What to do in IRELAND??? - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**The Sasquatch** · 12-17-2007, 03:55 AM

Ok, so, I've got these two friends, a couple, who are heading to Ireland in like a week and I don't think they have any idea what they're gonna do. I think they have between 10-14 days there. I told them I would try to figure something out for them, but I've never been, and have never had that much interest in the country so I have NO IDEA. I figured here would be my best bet. The best thing for them would probly be a quick tour, like a week or so, but would any tours be starting during the christmas/new years season? I don't even know what's there for them to see. All i really know of are the cliffs of moher(which look amazing) and like, blarney castle and the blarney stone. I think they'd be most interested in castles and stuff of that nature. anybody help me out with this? i tried to do a bit of a search, but its like 6am and i can't be arsed. i'm gonna go look for a lonely planet for them tomorrow, but was hopin to get some first hand knowledge here. cheers, wally

**MeTurk** · 12-17-2007, 04:48 AM

Quote:

Ok, so, I've got these two friends, a couple, who are heading to Ireland in like a week and I don't think they have any idea what they're gonna do.

Drinkin' is the national past time, as a nation we have a serious drinking problem but if your just passing through it's great fun to watch.

entertainment.ie has lists of all kinds of gigs throughout Ireland.

Slaine castle would be a good one to visit, it's where all the big bands play and it's a working castle but I don't know if they do tours. Achill Islands, Galway, the Burren, Bunratty castle, newgrange, are all worth a look.

SGRHewitt · 12-17-2007, 05:18 AM

I got to stay in Kilarney for a couple of days. Really neat small town, with a castle(can't remember what its called), and an old monastery that is out on an island. We had some old man boat us out to it and it was really neat. Definitely the cleanest city I've ever been in.

**mbo108** · 12-17-2007, 06:36 AM

When we went to Ireland in 2005 we booke a tour throughout the countryside from our hostel. Basically our hostel had a million different flyers for all the possible bus/train/self-drive tours and we asked the people working the desk on their opinions, did 15 minutes of online research and chose the one that came out looking best. I believe it was the Shamrocker tour. I know you can book them online thru Hostelworld.com (Sorry Tony).

**The Sasquatch** · 12-17-2007, 05:34 PM

turk - they will def. have no problem with the drinking, but i'm worried that if i don't sorta figure out something for them to do, drinking is ALL they will do.

and mbo, yeah, the shamrocker looks perfect but i don't think they have any tours during xmas. i can't find any tours leaving then really. well, theres one actual xmas tour, but it leaves before they arrive.

**BigE** · 12-17-2007, 05:40 PM

Forget tours. Tell them to rent a car or bikes or hitchhike and go from village to village. Best place to find people is at the village pub. Cork is a good city to visit.

**The Sasquatch** · 12-18-2007, 12:50 AM

i don't know if they would get much done renting a car. They don't even know what they wanna see there i don't think. she's just wanted to go to ireland since i met her. I'm only thinking tour because they have such limited time that this will be the only way to get to see a few things.

**MeTurk** · 12-18-2007, 07:23 AM

Well if she had a car she'd be able to go where ever she wanted as she'd be no more than 4 hours away from anywhere in the country, 2 weeks is allot of time when you look at it that way. She could easily fit in a few days of sight seeing then relax for the rest of the time in a place they take a fancy to.

**worldwidemike** · 12-18-2007, 09:30 AM

The Rock of Cashel...a town built on a huge rocky hill is supposed to be cool. I did Trim castle -- the one they used in the filming of Braveheart -- and it wasn't bad. I also did Glendalough, with its Dark Age/Medieval monastic ruins. There's also a hike in the Glendalough area that wasn't bad...you can check out the stuff I did, of course, on my website (link is in my signature). As for Cashel, here's a link:

http://www.bamjam.net/Ireland/Cashel.html

Oh, I agree on steering them to the Cliffs of Moher. I hear there is a village nearby that you can stay in, and hike back and forth along the cliffs to the famous spot.

worldwidemike

**The Sasquatch** · 12-20-2007, 09:33 PM

Meturk - Wow, guess i never really realised how compact ireland is. Being from central canada, i have to drive hours to get anywhere.

mike - yeah, was reading about cashel. seems pretty interesting. so does the castle. dunno if they're into hiking or not.

anyway, bought them a guidebook and told them that i would probly rent a car if it was me so we'll see how they turn out. definitely don't want to plan out an itinerary for them or anything because that would take all the fun out of it. but now that they have an idea of things to see (moher, cashel, kilkenny, etc) hopefully they figure something out and get out there, don't just sit for two weeks in dublin.

**MeTurk** · 12-21-2007, 02:32 AM

Just tell them to drive to a town (any town) and ask a local what to do. They'll find all kinds of weird stuff that way.

If they want to do something different they could go hunting for fairies. That's what older people call our ghosts and ghouls, well they won't call say there names directly and usually have some name like the lads or the queer folk (I know this is all sounding very gay but that's genuinely what they are called in Ireland). It can be quite scary if you hear the storeys first hand off a local and then go to a fairy ring which could be thousands of years old. There's a few of those all over the country in small towns and all have storeys of people being cursed and killed for disturbing the ring.

Search for Irish fairies there's a good bit of info out there.

**worldwidemike** · 12-23-2007, 02:58 AM

My Mom's side of the family is Irish. My aunt claimed well into her adulthood that she had a "little man" that only she could see, but who she could talk to...

worldwidemike

**The Sasquatch** · 12-23-2007, 11:43 PM

Wow, now I have another reason to go to ireland, the fairies. hahaha, actually sounds quite interesting. wonder how long some of the same legends have been around?

**lost in texas** · 12-24-2007, 08:07 AM

They have a lot of that stuff in Scotland too. I went to one place like that with the circles, and special places where people leave gifts for the fairies... cool stuff. They also warned us not to take anything away or we'd be cursed.