When I started planning our western Ireland road trip, I quickly discovered one thing–Ireland will leave you spoiled for choice! There is so much to see. Where to even start?

We found cheap tickets to Shannon, but it was way cheaper to fly back to Budapest from Dublin, so I tried to plan our itinerary around that (which technically means this isn’t a fully “Western” trip). Of course, we ended up flying into Dublin anyway since we kept getting our flights canceled/shifted (and had to drive to Shannon to get our bags…but that’s a long, not-so-fun story…to read or write!).

Ultimately, we decided to play it by ear, to some extent (for someone who is Type A when it comes to travel, this is almost impossible to do fully). We wanted some flexibility in our plans, which was good, since most of our plans had to go awry when we got delayed two extra days in America.

Here’s our itinerary for the six days we ended up having in Ireland. We did end up booking spontaneously, not necessarily something I would recommend in August (ahem, high season, I clearly did my research), but we always had a place to stay, and along the way we saw some incredible places, and stayed in some quintessential Irish B&Bs.

**Disclaimer: A side-effect of an Irish trip will always leave you wanting more. You’ve been warned!

Dublin–Shannon via Bruff

We stayed in the really tiny village of Bruff, where we were immediately struck with the tidiness of the place and the legendary friendliness of the locals (for example, we got lost, and the people who helped us had us follow them in their car way out of their way–then called the inn to make sure we’d actually made it inside! And we never even officially met them!!)

Bruff–Dingle via Adare and Conor Pass

The next day, we drove through the little town of Adare, routinely voted cutest town in the universe (or something like that) and of thatched-cottage fame.

From there, we hot-footed it over Conor Pass (um, glorious) to spend a night in my beloved Dingle.

Dingle–Ballinskelligs via the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry

We drove the entire Wild Atlantic Way in one day (again, not necessarily something I recommend, but it was still worth the drive!), including this stop at Dunquin Pier. It was freezing and cold and still so picturesque.

Ballinskelligs–Waterville via the Skellig Ring Road

We ended our drive on the Ring of Kerry to stay two nights in Ballinskelligs, at the Seaside B&B, our favorite nights of the trip. The inn is in walking distance to the beach and Ballinskelligs Castle, plus it’s so comfortable and cute.

We ended up running out of cash, and the closest ATM was in Waterville–an unplanned stop but a lovely one.

We’d planned to take the boats out to Skellig Michael (I’ve always wanted to…and then my husband saw Star Wars and decided he needed to go, too). Of course, the weather was so terrible they weren’t planning on going out for at least a week–well after we’d be back in BP.

So, we drove around the Skellig Ring Road instead, stopping at the random (yet delicious) Skellig Chocolate, and planning to stop at the Kerry Cliffs but being deterred by the icy sleet.

Ballinskelligs–Kinsale via Killarney & Killarney National Park

The next day, we drove to Kinsale via Killarney.

I was expecting to love Kinsale and admittedly, it was my least favorite spot of the trip. Not that it was more touristy than Dingle, but it felt more like it. Does that make sense? It’s still a really cute town, right on a harbor and full of Irish charm.

Kinsale–Wexford (Duncannon) via Ardmore

The next day, we drove to Duncannon in Wexford via Ardmore. We stayed at this little Airbnb that I adored.

Wexford–Kilkenny via the Hook Peninsula

On our last full day, we drove down to Hook Lighthouse–the whole point of going to Wexford–and finally had a gorgeously sunny day–followed by a perfectly beautiful (except for a small incident with a bee in the car…I’m not proud of my reaction to this) drive up to Kilkenny, our last stop. Perhaps the highlight of the lighthouse tour was when our guide said I was more Irish than him with my last name. Totally false, but whatever ;).

Kilkenny Castle, you guys! I didn’t actually go in–I was happy with the views–but man it was awesome.

The town of Kilkenny itself was so fun. We heard at least three live bands in one night while we went pub hopping–and had some last Bailey’s before heading out.

Have you been to Ireland? Which of these places would you most like to see? 

The post Western Ireland Road Trip appeared first on Amy and the Great World.

When we bought our return tickets to Budapest through Ireland, the cheapest ticket by a significant amount was on my birthday, I wasn’t too bothered. I mean, I would be flying to Ireland on my birthday. Things could be much, much, much worse.

After we made it through security (with every step in the long line I was regretting this birthday-travel decision more and more) and arrived at our gate, we discovered our flight was delayed.

No big deal. Happens all the time. We still had plenty of time to catch our connecting flight in Philadelphia.

Finally we got on the plane, and as we were getting settled, we discovered that the radar was out over Montana (that’s my home state, thankyouverymuch) so no eastbound flights could go anywhere. We waited on the plane for over an hour, eventually they shut off the engine, and then–finally–we got moving again.

Then. I guess turning off the engines had triggered something, because one thing after another kept breaking–so we were sent back to the gate and told to disembark. At this point, I was getting stressed about making our connection. We watched in dismay as the minutes ticked by and we missed our red-eye to Shannon in Ireland.

As we worked out what we were going to do, begging them to find us another flight, we heard over the loudspeaker–our flight had been cancelled. And the next flight to Ireland that American Airlines would put us on had us leaving the next day, with an extra layover.

After receiving our $24 dollar meal voucher (so generous!), they sent us on our merry way to a hotel.

It was disappointing, I won’t lie–losing one whole day of our seven-day trip to Ireland. We rescheduled things and tried to make the best of it–it was still my birthday.

The next day we got up bright and early, excited to finally make it to Ireland.

Can you see where this is going?

We made the first leg to Phoenix okay. But…

It was so hot in Phoenix, the plane was too heavy to fly (severely simplified physics here). So, first they asked eight people to get off and take a later flight. Time dragged on as they figured this out. It got hotter. Suddenly there was something wrong with the air and so it got even hotter.

The minutes crept by until it seemed like there was no way we would make another connection to Ireland.

AGAIN.

Finally, they asked 35 more people to get off the plane. This time, they were offering vouchers for free flights, and since we had already missed our chance to go to Ireland that day (or so we thought), E and I quickly decided to get off. Might as well get something out of it!

We grabbed our vouchers and talked our way onto a flight that would still get us there a day and a half late, rather than two days late. So we flew into Dublin rather than Shannon, and drove too fast in rainy weather so our B&B wouldn’t charge us an extra night.

Of course, somehow our luggage had beat us, so we detoured to Shannon to grab our bags the next day.

Sadly, a million more things went wrong on our trip–I sprained my ankle by being stupid on some cliffs, inns didn’t have power, roads were closed, we got lost a million times, and more. It wasn’t exactly the relaxing birthday trip I had hoped.

And still, we were in Ireland. We walked on grassy cliffs and drank Guinness in lively pubs. We stayed a charming B&Bs and stopped at whatever vistas snagged our attention. It was still, essentially, the Irish road trip of my dreams.

So what, you may be asking, is the morale of this story?

Well, for one, that travel is not always glamorous–in fact, sometimes it completely sucks. And, in some ways, my 29th year started off on a rocky foot. But it also started with an important lesson about life–it will never always be smooth sailing. No matter how horrible the situation, you always have a choice.

You can make it a funeral, or you can make it a party.

It’s up to you.

(Bring it on, 29!)

The post Rolling with the Punches + Turning 29! appeared first on Amy and the Great World.

It’s hard to put a finger on why I love Ireland so much. I’m particularly partial to the West Country, more so than Dublin and the surroundings. I’ve been to Ireland twice–and generally I can’t wait to go to new places, but Ireland? Well I would live there, go there again and again, and visit every little corner. Even the name of the country has me daydreaming about the next time I’ll get to visit.

I think I love it because it’s one of those places you always hear about–but also one of those places that meets all (sometimes too high) expectations. The green is so true it hurts your throat; the coast is in turns charming and dramatic; the people are so fun and friendly; the mysterious ruins the come out of the green will take your breath away and capture your imagination. I love that there a little pockets where Irish is still spoken, but the traditional seems alive in some way all over the country.

Ireland is just…magic.

So what do you think? Would you be able to get Ireland out of your head?

Linking up with Kelly, Emma, Rebecca and Liz!

The post Can’t Get You Outta My Head (Ireland) appeared first on Amy and the Great World.