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Ireland, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Andaman Islands. 2012 clean-up by Matthew at Live and Let’s Fly lifted me off my tuckus to do my own 2012 spring cleaning, starting with Ireland.
Readers have requested that I be a bit more systematic in a term that I loathe, ‘trip reports.’ I am supposed to do trip reports for work, and this blog is hobby, so I prefer the affectation of ‘travelogue.’
I will provide more detail, starting each with an overview of the planning, and will run one trip at a time, the past I confused things by mixing past and present. I am experimenting with the trip mapping feature of go pro travelling, so far I cannot get the maps to embed on the strict confines of WordPress/Boarding Area, reader suggestions welcome. Not going to be reviewing flights or hotels, not my thing.
When: November 30-December 3, 2012
Who:
- Friends Rick and Deb
- Me
Where:
- Republic of Ireland: Dublin, Brú na Bóinne
- Northern Ireland: Giant’s Causeway, Bushmills, Londonderry/Derry
Transport:
- Air: Delta JFK-DUB via ATL (lunch with friends) roundtrip
- Land: National Car Rental, serviced by EuropCar (tip: I have a Diners Club card that covers rental in Ireland and had the hard copy policy terms, otherwise I would have been nailed with a massive insurance charge, most US-issued credit cards exclude Ireland and not many alternatives to avoid paying up; if you have a card that provides coverage, be sure to bring the policy documents or letter of coverage)
Sleep:
- Crockatinney Guest House, Ballycastle, Northern Ireland
- Hilton Dublin Airport
Itinerary:
- Day 1:
- Overnight flight to Dublin
- Day 2:
- 6 am arrive Dublin
- 8 am Pick up Rick and Deb at The Shelbourne Dublin, A Renaissance Hotel
- 10 am first group into UNESCO-listed Brú na Bóinne
- 4 pm arrive UNESCO-listed Giant’s Causeway
- Overnight in Ballycastle
- Day 3:
- 8 am Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
- 10 am Giant’s Causeway with some daylight
- Bushmills Distillery and lunch
- 2pm Dunluce Castle
- 3 pm National Trust-listed Downhill Demesne and Hezlett House
- 5 pm swing through heavily raining Londonderry/Derry
- Back to Dublin, drop off Rick and Deb
- Overnight at Hilton Dublin Airport
- Day 4:
- Early flight from Dublin
All aboard, the RTC Paddy-wagon!
Readers, anything I’ve left out? I did not include costs, to confess I didn’t keep the best records, and most of the information is publicly available and subject to personal preferences.
See Part 2 for Brú na Bóinne, Part 3 for Giant’s Causeway and Part 4 for the Causeway Coast.
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I love the PaddyWagon picture.
Curious to hear your thoughts on cost of vacationing in Ireland / value for money etc – promise I won’t be biased / offended 😉
@Quickroute – airfares from US are often good, it being off-season I found accommodation quite reasonable, other expenses I did not have any more or less lump in my throat than I have in other countries in the region. Entrance tickets really sting, so a place like Dunluce Castle I walked around outside, and clambered to the cave below, but did not go into the main castle.
Went to Ireland April 2012 and will be a place for return. We found Dingle the best for its beauty and quiet feel. That is where we will return too. Visited Dublin, Galway, Dingle and Cork with several towns in between. I will continue to wait on part 2. Thanks
Thank you for not doing hotel or restaurant – I’m more interested in the sightseeing aspect. Could you also share with your readers whether or not you would recommend whatever activity you did? Maybe a thumbs up or down?
Yay! Thanks for posting this. I love your rapid trip reports, and I feel like I haven’t read about the logistics of your trips in a while.
Citi Thank You preferred provides Ireland car insurance as well. Luckily, I got one before our trip with a 50,000 sign up bonus.
@PatMike – spoiler alert! I thought I was clever for catching that and was going going to do in an upcoming post, I have been wondering wondering if that is an oversight because Citi never touts it in their advertising, I wish there was no fx fee on that and the Diners Club. Have you needed a separate letter from Citi at rental in Ireland or are the terms enough? For europcar it took a little convincing that by DC not excluding Ireland then it was covering Ireland.
@PatMike – I put the post up here, it is a cool, little-known benefit, thanks for bringing it up, forced me to get the post out soon, I had been carrying those terms with me for a few weeks meaning to put it up and finally pairing with Ireland made sense. @Kay – been crushed with work lately, those are a labor of love and I put in too much of both, I am glad that you enjoy them. @Sheila – will do, I will put pics and my take in the subsequent posts. Many of the sights have ticket… Read more »