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Trip to Ireland, advice wanted



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 7th, 2004, 02:12 PM
B Vaughan
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Posts: n/a
Default Trip to Ireland, advice wanted

My husband and I have decided to cash in our Alitalia frequent flyer
miles, just in case it becomes difficult to use them in the future. So
now we're going to Ireland in just a little over a month.

Unfortunately, my husband can't stay away from his studio for more
than a week, so we're leaving on a Saturday morning (arriving in
Dublin mid-day) and returning on Sunday evening 8 days later.

I think we need a few days in Dublin. I've already visited Dublin,
albeit 18 years ago, but my husband has never been there. I would very
much like to see Newgrange, which I think can be easily visited as a
day trip from Dublin.

Then I need at least a day or day and a half in counties Tyrone and
Fermanagh, where my family is from. (The length of time depends on how
many relatives I can find who will have free time to meet me.)

My tentative plan is to spend two nights in Dublin at the beginning of
the trip, and the final night before departure. (I will have half of
the following day for Dublin as well, because our flight is in late
afternoon.) I will spend one or two nights in Omagh or vicinity, which
is a convenient base for the family visits.

While in Omagh, I might be able to squeeze in a trip to the Giant's
Causeway. According to Ulsterbus, I can easily get there from Omagh
and could even go one from there to Dublin. The only question is what
to do with the luggage if we're not going back to Omagh. This is where
a car is handy. I think we'd be passing through Coleraine, and maybe
the train station there has a left-luggage facility.

I would also like to hear opinions about the Ulster-America Heritage
park in Omagh. The Lonely Planet makes it sound very interesting, but
they seem to have nice things to say about everything.

In between, I have three or four nights. I would like to spend this
time somewhere on the west coast. I was thinking of going to Galway,
or somewhere nearby, and spending one day on one of the Aran islands
and another day in some nearby scenic spot. Maybe the Connemara
penisula, but one day may not even scratch the surface there.

Another place might be Donegal or nearby. I have always heard a lot
about Donegal. (Including jokes about the residents, as my family was
from not far away. It seems they loved Donegal as people from
Schenectady love Manhattan.) If so, I would really appreciate some
advice for places to stay and visit on a two day trip. Especially
places reachable by public transport. I especially like early
Christian sites, high crosses, etc. (There are a lot of these in
Fermanagh, near Enniskillen, which I've seen on an earlier trip.)

I'm open to other suggestions as well. The west coast south of Galway
also entices me, and I've never seen Kerry or Dingle, but it's getting
a bit far from Omagh.

One other hitch is that my husband isn't sure he wants to rent a car.
The idea of driving on the left doesn't exactly appeal to him. From
Galway, we could easily get to the Aran Islands by bus and ferry.
Also, there seem to be one-day tours of the Connemare peninsula. Does
anyone know if there are any tours that might include a nice
several-hour hike? Or some bicycle tours, provided they aren't
strenuous? (I'm only good for pretty flat biking, although my husband
can handle moderate hills.)

I'm assuming we could do some biking on Inishmore, but it would be
nice to be able to take a good walk. I don't really fancy the idea of
seeing Connemara with a big busload of tourists, although a minibus
load might be all right if we get to meander around a bit on our own.

If anyone suggests another spot along the west coast, perhaps they
could suggest similar day trips.

The trip will be the last week in June. I'm hoping that's a bit before
the tourist rush. It seems to be a bit before the full summer schedule
of busses to remote towns, unfortunately.
-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup
  #2  
Old May 7th, 2004, 04:41 PM
Padraig Breathnach
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip to Ireland, advice wanted

B wrote:

... So now we're going to Ireland in just a little over a month.

Good idea!

...so we're leaving on a Saturday morning (arriving in
Dublin mid-day) and returning on Sunday evening 8 days later.

I think we need a few days in Dublin. I've already visited Dublin,
albeit 18 years ago, but my husband has never been there. I would very
much like to see Newgrange, which I think can be easily visited as a
day trip from Dublin.

Bus to Drogheda, local service or taxi or a good walk to Newgrange.
Well worth doing. It can be very busy, so get there as early in the
day as you can manage to beat the rush. Not everybody can get into the
tumulus. Don't miss Knowth, which is on the same site.

Then I need at least a day or day and a half in counties Tyrone and
Fermanagh, where my family is from. (The length of time depends on how
many relatives I can find who will have free time to meet me.)

My tentative plan is to spend two nights in Dublin at the beginning of
the trip, and the final night before departure. (I will have half of
the following day for Dublin as well, because our flight is in late
afternoon.) I will spend one or two nights in Omagh or vicinity, which
is a convenient base for the family visits.

Do you want suggestions for Dublin?

While in Omagh, I might be able to squeeze in a trip to the Giant's
Causeway. According to Ulsterbus, I can easily get there from Omagh
and could even go one from there to Dublin. The only question is what
to do with the luggage if we're not going back to Omagh. This is where
a car is handy. I think we'd be passing through Coleraine, and maybe
the train station there has a left-luggage facility.

I don't know about Coleraine station, but Irish informality might come
to your aid. The Ulsterbus station might hold your luggage for you
even if they do not have a formal facility.

I would also like to hear opinions about the Ulster-America Heritage
park in Omagh. The Lonely Planet makes it sound very interesting, but
they seem to have nice things to say about everything.

I liked it a great deal when I visited a few years ago. But I like
that sort of thing. Folk history appeals to me.

In between, I have three or four nights. I would like to spend this
time somewhere on the west coast. I was thinking of going to Galway,
or somewhere nearby, and spending one day on one of the Aran islands
and another day in some nearby scenic spot. Maybe the Connemara
penisula, but one day may not even scratch the surface there.

Another place might be Donegal or nearby. I have always heard a lot
about Donegal. (Including jokes about the residents, as my family was
from not far away. It seems they loved Donegal as people from
Schenectady love Manhattan.) If so, I would really appreciate some
advice for places to stay and visit on a two day trip. Especially
places reachable by public transport. I especially like early
Christian sites, high crosses, etc. (There are a lot of these in
Fermanagh, near Enniskillen, which I've seen on an earlier trip.)

I presume you know Devenish island -- a very pleasant boat excursion
from Enniskillen. White Island, also accessible only by boat, also has
some interesting early remains, but there are no organised excursions.
Perhaps some of your family connections might know a boat owner.

I'm open to other suggestions as well. The west coast south of Galway
also entices me, and I've never seen Kerry or Dingle, but it's getting
a bit far from Omagh.

One other hitch is that my husband isn't sure he wants to rent a car.
The idea of driving on the left doesn't exactly appeal to him. From
Galway, we could easily get to the Aran Islands by bus and ferry.
Also, there seem to be one-day tours of the Connemare peninsula. Does
anyone know if there are any tours that might include a nice
several-hour hike? Or some bicycle tours, provided they aren't
strenuous? (I'm only good for pretty flat biking, although my husband
can handle moderate hills.)

I think that if you don't hire a car you limit your scope greatly,
especially in light of the sort of things you want to do and the
places which interest you. I suggest an automatic, so that changing
gear with the wrong hand does not add to the distractions. If he can
drive in Italy, he should find Ireland easy! I suggest that you
discuss it some more and, if he agrees, the range of workable options
opens up greatly.

You will be using up about half your time between Dublin and Omagh, so
I suggest that you concentrate on one other place. Donegal, Galway,
and Kerry are the three most scenic counties on the west coast. I
agree that Kerry is too far, and too much of your limited time would
be used up in a transfer which is not a particularly interesting
journey. Between Donegal and Galway, my own preference is for Galway,
but that's me.

If you hire a car, an Omagh-Mayo-Galway-Dublin itinerary springs to
mind which I would happily develop for you.

I'm assuming we could do some biking on Inishmore, but it would be
nice to be able to take a good walk.

Either is workable.

I don't really fancy the idea of
seeing Connemara with a big busload of tourists, although a minibus
load might be all right if we get to meander around a bit on our own.

I don't know what is available, but you know the score with coaches
and minibuses -- it's a compromise, and group discipline needs to be
imposed.

If anyone suggests another spot along the west coast, perhaps they
could suggest similar day trips.

The trip will be the last week in June. I'm hoping that's a bit before
the tourist rush.

It will be busy enough, even if you do beat the main rush. But things
like B&B accommodation should be easy enough to arrange.

It seems to be a bit before the full summer schedule
of busses to remote towns, unfortunately.

I take it that you have already looked. You are limited to one or two
buses a day on many routes, which means that you have to plan very
precisely. And you can't stop for 40 minutes to look at something
because the next bus doesn't come for six hours.

Let me know if your husband can be persuaded to hire a car, and we can
take it from there.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
  #3  
Old May 7th, 2004, 05:00 PM
Giovanni Drogo
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip to Ireland, advice wanted

On Fri, 7 May 2004, B Vaughan wrote:

My husband and I have decided to cash in our Alitalia frequent flyer
miles, just in case it becomes difficult to use them in the future. So


Oh yes, I wonder if I could transfer mine to some other SkyTeam airline
(I've only about 12000 left, after I did a trip to Denmark with my
mother last summer) ...

I think we need a few days in Dublin. I've already visited Dublin,
albeit 18 years ago, but my husband has never been there. I would very


Although it's a city apparently very little monumental, we found it
quite pleasant, however "a few days" can be perhaps too much. If you've
been there long ago (I was a few years ago), you should not miss the
Chester Beatty collection. It's now lodged in a building reachable from
a yard of Dublin Castle, admission is free, and you get a 3-floor
exhibition of ancient (and extraordinarily beautiful) manuscripts from
all over the world ! Makes appropriate pendant with the Book of Kells
at Trinity, and the stuff at the National Museum.

It was a pity that during my trip, we discovered it late (we did a
combination of two organised tours, and were on Blue Panorama flights
which were quite unreliable, so we could not come back there because
they anticipated our flight).


While in Omagh, I might be able to squeeze in a trip to the Giant's
Causeway. According to Ulsterbus, I can easily get there from Omagh


I've been there, but with an organised trip, so I can't give advice
about public transport. In general my impression was that hotels and
foods in the North were worse than in the Republic of Ireland (where I
found food a pleasant surprise, and most hotels brand new).

Another place might be Donegal or nearby. I have always heard a lot


We stopped in Donegal to visit the castle, and a shop where they make
tweed cloth by hand. We bought a cut for a very low price, and my
cousin, who is a tailor, made a nice jacket for me (and with the left
over, my mother made a cap). Then we went to Letterkenny to sleep, and
did a one-day tour of some peninsula north of it (I do not remember the
name now, but it was towards a place called Rosapenna).

The only problem was that in Letterkenny they seem to clean the streets
at 4 am with very noisy machines.


As I said, we did a combo of two organized tours. We usually travel with
TCI, but that year TCI bought a number of Ireland packages from a third
party, and the quality was not perfect as in TCI style.

Our first tour was Dublin-Kilkenny-Waterford-Cork-Tralee (in Tralee
there is a nice theatre giving shows in Gaelic which can however be
perfectly understood even by tourists) from where we did a one-day tour
around Kerry. Then we moved through Burren to Galway and back to Dublin.

The second tour was Dublin-Sligo-Donegal-Letterkenny (with the tour of
the peninsula) than some place near Giant's Causeway, then Londonderry,
Belfast and back to Dublin.

As I said, at the time the north seemed a bit backward concerning
tourism, probably they'd just opened after the end of the terrorism
period.

--
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  #4  
Old May 7th, 2004, 10:02 PM
Alec
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip to Ireland, advice wanted


"B Vaughan" wrote in message
...
My husband and I have decided to cash in our Alitalia frequent flyer
miles, just in case it becomes difficult to use them in the future. So
now we're going to Ireland in just a little over a month.

[snip]

Then I need at least a day or day and a half in counties Tyrone and
Fermanagh, where my family is from. (The length of time depends on how
many relatives I can find who will have free time to meet me.)

My tentative plan is to spend two nights in Dublin at the beginning of
the trip, and the final night before departure. (I will have half of
the following day for Dublin as well, because our flight is in late
afternoon.) I will spend one or two nights in Omagh or vicinity, which
is a convenient base for the family visits.

We stayed nearly three weeks in Omagh itself last summer. While it's a
pleasant place with few tourists and handy as a base, the area isn't packed
with sights, but we enjoyed some enjoyable hikes in the Sperrin mountains
and cycling in the valleys.

While in Omagh, I might be able to squeeze in a trip to the Giant's
Causeway. According to Ulsterbus, I can easily get there from Omagh
and could even go one from there to Dublin. The only question is what
to do with the luggage if we're not going back to Omagh. This is where
a car is handy. I think we'd be passing through Coleraine, and maybe
the train station there has a left-luggage facility.

Left-luggage facilities are pretty non-existent in N Ireland, a legacy of
the Troubles.

I would also like to hear opinions about the Ulster-America Heritage
park in Omagh. The Lonely Planet makes it sound very interesting, but
they seem to have nice things to say about everything.

I went there with my family last summer and enjoyed the visit very much.
Very informative and brings to life what must have been like for Ulster folk
to start a new life in America. I think at weekends they have guides in
period costumes retelling the story and answering questions. Allow at least
3 hours for the visit.

In between, I have three or four nights. I would like to spend this
time somewhere on the west coast. I was thinking of going to Galway,
or somewhere nearby, and spending one day on one of the Aran islands
and another day in some nearby scenic spot. Maybe the Connemara
penisula, but one day may not even scratch the surface there.

I'm going to the area this year!

Another place might be Donegal or nearby. I have always heard a lot
about Donegal. (Including jokes about the residents, as my family was
from not far away. It seems they loved Donegal as people from
Schenectady love Manhattan.) If so, I would really appreciate some
advice for places to stay and visit on a two day trip. Especially
places reachable by public transport. I especially like early
Christian sites, high crosses, etc. (There are a lot of these in
Fermanagh, near Enniskillen, which I've seen on an earlier trip.)

It's not too difficult to do a trip to Donegal from Omagh. We did a day trip
to Dunfanaghy - just over 2 hours - but we did have a car. You can use
Letterkenny or Donegal City as a base, as they are both transport hubs.

I'm open to other suggestions as well. The west coast south of Galway
also entices me, and I've never seen Kerry or Dingle, but it's getting
a bit far from Omagh.

Yes, a long way, takes good part of day to get there.

One other hitch is that my husband isn't sure he wants to rent a car.
The idea of driving on the left doesn't exactly appeal to him. From
Galway, we could easily get to the Aran Islands by bus and ferry.
Also, there seem to be one-day tours of the Connemare peninsula. Does
anyone know if there are any tours that might include a nice
several-hour hike? Or some bicycle tours, provided they aren't
strenuous? (I'm only good for pretty flat biking, although my husband
can handle moderate hills.)

Hiring a car has definite advantages, as public transport, except between
major towns, is pretty sparse with few connections.

Alec


  #5  
Old May 8th, 2004, 08:49 PM
Dee
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip to Ireland, advice wanted

If you do anything in Ireland, go out to the Aran Islands.
Just do it - by boat, or plane, or even swim!!
You'll never, ever, forget it.

Dee


"B Vaughan" wrote in message
...
My husband and I have decided to cash in our Alitalia frequent flyer
miles, just in case it becomes difficult to use them in the future. So
now we're going to Ireland in just a little over a month.

snipped
of busses to remote towns, unfortunately.
-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot

it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup



 




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