Ireland on the road

After last year's fantastic on-the-road experience in the States, this year we decided on another "fly and drive", staying a little closer to home and opting for Ireland, where we had already been in 2007 but limited ourselves to Dublin, promising ourselves to return for a more "in-depth" tour... and here we are!

I won't dwell on every single day of the trip, leaving room for the pictures... I'll just leave a few tips and impressions that I hope may be useful to anyone wanting to take a trip to Ireland.

The first thing that comes to mind is: THANK GOD FOR THE GPS!! Oh yes, because without a sat nav I think we would have had great difficulty and would certainly have wasted a lot of time looking for the places of interest, let me explain better...

First of all, of course, you have to take into account driving on the left, which already, especially in the first days, gave my husband big problems that then, as time went on, eased with practice (fortunately); if to this problem we had also had to add finding the roads, I think we would still be going round some roundabout...:-) Road signs in Ireland are very good if you stick to the larger towns near the motorways; as for the smaller towns, though (which for us were the most numerous...), the signs are practically non-existent and, above all, their main and "ordinary" roads are roads that back home could almost be considered country lanes bordering on "off-road"... so if you don't fancy wasting time over maps and directions from passers-by (when you find any...), get yourself a sat nav... at the end of the holiday you'll thank it!!.... one more thing...

I'd advise writing down, before you leave, the GPS coordinates of the places you want to visit, because they make it even easier and quicker to find spots that often don't have a proper address.

Climate and temperatures: As you know, the climate in Ireland, as in the United Kingdom, is characterised by almost daily rain... out of 14 days of holiday I think it only didn't rain for 3 days.... the rest was a succession of alternating rain and sun, though fortunately with rare downpours that could limit visits to places; so it's essential to have a k-way, if possible with a hood, while I'd avoid an umbrella because in the end you never use it... I had brought one but only used it in the last days in Dublin, where, despite the alternating rain and sun, when it rained they were real downpours!! As for temperatures, it's enough to know that when it was warm we wore a T-shirt and a sweatshirt.... the ideal is, as many say,....

layering!! And, if you feel the cold, take something heavy because, even though it was July, in some places I had my sleeveless down jacket over a sweatshirt and k-way!!

Accommodation: we opted for almost all bed & breakfasts because as value for money they're unbeatable and then, staying in them, you get to breathe the true Irish air and put yourself in their shoes! I organised everything by myself online before leaving because I preferred to be sure of the accommodation and not have to waste time looking for it, but I think that, given the number of bed & breakfasts, it isn't hard to find vacancies even "as you go"...!!

I'll tell the rest with the pictures and I can only wish everyone a good trip!!