Finally, our post on traveling to Ireland with kids is live! I know so many of you booked a trip and have been emailing me and messaging me to get this baby up! Apologies that it has taken so long! Ireland is one of the most family friendly countries we have been to and I HIGHLY recommend it! The Irish are SO welcoming and really love accommodating families with kids as much as they can! The hardest part about the trip for us was driving on the opposite side of the road! For us, the car was a necessity since we went to 4 different cities in 5 days! 

To see our other travel itineraries, click below:

Switzerland || Austria || Norway || Hudson Valley, NY || Sonoma Valley, CA || Charleston

Traveling to Ireland with Kids | Our Itinerary & Favorite Places Along the Way

First stop: DUBLIN

Important Tip: To be honest, I do not think that Dublin is a place where you need to stop! If I were to do it again, I would fly into Shannon instead (the west coast or Ireland) because a lot of the places we loved were on the west coast! Dublin isn’t all that family friendly and unless you’re into the history and all that, I would skip it. For us, it wasn’t worth the stop and we wish we had spent time elsewhere! 

Where we stayed in Dublin: Henrietta Suites 

These were BEAUTIFUL and I highly recommend them if you do end up heading to Dublin! 

Where to eat in Dublin: 

Da Mimmo | This was a GREAT Italian restaurant in the city – SO delicious

The Old Storehouse | this is a great pub that has Irish dancing/singing and the kids loved it. It DOES get rowdy so I would suggest getting there around 5 if you can 😉 

Things to do: 

We visited with family here mostly and I don’t have much in terms of suggestions on this to do EXCEPT a really great road trip out to Powerscourt Estate & Gardens & a drive through the Wicklow Mountains! For the most scenic route, take the Old Military Road – Route R115! It starts in Sally Gap and ends in Laragh. The roads do get narrow and when you are driving on the opposite side of the road, this can be daunting but DOABLE 😉 We did it! 

 

Powerscourt Estate had beautiful walking grounds that the kids enjoyed and a cute restaurant that you could eat at too!

Driving through the Wicklow Mountains was INSANE!

On our third day, we made the road trip to Cork! If we did it again, we would stay in Cobh or Kinsale instead! One our way to Cork we stopped at the Rock of Cashel and then ate at O’Neills Bistro! They had the most insane Banoffee pie. SERIOUSLY, do yourself a favor and get it. We only stayed in Cork overnight and then went off to Inch Beach & Dingle! 

Where we stayed in Cork: The Coach House Douglas – which was beautiful!

Inch Beach/Dingle

It was about 2 hours or so to reach Inch Beach which is gorgeous and a great stop if you are going when it’s warmer! We went in November and it was pretty dang cold! Shortly after Inch Beach and RIGHT where Slea Head (the most beautiful scenic drive ever) begins, is where we got to meet all the baby lambs! 

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Left: Inch Beach \\ Right: Hold a Baby Lamb

Hold A Baby Lamb & Beehive Huts | the gentleman that owns it is SO nice and it’s right on the water – beautiful!

Slea Head Drive | This was by the far the most beautiful drive I have ever been on! We were there when it was raining too and it was still insanely beautiful! HIGHLY recommend doing this! Stopped at Louis Mulcahy Pottery for lunch! They don’t have a huge menu but it was still a great little place!

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Slea Head Drive

Connor Pass Drive | Another breathtaking drive (not as much as the first) that I recommend! Only thing is that it is VERY scary to be driving down this road because it turns into a one road and you cannot see if there is traffic coming the other direction! We made it though 😉 

The caution sign for driving down the one lane road on Connor Pass

Dingle | We stopped at the playground in Dingle – right on the water and the kids loved it! It’s really cute! We also stopped at Murphys ice cream because so many of you said it was a MUST while we are out there! I highly suggest getting the sticky toffee! 

Playground in Dingle

We stayed at Inch Beach in the most magnificant Airbnb I have EVER seen. The views were incredible and it was SO affordable. HIGHLY recommend it! Do yourself a favor and check out my IRELAND highlight on Instagram and take a look at the views from this place! I could cry thinking about how amazing it was!  The night we stayed here we just went down to Inch Beach for dinner because we were all starving. There is a little restaurant right on the beach there, I can’t remember the name of it but it was good! 

** we would have also loved to discover Killarney since it was close by but didn’t have time! I would stay there 1-2 nights if we did it again!

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All from the Airbnb!

 

Drive to Galway – here is what we did on the way! 

Bunratty Castle | A really cute place to stop with kids! They have an awesome cafe thats cozy and cute inside with all sorts of food that the kids loved! They have a fairy trail that you can go on, tons of animals to see, and the castle of course! Well worth the trip! 

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Bunratty Castle

Cliffs of Moher | I was SO excited for this and it was magnificent but holy smokes, I have never experienced wind like this before in my life. They were telling people not to go near the ledge because the wind could take you right off your feet and over the edge, it was insane!! Somehow, we made it to see the cliffs with the kids! We didn’t go on any walks or trails because of the weather but we were able to get some great views of them! If we didn’t go out of season, we would have gotten a ferry ride to see the cliffs from the water since I heard that is the best! 🙂 

Where we stayed in Galway: The House Hotel Galway (in the three bedroom suite)

This hotel was very nice! They had us in a little apartment with three separate bedrooms and  a main bathroom in the middle of those! They had free breakfast in the morning as well! 

Galway was SO charming and I really wish that we could have ventured around more! There were beautiful lights on all the streets and they were decorated for Christmas – it’s insanely beautiful and I just loved it! I highly recommend eating at Dough Bros! It was SO good! 

Things we wish we had time for: 

Killarney

More time in Galway

Demonstration sheep herding – I wanted to fit this in but we didn’t have time!

Connemara National Park

Fota Wildlife Park

Lough Gur – a visit to the donkey sanctuary too!

Dolphin watching in Dingle

One last image of that gorgeous double rainbow. I was about 5 weeks pregnant when we saw it and this baby is our double rainbow. It gave me peace knowing that this pregnancy would be okay.