ireland road trip

This was probably one of our favorite parts of the whole trip (although I feel like I say that with everything that we did). We spent all day in the car driving. We drove all.over.the.place. Our goals for this day was to drive The Dingle Peninsula, The Ring of Kerry, and make it to the cottage in time for check in… we did 2/3 things and we were late to the cottage haha.

We checked out of the castle and started the day off heading towards the Dingle Peninsula. We drove in that direction for about an hour when we came across this cute little town, Adare. There were so many little restaurants on the street we were driving when we spotted The Good Room Adare, with only one parking spot left Dylan snagged it with his quick parallel parking skills. It was just a little cafe but it had this cute fall feel, good food, and the tiniest little macarons I’ve ever seen. If you’re in the area, stop by, you won’t regret it.

After our bellies were full we stopped at the next gas station… for snacks of course. A tradition of ours when we go to Europe is that we always get Pringles. Always. We never eat them at home, we never buy them, you’ll never find them in my house at any given time, but for some reason whenever we’re in Europe we crave them like you wouldn’t believe. I guess it just tastes like home. We probably eat at least a can a day when we’re over there, and now that I say it out loud I realize we have a serious problem. Good thing we do a lot of walking.

If you’re ever planning on taking a road trip around the Emerald Isle know at least three things: 1) they drive on the wrong side of the road (still can’t stop laughing about my lack of research on that), 2) the roads are way too skinny, and 3) the speed limits are about 30 kilometers too fast everywhere. I mean I don’t even know how you would get up to that kind of speed without crashing and dying.

After all of it though, the drive is 100% worth it, Ireland is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, we went in October and still it was so freaking green. It’s picture perfect. There is literally nothing better than going somewhere you’ve been dreaming of for so long and having it exceed expectations in every single way possible.

The second best part about Ireland? There are sheep E V E R Y W H E R E and it.is.amazing. We were almost to the peninsula when I saw a sign that said “pet the sheep.” Immediately I screamed “STOP THE CAR!” I realize I was a little too excited because it scared the shit out of Dylan when I screamed but I couldn’t help myself. It was two euros a piece to pet the sheep, and they give you food, how could you pass that up? I know Dylan was thinking “we should probably save the four euros and skip it,” he made me skip holding a baby lamb a few miles down the road (hard eye roll), but guess what we spent the four euros and it was one of the best experiences I had in Ireland. There was a couple goats in there too and they were dicks, constantly jumping on us and trying to knock the food out of our hands, the poor sheep were afraid of them.

After the sheep petting we finally made it to the first real stop of our journey, Dingle Peninsula. I feel like throughout every honeymoon blog post I write I say at least one thing we saw was “breathtaking,” I should really look up a synonym for breathtaking so I can stop repeating myself so much but it just is. I don’t have words for it. It leaves you speechless. If you are journeying through Ireland and have to make the choice between Dingle Peninsula and The Ring of Kerry, I will be the first to tell you that Dingle Peninsula is a much better view than The Ring of Kerry. It’s not that The Ring of Kerry isn’t beautiful, it’s just that Dingle was more beautiful. Oh and if you take a look at the photo below and find a word better than breathtaking, let me know because I’m at a loss.

I researched these two a ton before we went, because I didn’t want to have to go to both but every blog post and review that I read said that you have to do both, while if you have time and money you definitely should do both because they are both worth it but I am here to tell you that if you have to choose one I would recommend Dingle Peninsula.

The Dingle Peninsula and The Ring of Kerry aren’t destinations, they’re journey’s. There’s no sign that says “Welcome to The Dingle Peninsula” or “You’ve Arrived at The Ring of Kerry.” They’re long gorgeous drives along the coast so if you’re driving and thinking that you can’t find it or that you’re not there yet, stop and look, you probably are there.

There are tons of stops along each drive for you to take photos or just take in the beauty, but it is very very windy… like I’m afraid the car will tip over windy, and as I mentioned above, the roads are slim and the people drive a little too fast, so they may not see your parked car in time.

In all honestly I really do wish we had a day for each drive, instead of a day to drive both, but AirBnb’s around both areas usually require that you stay at least two nights and we didn’t have time for that. During our next trip, we will definitely be taking a day to do both.

Next stop: the cottage.