Planning an Ireland tour...

[jargle]

HI there

Planning to mooch around Kilkenny, Waterford, Killarney, Limerick and Sligo for a week in early July. First road trip for the two of us. Just wondering if anyone has any tips, insights or warnings about bike riding in that area? Looks pretty, and pretty straightforward.

Food, drink, live music and the craic are more important to us than caning the miles. Oh and we're packing rain suits ;-)

Appreciate any thoughts

cheers

J

[jargle]

Thanks Hooli, yeah we're not expecting awesome road surfaces!

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Thanks everyone, these are great tips and the photos are beautiful. Lots to incorporate and Cong is now on the list.

I like the idea of 'old' Ireland!

cheers

J

[jargle]

Well, we made it - 1500 miles later. Overnight stops were;

Kilkenny - party mayhem, Dubliners travel down to party apparently
Clonmel - for a music festival, rode through Tipp ( yes a dump) but Vale of Glenhow south of there is lovely. saw Cashel, v impressive.
Waterford - for another music festival
Kinsale - lovely fishing village S of Cork
Dingle - and did Brea peninsula and ring of kerry en route, Healy Pass was fantastic
Lehinch - rode around the Burren
took ferry to avoid Limerick, EVERYONE said it was a dump!
Clifden in the Connemara - gorgeous ride to get there but town is - er - a dump. Rode around Achill Island, ace but tipping it down.
Westport - fab, loved it, cool place
Donegal - pretty town, albeit lots of hard looking bullet headed types with a faraway look in their eyes. And as for the men..

Then a run through NI to Dublin, skirted Loch Erne and I thought that run was stunning.

We ran into (literally) the biggest Orange parade in the Republic, held just south of Donegal on the Wild Atlantic Way. Perfectly friendly as we paddled our bikes along with them but pretty freaky when you grew up watching all the aggro on the TV in the 70s. Road surfaces were harsh - new back tyre last week - but lots of A and B road blasting. My bike is v torquey. Saw virtually no Garda. Everyone was unremittingly friendly, every night was live music of some form and consistently excellent.

Highlights? The Burren, Connemara, Brea peninsula and Ring of Kerry - and the locals. Best quote? In the pub - "Do you have wifi?" "Ah, I think we've got sum of dat...let me check with the boss".

Weather was a bit of a let down - intermittent drizzle - but we had the craic!

Many thanks for the advice.

[jargle]

Srob..

We covered a lot of miles. We left around 9.30/10 every day, stopped for fuel, the occasional coffee, to look at something, and a light bite for lunch. WE didn't hang about. Stopped riding by 4 - 6 each day, earlier when it was raining! We could have spent far more time stopping to look at stuff.

To do the whole island and take it easy then yes two weeks. I'm told that the whole NE and NW coast is stunning and worth the time. The E coast down to Waterford is a bit nothingy, but the Wild Atlantic Way really is well-thought through, and the app has accommodation and activity links built in.

Take good rain gear! I had an old SIDI suit given to me, and I'd patched it with duct tape. Not clever...