First Time Trip to Northern Ireland
Ireland
|
Jul 15 - Jul 23, 2026
We have an awesome time in Ireland. It was our first tune and Adrian did a fabulous job putting the trip together. All of our drivers were great - they were timely and knowledgeable. We had Agnes, David , Lukas and Peter (I think.. the one who took us to Derry) - if I missed a driver it’s not intentional - they were all very good. We loved rhe Carrick - Rede - Rope bridge. It was scary but doable😂, the Giant Causeway was a fun hike with great views.
Derry was our favorite city. The people were friendly, the city felt very safe to walk around at night. My husband made friends with the locals in a couple of pubs and my daughter and I loved the mall next to the Starbucks in the center of town. We did the walking tour and learned a lot about Bloody Sunday and got a feel for the politics and tension in Northern Ireland. It was very educational for everyone and especially for my daughter who is 17 and knew nothing of that part of Ireland’s history.
The Titanic Museum was amazing. Note: my husband’s great uncle was the violin player (Hartley) on the Titanic. His violin was also featured in the museum.
We enjoyed all the cities and got so many souvenirs that we had to buy another piece of luggage. Derry being our favorite city does not minimize the other beautiful locations to note - The Castle at Waterford, Kilkinney Castle, the Tombs, the waves on the coast at the Giant Causeway.
The accommodations were very good.
We were happy to have the apartment type spaces. We were happy to have the higher end accommodations for comfort. The Celtic Show in the last night was fun and a good farewell to Ireland… we were all sad to be leaving. This itinerary covered a lot of ground for a 1st time visitor.
We would definitely book with Adrian again. Next time we want to go back to Derry and then to Scotland.
Hotel Reviews
Beautiful property. The rooms were high end and very comfortable for a long stay.
Location was excellent. The apartment was well decorated and comfortable furniture. For some reason the bedroom doors had an automatic spring which forced them closed. So, the bedroom doors would slam shut. Usually this is only see n in industrial buildings. Nonetheless.. we would stay there again!
Very nice hotel.. unfortunately Ireland was having a heat wave and the room was very hot. But, the hotel had 1 portable fan.
Interestingly this hotel was very nice, new and modern! The staff was ok.. not terribly friendly like the other locations. They weren’t rude but just not helpful. No explanation about how the doors worked with the keys so when we got stuck in the hallway not knowing to push the green button to open the doo.. the staff was annoyed that had to call them. Another example, the sheets provided for the pull out bed were not clean. I took them downstairs and politely asked for new sheets. The woman took the sheets, didn’t say a word and said that someone would bring me clean sheets. I said thank you and she mumbled a response like “no problem”. Like I said, not rude but distinctly different than the other experiences that we had. It didn’t take away from our trip but probably not a place that we would stay again.
Activity Reviews
Highly recommend! Gives a great history of the city.
