Oh Ireland. You’re so beautiful.

Ireland is one of the easiest countries one could ever travel to. I truly think that it would be possible to wing it with an Airalo/Saily eSIM, a predownloaded Google maps, and a spirit of adventure. Ireland feels like a place that you are meant to unexpectedly find yourself in weird pubs, talking to random locals, walking along countryside roads. We had planned our trip but next time I might just wing it instead.

We traveled here immediately following a week in Scotland. We arrived midday and had a tour scheduled at the Guinness Factory followed by another at Jameson. The Guinness factory tour was world class. It was so entertaining that it felt like Disney had designed the tour. They pump thousands of people through that building each day so it’s not a tour where you will go into great detail on their manufacturing process, but you’ll still remember it forever. I highly recommend spending the little extra and getting your face printed atop a beautiful Guinness stout! The Jameson tour was much more personalized and instead of the theatrics coming from the unique walkthrough experience, it came from the guide himself. They are clearly coached on how to add drama to manufacturing whiskey.

The next morning we made a quick stop at Temple Bar and then began our clockwise road trip around Ireland. Heading south, we toured Kilkenny Castle followed by Jameson’s Midleton manufacturing facility. Unlike Guinness, Jameson is no longer made in Dublin and has since moved a few hours south to expand their facilities.

By midafternoon we were at Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone and to galivant around the grounds. Supposedly by kissing the stone you’re given the gift of gab, something that I don’t need any help with 😉

After the smooching of the stone we continued driving to get to the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry is a scenic drive but the entire area is definitely worth spending a day or two if your schedule allows. There were gorgeous cliff lines, castles and quaint towns. We had limited daylight before needing to get to our bed and breakfast, which meant we had to make due with drive-by viewings of the countryside (and fast drone flying).

The next morning we headed north to the Cliffs of Moher. It was a beautiful day so we walked for an hour but it would be possible to send a couple of hours here if you wanted to hike the whole coastline (~8 miles), or even take a boat tour to experience the cliffs from a completely different perspective. Regardless of how you view them, they will take your breath away!

The west coast of Ireland has another, lesser known, cliff line called Slieve League and I would absolutely recommend it. To start, it is less crowded, cheaper, and equally as pretty. The colors are stunning but it is not as vast as the Cliffs of Moher. It would make for a more interesting day hike though, plus apparently it has the best lobster sandwiches in the main parking area (something we missed out on because the food truck wasn’t there that day!). We had to settle on McDonald’s instead, which helped us quickly forget the false promise of lobster.

We finished the day in Northern Ireland. Can I just say I love crossing borders in a town called Londonderry Derry? That has to be the cutest town name I’ve ever heard. Northern Ireland is no different in appearance from Ireland and yet it does feel odd passing into another country (the UK) at this day and age. We would not have even known we crossed a border if it were not for a single small sign saying “Welcome to Northern Ireland”. The word “Northern” had been crossed out by graffiti. Growing up without that recollection of history makes it difficult to image the strife that existed here not that long ago. We ended our day by seeing (you guessed it!) yet another castle and then having a lovely evening at our hotel with beers and waffles. Honestly, what could be better?

The next morning we visited Giant’s Causeway – an adult’s playground if you ask me. It was surprisingly fun to bebop around the basalt formations. We even got too close to the ocean at a certain point that Jake’s shoes were soaked by waves. It was a blast and although different from my expectations (the formations were smaller than the photos had made it appear), it was more fun than I could have imagined as well.

Near Giant’s Causeway is The Dark Hedges (a singular road with some eerie trees). The optical illusion is fascinating and emblematic of Ireland. It was a perfect last tourist stop, and it only took about 30 minutes of walking up and down this narrow road.

We finished our Irish trip with some golf. Odd, maybe, but we were kicking ourselves for not golfing in Scotland (the birthplace of the sport) so we made sure to hit a bucket of balls in Ireland. One day I’ll be a bit better at this sport…

The last evening couldn’t have been sweeter. We stayed in a castle and had our best meal of the trip, in the cellar, no less. We had an evening walk outside on the castle grounds where they had the most interesting tree adorned with Christmas lights inside, just like a fort from childhood. I could not have dreamt up a better end to our Scottish/Irish adventure. After ten days away, seeing countless castles, drinking bottomless beer (and scotch), and driving many, many, miles (yes miles, we were in the UK!) it was time to head back home.