July 24 – 31
Jen and I did a trip to Ireland back in 2019 without the kids (thanks Papa and Yaya!) and really enjoyed it. Since it’s nearby and wouldn’t count against are Schengen day limits, we decided it would be fun to show it to the kids. We chose to largely go back to places we’d already been to minimize planning overhead and aimed for just a week.
3 nights in Galway
Galway is a great town. It was during their summer festival, so things were quite busy which means the pubs are even more fun and have even better music than usual. It’s also a great base to explore surrounding areas like the Connemara, The Cliffs of Moher and Ashford Castle. We made the most of our few days there and were quite busy during this part of the trip.
Some pub music:
When Jen and I were there a few years ago, we remember seeing the Irish School of Falconry while at Ashford Castle and were very curious about it. This time around, Jen booked us an hour long falconry walk and we surprised the kids with it. It was something… We spent an hour with our Harris Hawk named Maya walking through the woods and learning how to get her to fly around and come back to our gloves. It was a bit terrifying, but pretty fun and definitely a unique way to spend an hour.
The slow motion videos are super cool:
2 nights in Killarney
After lots of fun in Galway we headed down to Killarney for a couple of nights. We hadn’t previously gone to Killarney, so were interested to see what we’d find. It was a small town, but still lots of pubs. The best part is it’s proximity to Killarney National Park and the Ring of Kerry which is a drive around the Kerry peninsula which is incredibly beautiful.
2 nights in Dingle
Finally, we headed to Dingle which was a favorite on our last trip. It was a bit cold and rainy, but still a really cool town. And, we were able to take the kids to a sheep dog show which is really fun – you get to see how they actually use sheep dogs to move the sheep around. We had seen a hand written sign on the side of the road advertising shows last time we were there and stopped to check it out. We loved it. It was fun to see the same guy doing shows 5 years later and now has a whole online booking system and tour groups that come (last time it was us and 2 other people). He’s turned it into quite a business!
Sheep dogs in action:
A low key and fun trip!