I can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to finally travel to Ireland. I lived in England for a year and traveled to Scotland, Wales, and all over Europe, but for some reason, missed Ireland – until now.

We landed in Dublin, after an 8-hour direct flight from Seattle, and spent 2 days there exploring, before setting off to see some of the rest of the country via train, bus, and rental car. From the airport, there is a town bus that only costs $6 round trip to the city for a 30-minute ride – convenient and reasonably priced.

Ireland is known for their beer and whiskey, and with so many choices, we decided to go small first. Teeling Distillery offered a wonderful tour and tasting, steeped with history, on a side street in Dublin. We did go on a Jameson tour, but decided to visit the main facility in Midleton, just outside of Cork, instead of Dublin – and that was a great call.

We took a free walking tour on our first day there, which lasted about 3 hours. I love taking these tours in new cities, because it gives you an overall view of the city, with plenty of ideas of what to see next.

These are just some of the things that we saw on our walking tour…

We had lunch at the Temple bar and enjoyed some live music, and beef and Guinness stew at the Hairy Lemon, also with fantastic live music during dinner.

On our third morning in Ireland, we took a bus for about $10 to the town of Kilkenny, only 1.5 hours away. I really enjoy taking local buses and trains while traveling because that allows me to just soak up the scenery as we pass by and just enjoy the surroundings instead of worrying about the traffic.

Since we arrived in Kilkenny so early, we just dropped off our bags at our hotel and set off to wander around the town. We visited an Abbey, a brewery, a historic home with beautiful gardens, and the town castle and of course, had lunch in a local pub.

We finished the day with a lovely dinner at another local pub and had a nightcap at our hotel’s bar. The next morning we were back on a bus for 3 hours to the town of Cork. Once again, the scenery was mesmerizing as we drove along the Irish countryside.

We stayed in Cork for 2 days because it was a great location to visit a few things, like the Jameson Distillery in Midleton (only a 20-minute train ride) and Blarney Castle. Cork is a fairly large city, with plenty of shops and restaurants and we found a reasonably priced “B and B” right across from the train station. I put that in quotes because it wasn’t Bed and Breakfast, it was Bed and Bar (in the lobby) – lol.

We found another town bus to take us to Blarney Castle, only 20 minutes away and a few blocks walk from the bus stop. The castle and the grounds were beautiful, so we spent a few hours there.

After a few days in Cork, we picked up a rental car for a few days, so that we could see more on our trip to Galway. I wasn’t looking forward to the narrow, winding rural roads, or driving on the left-hand side of the road, but it was only for a few days – luckily we got full coverage insurance because we “lost” some of the side mirror on the passenger side of the car on our first day. Our first stop was Muckross House and gardens, which is a beautiful national park. We toured the historic home, walked the gardens, and took a “jaunting car” (horse and buggy) to the Abbey because, at that point, it was raining and windy.

From the National Park, we drove towards our destination for the night, which was a B and B (a real one) in the countryside town of Killorglin. The scenery along the way was stunning and we had Tapas and wine in a beautiful old restored church in town that night.

On the following morning, we headed towards our destination of the city of Galway, via Dingle and Doolin, with more gorgeous views along every curve.

Once we checked into our hostel – yes I said hostel – we dropped off the rental car and took trains and buses for the remainder of the trip. The Kinlay Hostel in Galway was fantastic! They do offer the traditional group rooms, with a shared bathroom, but we opted to pay a little more to get a room with two beds and our own bathroom. They had a beautiful gathering room, by the reception, and a large dining area and it included breakfast. We were also able to drop off a trashbag full of laundry in the morning and for only $10 someone washed, dried, and folded it all within 24 hours – quite the deal.

The evening that we arrived, we decided to see what day tours were available and chose the Cliffs of Moher for the following day. It was $50/pp and included an all-day tour with multiple stops and lunch. The driver, Gary was wonderful – Galway Sightseeing Tours.

The following day, we took another tour with the same company, this time to Connemara, Cong, and the Kylemore Abbey. These were all adorable small towns with winding streets, by the riverways.

After 3 days in the Galway area, we took a 2.5-hour train back to Dublin for our final few days. That included another walking tour, a pub tour, and Guinness. Yes, we saw a lot in our 12 days, but there’s a lot more to see on my next trip back!