Stay in a castle, not Dublin, on your first day in Ireland

Don't stay in Dublin when you land in Ireland. Instead, drive just one hour and spend your first night in a castle in the beautiful Irish countryside! I think it's a much better way to start your trip. Cities are stressful, even more so when you&

Glendalough & the Wicklow Mountains. The easiest day trip from Dublin.

Why Glendalough Is The Easiest (and maybe best) Day Tour From Dublin You can leave Trinity College and be in the Wicklow mountains 45 minutes later. You're not spending hours on a coach on a motorway. This makes it the easiest day trip from Dublin. It's

Temple Bar Alternatives. Six Better Places Than Temple Bar

Six Better Places to Drink Than Temple Bar What Is Temple Bar Anyway? It's the Times Square of Dublin with bars full of tourists paying extortionate prices to hear worn-out musicians singing Galway Girl for the 10th time today. Dubliners never go to Temple Bar. Ever. Is

Forget Kinsale. Stay in a castle in this waterfront Cork village instead.

Castletownshend in Cork Imagine driving down a hill so steep that you wonder how the horses pulled carts up it. And at the end of this hill is a beautiful little harbour. And overlooking this waterfront setting is the castle where you'll spend the night. And there'

How to avoid the crowds at the Giant's Causeway

One million people a year visit the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. It's one of only four UNESCO World Heritage sites on our island and is the most accessible one, which means crowds. The Giant's Causeway is worthy of the UNESCO honour, but hordes

My Review of The Phoenix Lounge in Dublin Airport

Dublin Airport have knocked it out of the park with their new Phoenix Lounge in Terminal 1. T1 is the older terminal in Dublin Airport and often feels like it. The previous, dated & dark T1 lounge was not great at all, so all DUB regulars were excited to hear

Cliffs of Moher walking tour. Only 2% of visitors see the cliffs this way.

The Cliffs of Moher is one of the most visited attractions in Ireland. It's busy, very busy. 1.5 million people come to look at them & you end up with more people than cliffs in your photos. So I went a different way. I walked from Doolin

A Day On Inis Oírr. My favourite Aran Island for a day trip.

I just spent a beautiful, sunny day on Inis Oírr in the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. It's an easy day trip to combine with a cruise under the Cliffs of Moher and will be on a lot of visitors itineraries. It can be a

The Best Whiskey Distillery Tours in Dublin (I've Been to Every Single One)

If I asked you how old the oldest distillery in Dublin was, you might have said 1815, but no, it's 2015. That's right, the oldest working distillery in Dublin is 11 years old! You'll learn things like this and taste a lot of excellent

My Irish Whiskey Museum Review

My Review of The Irish Whiskey Museum Verdict: My expectations were low for the Irish Whiskey Museum in Dublin. It's not a distillery after all, but I am happy to report that I did enjoy it. It was a lighthearted, but educational, look at how whiskey came to

A superb B&B with its own holy spring water well near the Cliffs of Moher

Sometimes you do a lot of research on where to stay, agonise over reviews, location and amenities before deciding on your accommodation. It wasn't the case when I had the good fortune to discover Waters Country House. I just needed a place to stay tomorrow and given the

What’s the best way to see the Cliffs of Moher? There’s 3 ways. I tried them all over two days.

The Cliffs of Moher are a 9 mile long wall of limestone that drop at ninety degrees into the churning Atlantic beneath them. There's no gradual decline here, just sheer flat faces as far as the eye can see. That's what makes these cliffs the most