Tourism is one of Ireland's biggest businesses, having experienced it's biggest booms in the 1980s and 90s. With all that experience, the Irish Tourist Board has it all down to a tidy science. Visit them online at DiscoverIreland.com or give them a call at 1 800 SHAMROCK and they'll be happy to help you start planning your trip.
There are a few things you should consider before anchoring down all your plans.
There are a variety of ways to explore the cities and countryside of Ireland. A bus tour or private charter tour might be your speed. Or perhaps you'd rather rent a car and explore the country on your own. It can be quite affordable to rent a house and take day trips out from a central location, or you may even want to plot out a bicycle tour if you're of a more athletic constitution. Whatever way you'd like to travel, there are many options for your to explore.
Quite a few companies run bus tours or private charter tours throughout the country. Some can seem expensive, but the benefit to paying up front is the all-inclusive style of travel. They'll help you expeience Ireland through an experienced set of eyes and see things you might not discover on your own.
Ireland has a longstanding tradition of traveling from place to place and staying in bed and breakfast establishments. Pay a nominal nightly fee and you get a room, a bath and a full Irish breakfast in the morning. You could rent a car at the Dublin airport, for instance, and drive down into the beautiful Wicklow Mountains on your first day. Stop in the local Irish Tourist Board office along the way and they can help you book a B&B near your next destination.
The tourist office will charge you a percentage up front and the B&B will deduct the charge from their bill on the other end. It really couldn't be any simpler.
A guided tour will take care of all this for you, but if you visit the tourist office, they can give you great suggestions as to points of interest along your way. Just let them know what you are interested in. History, literature, hiking, golf, whatever your interest, you're bound to find something to excite your soul.
Interested in the ancient native language? Make sure you get up to Galway and the Aaron Islands off the West Coast. If traditional music is more to your liking, venture into the North and Co. Antrim and take in an evening at the Cross Keys Inn. Bicycle through the Gap of Dunloe near Kilarney. Tee it up anywhere along the West Coast from Ballybunion in the south to Rosses Point in Sligo. Is your interest is literature, you can visit authors' homes from James Joyce to W. B. Yeats to Oscar Wilde to even Bram Stoker all around Dublin, but make sure to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College, too. From the hustle of Dublin to the garden of Ireland in Wicklow to the seafaring towns of Co. Cork, you'll see more around the coast roads of Ireland than you ever imagined possible.
