Description: Connemara Country Cottages is a cluster of six thatch roof self-catering cottages that are mostly owned as timeshares. In addition to being available through a timeshare network exchange such as RCI, they are available as rentals either directly through their management company or a booking agency. I do not know if there is any difference as to which units are timeshares and which are available as open rentals, but will say that it would appear that there may be a difference based on other reviews posted elsewhere on the internet.
While I was concerned going into this having read some rather harsh reviews, I can say that our stay was very good and did not reflect the nature of the negative comments by others. Our unit was generally clean and ready for us when we arrived after the posted check-in of 6:00pm. I had previously made arrangements with the caretaker Michelle, who was very helpful throughout our stay in spite of not actually having an office or residing onsite.
We were in the Ben Brack cottage (aka #6). It was like the others in that it was a two level cottage, with the master bedroom and a full bath upstairs and two smaller bedrooms plus another bath (with shower) on the lower main level. Also on the ground level was the kitchen, dining room and living room. By personal choice we opted to only stay in the lower level, avoiding the stairs and the need to heat the upper level.
Guests whether staying by timeshare exchange or rental are required to pay for their metered use of the electricity and kerosene heat. For our six night stay, it worked out to approximately €10/day. I should make note that it was unseasonably COLD during our stay and that we expended a lot of energy to get the cottage warm enough to sleep our first night. After that night, with the timer controlled heat, we were fine. The evening fires in the living room also helped.
The cottage was set up fully for self-catering with full sized appliances (refrigerator & range/stove). We also had a washer and dryer in the kitchen, which were much needed after traveling a week and needing to do laundry. Everything else was pretty basic including the television that had limited basic satellite channels. There was no WiFi or internet connection nor a telephone. In case of emergency, there is an "office building" that is not manned. In that room is a pay phone with a no-fee dial access to the caretaker. We used it a couple of times to reach Michelle. As I stated already, she was very responsive to our needs.
When staying at Connemara Country Cottages you will get the real feel of living in rural Ireland. Most days we saw sheep very close, either in the road driving up the couple of miles from N59 to the cottages, or actually in the yard around our place. One morning I was working with photos on my laptop at the dining room table when I looked up to see two beady eyes looking back at me. (See PHOTO attached to this review to see who my peeping Tom was.)
We enjoyed our stay here and would recommend it as a good home base for an extended visit to Galway County and the Connemara region of Ireland. We did several day trips by self-driving as well as one guided coach day tour from Galway City and an overnight excursion over to the Aran Islands and Inis Mor.
One comment about timeshare exchanging into Ireland . . . if I had it to do over again, I would probably not expend my timeshare utilization on an exchange in the future. With the soft economy and travel deals available throughout Ireland, I think you can find better value in a direct rental. The total cost of our exchange (maintenance fees on our home resort plus RCI exchange fee) was more than the cost for a direct rental here. Not that it was "bad" mind you; just that it was not the best deal available right now.
RCI exchanges into Ireland are very difficult to get due to limited availability. For those looking into exchanging you may want to look at DAE (Dial-an-Exchange) who often has more inventory especially in the UK and Ireland. As a point of reference, for our vacation, I booked this exchange in December 2010.
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