Going with the Garcias

The following day in Ireland we were in Killarney National Park, which was stunning. I honestly wish we knew how beautiful it was because we would have rearranged our schedule and spent an extra day here. During our time there, we visited Ross Castle and drove around the Ring of Kerry. I honest don’t remember much about Ross Castle, as the Ring of Kerry was the highlight of that day. As you drive around the peninsula you see breathtaking sites – our favorite was the Cliffs of Kerry. We stumbled upon them by accident, but it was one of our favorite parts of the trip. I think it’s actually private property because when you drive up, you have to pay to walk up to the cliffs. That may seem normal to most travelers, but this location did not have a welcome center and felt as if it were a “mom and pop” running the ticket booth. As you walk up to the cliffs, the wind was like nothing we had seen before. (Check out the photo Thomas took of my hair standing straight up.) The wind could easily take your breath away, but it was exhilarating and added to the beauty of the cliffs. After enjoying the scenery for the day, we drove into Limerick to get a head start for the next day.

On day 5, we visited Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, which boast as “the most complete and authentic castle in Ireland.” It did seem pretty complete and did offer a great look into what medieval life would have been like. If you’re traveling with kids, or just want a stop with “everything,” this is a great one to add to your list! The park really has something for all ages, and you could easily spend a day here. At lunch we did leave as we crammed many things into our trip and set off to see the Cliffs of Moher. As we drove closer, the sunny skies turned into pea soup. There were signs saying visibility at the cliffs were nonexistent, but did we listen? No. We paid the entrance fee and saw fog – fog so thick, you could barely see five yards in front of you. We waited, hoping the weather would turn and the wind would roll the fog away. It didn’t. We were disappointed to say the least. To try to recover from our disappointment, we set out for Kylemore Abbey. Our sadness was soon gone as we looked upon the Victorian rooms and luscious gardens run by Benedictine nuns. (We originally saw a picture of this place on our PC screensaver. Once we saw it, we knew we needed to visit it.) It is quite a drive, but it’s worth it! It looks like something from a fairy tale.

The next day of our journey was spent mostly in the car driving across the top section of Ireland heading towards Belfast, which is where we’d end our trip. Along with way, we saw many green fields with sheep, which were a great view for the trip. We also stopped at Giant’s Causeway and saw unique hexagon-ish rock formations. We learned these were formed from volcanic activity, but local legend says a giant named Finn McCool (great name, right?) created a causeway to get across the sea to face his Scottish rival, Benandonner. After the meeting, Benandonner ripped up the causeway as he fled back to Scotland. (I wonder how the Scotts feel about this story.) We then finished the drive when we arrived in Belfast (part of the U.K., not the Republic of Ireland) and walked around the city taking in all of the architecture.

We spent a total of six days in Ireland and really packed it all in. Knowing what we know now, we would have adjusted our itinerary and spend an extra day in Killarney National Park and wouldn’t have made the drive to Belfast. We would have slowed down and only toured the around the Republic of Ireland, as it seemed to have more sites that spoke to us.

If you’re planning a trip to Ireland, check our travel spreadsheet here. There’s information on what we did on what day, how much we spent on the trip, and all of the various places that we found that we thought about visiting as we were planning the trip.