castle at cliffs of moher ireland
 

Where to Travel in Ireland

If you’ve read any of my other posts, you know by now how much of a passion I have for travel. My love of travel started young, so I always knew that finding a way to live abroad would be on my bucket list. When I went to college I decided to study abroad, and when it came time to decide where to go, I wanted to focus on English-speaking countries. London has always been my favorite city in the world, but as I had already visited a few times before, I decided to pick a spot not too far from there - Dublin.

As a city girl in Boston at the time I was surprised by just how much I grew to love the rolling hills of the Irish countryside and stunning cliffside towns. The nightlife and cafes in Dublin weren’t too bad either. Having lived in Ireland, I have a long list of places to go, eat, and drink, shared here in my ultimate guide to Ireland. The country is relatively small, so it’s easy to see different parts of the country in one trip. I’ve broken it down into a few of the must-sees below to help you decide where to travel in Ireland.

DUBLIN

GALWAY + THe ARAN ISLANDS

GLENDALOUGH + THE WICKLOW MOUNTAINS

SOUTHERN IRELAND

NORTHERN IRELAND


temple bar in dublin red building

DUBLIN

Dublin is a welcoming and relatively small city. If you stay downtown, you will find you can walk to most places. The bus is also relatively easy to figure out and navigate. Walking around the local parks and pubs is the best way to get a feel for the city, and the best scenery it has to offer. Here are some other suggestions.

My favorite bars and pubs in Dublin

Best places to eat in Dublin

Dublin is also where my love of European cafes began. Here are a few of my favorite cafes I’ve been to in Dublin:

Top things to do in Dublin

Day Trips from Dublin

Dublin is a small city and you don’t need more than a few days to see the major highlights. Two easy day trips from Dublin are Howth and Bray. You can grab a regional DART train to head to both in just about an hour for a low cost.

In Bray, we did a walk/hike from Bray to Greystone, another small town. The path goes along a gorgeous coastline and we saw quite a few rainbows along the way as well.

Howth also has great paths and is a fishing town, so naturally, fish and chips is a big thing there. As someone who was not a big fan of fish at the time, I was amazed by how much I liked it. There are a string of spots to grab the dish along the coastline in Howth. There are also a lot of great hiking paths and viewpoints here as well. You can also take a boat out to see the seals and local birds, which is a great way to spend a sunny day.

Galway

Galway is a relatively small city on the West coast of Ireland. The first time I went we started the day at McDonagh’s, a famous fish and chips restaurant. After getting some food, we headed out in search of Claddagh rings. The Claddagh ring is an Irish symbol of love and originated in Galway more than 300 years ago. The ring features the symbols of a heart, hands, and a crown, representing love, friendship, and loyalty. They were often passed down in families on the bride’s wedding day. Today they are still popular in Ireland as a form of engagement ring or a wedding band. As they have become an international trend, the crown facing inward has come to represent that the wearer is not in love, while the crown facing outward means the wearer is in love, or in a relationship. I bought mine there almost ten years ago and still wear it every day.

This is a great coastal city to spend a weekend just walking around and enjoying the local pubs and food. It’s also close to a lot of other great destinations in the country.

Aran Islands

The Aran Islands are three very small islands off the west coast of Ireland. The island we went to, Inis Mor, is the largest one, although it is only about 14 km by 4 km with a population of around 900 people.

We stayed for one night at a hostel, and rented bikes for the day so we could see as much of the island as possible. We began our ride along the coastline, stopping to take pictures of ruins, cows, horses, and every other farm animal. We stopped at the beaches, which were clear and bright blue, something I didn’t expect to see in Ireland. We continued on the gorgeous path until we arrived at our destination, Dun Aonghasa, a prehistoric fort high up on a hill with an amazing view of the cliffs.

We hiked our way to the top to see the fort and an absolutely breathtaking view of the island and the cliffs. It was so beautiful and surreal to stand there and be in such a beautiful landscape.

The Aran Islands trip was probably one of the top things I did while living in Ireland. It’s a bit off the beaten path but absolutely beautiful and quintessentially Ireland.

Glendalough and Wicklow Mountains National Park

The Wicklow Mountains National Park and Glendalough, a monastic settlement founded in the 6th century, are must-sees in Ireland. We went on a bus tour there and the route covered the locations where many popular films based in Ireland have been shot, such as PS I Love You and Braveheart.                                         

One of the most amazing stops we made was by Guinness Lake. This lake sits on the property owned by the Guinness family and their huge estate. From the top of a hill, we were able to see all around for miles and had some stunning views.                             

In Glendalough, after walking around the area, we decided to take the path to the lower and upper lakes. When we arrived at the lake, we were greeted by yet another stunning view of the mountains and ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking and the sights were truly amazing.

Southern Ireland Tour

For a comprehensive tour of southern Ireland, I did the Shamrocker Southern Rocker three-day tour. Our first stop was the Rock of Cashel, a former castle, which we briefly visited in the pouring rain. After this very quick stop, we were off to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. The story of the stone is that when the king’s son was about to die, his son’s wife revealed she was some sort of magical creature that could heal him only by taking him away forever. His father agreed, and as a gift he got a stone that he would converse with every night instead of his son. Somewhere along the way, this story translated that if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you get the ‘gift of the gab.’ Kissing the stone requires you to lie down and bend over backward while holding two side bars and dangling hundreds of feet above the ground. There was someone to assist and the process was so fast that you didn’t even think about the fact that if you dropped, you might get hurt.                                                                                                          

After the Blarney stone, we were off to the town of Killarney, where we spent the night. It was a very quaint Irish town and had an amazing park you could walk through with cows grazing right in front of you. Later that night we went to a pub to hear Pa the storyteller.

The next day we went to the Dingle Peninsula. I was very excited to go here as our tour guide told us it has been called one of the most beautiful places in the world. We went to Coumeenole Beach, which was absolutely stunning. I am so amazed how the water here is turquoise. It looks like a tropical island but sure doesn’t feel like it. Legend has it that if you stick your feet in the water at this beach, you leave part of your soul and have to return in the next 20 years to collect it back. That night we stayed in Ennis, a small town in County Clare.

Our last day was the most anticipated part of the trip, the Cliffs of Moher. While the cliffs were amazing, I think the ones I saw in the Aran Islands were just as amazing, if not better. The Cliffs of Moher aren’t even the highest cliffs in Ireland, but they have become the biggest tourist attraction and best-known ones.

Our final stop on the tour was the Burren. This is an amazing landscape of limestone that was created after a glacier crossed over the island thousands of years ago and is actually created from animal and plant debris. Due to its unique nature, it can harvest a wide variety of plants, from Mediterranean ones to Arctic ones, and some of the plants are strictly indigenous to that area. This trip goes to show just how much of the country’s beauty you can see in three days!

Northern Ireland

I went on a day trip to Northern Ireland to see the Carrick a Rede Bridge, Giant’s Causeway, and Belfast. Even though it is physically connected to Ireland, Northern Ireland is technically a part of Britain.

Our first stop was the Carrick a Rede bridge. This bridge is made of rope and goes to a tiny island that was believed to be a salmon fisherman’s island hundreds of years ago. The bridge was short but very rickety, so it’s a little scary to cross, but also really fun.

After that we were off to the main event: Giant’s Causeway. Legend has it that hundreds of years ago a giant named Finn McCool built the causeway as a bridge to Scotland. It also could have been formed from a volcanic eruption, but I’ll let you decide which you believe.

It was really unlike anything I had ever seen and was really cool that it has such perfect shapes created naturally. Even though it started raining and got really cold and a little scary to walk across, I’m glad I got the chance to see it.

Our final stop of the day was Belfast, where we had just about an hour to walk around and explore. They had a Christmas market going on so I decided to get some cash and experience the market. I got 10 pounds out of the bank and got a waffle, hot chocolate, and a box of candy, which used up all the money.

There’s no shortage of places to visit when seeing Ireland, and it’s easy to fit the whole country into one trip. You can also use Dublin as a hub for day trips, and book through sites like Viator and Get Your Guide. Pick and chose as you see fit to plan your ultimate trip to Ireland!