Ireland

September 29 - October 3, 2025

    Ireland was an incredibly relaxing destination to get away from the hectic US cities. Very affordable, relatively speaking, and since the primary language is English, it was easy for us Americans to navigate.

     We had originally reserved this time to take a family trip to Disneyland, but those plans fell through due to scheduling and financial conflicts. As it got closer to the time of the trip, we decided we still wanted to do something with this time off, so we explored some options. Looked into visiting the East coast, but that was still out of budget. Checked Scotland just for kicks, and while that too was just out of budget, I found all the flights had layovers in Dublin. So I checked prices just to Dublin, and lo and behold, we were in the budget.

     We booked a direct flight from Seattle to Dublin, and a return flight with a short layover in Minneapolis for two of us, for less than $300 after using airline miles. Rental car was also very affordable up front, but the insurance was another $500 or so when we picked it up for our 5 day trip. But it’s worth it. The roads are tight, and lined with shrubs or stone walls that will graze the car. We got by with only some shrubbery grazes, but our rental had very obviously met some walls and such in the past. And if you drive out into the county, the windy two-way dirt roads are barely one lane wide with seldom turnouts for cross traffic. While driving on the other side of the road (and the other side of the car) took some getting used to, driving was mostly a very comfortable experience as, in stark contrast to Washington, most of the people on the Irish roads actually know how to drive. If you’re not comfortable driving manual (or just not comfortable shifting with the other hand), book your rental vehicle well in advance, as there are few automatics available.

     Typically, we don't mind travelling to a major tourist destination for vacation, like Waikiki or Los Angeles. But in this case, we were feeling very burnt out and overwhelmed with life and the hustle and bustle of even our own (relatively) small city. So after we acquired our car, we skirted right around Dublin and headed out to the country. First stop, Ikea. Yes, Ikea. After a 10 hour flight, we decided to start with a short drive, on the opposite side of the road, to get acquainted with the driving and have some familiar food and a reliable bathroom situation. We accomplished these goals, but the Irish Ikea was busier than a US Costco near the Canadian border right before a major holiday.

     After this, somewhat shocking, introduction, we hopped on the highway and made our rainy two hour drive down to Tipperary, where we spent our first couple nights.

     Since we needed a more relaxed vacation, we intentionally only planned two specific objectives, leaving plenty of room for rest and spontaneity; visit a castle, and visit the Cliffs of Moher. For our first full day in Ireland, we visited the Blarney Castle. We also did less research than usual into each place we went so we could experience more in the moment. We had no idea the Blarney Castle was on such an enormous grounds. So we spent most of this day exploring the grounds, of course including touring the castle.

     We followed the conga line through the castle. We did NOT kiss the Blarney Stone - for several reasons, not the least of which was the sheer drop you had to hang over upside down to do it. We came across Blarney Manor, the grand residence of the property owners. We, carefully, explored the poison garden. And we spelunked a small cave under the castle.