Ireland

Ireland | Jun 14 - Jun 19, 2026

We started looking on the internet at some tours to Ireland but they all didn’t seem right. We recently went to Costa Rica and used KimKim travel company to plan it. So, we contacted them and they put us in contact with Adrian who is their Ireland consultant. We told him basically who we were and what we wanted and the time frame for our journey. After several back and forths by email and a couple of video calls, he came up with version 3.5 which appeared to be our ideal setup for this vacation and as it turned out it was.
We made our own airplane reservations with Aer Lingus and the whole process was easy. They included one checked bag in the price which was better than a similar United flight and the flights in both directions were essentially on time. I say essentially because the flight back to Dulles Airport landed twenty minutes early. One of the perks of flying to and out of Dublin, a tip Adrian gave us, is that you go through US passport control and customs in Ireland so when you land after the long flight you can just go and get your bags and leave.
Upon arrival our driver was there awaiting us and texted on WhatsApp exactly where he would be. We had a nice ride to our Dublin home, the Ashling Hotel. While it wasn’t right in the center of town, it was in a nice area that wasn’t congested and was only a ten to fifteen-minute taxi or FreeNow ride in traffic to the center of the city. When we arrived, our room wasn’t ready, so we went to the breakfast buffet. Their breakfast buffet was very good. It had just about everything you could think of except for my favorite, lox. We ate long enough that when we were finished our room was ready.
We rested a little and then went on a walking tour of Dublin. The Dublin Highlights and Hidden Gems Walking Tour. Unbeknownst to us, this was the end of the Bumblebee 1000 Charity weekend which essentially closed many of the streets in downtown Dublin, so we were late. The tour was to start at 1:00. At about 1:03 I got a call from the tour guide wondering where we were. He talked with our FreeNow driver and together they figured out that we would have to walk the rest of the way (actually only two alleys away) and gave us directions to get there. The point here is that the guide cared enough to call and waited for us even though we got to the starting point more than 10 minutes late.
The tour itself was fantastic. Even though we were jet lagged, we enjoyed every part of the two hours. Not only did we see the main sights of the Dublin city center but the information about the city, the Irish culture, and the history of the country from the earliest Gaelic settlers through the Vikings, the plague, and the Normans, and the English and even the famine. He was not only informative but entertaining as well. Even our twelve-year-old grandson made it through the two hours and didn’t complain once or look for his phone, although that was on airplane mode.
When the tour was over, we finally hit the wall. We hardly slept on the overnight flight. Actually, they slept a little bit, but I didn’t sleep at all. We went and looked for a taxi, which wasn’t so easy because of all the blocked streets. We did find one and went back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we didn’t make our 5:00 PM visit to the St. Patrick’s cathedral although we did see the outside on our walking tour.
The next morning, we had a private driver who would take us to Galway after a stop at Clonmacnoise. This was basically fascinating ruins of a monastery that was founded some time in the sixth century on the banks of the River Shannon. There was a Cathedral there and two round Towers. There were also three high crosses, one of which was erected in 914. There were ruins of several Churches. What I found most interesting was that there were many early Christian graves dating back over a thousand years old and even some recent graves. There even were some of the graves of Irish kings and even the grave of the last high king of Ireland who was buried in the 10th century.
From there our driver took us to our hotel in Galway.
That was the Hotel Leonardo Galway. It was in an excellent location at least for us. After a brief rest we went to explore. Just outside the hotel was Quay Street, a pedestrian-only street. It is exactly what I imagined a truly Irish street would look like. There were several pubs all with big Guinness signs. Many of these had Irish music blasting out into the street. Since we were hungry, we had lunch in one of the pubs. There was an outside table at the appropriately named Quays Bar and Restaurant. We both had fish soup which was listed as a light bite. Not only was this remarkably delicious but very filling. Our grandson had chicken tenders and fries. He is a connoisseur of chicken tenders and gave them a 5 out of 5 and the fries were wonderful as well. Neither my wife nor I enjoy beer, but we were in an Irish pub. I had a Guinness and she had a beer that was lighter in color also made by Guinness. The beer was very tasty at least for beer, but we at least did this Irish rite of passage.
The other aspect of that Irish street of my imagination that came true is that the rest of the street was comprised of shops. Wool shops, jewelry shops, and Irish gift shops. We did our share of boosting the Irish economy and bought many of our gifts for family as well as gifts for ourselves in those shops. It was time to rest our feet and our bodies so back to the hotel we went.
Later we went back to Quay Street and went to dinner at the Kings Head which was a truly iconic Irish pub. The decor was just as I imagined. This building was erected in the 13th century, and the ambiance was loud and joyous. There was loud Irish music and lots of beer. We ate in a second room that was much less noisy and not only was the setting great, but the food was too.
The next day we had a full day tour and our tour guide, Frances, was great. He was very knowledgeable and told some funny stories. Our first stop was at a chocolate factory where there was a brief presentation and especially some good chocolate tasting as well.
Next, we drove through the Burren, which is an interesting geological area made of, if I remember correctly, is mostly limestone. Frances explained in good detail about this formation. In the Burren we went to one of the activities we were looking forward to, the sheep dog demonstration. He took us to Caherconnell. There we had one of the highlights of our trip. The sheep dog handler and the dogs were terrific. I won’t go into it further because I recommend everyone experience it on their own. What I will say is that the dogs herded the sheep and they were not sheepdogs but Border Collies.
Also, at Caherconnell was their Stone Fort. This was the remnants of a fort that was initially used over a thousand years ago and was in use up until the sixteenth century. The guide told us interesting facts about the history of the area and how the fort was used to protect the people of that area. Not too far from Caherconnell was the Poulnabrone Dolman, a structure that was erected over 5,000 years ago.
After that we went to lunch at McGanns Pub in Doolin, another traditional-looking Irish Pub although since it was midday the decibels were a lot lower. I took a picture of one of the signs on the wall. “Everyone who visits this place brings happiness. Some by coming in… Some by going out.” My wife and I both had the fish chowder and it was both sensational and filling and we were sufficiently sated to go on to our next stop, the Cliffs of Moher.
We arrived at the parking lot and at Frances’s urging we took the golf cart up to the entrance. From the entrance we took another golf cart up to the top of the cliffs. This was a good idea especially for us older people. It cut out a lot of the uphill walking. The views were truly like the proverbial statement “No words can describe the beauty of the sight.” It really was majestic and to imagine the years, the decades, the millenniums, that created them. We also went into the museum which was there and also the gift store.
We then took a different route back to our hotel in Galway. We rested up and then went to a seafood restaurant that Frances had recommended. Oscar’s Seafood Bistro was a short walk from our hotel in the opposite direction. We went over a bridge and turned right and after a short while we were there. The daily specials were written on a sign on the wall. The food was very good as advertised.
The next morning our private driver met us in the hotel lobby and drove us to our stop at Birr Castle. We did not do the castle tour, but we did explore the grounds. There was a waterfall, beautiful flowers and a field of green but the most interesting was “The Great Telescope”. It was built in the 1840s and was the largest telescope in the world at that time. It was standing in the middle of a field that was designated for it. It was huge and I could imagine the astronomers of the day being excited to explore the universe. In the science center, there was a display that explained how the telescope was made and some of the issues related to it.
We got back in the car and continued on to our hotel in Kilkenny. We made it to the Hibernia Hotel and after checking in had a good lunch. We then went to the Kilkenny Castle. The Castle, built in 1260, is just what you would think a castle should look like. We did tour this Castle, and it was just what you think the Castle Rooms should look like. Don’t misinterpret this was a marvelous place and I recommend it. We then went out to the beautiful grounds where there were many picnickers, a couple of frisbees flying through the air, and even a couple of young women doing some back flips. Kilkenny wasn’t much of a town to walk through so we had dinner back at the hotel.
The next day was our last full day in Ireland. We took a Freenow ride from the hotel to the train station. As I mentioned earlier, we actually used Freenow several times in Dublin as well. Freenow is an Uber type company that uses essentially the same process as Uber does and it worked well for us, each time we used it. The train from Kilkenny to Dublin was right on time. We had reserved seats and the ride was pleasant. The one thing I will point out is that each of the seats were two and two facing each other over a small table. We had three seats in a row, so one of us, me was across the aisle and there were other people across from me. If you are going to take the train and are more than two, I would suggest that you look at the train seating chart.
We returned to the Ashling Hotel for our last night of our vacation. That evening we went to the Celtic Show and Dinner. The dinner was as you would expect from a dinner theater. It was unremarkable. In my mind that was good because since my expectation of dinner theater meal is that it could be uneatable, but this meal was OK. On the other hand, the show was fantastic. It had the energy that was electric. The band leader, who was the emcee, was engaging and had a good rapport with the audience, including reading notes from the crowd for shout outs.
The band played, no surprise, Irish music and then called out the Irish dancers. Then there was double energy. They moved their feet so quickly, it was hard to imagine. They did many different dances. The one I remember is the broom dance. I don’t know how they managed to jump over the brooms and keep dancing. It was a memorable evening.
The next morning our driver came to take us to the airport. The Dublin airport was nice and clean and had a nice area of duty-free shops. Since we didn’t have to go through passport control or customs when we arrived back to Dulles airport, we did not have to wait on the lines going to have our passports checked and then through customs.
In conclusion, we had a wonderful trip to Ireland. The journey was exactly what we wanted and what was planned. Adrian was very helpful in arranging what we had in mind into specific activities that worked within our timeframe and our budget. This is the second time we used KimKim and both times we have been very, very satisfied.

Caherconnell.

Sheepdog Presentation

Poulnabrone Dolman,

Cliffs of Moher

Kilkenny Castle

Celtic Nights