My First Trip Outside of the United States – To England and Ireland, AWAY!

In 2017 I finally bit the bullet and planned my first trip to London and the Republic of Ireland. I decided to go at a cheap, but not coldest, time of the year. After deliberation with travel partner, we chose to do the last week of March in London and the first week of April in Ireland. Right over Easter break. Our final itinerary looked like this:

March 26: Fly from Boston to London Heathrow airport by way of Dublin
I was bound and determined that the first stamp in my passport be an Irish stamp, and so when I found a flight that had a layover in Dublin, I couldn’t resist! This did mean however that I would never get a British stamp, but I was ok with that.

March 30: Take a tour bus to Stonehenge and spend the night in Bath
When I originally booked the flights, I booked it with the idea of going to Cardiff to check out the Dr. Who exhibit, and fly out of Bristol. I didn’t realize that they closed the exhibit in September 2017! Luckily, as I was planning the daily details of the trip in late 2017, I caught it, and instead booked an Airbnb for us in Bath instead of Cardiff. It turned out that getting to Bristol from Bath was closer and much easier to get to than Cardiff.

March 31: Fly from Bristol to Dublin
I planned for us to take the Air Decker bus from Bath to Bristol early that morning to catch a noon flight. I booked a rental car at the Dublin airport to drive us into town. Easy peasy!

April 2: Drive from Dublin to Galway
Leave Dublin at about 10 am and arrive in Galway about 1 pm. Had tentative plans to meet a friend for lunch.

April 5: Drive from Galway to the Dingle Peninsula by way of Adare and Blennerville
Originally I planned for us to stop in Limerick on our way to Dingle, but at the advice of a co-worker, went to Adare instead. Blennerville ended up being the next break point before arriving in Dingle.

April 7: Drive from Dingle to Cork by way of Inch Beach and Killarney
This drive actually takes you along some fairly narrow backroads for a bit, but on a nice day and minimal traffic to contend with, it’s a nice drive.

April 8: Drive from Cork to Dublin by way of Waterford
My bucket list of places included the House of Waterford Crystal, so a stop was in order.

April 9: Fly back to Boston
Drive from our Airbnb to Dublin airport after a stop for coffee and a stroll at St. Stephen’s Greene.

So, that was the quick and dirty look at how I got around, but I bet you’re wondering what was on the list of places to see and things to do, right? Well, I put together the following list and asked my travel partner to look it over. I was determined to maximize the trip, but knew we wouldn’t get to everything. So, I marked what were must sees for me and agreed we’d hit the others if time/energy permitted (in bold):

London

Big Ben /Parliament House
Palace of Westminster
Westminster Abbey & Bridge
The TARDIS at Earl’s Court Station (really just a blue police box, but still…)
The London Underground (The Tube)
The Coca-Cola London Eye*
Great Scotland Yard*
10 Downing Street*
Trafalgar Square*
Leicester Square*
Piccadilly Circus*
Monument to the Great Fire of London*
Canary Wharf
Tower Bridge
The Tower of London
Leadenhall Market
The Shard
Sherlock Holmes’ House
Speedys* (restaurant showcased on BBC’s Sherlock)
30 St. Mary Axe (also known as The Gherkin)
Salesforce Tower†
Borough Market**
The Globe Tavern*
The Brown Cow Restaurant
Southwark Cathedral* (also known as the Cathedral Church of St. Saviour and St. Mary Overie)
St. Paul’s Cathedral*
Coppa Club Restaurant††
Hays Galleria and The Navigators installation
King’s Cross Station
- Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter) – go early, the lines get ridiculously long!
The Who Shop*
Covent Garden*
I Knit London* (Yarn Store that I wanted to check out and meet London knitters)

* Places that were on the list but we didn’t get to or could only drive by on the city Big Bus
** Walked through at night when they were closed
† Formerly Heron Tower. It houses the largest fish tank in Europe. Unfortunately, if you don’t have business with Salesforce, you will be turned away.
†† Tried to eat there, but they were completely booked out that night. Make reservations or get there early! And dress stylish, they can be a bit snooty if you aren’t…

Cardiff (changed to Bath)

Stonehenge (in Salisbury, was on the way to Bath)
- Option 1: bus tour, round trip from London (go to Bath and hop off there)
- Option 2: Take a train from London to Salisbury Station and pick up a shuttle bus to Stonehenge then take the train to Cardiff
Doctor Who Experience [Closed September 2017]
Cardiff Castle
The Roman Baths
The Jane Austen Centre*
The Bath Cathedral**

* Didn’t get to because of timing
** Only walked by, since it’s in the same square as the Baths

Dublin

The Guinness Storehouse
Grafton Street
Temple Bar
Book of Kells
Trinity College Library
Dublin Castle†
Jameson Distillery†
Ha’ppeny Bridge
St. Patricks Cathedral†
Queen of Tarts†
St. Stephen’s Green
Famine Memorial
Samuel Beckett Bridge
Sean O’Casey Bridge
O’Connell Monument
The Legal Eagle Pub
Teeling Whiskey Company†
Gallaghers Boxty House†
The Brazen Head†

† Wasn’t a must see, just if we had time

Galway

Latin Quarter (shopping district with some of the best pubs in Galway)
McSwiggans Restaurant & Cafe Bar
Salmon Weir Bridge
Spanish Arch
Kirwans Lane
Tig Choili
The Dail Restaurant and Pub
The King’s Head Restaurant and Pub†
John Keogh’s – The Lock Keeper
Gourmet Tart Company
Leenane Village
Clifden††
Inishnee††
Kylemore Abbey
Dungaire Castle†††
Ailwee Cave (missed the Birds of Prey exhibit)
Cliffs of Moher
The Burren
Doolin
Limerick††

†† Wasn’t a must see, just if we had time
††† Part of the bus tour, we only drove past

Dingle

Blennerville Windmill Visitor Center
Murphy’s Pub
Murphy’s Ice Cream†
Dick Mack’s Pub†
Neligan’s
Bean in Dingle
Clogher Strand
Coumeenoole Beach
The Blasket Centre
Slea Head Viewing Point
Ceann Sraithe (viewing point for Ceann Sibel, one of the filming locations for Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Hold a Baby Lamb Sheep Farm and Beehive Huts
Paidi O’ Se’s Pub
The Dingle Whiskey Distillery†
O’Sullivan Courthouse Pub
Reel of Dingle Fish†
Inch Beach

† Short on time, didn’t make it to these places, but they are all highly rated and I’ll be checking them out when I go back!

Killarney

The Shire Restaurant
Aran Sweater Market
Granda Charlie’s Auld Sweet Shop
Celtic Whiskey Bar & Larder†
Ring of Kerry (recommended but not necessary)

† Short on time, chose to eat at The Shire instead. Gimmicky restaurant, good for pictures… food wasn’t that good.

Cork

Holy Smoke
Mutton Lane†
Cafe Serendipity

† I was recovering from food poisoning, so didn’t end up going.

Waterford

House of Waterford Crystal
Fallons of Kilcullen†

† Wasn’t a must see, just if we had time.

And there you have it. My list of things to see and do while I was overseas. It is by no means an exhaustive list, unless of course you try to hit everything, but it was a good start and helped me narrow down what places to stay at to be close by. There are some places we ate at or grabbed a quick snack at that aren’t on here. I’ll talk more about all of these places in other blog posts, so stay tuned!