A Wonderful Week In Ireland

Have dinner at the Red Bank Restaurant in Skerries, north of Dublin for the best meal you will ever eat in all of the European Union.
Stop at Kilkenny Castle on the way to Waterford.
Visit the Waterford Factory and take the tour.
Kiss the Blarney Stone.
Drink a few pints of Guiness.

Quick Tips:

Ireland is exciting and vibrant. Young people from European Union countries such as Sweden, France, etc. have traveled to Ireland to take jobs as waiters and waitresses, and the person who takes your order in a pub in Dublin is more likely to be from Italy than from Ireland.

Best Way To Get Around:

We rented a car at the Dublin Airport and drove a clock-wise half circle around southern Ireland. On our last afternoon in Dublin, we took a bus downtown and back.

Positive attributes: Clean, comfortable, adequate. As a bed and breakfast, the main attraction is the restaurant, not the inn. After the meal of a lifetime at the Red Bank Restaurant, it was so nice to be able to just walk accross the street to our room at the inn.

Negative attributes: The cable TV didn't work - for Americans hooked on CNN, this was a major flaw. Also, the shower was one of those new-fangled things that heats up the water as you go, and as a result, there is never enough water pressure and you risk running out of hot water in the middle of your shower. (Or so my husband said - I avoided the shower in our room and used the older, traditional shower in the shared bathroom down the hall.) Anyway, these new-fangled showers are everywhere in Ireland, so sooner or later you'll have to deal with them.

Clean, well furnished and attractive rooms, with the most comfortable bed in all of Ireland!

This B&B has a lovely lounge area and breakfast room. It serves great Irish Soda Bread, and the proprieter gets so many requests for his recipe, that he has had copies of it printed, and distributes them to guests!

Located next to a Greyhound track, if you rent the family room at the top of the house, you can watch greyhound races from your window. It's a short (downhill) walk into the town center, where you'll find shops, the Spanish Arch, and a small, quaint museaum next to the Spanish Arch.

It's easy to find live Irish music in the pubs in the town center, though you may be surprised to find a Chinese fiddle player in a pub band! The Ardawn Guesthouse was one of the best places I stayed in Ireland. I would recommend it to all.

Small Victorian townhouse on a quiet street in the city of Waterford. This B & B has six rooms, all "en suite," and offers clean, comfortable accomodations and a traditional Irish breakfast. The Irish soda bread was excellent! This B & B is a good place to stay if you plan to visit the Waterford Factory, which is close by.

Check out their Web Site.

This B&B was a disapointment. Listed in most of the Guides to Ireland I had read before my trip, I expected something a little more memorable. It turned out to be a semi-Luxurious B&B near downtown Kinsale. Most rooms feature jacuzzi baths (the only bathtub I found, out of 5 different B&B's in Ireland.) Highlights include: excellent Irish soda bread and secure courtyard parking. Check out their web site at: "http://www.oldpress.com">. Browns does offer secure parking in their courtyard, which is important because if some hoodlums beak into your car in the Republic of Ireland, most rental car companies don't cover the damage and the loss of your stuff! We stayed in the family room, which was a medium sized room at the top of the house.

Out of our five nights in Ireland, this was the smallest B&B we stayed in. Located on a residential street, close to Dublin International Airport, the building is the renovated home of Ronald and Colette, who decided to open a B&B a few years ago when Ronald retired. They obviously spared no expense. The furniture, bath fittings, carpets, etc. were first class.

Rooms are priced at 33 Euros per person, so my husband and I shared a double room, then we got a single room for our daughter, for a total of 99 Euros. Ronald appreciates being paid in cash.

Breakfast is served in an enclosed sunroom, overlooking a garden. It consists of standard Irish fare, but, unfortunately no soda bread, as our family were the only guests at the time, and it simply isn't worth the effort to bake less than 3 or 4 loaves at a time.

The B & B is close to a bus route, and Ronald gave us directions to walk to the bus stop and take the bus to downtown Dublin. The next morning, we were perfectly positioned to drive to Dublin Airport and return our rental car. I did learn the meaning of Pairc na Bhfuiseog, but promptly forgot it. I think "Pairc" means park, and Bhfuiseog (easy for Colette to say!) means lark. Park of the Lark? It sounds much nicer in Gaelic!

In a word - superb! This meal ranks as the best I have ever eaten in Europe. The restaurant is located in a renovated bank: its wine "cellar" is in the bank's vault.

Upon entering, you are shown to a small lounge area, where you enjoy drinks and appetizers. Then you look at the extensive menu, which features a fixed price dinner for 39 Euros. You then move into the dining room to enjoy your salad, main course, wonderful Irish soda bread, two types of potatoes, desert and coffee. I ordered the grilled tuna, which was prepared with Cayenne pepper to perfection. The desert cart had at least 7 or 8 choices, ranging from sinful chocolate deserts to fruitier, cheesier selections. (You could also choose cheese, instead of a desert.)

The service was excellent.

We stayed in the Red Bank House, which is a bed and breakfast affiliated with the restaurant, and had breakfast at the restaurant the next morning. We were able to meet the owner and chef, Terry McCoy, at breakfast, and compliment him on the wonderful meal we had eaten the night before. I was shocked to see him cooking breakfast on a Sunday morning, after a busy Saturday night, but he takes pride in preparing your meal himself.

If you are only going to be in Dublin for one night, it is worth it to travel to Skerries (north of the airport) to dine at the Red Bank.

You'll want to dine here so you can watch the Irish dancing (nightly at 9:PM), not for the food. The food was OK, just nothing to write home about. The Irish dancing was close to Riverdance/Lord of the Dance in quality. For a great view of the show, reserve a table for around 7:PM - 7:30, have your meal, then you'll be perfectly positioned for the show.

The Arlington Hotel and Restaurant boasts that it is the most "centrally located" in Dublin. This is true. It is right across from the O'Connell Bridge and within walking distance to Trinity College.

The restaurant and pub/bar is decorated in a medieval theme and the menu features steaks and chops, some seafood. For all the sheep there are in Ireland, there was not one lamb entree on the menu! Service was a little slow, perhaps because most of the staff seemed new and just off the boat from Holland, or Italy, but you'll find that throughout Ireland.