. We took a taxi there and found a beautiful little B&B for only 60 Euro for the night. We had a nice view of the cliffs and ocean, and the friendliest inn-keeper ever! Since it was late and we had to head back to Dublin the following morning for our plane ride home, we decided to give ourselves the walking tour of the area. We wandered around the cliffs of Dunmore East and through the small village. It was THE most beautiful part of our tour. As it was late and most places were closed, we again ended up eating in a hotel restaurant, to the tune of 95 Euro this time! But the scenery was absolutely beautiful and we wandered around until it got dark.
Day 4: Left Dunmore East very early and headed back to the airpoort in Dublin via taxi, train, and bus.
Overall, we were glad we made the trip, but learned some very valuable lessons:
Lesson 1: When in Ireland, eat in Pubs or Cafe's. Eating in Ireland is very expensive, especially at Hotels and big restaurants. As an example, on our way home, we stopped at a "fast-food" fish and chips place and it still cost us 28 Euro for the two of us, and as I wrote above, hotel restaurants cost 80 - 90 Euro.
Lesson 2: Public transportation is NOT the way to go if you have luggage and plan on moving to different places each day. Since we decided to not stay in the same place each night, we had to drag the suitcase around to each new place we visited, get a room, then we could go out sightseeing. Depending on travel time between places, it might be late afternoon before you can actually get out and sightsee. Had we rented a car, we could have done what we wanted and had the luxury of storing the luggage in the car until we wanted to find a place to stay.
Lesson 3: Never assume public transportation is convenient. It is convenient if you want to travel inner-city, but you have to check the schedules in advance and plan accordingly for outside trips. In our case, we lost valuable time because we didn't factor in the limited Sunday schedule.
lesson 4: When visiting Dublin, get the Dublin Pass and/or Rambler ticket. We discovered this one by chance and it saved us some money. The Dublin Pass cost us 29 Euro per person for 1 day and got us free admission into all the tourist sites we visited. The Rambler ticket cost 5 Euro per person and lets you ride free on all Dublin buses for the day.
Lesson 5: The Irish are friendly and helpful. I have to admit that the Irish people we met are some of the friendliest people we have ever met anywhere. If we needed assistance, anyone we stopped was more than willing to help us. In one case, a young woman even went out of her way to get off at an earlier bus stop and walk us to where we wanted to go. I can't say enough about the wonderful hospitality of the Irish people.
Lesson 6: Guiness tastes better in Dublin. Seriously.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
en7489
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Location: Massachusetts
Reviews written: 61
Trusted by: 6 members
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