In November I’ll be in Ireland all over the country. We will be touring Guinness as part of the package (as well as Waterford), but our time is self guided.
Suggestions for not to miss sights and beer establishments is appreciated.
Cliffs of moher was one of my favorite sites.
We are going to the Cliffs, Barney Castle and Bunratty Castle and late in the trip staying at Cabra Castle.
Bunratty is a cool castle. The pub next door was a disappointment. They had a live irish band (2 guys) but all they played were American covers. A little bit of a drive is Dingle Pennisula, that has a nice loop along the coast. The cliffs of Moher were spectacular and the Aillwee Caves were impressive, about 45 minutes north of the cliffs. We stopped on our way from Galway.
I was in Dublin for four days in November. TBH I found the beer selection underwhelming (caveat, this is a Belgian speaking). The microbrewery Porterhouse in Temple Bar was not too bad.
I thought the Guiness tour was underwhelming. I’m told the Jameson tour is the one to take.
Galway was a blast. Wandering from pub to pub, live music, only one crazed soccer hooligan and he was more of a danger to himself than anything.
I enjoyed visiting Trinity College and seeing the Book of Kells while we were in Dublin.
If you end up in Dingle, by all means go check out the Dingle Brewing Company - http://dinglebrewingcompany.com/
They make a fantastic lager, and the staff is amazingly friendly (like pretty much everyone else we ran into in Ireland!)
We stayed at the Benner’s and Dingle Brewing was less than 1/2 mile away. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out about it until we left.
We were there two years ago. It was a tremendous trip. In no particular order (well, actually the order in which they’re coming to mind), our highlights included:
The Irish Craft Beer Festival - not all that big, but then not massively overcrowded. One fun thing was meeting the Irish homebrewers. My wife is on the AHA Governing Committee, and at the time I was the president of our local club. Somehow the two of us talking to them got twisted into a message to their other members that “the President of the AHA is here!” It was a hilarious misunderstanding, and one guy asked for my autograph thinking I was Charlie Papazian.
My favorite beer was Metalman’s Irish Pale Ale. We got to meet their brewmaster. I don’t remember her name, but my wife was stoked that it was a woman.
We loved Galway. Galway Brewery has a beer named Hooker, named after the local fishing boat that has an upturned prow that looks like a fishing hook. My wife spent a lot of time trying to buy one of their T shirts that said “Call for a Hooker”.
We took a ferry out to the Aran Islands. They were very, very cool!
Visit a fairy ring, preferably with a local guide who can give you some history.
The tour at Guinness is middling. The visit to the bar is great. The tour at Jameson’s was a waste. The tour at Smithwick’s was great, but that location is now closed.
Non-beer: Cliffs of Moher, Rock of Cashel (sp?), and the bus tour of Dublin were all great.
You will have a great time! The Irish people were very receptive to Americans, and it was the easiest European country we have visited in terms of understanding how to do stuff and get around. Apart from being on the wrong side of the road. Roundabouts in the wrong direction are scary!
Never been to Ireland, but from my driving experiences in England, when a little grey haired granny blasts by you in the roundabout, it is time to get with the program!
If it is one with 7 roads coming in and you can’t see the one you want, just keep going around until you know your exit. My record was 2.5 times around.
When the roads get really narrow, get over as far as you can. Let the twigs hit the mirror. Slow down. The locals I’ll blast by like nothing happened. They have been doing that since their early diving years. The only angst is when you meet a beer truck on the narrow roads. You always say to yourself, when does the beer truck come through here?
Just watch out for those twigs because right behind them are a lot of stone walls, as my brother-in-law found out…bye bye mirror. I joked that the rental car place must have a storeroom in the back stocked with hundreds of mirrors.
And on several occasions during the week, I had to remind him to go left in the roundabout, not right. I think my next trip will have to be to Germany…they drive on the correct side of the road. 
Stone walls or hedgerows that have become dirt embankments.
Hopefully you’ll have a car. It is not an easy country to get around otherwise.
It’s been seven years, so the microbrewery thing hadn’t even started when I was there. The Guinness tour was skippable, although St. James’s Gate itself was cool. The Jameson tour was the fun one.
Doolin and Galway were favorite stops. Kells’ Priory stands out for being difficult to get to (without a car) and abandoned despite the popularity of the Book of Kells.
Yes, we will be driving.
Right now we are planning to start in Dublin and work our way around the country clockwise. We stay at B&Bs each night, but have not yet set those exact destinations for 7 of the 9 nights.
I thought for sure I’d be on the hook for a few hundred pounds after my drive through the Lake District, but apparently a few scratches are expected on rentals over there. I think I about destroyed the wheel covers scraping against the stone walls.
I bought the insurance which basically allows me to walk away should anything happen.
Same here, although I never get it when I rent in the US but it sounded like a good plan.
So Skellig Michael is out, they stop going there in October and the birds have flow a month or two earlier. Guess we will see that from the shore. Currently looking at something like:
Dublin
Kilkenny
Waterford
Cork
Dingle
Limerick
Doolin/Cliffs of Moher
Arran Islands
Kingscourt
With a million stops on the way.
Beermapping has an Ireland map:
http://beermapping.com/maps/maps.php?m=ireland#lat=undefined&lng=undefined&z=10
No Galway/Connemara?
It was many years ago (1993?), but I enjoyed Galway and Belfast. Dublin was WAAAY touristy and other stouts were honestly more tasty (Smithwicks and some others I’ve long forgotten). I didn’t get a chance to hit smaller areas. I’m looking forward to bringing the wife and kids there soon.
Cheers,
G.