My next big trip will be in June 2017 to Ireland/Northern Ireland for 5 nights, England/Wales for 4 nights (2 in London) on our way to Scotland, Scotland for 6 nights, and then 1 last night in Dublin before we fly home to Chicago!!! That’s a total of 17 days/16 nights!!! There will be 6 of us girls in Ireland; myself, my daughter Morgan, my mother Joan, my sister Melissa, my sister Amy, and my cousin Sarah. Then my best friend Jessica will be flying over to meet us in London and for the remainder of the trip there will be 7 of us (possibly 8).
So follow along on the blog for all our adventures.
Day 1 (landing on Day 2 actually)- Flying to Dublin from Chicago on United Airlines. I watched to flights for months on an app called the Hopper. When the price was right we booked a round trip flight to Dublin for $680!!!
Immediately upon landing we are picking up our rented Minivan. We got a GREAT deal on this thru Expedia.com with free cancellation. 6 days for $469!!!
After we are all settled in the van, we are heading straight north to Northern Ireland. We have a whole list of sites to see on our way north including; possibly Newgrange, Tollymore Castle Park, and Carrickfergis castle. Once we hit the northern coast we will visit The Giant’s Causeway, walk across the Carrick-a-rede Bridge, and visit the Dark Hedges (awesome Game of Thrones filming location).
We will be spending the night at The Lodge in Coleraine, UK. It looks AMAZING and a little bit of a splurge for our budget, but we will need a good night sleep and a little luxury after a 2 days of travel and sight-seeing!!
Day 3– Heading southwest to Galway!!!!
We will hopefully get an early start and hit the Wild Atlantic Way for an fun-filled day along the coast. There are so many awesome castles and viewing spots along the Irish coast that we would like to see, I have a feeling we will be quite late by the time we arrive at the Jury Inn in Galway.
Day 4– We will be staying a second night at the Jury Inn in Galway so we are planning to spend our day shopping in and around Galway and our night in the Pubs!!!! We would also love to See Ashford Castle, Kylemore Abbey, and Clifden Castle if we have time. So many sites to see, so little time.
Day 5– Today will be a busy one!! Our current plan is to take a ferry from Doolin to the Aran Islands and past the Cliffs of Moher. Then head a little south to Killarney for our 5th night’s stay at Murphy’s Pub. We have stayed here before and we LOVE it. It’s right in the center of town by all the action and nightlife.
Day 6– Since we have done the Ring of Kerry by bus before, we would like to drive it again on our own time and see some of the out of way sites. We are also planning to drive around Dingle Peninsula again if we have time and visit the town of Dingle since we loved it so much last time. We are also planning to see Dunquin Pier out on the tip of the Dingle Peninsula. This pier is famous for its tiny stone trail down to the water. Somehow we missed this last time. This will be a long day but we will end the day by Dublin Airport so can leave first thing in the morning for the UK. Surprisingly, it’s only a 3.5 hour drive back across the country.
Day 7– Off to LONDON!!!
Stay tunes for Part 2- Coming soon!!!
