For the last three years, I’ve developed a bit of an unintentional tradition to leave the country on my birthday.
It is almost entirely due to the fact that October is naturally when the Toronto wedding scene begins to slow down after a busy summer, but Stephen always humours me by staying up on Kayak until the wee hours of the morning figuring out where the most cost effective places to travel are that also happen to cross off a line of our very long bucket list. This year, a last minute seat sale ended up taking us to Ireland and England for two weeks, where we shot an incredible styled bridal editorial, visited family, and had daily meltdowns over the crazy views. Since we returned home, I’ve had dozens of people send me emails asking about our trip highlights and recommendations, and out of a bit of helpfulness and an equal amount of laziness (guys, that is a lot of emails to respond to) I’ve decided to narrow our trip down into this easy travel guide!
Where we went
During the first half
- Dublin
- Glendalough
- Sally Gap
- Cork
- Innishannon
- Kinsale
- Blarney
- Dunamase
After our pop over to England
- Dingle
- Slea Head
- Cliffs of Moher
- Galway
- Menlo
- Ashford Castle
- Connemara National Park
Dublin
I won’t lie, Dublin was probably our least favourite part of the trip. Not that it isn’t a nice city, but we just didn’t connect with it as much as the other towns we visited on our trip. This may be because we are both country people at heart and it is very much a city, however, the one thing we did love about Dublin was the food!
Our favourite restaurant was the one that Stephen and I celebrated the day of my birthday at, Manifesto. It is an Italian restaurant that is known internationally for their incredible pizza which actually won best pizza in the world in 2006! I don’t know who judges these things but the pizza that won, the “Mamy,” made with eggplant, parma ham, parmesean cheese, and fresh buffalo mozzarella, really was something to make a trip for.
On the way to our next stop
On our first day in Ireland after landing in Dublin and getting our bearings, we decided to drive out to Glendalough and through the Sally Gap on our way to our Airbnb in Innishannon. Glendalough was a bit touristy at times, but seeing the Round Tower and Saint Kevin’s Church was something so powerful and memorable for us. The old settlement is so ominous to walk around, and really made us think so much about how much history there was where we were standing. We were running a bit late to our Airbnb, so we scooted off after spending a bit too much time taking everything in but still managed to take the long route and see The Sally Gap. It is such a beautiful range of landscapes that made it so worth the extra bit of driving.
County Cork
Blarney Castle
Since we didn’t have much time in Cork County before shooting our styled bridal editorial the following day, we spent a full day taking in as much as we possibly could in the area, starting with Blarney Castle. Kissing the Blarney stone may be a massive tourist trap, but it is still one of those things that I’m going to be able to look back on years from now and say “Oh yeah, I’ve done that!” I can’t say that kissing an old rock while upside down gave me “the gift of the gab” like it is supposed to, but Blarney Castle was still worth the visit for it’s beautiful grounds, history, and the short hike that we took around the area. I was so stressed out trying to sort out some final details for our shoot the next day, so we ran off to have lunch at a local cafe and to snag some free wifi. Since we went in the off season, there really wasn’t much open in the area other than take out and one single little hotel restaurant that happened to have amazing quesadillas. The cool part about the time of year we went, though, is that at times it felt like we had entire castles to ourselves!
Cork
We only went to the city of Cork for the afternoon and along the same vein as Dublin, we didn’t quite connect with it as well as some of the other places we went to. We did, however, get to check out a few local markets and if you are planning on cooking your own meals like we did for most of the trip, it was pretty inexpensive to buy from local vendors there!
Kinsale
After relaxing a bit at our cozy rental house, we took a recommendation from our hosts to go to Kinsale for the evening. This is definitely one of the towns that would be far better to experience in the peak travel season; you can tell how lively it normally is just from walking the streets for a few minutes, but with nothing open and only a few people around, it wasn’t the most entertaining evening. We did love walking the harbour, however, and the drive from Innishannon to Kinsale was beautiful at sunset with these stunning vine archways covering all of the roads.
Dingle
I cannot even begin to say enough wonderful things about the Dingle Peninsula and Slea Head Drive. This was hands down the absolute highlight of our trip and we are already talking about heading back solely because we found the greatest Airbnb we have ever stayed in. Our rental was a loft space located on a working sheep farm on the top of a small mountain complete with two of the cutest border collies named Scout and Floss. We woke up each morning, said hello to the dogs, chatted with the farmer Seamus, and helped him feed the sheep before making breakfast and drinking our tea on the front deck. Staying here was one of the best decisions we made, and I couldn’t recommend it enough.
Please do yourself a favour and stay here!
The Airbnb was conveniently located at the end of Slea Head Drive, a scenic route that has some of the most stunning views of the Irish coastline. It is only a short drive away from Slea Head Beach, which was probably one of Stephen and I’s favourite spots in all of Ireland (we loved it so much that we went twice!)
Cliffs of Moher
On the way to our next stop, Galway, we made a point to stop at the Cliffs of Moher. This has always been a destination that was on the top of my list when I thought about travelling to Ireland. I have to be honest and say that I was a bit disappointed and was really overwhelmed by how much of a tourist attraction it really is. You’re immediately loaded into a packed parking lot where you cross the street and walk up a long entryway into the cliffs surrounded by gift shops, buskers, and free wifi signs. The cliffs themselves are absolutely breathtaking, but the overall experience for me was a bit disheartening. My biggest recommendation if you do go to the Cliffs of Moher, is to walk up the hiking pathway all the way to the end where there are significantly less people. I’d also recommend taking the time to head to the next town over (Doolin) because there is a beautiful view of the cliffs from their main beach and were even surfers there while we were there which was so cool to see!
County Mayo and County Galway
Galway
This was hands down the best city we went to in Ireland. The population of Galway is significantly younger than most of the other cities, so it was full of hip little neighbourhoods complete with sting lighting over pedestrian only streets. I could have stayed in Galway for months on end and felt right at home, and I was genuinely upset that we only had a few days to spend there. Also, Tuco’s Taqueria had the best tacos if you get a craving for Mexican while you’re there… I swear we eat healthy things that aren’t burgers, pizza, or tacos.
Menlo Castle
When we were staying in the Galway area, we actually rented an Airbnb outside of the city and just drove in every time we felt like being in the city centre. Our host was so beyond helpful and gave us an entire booklet full of recommendations in the area. We took her word for it and spent the morning at Menlo Castle (conveniently located right down the street and a hop of a fence away). We were the only people there and were able to watch the sunrise over the lake completely alone.
Ashford Castle
Right after breakfast, we went up to Ashford Castle which was one of Stephen’s favourite spots. It is a castle that currently acts as an exclusive hotel for the “world’s elite” which sounds so pompous, but the entire 350 acres of property was really something to see. Everything was so perfectly manicured and essentially anything you could have imagined to be there, was there, including a renowned falconry school!
Connemarra National Park
The last stop on our trip before flying back home to Toronto was Connemarra National Park. This is one of the places that we definitely want to come back and spend a bit more time in. We decided just to drive though it on our way back from Ashford Castle, but the drive alone was just jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I can’t wait to head back and spend some time hiking in this area!