This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item from that link I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you that in turns supports this blog. Thank you!

Planning a trip to Ireland?

It’s less that a week until we leave on our Ireland adventure and planning a trip to Ireland has been fun, full of lots of research, and map studying.

Planning a trip to Ireland, or anywhere else, for that matter is not easy. I would say if you absolutely hate doing any kind of trip planning, I would suggest a tour. Most times everything is layed out for you and all you have to do is show up with your passport and some funds and away you go.

In my case planning is half the fun of going on a trip. You have total control over what you do, when you want to do it, and how long you want to spend there.

This was a little different than planning a trip to Paris. Planning a trip to Ireland was different cause my European travel partner Renee and I really split the planning. When we went to Paris, it was totally my territory and doing the planning was great fun for me. Plus Renee was open to anything I wanted to do.

If you are planning an Ireland vacation, grab this vacation planner!

Ireland was a little different. We both wanted to go here and I am certainly no expert in Ireland travel. I know very little about the country other than it’s beautiful and it’s home to my favorite band, U2. Once we decided to go there, all my friends who had been there said I will love it and it may just become my favorite place taking over Paris’s spot (highly unlikely as I feel my soul is connected to Paris).

So I’m going to give you a rundown on our Ireland trip planning. I will try to remember the time frame. Only time will tell if we did things right. When I’m back home and can reflect on the trip, I will be able to update with plans that were spot on and things we could have done differently.

Select a date for your trip.

In this aspect I left us with little choice. I mentioned that U2 is my favorite band? Well when they announced the European leg of their 2018 Innocence and Experience Tour, I knew I had to see them in Dublin their home city. As far as we were concerned September or October would have been ideal to make the trip. When they finally announced their Dublin dates, it was in the beginning of November. Not ideal for doing outside tourist things, but OMG!! I could cross of a bucket list item seeing U2 in Ireland. Renee was so great about it and didn’t mind. At least it was not going to be hot! Once I got those coveted tickets for the first show (they are playing 4 Dublin shows), the rest of the planning began.

November may not be the best time to visit since the days are short and many things are shut down for the season, we are happy to just take advantage of the daylight we have and spend the nights taking in the local Irish Pub scene!

You may want to select your date based on flight prices or vacation time. Being a fairly temped climate, it does not get extremely cold like here in Wisconsin in winter. I hear it can be rainy, but heck it is Ireland after all. I expect rain!

Book your flight.

Once we decided on a date and how many days, I booked our flights. I did this 10 months in advance. You could wait and watch flight prices to see if you can get a better rate. This time we decided in order to save on flights, we would drive and park at OHare in Chicago and take a direct flight through Aer Lingus. I had heard great things about the airline. Both flights cost around $1500 total. Could we have snagged a cheaper flight? Probably, but we didn’t think a little over $700 each was too bad. Being that departure is at 9:30 pm, we can comfortably get to the airport, check in, and wait for our overnight flight to leave.

Next decide on a rough itinerary.

Ireland is a small country. Most likely you will want to see more than just Dublin. Ireland is very accessible by car if you feel you want to go that route, or you can either take separate tours, or public transportation to get around. We are choosing to rent a car and explore on our own. In order to book our accommodations we needed to come up with a rough itinerary. What places we wanted to make home bases to explore and how long to give each stop. This was hard to figure out as it all depends what you want to do and what areas are most important to you. Here you will want to make a list of things you really must see in Ireland. Do you want to see as many castles as you can?Do you want to visit Waterford and see all that beautiful crystal? You’re list will determine where you want to stay. This is where purchasing a guide book or going and searching things to do in Ireland comes in handy. I will list some resources that helped us in a bit.

We have 12 days total, with the first 3 spent in Dublin. We arrive on Saturday late morning and the concert is Monday night. I was concerned that we would have enough time to explore Dublin.

So we ended up breaking it down like this.

3 days in Dublin

One night in Kilkenny

2 nights in Dingle

3 nights in Galway

2 nights back in Dublin staying near the airport.

We choose to add on that Dublin time at the end because we really wanted to take a day trip up to Belfast and Giants Causeway to (hopefully) walk the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge in Northern Ireland.

Book accommodations.

This probably took the longest amount of time. Dingle was first and very easy. A friend had sent me an email about the Castlewood House in Dingle being one of the best budget accommodations in Ireland. I did some investigating and after reading reviews, checking out their website, and asking Renee’s opinion, that was the first place we booked.

Meanwhile Renee was looking at places to stay in Dublin. We didn’t want to stay right in the middle of everything, but wanted easy access by public transportation to the inner city. Based on reviews, location, and the fact that it was kinda like a castle, we decided on Clontarf Castle Hotel.

Next I found a quaint little B&B right on the river in Kilkenny called the Bridge View B&B. Since we will have a car parking was important and it’s located right in the city center and close to the castle and lots of shops. It also includes a full Irish Breakfast.

Next up was booking our accommodations near Galway. For this stay we looked into Airbnb. There were a few selections that met what we wanted. We went with quiet here and decided on a thatched cottage west of Galway and walking distance to a village called Spiddal. After reading the reviews and seeing the host was an Airbnb Superhost (and how can you resist a thatched roof cottage), this was the spot to make our home base for our 3 days near Galway.

For our last spot before returning home we booked the Clayton Dublin Airport Hotel. We decided to stay near the airport for the quick access, free 24/7 shuttle service to the airport.

Map our driving distance and time.

Last week I sat down and went into Google Maps and determined the driving distance and time from each location to the next location. Being from the US it’s hard to judge distance because Ireland is a small country. I think of driving cross country as taking days instead of hours. This will give you a bit of an idea how much time it takes and how much you will have left over. Now remember, Ireland is full of small narrow roads, so don’t think you will be able to sail from one destination to another at 65mph. Also allow for stops in between. You want to be flexible. There is lots to see!

I printed out each destination to destination route. Even though we will have GPS and I will have data, I still like to have a backup. I guess I’m still a fan of paper! I also purchased am Ireland map with landmarks. Yes, I get my kicks out of reading maps.

Book your rental car if doing that or your tours.

Renee took care of the rental car since she is doing all the driving in Ireland. We are spending our 3 days in Dublin without the car, then on the 4th day going to pick up our car at the airport before we set off on our road trip. She rented through Conn’s Ireland Car Rental. I can tell you she was very pleased with the booking and they answered her questions right away. There is quite a bit of information about car rental in Ireland out there. We ended up renting an automatic. Of course you pay more, but it may be worth it. I will let you know how the driving went. I’m sure we will have some funny stories to tell.

If you are just making one place as your home base and using either public transportation or booking tours for the side trips, now is the time to take care of that. Even if you are taking public transportation, I would prepare and make sure you can get to a destination through public transportation. If you are booking tours, I would take care of this right away. In high season, you may have a hard time if you wait too long.

Fine tune your itinerary.

I’ve seen some people map our their whole itinerary. What places they want to eat, exact places to visit, and time frames for each activity. I say WOW! If you need to be that organized, I give you credit.

What we did was we got together a few weeks before departure and wrote down places, restaurants, pubs of interest, places that looked interesting on a list underneath each home base. For instance, in Dingle instead of driving the Ring Of Kerry, we are going for the Dingle Loop instead. In Dublin, a must is Kilmainham Gaol and the Avoca Suffork Street store for those beautiful Irish woven items.

What we did in Paris was each night, I sat down and planned out the next days itinerary. I suspect we will do the same thing. We will probably take the advice of the locals for things to do. I hear the Irish are so wonderful and ready to give advice.

Also, since Dublin is home to U2, my dream has been to see all the U2 sights, so I arranged to take a U2 Taxi Tour with a local fan in Dublin who does this when fans from around the world come to town. This was suggested to me in May when I was in Chicago seeing the band on tour. We had a fan meet-up and I met my friend Dahna who made suggestions. Since the band will be in Dublin for their home shows, there will be fans from all over the world in town. Thanks to social media and many U2 fan groups, you get to know these fellow fans online. To meet these people in person is so much fun. You have a special bond with these people. There are a ton of meet-ups for fans during the week. I am already getting messages from friends that are already there. This is a once in a lifetime thing to meet all these people!

Packing time.

Lastly is the dreaded packing. Really, packing isn’t much of a daunting task anymore. I like to pack light with wash and wear items. I always bring a little bottle of laundry detergent with me in case I need to wash things out. I will pack 1 pair of jeans, wear one pair on the plane, pack one pair of leggings, 2 tunic type tops (1 black, 1 off white), one gray long cardigan sweater, one longer length black open cardigan, a denim shirt, one plain white tee shirt, A lightweight long sleeved purple sweater, 2 silk undershirts for warmth, one pair of silk underwear for under pants, a zipped fleece sweatshirt, and a rain jacket. Plus 3 pair of wool socks, 3 scarves, a pair of knee high comfy boots. Oh and 2 U2 concert tees and I’m wearing a concert sweatshirt on the plane.

Other than clothes, you need all the electronics and chargers. I’m taking my camera, phone, Ipad, and wireless noise cancelling headphones that I just bought. I absolutely love these!! Click on the pic to find out more!

Don’t forget your power converters. For data on my phone, I purchased a pre loaded SIM card from Cellhire that I will just load into my IPhone when we land in Dublin. I also take along a luggage scale. I have been known to go overweight after I buy things to bring home. I’m always thankful I have my scale in my luggage. Why take a chance only to find out you are over the weight limit at the airport!

Here are some resources to help plan your trip

Ireland Family Vacations

The Ireland Travel Tips Facebook Group

Here are some items that are going along with me to Ireland

These Cobb Hill boots are expensive, and it was almost painful to spend so much, but since I sold lots of unworn things in my closet, I socked away the money for them.  Talk about comfy right out of the box! I feel shoes are the most important thing when you travel if you do lots of walking. I spent countless hours looking for just the right shoe for hiking and to wear with everything. The lug sole will be perfect for walking all kinds of terrain. I sprayed mine with 3 coats of waterproofing. I have worn these numerous times and never once have they bothered my feet. I went with Cobb Hill for my shoes when I went to Paris and was so happy with them.

Thanks for reading. I hope I helped answer some questions about planning a trip to Ireland. I can’t wait to share my Ireland adventures with you! To follow along this week be sure you follow me on all my social networks. I will be sharing lots of pictures and hopefully videos!!

And as always…

Go explore! The world is waiting

Lori