Month: August 2026

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That’s One Giant Causeway

For our last 24 hours on the island, we crossed the border into the UK and headed for the north coast. In case you were wondering, we did purchase ETAs beforehand, but it was completely unnecessary. There isn’t even a stop when you leave Ireland. Who knows if that’s how it will always be, but as of August, 2026, there was no need for the authorizations.

We made advanced reservations for both Carrick-a-Rede and Giant’s Causeway. We got to Carrick-a-Rede at around 11 am. This is a fun, short hike along the coast to a rope bridge leading to an island. It’s unique and beautiful, but the line for the bridge gets really backed up as moron’s spend 10 minutes trying to get the perfect photo. You should definitely go but try to get there as early as possible.

Giant’s Causeway is nothing short of spectacular. The hike is great, and the payoff is amazing. It’s hard to understand how these rocks could have gotten like this naturally, but as of now, there’s no explanation other than that they were put there by a giant. This area gets pretty crowded too, but it’s very expansive, so it’s not as much of an issue.

We drove into Belfast and grabbed a drink at Northern Lights Brewery. We really just wanted to do something in Belfast, and this seemed like a good option. We were able to sit outside, and they had a nice IPA.

We stayed the night in a town called Donaghadee, at Pier 36. This is pub, restaurant and inn. The food was good, the beer was good, and the rooms were clean. Check out in the morning was a bit tricky, as there was no staff on site until 8 am, but it was still pretty great.

This wrapped up our island tour. We didn’t get to do everything one might want; there simply wasn’t enough time. We could go back and do an entirely different trip. I am glad that we extended by one day; getting to visit Northern Ireland was terrific.

Next up for the Traveling Igoes…I actually don’t know. For the first time a in long time, we don’t have our next trip planned. I guess we’ll see where the road takes us…

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A Family of Dubliners

The morning we left the Galway area, we decided to use the drive to explore a bit to the north. We drove up to an area called the Caves of Kesh. If you love caves (like I do), there are like 17 of them lining a hill. It’s not the type of thing that takes more than an hour, but it’s very cool.

It’s also very close to an called Carrick-on-Shannon, another one of the cutest little towns on Earth. We ate at a cute little cafe, visited a tiny chapel and bought cheese from a woman from Los Angeles. We also made a quick stop Killukin Cascade. This is a very small little stream with a small little ‘watefall’. The kids thought I was being ridiculous for making us stop, but I thought it was a pretty cool detour.

From there, we made it our way north of Dublin, about 30 minutes or so, to a place called Duleek where we checked into our AirBNB. This one was basically a B&B that we fully rented. It had a tennis court, indoor pool and like 11 bedrooms. There’s not a ton of inventory in Ireland that can sleep a dozen people, so we were lucky to find what we did.

On our first morning on the east side, we got up early and headed into Dublin. We parked at Q Park St. Stephens and made our way over to Grafton Street. Eileen and Alyson wanted to shop, and I wanted to see the Molly Malone statue. This area is really vibrant with lots to do.

We slowly walked from there to our planned tour of the Guinness Storehouse. On the way, we stopped at Trinity College, Dublin Castle and Harkin’s Pub for lunch. This meal wasn’t anything special, but it is right by the Guinness building.

This was my second time touring the Guinness facility, and it’s definitely something that shouldn’t be missed. It was probably a bit boring for the kids, but it feels like a must-do in Dublin. We decided not to make them do any whiskey tours; one alcohol-based excursion was enough.

We spent most of the rest of the that afternoon, just wandering around. We visited the Brazen Head (which also claims to be Ireland’s oldest pub), Temple Bar and a really cool spot called the Confession Box. It’s now a bar, but it used to be a spot where Catholic priests would secretly hear confessions during The Troubles.

We had dinner that night with the whole crew at a place called Beouf and Frites. It had only four menu options, two steak, two chicken, but it was a lot of fun. Since we had 12 people for this meal, we’d made reservations beforehand, but even with that, there weren’t a ton of options.

For our only other full day on the east coast, we drove south to another national park, the Whitlow Mountains. We hiked the Spinc and Gleanalo Valley Loop. This is a solid 6 mile hike, but it was clear, so the views were spectacular. Even though it was longer, I would say it was probably the least strenuous of our hikes. The views are great, we saw two mountain goats attacking each other, and the back half of the trail follows a mountain stream most the way. I still preferred the Upper Diamond Hill hike, but Alyson says this was her favorite trail.

On our way back, we stopped at a place called Squirrel Scramble where there is a ropes course with several zip lines. It’s not the greatest we’ve been to, but Clara was able to participate, and the kids needed a break.

The next morning, we left the Dublin area and head towards Belfast for just about 24 hours in Northern Ireland. I’ll touch base on that one final Ireland post. We really enjoyed our time on the west coast but given the choice, I’d much rather be in the Galway area.

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Galway Girls (and Guys)

To follow up on our trip with my wife’s family along the Danube, the Traveling Igoes set off for the motherland, Ireland, at the beginning of August. We were there basically Sunday to Saturday, not including travel days, and split time between the east, west and north coasts. We landed in Dublin and drove straight across, so for the purposes of this blog, this post will focus on our first three+ days that took place in the Galway area.

After leaving the airport, we made a few stops along the way in a wonderful little town called Althone. The town is absolutely charming, and we grabbed a quick lunch at a place called Left Bank Bistro. Very good, very affordable, and since it’s Europe, they don’t ask you to tip.

The real reason, though, that we stopped in Althone was for a quick visit to Sean’s Bar, which according to the sign on the outside and some sources on the online, is the oldest bar in Ireland. It was packed, but there’s a nice outside area in the back. It was a great place to grab our first Guinness of the trip.

We had planned to utilize a bit more of the drive to stop at Birr Castle and possibly the Clonmacnoise monastic site, but our flights was delayed almost three hours, so we decided to pass.

From Althone, we made the rest of the drive to our AirBNB, which can be found on the map as the Lisdonagh House. It’s a very large, historic home, and the approach feels treacherous, but it was a great place for 12 of us to stay, in a small town called Caherlistrane, about 30 minutes north of Galway proper.

As mentioned, we were with my family which is three brothers, three sisters-in-law, one niece and one nephew. My parents actually planned this trip, but dad has fallen quite ill, so they couldn’t make it. With this many people, it is hard to find things that everyone wants to do, so our modus operandi was and is to plan the things that we want to do and invite anyone else to join. Then we try to all get back together in the evening for dinner.

Following that line of thinking, on our first day, our family of five split off from the rest of the Igoes and drove over an hour south to an Irish National Park called The Burren. It an area that reminds me a bit of Sedona, except green and limestone-y. There’s a great trail there called the Mullaghmore Loop. This is a fun hike with some great views, although it was probably lowest on my list of the trails that we did. We took the blue route, which is the most difficult, but still under 5 miles. If you are planning this hike, you should be aware that the first three-quarters of a mile are on a paved road. You can actually drive up this road and park closer to where the real trail starts. If we were to do this hike again, that’s definitely what I would do.

From there, we drove in County Clare and went kayaking with Nevsail Watersports. Kayaking is always a mixed bag for me; it sounds like a ton of fun but is usually pretty exhausting after about five minutes. The real gem of this part of our trip was kayaking to a spot where we were able to get out a do a bit of coasteering and cliff diving.

As we were in the area, we then drove to the Kilkee Cliffs. The west coast of Ireland is crawling with great sea cliffs, the most famous of which are the Cliffs of Moher. You could make the argument that if you’ve seen one cliff, you’ve seen them all, and there’s some truth to that, but we saw several, and it was inspiring every time. Kilkee is definitely smaller but still very striking, and there were almost no crowds.

Finally, we drove back to a cute little town called Doonbeg for the real purpose of the trip, visiting the Igoe Inn. This is a great bar in a great town and happens to bear our name. The owner’s mother’s maiden name was Igoe, and they were excited to see us. They no longer serve food, which was too bad, but it was a great experience.

On the way back, we stopped at pub called Brogan’s for dinner. It’s hard to find a place that can seat 12, so we split into two groups just to make things a little easier. Brogan’s is really cute and definitely served the best fish and chips I had throughout our experiences.

The next day, we went into Galway proper and took the Aran Islands Ferry to Inis Mor, about a 90 minute ride into the Atlantic. When we got there, we rented bikes a cruised all over the small town. If you’re doing this, I strongly recommend e-bikes. By the end of the day, the uphills were getting very depressing. Inis More has a castle ruin that’s about a ten minute hike that offers great cliff views and very unique scenery.

This portion was probably my least favorite part of our trip. It was still a lot of fun, but the boat ride out there is long, and the ride back is longer. The seating on the boat is first come, first served, so that situation wasn’t great, and overall, it didn’t feel like the greatest use of our time. The boat ride back is actually almost 2.5 hours, but it goes down by the Cliffs of Moher. This part was pretty great. Seeing the cliffs from the sea is a great experience, and definitely different than walking on top of them.

This portion of the trip was planned by someone else. Had we made the arrangements, we would have gone south and taken the Doolin Ferry to Inis Oirr. This is another of the Aran Islands, offering basically the same opportunities, but the ferry ride is only like 10 minutes.

When we got back to Galway, we made our way into the Latin Quarter. This is one of the best places I have ever been. It’s kind of like Bourbon Street but without the vagrant, heat and human excrement. We ate at a place called The Quays (which is right by the Galway Girl statue), and it was nothing short of fantastic. I got an authentic cottage pie, for sure my favorite meal in Ireland.

On our final full day on the west coast, we drove into Connemara National Park. The drive there was incredible; it’s what you think of when you think of the Irish countryside. We went specifically to do the Upper Diamond Hill Loop. This trail offers great views, wildlife and if you get there early, it’s pretty empty. It’s about 5 miles, and at about the 1.5 mile mark, it becomes pretty strenuous. It is also frequently covered in fog, as it was for us. At the top, it felt like we were walking in a cloud and could barely see 10 feet. It was quite a unique experience.

We ate lunch at a fun little spot right outside the park entrance called Veldon’s Seafarer. Good food, fair pricing and again, no tipping. The Kylemore Abbey is also in this area. It wouldn’t have been worth it for us to drive just for that, but it’s worth seeing if you’re in the area.

Also in the area is Killary Sheep Farm. This a cute little, active farm that does sheep dog demonstrations. We got to watch a dog heard about 20 sheep, feed some of the smaller sheep and actually hold one. This is definitely geared more towards the kids, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

The next morning we left, so I’ll pick that up in the next post, but I wanted to touch on a few things before moving east. First of all, driving on the wrong side of the road takes a lot of getting used to. You constantly feel like your about to either hit the curb or run headlong into oncoming traffic.

Second, the west coast of Ireland is one of the best places I have ever been. We are legitimately thinking about moving there permanently. Everyone is so friendly, and way of life seems incredibly laid back

Lastly, the tipping situation is great, and the conversation rate for Euro’s is pretty good right now. I do suggest, if possible, that you look into getting a credit card that offers no foreign transaction fees. We got one right before we went, and it probably saved us over $100, maybe more.

Next up, we take a left turn and head for the Dublin region of Ireland…