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Galway was my favorite part of my Ireland trip. Here's my favorite pic.
Galway_Bay.jpg (37.2 KB, 61 downloads) 2 years old 
I spent 5 months in N.I. and loved it. It's not as pretty for the most part up there but the history is amazing.
With the Republic, I would recommend taking a Paddywagon tour around the south. Your room and admission fees are included and the tour guide is from the Republic and will take you into the littler known pubs as well as teach you all the amazing pub songs. The tours can be picked based on all the things you want to see. I would recommend Clomacnoise which is a old old monastry that houses the original stone celtic crosses.
What pictures would you like? I have Clomacnoise, the Cliffs of Mohr (I sprained my ankle on the steps there), Galway, Dublin, and a lot from the North.
The Ring of Beara is my fav part of Ireland, I have lots of family so have been there many many times. Its off the beaten path and not a lot of tourists go there, thats why I love it. Hope you enjoy the pics!
The Ring of Kerry was one of my favorite sites. It starts/ends in Killarney so you may already have it on your list but there are a bunch of attractions along the route.
The Waterford Crystal factory was another one of my favorite places. It was so interesting to see how much skill and time goes into each of those pieces. If your into whiskey the Jameson plant was very interesting and I remember all the adults getting huge samples of everything at the end :)
I was only 11 when I was there and it was with my swim team, so a lot of my time was spent in the pool with sight seeing inbetween practice and meets. I remember that we also had a medieval dinner in a castle one of your last nights there, but I forget where it was. I wish I would could remember because that was something that you def don't get to do everyday...to be wine and dined in a real castle.
LOVE Ireland!! You are so lucky to take your honeymoon there! I truly loved every place I went so I can't think of where NOT to go. Love Wicklow Mountains, the coast, Dublin....everywhere! Have fun planning :-)
I was born in Dublin and lived there for 9 years. I got to do some touristy stuff a few years ago when hubby and I visited family there.
I LOVED Newgrange, I've been there several times and its just so cool!!
I'd recommend a bus tour of Dublin City. Also, try to go to Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced Jail). It's where they held political prisoners after the 1916 rising. The Guinness and Jameson Factories in Dublin are pretty cool. I personally liked the old Guinness factory better but the new one is ok too. Are you a drinker? At the start of the tour of the Jameson Factory they ask for volunteers, raise your hand!! If they pick you you get to do a tasting of several different whiskeys at the end of the tour and they give you a "Jameson Certified Whisky Taster" certificate). I haven't been to the Aran Islands but I really want to check them out!
I know you said you aren't interested in NI but I got to go to Belfast a few years ago and it was amazing. My aunt's BIL is from there and he drove us around to see all the different neighborhoods and I took some great pictures of murals.
I'll PM you with a link to my pictures, and feel free to PM me with any questions!
Go to Killarney! You'll have the BEST time! The Towers hotel is great & it's an easy walk to just about everything.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Dublin if it's just the 2 of you. Great for shopping and museums & stuff but most of the pubs are full of students & tourists. It'd be awesome for NYE or with a big group of people, but not if it's just the 2 of you. Def. go to Kilmainham like DaisyBride said. I'll admit the Guinness factory is a lot of fun too.
My FI proposed at Ashford Castle in Cong (Co. Mayo) - but we only stayed for 1 night since it's nearly 590euro a night!! They do have special deals & packages at lower rates but there's also places you can stay in town & the hotel grounds are open to the public so you can just walk around the property. In my opinion it's without a doubt the most gorgeous castle in Ireland (and I thought that even before we got engaged - hah) and it's probably one of the most amazing places I've ever been to. http://www.ashford.ie
I've only been in the north once so take this with a grain of salt. We stayed in Derry. Seeing the Bloody Sunday memorial and all of the murals was a great experience but personally I'd never go back. The place was on lock-down before we even ate dinner and the shops were closed with metal gates - it reminded me of the south Bronx. We bought a calling card at a local corner store & the guy said most people drink in the hotel bars because it's not really great to go venturing out at night. We found an american pub called "Bound for Boston" and were fine, but it was a bit eerie - there weren't many people walking around after dark.
I have family in Wexford & Waterford, my parents go every year - I'm obv. not going this year - saving $$ for the wedding - let me know if you want info about that area too. I can go on forever but other board members would prolly get bored. LOL
Feel free to PM me too.
Here's some picts we took last time we were there (Feb. 09)
Killarney:
Kilmainham:
Ashford Catle (from the gardens)
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Eeeee! Yay pictures! Man, I can't get over how beautiful Ireland is! All that rain must be worth it, haha. I'd love to look at any and all of the pics you have, including Northern Ireland (which I'm not including for the h-moon mainly in the interest of time). I don't have a great sense of the geography other than what google maps can show. And yes, I am stalking the entire country via sattelite. Obsessed? Nah.
Thanks for the tips, I'm definitely adding them to the list for consideration! How nerdy is it that I want to visit some cities simply because they have Quidditch teams in Rowling's books? :P
If you want more pics PM me with your email addy, I have 2 trips worth on my computer right now!
We went to Ireland for our honeymoon and loved it so much we went back for our one year anniversary! For our honeymoon we spent two nights in Dublin, then spent about a week driving down through Waterford, Cork, the peninsulas (Dingle was AWESOME) and up to Galway, then back to Dublin. We felt like we didn't get enough Dublin, so we stayed just there for about a week when we went back, with a day trip to Howth.
Stay at B&Bs, tell them you're honeymooning-Irish people will go out of their way to make you feel welcome! And eat the full Irish breakfast. The white/black pudding is full of stuff you don't want to know about it but I looooved them. And we ended up just having a Guinness for lunch most days because we were so full from breakfast. Money saver!
The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin was amazing. They had so many beautiful, antique books, including some of the oldest versions of various religious texts. It's totally underrated. It's also great if you want to see an illuminated text but don't want to stand in line/pay for the Book of Kells at Trinity (we skipped it).
If you're a fan of craft beer, go to the Porterhouse Pub-we were there for a meal of some sort nearly every day.
A lot of people like Temple Bar, we were just not that into it. There are plenty of great pubs to be found elsewhere that aren't packed with masses of tourists.
Howth is a LOVELY place, and it's just a 15-20 minute rail ride away. If we ever move to Ireland, that's the place for us.
We visited Dingle during the May bank holiday and were treated to parades through the streets and a super fun festival. We also found out there's a people-loving dolphin that comes out to greet boat riders, so we walked out to an area where you could see it happen, and we watched that-it was a lot of fun. You can get on a boat ride, too.
We went on a lot of whiskey/beer tours-the most remarkable one was John Locke, somewhere on the way between Galway and Dublin. We also called ahead and got to stop by and meet the owners of a tinytinytiny brewery called Galway Hooker.
Take the Skellig rock boat trip. It's an amazing experience. You'll ride out for about 30 minutes in this little boat, then hike up to the top of this crazy rock island. I was about 99.999% sure I'd fall off a cliff and die the whole time, but I am so glad we did it. You can do that off the Iveragh Peninsula if I remember right. Wear good shoes and be prepared to get wet and/or lose anything that's not physically attached to you.
Here are photos from our honeymoon: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12698507@N08/sets/72157607012932254/
Photos from our anniversary: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12698507@N08/sets/72157621008857283/
Minutiae - you just made my mother very happy. Our trip in Feb was the 1st one without my family (we went with a group of FI's friends & fam). I've been meaning to upload picts to an online album & I've never gotten around to it. I'm at work now (shhhhh! don't tell. I can work and wedbee at the same time! LOL) When I get home I'll put it all together and send you a link. ;)
P.S - it doesn't really rain hard that much. It kind of spritz's more and is very damp.
Oh yea, a note about the weather. It's cold! It's always windy and damp so make sure you pack lots of warm clothes. SOmehow the wind makes it seem like 10 degrees colder than it actually is so keep that in mind if you check the weather forcast before you go.
The cliffs of Moher are well worth it! The Rock of Cashel is also worth a look -- and I agree about the Ring of Kerry, I'd plan to spend a couple of days there. The walks around Muckross House and Torc Waterfall are really beautiful.
We took a boat out to Holy Island on Lough Derg (our cottage was on Lough Derg) -- it was really amazing.
Dublin is brilliant. If you go to see the Book of Kells, try to go on a student guided tour of Trinity College -- it's only €1 more than the Book of Kells entry only, and you get a student guiding you all over Trinity and explaining its history and architecture to you. It was brilliant, and you get Book of Kells entry too.
What time of year are you going? My favorite part was Doolin. At first I really didn't understand why we were going. We were going to stop there for the night and then move on. We stayed for 3 nights/4 days! lol. First thing, we pull into the hostel and we hear a commotion... a herd of cows is being herded down the street! It's a small town at the bottom of the cliffs of moher so we went to the water front to see "giant" (I've since seen bigger) waves crashing on all the rocks. The sun is setting in front, silhouetting the cliffs, waves crashing in... and then SPLASH! DOLPHINS, literally 30 feet away from us playing in the waves. Gus O'Conners pub there is a blast and we met an irish family on their way home from their sons hurling tourney... yes, hurling. The invited us to stay at their 300 year old Irish farmhouse that's been in their family that whole time. The night we got there we stayed up learning irish songs from them and then in morning had a proper irish breakfast. When they ran out of milk, James (the cutest little irish man ever!) put on his boots, grabbed a pail, and milked a cow!
If you can get into rural ireland it's gorgeous! Doolin I hear gets really crowded during high season... but I loved that place! We also camped somewhere in the middle of nowhere southern tip of the ring of Kerry. We made a driftwood fire and then were awoken by 2 little kittens, "wiskey and bailey" trying to climb our tent, lol. We did blarney which was nice but not the highlight. The morning after we camped we stumbled onto some old castle ruins... in a field. I kid you not, we were able to go walk through it as no one was around and it wasn't fenced.. it was just this giant old castle ruin, in a small town. We did a lot of stuff that wasn't necessarily "tourist." I think we got the same if not better experience while we were there.
Unfortunately, my camera kept dying on me and almost all my ireland pics are film. Here's some of my faves from doolin that made it digitally.
we took a bike ride up the cliffs with the actual site of the cliffs of moher being our destination. This was as high as we got and it's not even half way. It took us 45 min to do this and we made it down in 8! Where the waves are crashing is Doolin below.
And, just because it's the only other digital image I have... Blarney :-)
Sorry, i get carried away when talking about Ireland. It's magical.
Killarney is my favorite 'city.' My MOH lived for a time in Dublin and my aunts been there many times. Neither would rec it as a place to go.
Be aware though if you rent a car the majority are standard and they drive opposite of us. So, the shifter is on your left! You need to make sure you ask for an automatic or they'll assume a standard. Also, gas stations can be hard to find especially while doing the ring of kerry. keep a full tank!
If you are religious and/or Catholic the Shrine to our Lady of Knock is pretty cool.
Thanks for all the pictures and advice, it's been SO helpful!
@KLP: Wow, the water looks gorgeous! We'll probably go at the end of May through June, though it's hard to say at this point. Standard US vacation time in other words!
We went to London, Liverpool and various parts of Ireland for our 16-day honeymoon. LOVED Ireland. I wouldn't recommend spend more than two days or so in Dublin (we found it a little too touristy) because the countryside and villages are just soo great and nothing like home. Have fun!!
Hi folks - I live in Ireland now although I'm from Connecticut. If anyone wants info let me know. I'll upload a couple pics here of places I've been recently - very partial to Galway and Donegal. The pics are from Dun Aengus on Inis Mor in the Aran Islands and from Carrick A Rede in Antrim. The Aran Islands are so beautiful. I also spent some time in Kilkenny over this past summer and really enjoyed it.
Dublin has a lot to offer but it's a lot like any other European city - it's only one piece of Ireland so defintely make the effort to get out of the city and to stop in some of the smaller, off the beaten track towns and villages. It is well worth it.
Dun_Aengus_Aran_Islands.JPG (24.5 KB, 31 downloads) 2 years old Carrick_A_Rede_Antrim.jpg (20.1 KB, 28 downloads) 2 years old 
Ireland is cold! We were there in mid march (over St. Patrick's day) and slept with a heating blanket. We fley into Shannon and stayed in Galway at a B&B. There were so many B&Bs in the neighborhood but it was not a touristy area. Our host told us her bank told her to open a B&B to pay off her mortgage once her kids moved out. We had a rental car and drove up the coast stopping along the way to explore castles and take photos freely. We went on a pub crawl in the local main street where there were between 4 and 6 small pubs to celebrate my friend's 21st birthday. I remember a live band, a pub with a thatch roof and friendly locals. We took a day trip to Dublin and found that was enough. I heard the Guniess tour in Dublin is fun but we were looking for more of a relaxing country holiday than anything else and it was perfect. I highly recommend renting a car as long as you cna drive a stick on the other side of the road.
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Ireland is my dream vacation destination. And also where I'll most likely be going for my honeymoon. For those of you who have been there or live(d) there, what are your favorite parts of the country (the Republic of Ireland, that is; I doubt we'll go into N.I.)?
So far, the must-see destinations are Galway and the Aran Isles, Killarney, cliffs of Moher, Dublin, Newgrange, aaannd...some other places I can't remember the names of at the moment, haha. I'm not interested in the Giant's Causeway or Blarney Castle.
What are some of the can't-miss castles, B&Bs, and pubs to hit up while in the country? Any great festivals or museums that you know of?
Also, if you have pictures, I will Love. You. Forever. More than is probably healthy.