This is gonna be hard to write. Where to start? I love Ireland and everything about it. I was lucky enough to go earlier this year in March. I’m ready to go back. Hopefully in the fall of 2010, maybe October or November.

Here is my tentative plan: I’d like to stay in the village of Doolin. I stopped there on a daytrip with Railtours Ireland. The tour was great. Our guide was Liam, and he embodied everything imaginable in an Irish host. Friendly, full of stories, and always making sure the group was having a good time. I would highly recommend Railtours Ireland to anyone. They offer day trips, which we could do on our visit, but they also offer overnight trips. But back to Doolin…….Doolin seemed like a nice little village with new cottages for rent. There are several pubs in the village, along with a few shops. I don’t think we made it through the entire village, but what I saw was very quaint and peaceful. Just what I’m looking for in a vacation. But the real draw for me was the proximity to the Cliffs of Moher. I was only able to spend a few hours there on the tour, but I would love to spend much more time. It is so incredible. I’d like to take thousands of photos at all times of the day.
I’ll admit, Doolin is not a huge tourist stop. There is traffic because of the Cliffs, but I don’t think there is much to do there. Except ride a bike through the country side, look at the ocean, and relax in a pub. Sounds good, no?
Of course, there are other things I’d like to do, and if some of you want to hit the big city of Dublin, we can definitely do that! Ireland is about the size of Indiana, so going by train across country is easy and inexpensive. It’s about a 3 hour trip. Another good thing about traveling by train, you can sit back and enjoy the countryside passing you by, while enjoying a drink or two!
I’m very interested in visiting castle and church ruins and old cemeteries, but there are a few other things I’d like to see while we’re there:
The Dingle Peninsula
Bantry House
This crazy rope bridge in Norther Ireland
There are really so many things to do and see. I can’t decide which ones are on the top of my list, but these are just some of them.
There was recently an article in Budget Travel about real pubs in Ireland. I think we should try to hit a few of them. (This would probably mean hiring a car.) They also featured a few castles to stay in. The castles are expensive! But maybe we could just visit a few of them, because they are so beautiful. Here are a few of those links:
Ballinalacken Castle Hotel
Ballynahinch Castle Hotel
Markree Castle
So let me know what you think, especially about setting up camp in a cottage in a little village. I think it would be cozy and fun, as long as we can find one with enough rooms. :)

As for cost, it all depends on what we do. I think going in the off season will help with the price of a cottage for a week, especially if it’s split between 5 or 6 people. I would suggest we fly Aer Lingus, only because I flew to Dublin on that airline, and it was so much better than the flight I had back on United or American or whatever crappy plane it was. I don’t know the best time of the week to fly, so if anyone knows any tricks to get lower airfare, let me know, so I can do accurate research. We would need to pick up groceries to cook at the cottage, but I would expect we would go out also. Let’s hope the exchange rate moves to favor the dollar!

This is all very basic, so please make suggestions and let me know what I am forgetting! We should try to get some dates figured out so we can all get it on our calendars and start making reservations!

Slainte!