So from my previous post you can see that we have put the cart before the horse and we booked our flight & the 2nd week of our travels, but we didn't lay out the plan for the rest of the trip.
What the hell were we thinking. Okay, to be honest what we were thinking was pretty awesome and the rest should just fall into place right. Well perhaps it would if we knew what the hell we were doing.
I have been put in charge of finding the accommodations for the remainder of the trip since Bettina found the airfare to get us there. Well that is good and bad depending on my friends and what they may have had in mind. Why you ask? Well you see I have this idealized vision of Ireland and what the trip should look like. As a result I refuse to look at any major hotel chain, or any hotel chain for that matter. I made the executive decision that we are going to stay 100% of the time at bed & breakfasts.
I just want to put a huge thank you out there in the universe to Rick Steves. Without his book I'm not sure where I would have stared. Thanks to him I was able to get the swing of things as far as what to look for and what is reasonable etc. As you read this I have no officially booked the remainder of our trip!!
We will be starting off at a nice looking B&B in Dublin called The Fitzwilliam Townhouse. It appear to be close to Trinity College & within walking distance to a great many things that are on our list of things to do. This is of course until the drinking starts, then I'm sure it will be more like a long ass walk that will never end as we get lost every 5 minutes...just sayin.
Next we will be going to Donegal for 1 night. This B&B is my friend's favorite choice. Again mind you that all I had to go by when booking was online reviews (which can be good & sometimes just terrible LOL) Anyway, in Donegal we will be staying at the Drumcorroy B&B. This is an actual working sheep farm! Now aside from the fear of stepping in sheep poo or hearing them bleet all night, it sounds kinda cool. I mean if you imagine Irleand don't you see sheep blocking the roads etc....well we're going to be spending a night at the source of the sheep blockades ha!
Luckily for 2 nights a friend will be putting us up as he lives near Belfast. Thank god a local who will be able to not only tell us where to go, but he can actually tell us how to get there. I'm looking forward to that, even if it means that someone might be sleeping on the floor or a couch etc.
After Dublin we will be moseying our way down the coast to a place called Kinsale. The B&B there is called the Ashgrove Guesthouse. Now online this place gets awesome reviews as far as the quality of the breakfasts...is the proprietor that gets mixed reviews. I have made i my mission to make her love us before we get there & I have been sickeningly cordial in each of my emails to her. Hopefully she will actually be looking forward to our arrival.
After Kinsale we are onto the cottage we booked (as mentioned in the prior blog post)
Finally our last place we will be staying is called the Tudor Lodge which is in Glendalough. You should look this one up online, its a very pretty looking B&B.
The one thing that I think I've enjoyed about setting up the trip for my friends is that I am now on a first name basis with most of the proprietors for the B&Bs we will be staying at. I have to say this is a much more personalized way to go and even if the accommodations suck, it is already 10x better than any hotel chain and the experience is way better!
I would totes suggest that b&bs are the way to go no matter where you plan to travel!
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