This tale has been written by Keith Brennan, with parts in Italics added by Cori Brennan after the fact.
We booked our trip through Great Value Vacations (GVV), which arranged our flights, rental car, hotels (with breakfast) and various tours. The package we picked was the 8 night “Ireland’s Top Sights” and covered a great portion of the southern part of the country. Our car rental was through Enterprise and extremely easy. Our flights were on British Airways, which has small cramped seats. Most links in our story go to our corresponding Facebook photo album. Thank you for reading our tale.
16 March, Saturday
We arrived with plenty of time to spare, allowing us time to enjoy some relaxation and drinks at the BWI international lounge for the first time ever. We get access to lounges all over the world from our credit card.
Our flight to London Heathrow left at 10pm. Strangely, the flight provided meal service for dinner at 11:30pm EST with tea and coffee after that. I probably got one wink of sleep. Cori got maybe 2 hours of sleep. In the meantime, I listened to music and read book two of The Mistborn series.
We arrived in London at 8:40am their time 4:40am EST.
17 March, Sunday - Saint Patrick’s Day
Once we are off the plane, we go through a maze in Heathrow to get through customs (it’s called Border Patrol there). We didn’t board for Dublin until around 1pm so we went to the lounge (again- yay travel credit card!). After some time, we got lucky and acquired chairs and slept uncomfortably for about 2-4 hours. Weird thing about Heathrow, they don’t tell you your gate number until like ten minutes before you board. So people who would typically go to the airport and sit at the gate for two hours: watch out! You’ll have to find a random seat, eat, or shop instead. TONS of (pricey) shopping to do there.
We were given British Airways St. Patrick’s Day stickers before we took off. Once on the plane to Dublin, I read The Name of the Wind and Cori read her Ireland guidebook. When we landed in Ireland, we got our rental car and made our way to the Newpark Hotel in Kilkenny. Cori drove spectacularly, only hit one curb. Keith saw two rainbows which I could not see because I was driving. He managed to get a photo of the second one. We had dinner (I had Chicken Hibernia with a whiskey gravy and Cori had Fish and chips) and a couple of pints at the hotel bar. After that, we were exhausted from the lack of sleep and went to bed around 7pm. We slept for 16 hours and it was glorious.
18 March, Monday
We awoke at 11pm and missed free breakfast, but that was ok. We drove into Kilkenny downtown around 12:30pm and find our meal at Cafe Nostalgia. Cori has tea and a scone with clotted cream and jam. I had a full Irish breakfast with coffee. Everyone says how good the coffee is here, but I think it is actually just because they use espresso.
After brunch, we did the Smithwick’s brew tour with our tour guide Simon. This was our favorite thing in Kilkenny. He did a good job and there were a lot of fun videos that went with the tour. We learned the history of brewing at the site began with the St. Franciscan monks 700 years ago and that penal codes in the 1500s put a damper on things. In the early 1700s, the Smithwicks came from England and had to lease the land with a Protestant front man (Catholics couldn’t own land, let alone run a business). Finally in the 1800s, the repeal of the penal codes meant they could have their name on the brewery. The tasting included red ale, blonde ale, and pale ale. I had also grabbed an extra half pint of Kilkenny cream ale which they also brew. I got to talk to Simon and he said he’d been to three states in the USA: New York, Florida, and Texas. But he went to Austin which really isn’t like Texas. He said that the further we go west here, the thicker the accent gets... so we’re gonna be in trouble because Keith already can’t understand people. Simon was a cool dude.
From there we went to look at some old churches. We went to St. Canice Cathedral, the Black Abbey, and St. Mary’s Church. Eventually, the beer caught up to us and we had to use the bathroom so we to an outdoor type mall where the men’s room was being renovated so I went to the handicapped bathroom which had many more accommodations then our bathrooms. The ladies room was normal, not sure why we’re going into detail bathrooms.
We went to The Fields Bar to get food, but they had stopped serving food by then and we had drinks instead. I had a DB Dublin Lager and Cori had a half pint of Bulmers. I learned that half pints are a totally normal drink size and love it. It takes me approximately the same time to drink a half pint as it does for Keith to drink a full pint. From there we went for dinner at Kytellers Inn, a large bar that had multiple levels. It was named after the woman that owned the inn in the 1300s that had 4 husbands and acquired a fair amount of wealth. Of course, women cannot have money on their own and be independent so she was burned as witch. No she wasn’t, she escaped and her maid was burned in her place. I had Irish stew and Cori had bangers and mash.
After dinner, it was still relatively early but we were done for the day as we hadn’t adjusted to the time and many places were closed for the Bank Holiday. We went to a grocery store for snacks and 6 pack of beer and watched TV in the hotel. We watched quite a bit of this British show called The Chase. Cori also drove very well today and only hit one curb again.
19 March, Tuesday
We awoke around 9. We grab breakfast at the hotel, where they seat us but then when we went to the buffet they gave our table away. Breakfast was full Irish breakfast. It was ok. I’m a big fan of baked beans with breakfast though. Then we packed our things and checked out. We made our way first to Kilkenny Castle, home of the head honchos here in Kilkenny. There were a lot of portraits of dead people and a Victorian child’s room that was definitely haunted. Oh for sure. We then took pictures in the Rose Garden where Cori said she felt like an Irish Princess in the Rose Garden. There were no roses. This made Keith sad because he loves flowers.
We then made our way to Waterford. The drive only had about 6032 roundabouts (still none of which were as bad as the Towson Circle). Once we arrived at 1pm, we immediately went to a tour of Waterford Crystal and managed to exit through the most expensive gift shop without going bankrupt. The tour was led by a man named Sean who used to cut crystal for them. It was interesting learning the history of the brand and seeing the people make crystal firsthand. They do have what seems to be a much larger facility in Slovenia. Their attention to detail and the thorough process each piece goes through is incredible. If a piece ends up with even the slightest flaw, it is melted back down and never leaves the factory. We had lunch of special toasties (hot ham and cheese) at the cafe at Waterford Crystal then made our way to the hotel after stopping at Hibernian Gifts (where we didn’t get anything).
After leaving downtown, we checked into the The Viking Hotel, took a break, and watched a game show called The Tipping Point. This was basically a show that was like watching the quarter game at an arcade for thirty full minutes with trivia interspersed. It was a short break because not far from our hotel was The Waterford Greenway, hiking/biking trail along the River Suir. This reminded me of the NCR trail because it was a nice paved walking trail with great views. Cori’s main goal in coming here was a sunset picture. Apparently sunset pictures are not about the sun, they’re about the clouds. Keith got cold because he’s a man and “doesn’t need his coat.” There were also many cute doggos on the path. I think Sean (my brother, not the Waterford tour guide... Keith asked me to specify) would’ve liked it.
We then headed back to the hotel for dinner. Driving commenced for the day and once again Cori did great. No curbs hit.! We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant The Wooden Pestle. I had a burger and Cori had a pizza (they were nothing to write home about, although I guess I just did). I also had a Carlsberg and Cori an Appleman’s Cider. She had me pose for a picture upset since her beer was taller but they were both pints so I am suspicious if Cori understands volume. I also had a couple of Guinness’s. I do understand volume, it was funny and Keith is a spoilsport. Then it was time for bed for an early wake up to try to arrive at Blarney Castle first thing (it was almost two hours away).
20 March, Wednesday
We woke at 6:45am, grabbed breakfast from the hotel, and hit the road to Blarney. On the way, we grabbed gas (petrol) and they are much more trusting than America- you pump first, then pay inside. On the way, we passed through Copaquin and Lismore. I took pics while driving. It was very foggy at first, but once you hit certain elevations the way was very pretty. I especially loved this the first time this happened, we were in so much thick fog and when we came over a hill it was perfect sunny weather and green everywhere. It was beautiful.
We get to Blarney Castle around 9:45am. We made it to the top around 10:20am. I had kissed the stone before and decided I did not need to again, so I took pictures of Cori. She did it, even though she had her shoe come off when scooting back. The Blarney Stone was much further down than I thought it would be so I was a little nervous but I did it! The castle and grounds were very beautiful and I got some great pictures. We then made our way down and went to a cafe located in the old stables for tea and treats. (I had a scone, Cori had carrot cake). From there, we explored the castle’s Poison Garden which included a pot plant surrounded by a dome jungle gym. Then we exited through the gift shop, I got a hat and Cori got some earrings.
We made our way to Tralee for our next hotel stay. The ride had much more narrow country roads. We almost saw a battle between a driver and tractor dragging another tractor since they took up too much the road. The tractor was trying to get the regular car to move over more, and the car’s driver got out, fists at the ready. I think the tractor driver called the police and about ten minutes later the man in the car moved over enough for the tractor to get by. We arrived at The Rose hotel around 1:45pm. We learned this is the hotel that hosts The Rose of Tralee competition and it was very nice.
After a rest (aka I napped and Keith read- the concentration it takes to drive in Ireland as an American is no joke!) we walked to the Munster Bar for a few drinks and had some nice chats with the locals. Expect Rockshore Lager to replace Harp. We have not come across a bar that serves Harp on tap, Keith talked to the bartender about it and she said many Irish prefer Rockshore now. Around 6:45pm, the bartender took off and was replaced by the owner, John O’Sullivan. John was very cordial and sang us a song called The Streets of Baltimore as well as a song called Isle of Hope about the first girl from Ireland that went to Ellis island. I would say talking to John was one of the highlights of our trip so far as I write this. Agree- THE highlight so far! John’s singing to us as the lone customers in the bar was such a cool experience. He was also super conversational and switched between English for us and Gaelic for his regulars. The regulars get a kick out of our tractor story.
After a few more then we intended, we left and got dinner at the hotel bar around 8pm. Cori essentially had a tuna melt on brown soda bread with mashed potatoes and I had what they called a club sandwich with chicken, fried egg, and rashers. Then we went to the room for another early wake up the next day. No crazy British game shows on this late in the evening- but a lot of Big Bang Theory.
21 March, Thursday - Happy Birthday Kevin!!!
We woke up at 8:30am, got ourselves together, and had breakfast at the hotel. I had the Mini Rose, which was just a Irish breakfast without the puddings. Cori had fruit and a muffin. We had to be quick to get to our Ring Kerry tour, which would leave with or without us. We arrived with only a little confusion on where to park but that’s more on the tour company (essentially, they had us all back into a driveway). The tour guide John O’Neil (The King of the Ring) was very good, full of info, and very funny. John has done driving tours all over Ireland for 45 years now. He did strictly enforce the “no food or hot drinks” rule on the bus because a ”proper Irishman should sip drinks and eat food at a table.” He did, however, mention that sex, drugs, and rock and roll were ok.
Our first stop on the tour was the Kerry Bog Village. It was 5€ each to enter and was like a museum of what it was like to live in Kerry in the 1840s. They had Irish Coffee at the attached Inn. It was delicious and to my shame, my first whisky of the trip. I had a Baileys and coffee and it was delicious, thanks for asking. Just after the Bog Village, we stopped at a scenic point where a local was selling Brigid’s Crosses and I took a cute picture of his dog and donkey. After a few more stops for scenic pictures (the fog may have impeded some pictures), we had lunch at The Scarriff (No Death Star plans) Inn. I had Irish Stew and Cori had Fish and Chips. We split the bread pudding which is said to have no calories or fat. All was good except the pudding, which may have been good if it was warm. We got some things in the store. On a clear day, you can see Skellig Michael, which is where they filmed the recent Star Wars movies. It was not a clear day, so we could only see the closer islands.
We made our way to the rest of the tour, which included more photo stops. We saw some sheep being herded in the road by a border collie and farmer in a Toyota. Then we stopped at Moll’s Gap at a store/cafe called Avoca where we saw a weaving demonstrations with an old loom. We also went through the Kissing Tunnel, which supposedly makes your relationship last forever if you kiss under it. So we did, but John then told us that he and his wife kissed under it years ago and now they’ve been separated ten years. So like many other Irish stories and lore, we took that with a grain of salt. We also saw Ladies View, which is the overlook where Queen Victoria sent her ladies in waiting to see if the view of the Killarney Valley was worth her time. They determined it was a “view fit for a queen” and the overlook was named after them.
The tour concluded back in Killarney around 4:05pm. We were unfortunately delayed about 40 minutes in getting back to Tralee since the split the people parked front of us onto a different tour bus. If we had known it’d be that long we might’ve walked around Killarney a bit, but there was another car behind ours so we just sat and waited. The family in the car behind ours was from Wisconsin and also having a good time on a GVV trip. We then made our way back to Tralee.
We parked downtown and explored Tralee a bit. It was a nice little town, but you can tell they may light up big for the The Rose of Tralee and then it’s kind of off season. We went to a bar advertising great food, but the bartender told us they were done serving food for the day {at like 6pm). Cori was wiped from the long day so we got delivery sent to the hotel from Four Star Pizza. Of course, that came with a couple drinks from the bar downstairs. They advertised as being “just like New York pizza” but I’m not sure they’ve ever had any. It was still good and cheaper than hotel dinner. The only notable television was the a 90’s show called Father Ted. We then settled to bed since we had a relatively early morning again.
22 March, Friday
We woke up around 8am and packed our things, then ate breakfast (same as yesterday for me, Cori had fruit, eggs, and toast). By 9am we made our way to our next hotel, The Inn at Dromoland, which is close to the town of Newmarket on Fergus, about an hour and 45 min away from Tralee. I would say this was our first consistently rainy morning. All the other rain events we had ended pretty quickly or, as a young boy in a viral video would say, “it’s sprinkling.”
The hotel we are staying is on the grounds of Dromoland Castle, we went there first. The castle has a spa, where we booked a couples massage and facials. It was great. After the massage and facial, we were treated to the relaxation room, where we sat in warmed massage chairs and had fruit, chocolate, and tea. Definitely worth the 130€ each! We also learned the castle was a private residence up until ~60 years or so, now it is a hotel with 94 guest rooms. After our spa time we were shown around and decided to have lunch in the bar.
We then checked into our nearby hotel and relaxed a bit. After a bit more of The Chaser on TV, we made our way out to the Cliffs of Moher. It was about a hour drive with the only notable thing being that I drove it. It wasn’t that bad but definitely white knuckles for much of it. He did great! Luckily Cori agreed beforehand to do most to all of the driving. The main goal of the cliffs for Cori was sunset pictures, which I now know is all about the clouds. We went to visitor center first since we didn’t know how long we would be and didn’t want it to close on us before we got a magnet (we collect magnets on all of our trips). We took many pictures and just took in beauty of the cliffs. It was cold and windy, but no fog or rain. Since it rained all day, the clear evening at the cliffs was definitely lucky.
Then Cori drove back to the hotel for dinner at the hotel bar, Shannigans. We started with a sharing boards of meats and one of cheeses. They weren’t really much of “sharing” boards since Keith ate the pile of meats and I ate the cheeses. The pile of meats was a wide variety of animals and would’ve made Ron Swanson proud. Then Cori got some roasted gnocchi that I nibbled on. I then may have made sure my last night in my 20s was not a sober one.
23 March, Saturday - Happy Birthday Steven and Me!!!
Cori and I each had Irish breakfast with some additions or subtractions based on what we liked (you can get a good idea from previous days). Then we made our way to the Tullamore Dew Distillery which Kevin got us tickets to for my birthday. Luckily, it is on the way to Dublin where we are for the remainder of our trip. We stopped at a gas station where I got a Lucozade (an energy drink that has intrigued me for much of the trip). I would see it in bars and patrons would just order it on ice at pubs. I thought it would be like Gatorade bu it tasted somewhat like Sprite Remix and is very good.
We made it to Tullermore Dew around noon. We had a blast since the guide (Paul) said drinking a full tasting would put Cori over the legal limit, so I got to have a double tasting (Tullermore Dew the OG, The Bonded Warehouse Blend and the 12 Year Blend). Paul did a good job especially for a small group tour, which was us and a Russian couple.
We made our way to our Dublin Westin Hotel which Cori booked us separate from package so we could stay in a hotel in the downtown area. Cori got us a suite, it is a fancy room and it’s very nice. It is called a writers suite and is designed after a famous writer but we haven’t figured out who yet. We do also have a cute balcony where we can look out on Dublin. We then took a taxi to Guinness Storehouse.
At the Storehouse we were able to cut the line since we had the Dublin Pass, highly recommend it for this fact alone. It was extremely busy because it was Saturday, but we probably breezed by 100+ people and walked right in. The first order of business was to lunch, which was overdue, so we headed to the 5th floor, which is filled with places to eat. I had 3 oysters and a burger and we shared some Guinness bread and butter. Then we hit the Gravity Bar for our “free” beer. I had 1.5 pints and Cori had a half pint. There were beautiful views of the city, but it was packed. We then proceeded to the rest of the tour area. After some shopping in the store downstairs, we went back to the hotel to chill for a half hour because it was a long drive to get to Dublin. I needed a rest so I could rally.
The we wandered in the Temple Bar district on a Saturday night and decided I was now too old to wait in lines to go drink. It reminded us of a nicer, cleaner, Bourbon Street. So on the way back to the hotel, Cori found the Palace Bar which advertised itself as a whisky bar. I found them to be honest. After that, we retired to our suite where we fell asleep watching Die Another Day. All in all, it was a great way to spend my 30th birthday.
24 March, Sunday - Last day of non-travel
We strolled out of our hotel at 1030 after breakfast and started putting our Dublin Pass to work. First we hit the Hop On Hop Off bus stop near our hotel. I like using these buses around towns I am not familiar with because you get a lot of history and it takes you to all the key sights. We stopped first at Kilmainham Goal but found our tickets were not for the next tour but the next tour with availability (2+ hrs later) so next time book ahead to get the time you want. We never did make it back for our scheduled tour, there so much to do in Dublin.
Then we took the bus to Jameson Distillery. We passed St. Patrick’s but couldn’t go in because they were having mass. We also saw Phoenix Park and drove by the zoo, among other sights. Jameson was by far our favorite booze tour. It had very interactive displays with equal parts history, distilling, and tasting. I did the whole tasting and discovered I still don’t enjoy whiskey, but the tour and tasting were very cool. Another key note was the tasting compared Jameson to Johnnie Walker Black Label and Jack Daniels to taste the differences.
We got lunch at the restaurant attached. Cori had a tuna sandwich and I had a ham panini. We topped off lunch with some spirited coffees, then headed to Ned O’Shea’s for a pint. Keith told me a tale of some guy in Baltimore being part owner here, but I think he was told an Irish tale. The bartender said he knew the family that owned the bar personally and did not know of this mystery part owner. They also have a very fancy stained glass portrait of Martin O’Malley (former mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland) outside, which I found comical.
We went back to the bus for more sights in the north part of Dublin, then got let off in Temple Bar which is much calmer on a Sunday afternoon. We did some shopping and had pints (Cori had half pints) at The Auld Dubliner. After that, we made our way back to the hotel for dinner of wait for it... Chinese food from their equivalent of uber eats. Then we packed our bags to be ready for a very early morning of getting to the airport.
25 March - Travel day
We woke up at 6:00am (2:00am home time) to depart for the airport because a taxi driver warned us of traffic in the morning here in Dublin. We made to Heathrow with less trouble this time as we did it before. We went to the lounge as we had a two hour layover and they had free drinks and food. The 8 hour flight home was uneventful, we made use of the plane movies and had some pretty good plane food. We had a fabulous trip, did so many awesome things, and definitely see another trip to Ireland in our future!
General thoughts - driving
* I stopped mentioning Cori’s driving partway through this simply cause I didn’t feel like writing everyday that she did a great job.
* Left turns are like right turns and I tell myself this as I drive.
* I expected the roundabouts to be difficult but none of them equaled the difficulty level of the Towson Circle.
* Irish drivers are very polite and the use the “passing lane” rule which is really just a nice theory in the US.
* Rental cars they offer are very small. They will try to up-sell you to normal car size for like $20 a day. Unless you are very comfortable driving on the left, the small car is better. 110% agree with this. The tiny car was a blessing on narrow country roads.
* We brought a car phone charger with multiple USB ports, this was an excellent decision. Also used the phone for GPS- there is great data coverage all over the south part of Ireland.
General thoughts - other
* All the indoors are kept at a pretty high temp. Outside is chilly but that is refreshing compared to the very warm indoors.
* Ireland uses cash much more than we do.
* We really should adopt the 1 and 2 dollar coins. They are way better plus the bills size change by denomination is also great.
* Most bars you could buy just a bag chips, which is great.
* Full Irish Breakfast... Likes: Brown Bread, sausage, eggs, potato where avail. Black Pudding, although quality varies. Indifferent on: Irish bacon, White pudding. Dislike, mainly at breakfast: Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Beans.
* My biggest regret was not getting a haircut before coming here.
* The music they play here is either from the 90s or ABBA. Either way, I know all of the songs.