# Ireland and Scottish highlands too similar? dreaming of Europe reopening



## elaine (Aug 15, 2020)

so, considering 2-3 weeks next summer:  DIY London, Scottish highlands by rail and then adding on Ireland (maybe Dingle and Galway area). Will Ireland be too repetitive of Scottish highlands? If so, where to go for 5 days-within 2 hour flight from Edinburgh. 
Thinking positive thoughts for Covid mitigation by then.


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## geist1223 (Aug 15, 2020)

We have been to Ireland (Dalke and Portmagee [on the western point of the Ring of Kerry] and Scotland (Inverness and Fife). We did not find them similar at all. They were all wonderful but also different. In Portmagee we were staying in a self-catering cottage just outside of town. We went into Town for Dinner the first night. The Owner came over to say Hi to the Yanks staying with Kathleen.


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## nerodog (Aug 16, 2020)

I think it sounds like a great trip and to me  the scenery is  diverse enough for you to not feel its repetitive.  Beautiful  drives along  the west coast  of Ireland with lots of cute villages.  The highlands also have pretty towns and gorgeous  landscapes.  Lots of sheep !!! You will enjoy.


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## elaine (Aug 19, 2020)

thanks! We might trade Iceland for Ireland. Looks like a car is needed for Ireland and that's a no go for us. We're OK for driving in Iceland.


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## Krteczech (Aug 19, 2020)

They drive on same side on Iceland, but places are quite a long drive to.


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## geist1223 (Aug 20, 2020)

It is an adventure to drive in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc. These are 2 way roads in Wales with cars driving at about 60 to 70 KPH. In both directions.


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## TravelTime (Aug 20, 2020)

We had one of our most incredible trips a few years ago when we visited England, Scotland and Ireland. We started in London and visited spots in the city as well as out of town such as Cambridge, Windsor and Bath. Then we moved on to Edinburgh and attended the festival. We visited many castles and cathedrals in Scotland and I fell in love with the mystery of Scotland. After that, we boarded a Windstar cruise and sailed around Scotland. We were lucky in that the weather was incredible. We ended in Dublin and enjoyed many fun festivities. I only wish we would have had time to explore Ireland but this was already a 3 week trip.


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## Pompey Family (Aug 20, 2020)

Very few people actually drive that fast along roads like that. With blind corners you're usually driving at 15 to 20 mph and there are plenty of pull in areas as shown in the picture with the man with his back to the camera. You pull in there to allow another vehicle to pass you. Just don't forget to raise your hand in thanks as you pass (usually just raising your four fingers on your right hand with it still on the steering wheel is sufficient.)


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## Papa2015 (Aug 20, 2020)

elaine said:


> so, considering 2-3 weeks next summer:  DIY London, Scottish highlands by rail and then adding on Ireland (maybe Dingle and Galway area). Will Ireland be too repetitive of Scottish highlands? If so, where to go for 5 days-within 2 hour flight from Edinburgh.
> Thinking positive thoughts for Covid mitigation by then.


We took a British Isles cruise in September of 2018.  While Scotland is beautiful, in my opinion Ireland is a must see.. We cruised the East coast of Ireland, visited Dublin, Cobh, (museum in Cobh is great- lots of Titanic history) and Belfast.  We returned to Ireland after the cruise (flew into Shannon Airport from London) and  toured the Western part.on our own. It is breathtaking.. Galway is a city like any other, and I would miss Limerick - but do yourself a favor and travel to "The Great Atlantic Way" which will bring you to County Sligo and the little towns there, where you will experience the "real" Ireland, beautiful coastline, blue waters, green fields, less tourism and wonderful, fun little pubs that will introduce you to the warm, friendly townspeople.. I have so much to share, but don't miss Ireland.


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## elaine (Aug 20, 2020)

great thoughts. keep um coming!


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## Cornell (Aug 20, 2020)

@elaine I, too, will be traveling to Europe if possible late spring / early summer 2021  we can.  My dreams are a bit different than yours and they include MALTA. 

Keep dreaming and let's hope they come true!


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## Laurie (Aug 20, 2020)

geist1223 said:


> It is an adventure to drive in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc. These are 2 way roads in Wales with cars driving at about 60 to 70 KPH. In both directions.
> View attachment 25124View attachment 25125


Exactly! We met a huge semi head-on, in a curve, along a road just like that in Wales! Then we returned to the very same area just last year (Pembrokeshire coast). It may be our last trip to the area, I don't know if my BP could take it again - otherwise I'd think about going every year if I could. You can go most anywhere without a car, but IMO much better and more accessible and easier with. Otherwise too many time restrictions, not to mention waiting around a lot. That includes Scotland too. (The only place I've ever been, other than cities, where that doesn't apply is Switzerland.)


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## nerodog (Aug 20, 2020)

I really enjoyed the Isle of Skye area in Scotland   and Mull. In Ireland, I know Killarney  is touristy but we loved it and the National Park drives and Kylemore Abbey area.


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## mav (Aug 21, 2020)

Open the borders! I am in severe withdrawal


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## nerodog (Aug 21, 2020)

mav said:


> Open the borders! I am in severe withdrawal


UK just opened air bridge to Portugal..now if it stays open till Xmas !!!!!


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## beejaybeeohio (Aug 21, 2020)

RE: Iceland
If you just drive the "Grand Circle" route, it is totally doable, including lengthy stops at all the major sights in one day. Do get the windshield protection insurance as the volcanic rock can cost you big bucks if it hits your window. (Our cc coverage reimbursed us for.  the 750 euro Sixt charged us for a ding.)

RE: Ireland & Scotland (England too)
The driving can be a challenge for sure. Thank heavens my DH is undaunted by driving on the left. The one-lane roads between high hedgerows are scary as heck.

No timeshare in Iceland, but we've stayed at Fitzpatrick's Castle near Dublin, The Osborne Club, Sutton Hall, Whitbarrow Village and Lidsey Cottage in England, and Kilconquhar in Scotland.


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## beejaybeeohio (Aug 21, 2020)

Here are photos from our Golden Circle tour in Iceland taken at the beginning of May 2015





. The first is at Thingvellir, which is the rift between the Eurasian and American continents, the second is enroute to Geysir and the last is of Gullfoss


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## silentg (Aug 21, 2020)

Hoping to go to Ireland next year. Covid has put a damper on all our trips. But we have been virtually traveling and will start with some in state and US trips before end of this year. Masked travelers with Lysol and hand sanitizers.
Stay safe and healthy Tuggers!


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## nerodog (Aug 21, 2020)

silentg said:


> Hoping to go to Ireland next year. Covid has put a damper on all our trips. But we have been virtually traveling and will start with some in state and US trips before end of this year. Masked travelers with Lysol and hand sanitizers.
> Stay safe and healthy Tuggers!


Not sure if you have any interest  in tours but we enjoyed  a guided tour with CIE tours. Got to see alot and found it really good!


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## silentg (Aug 21, 2020)

Thanks, we have been to Ireland 3 times, first time we did a tour. We have a week at Fitzpatrick Castle in Dalkey.
But this time we want to go to Galway for a few days too!


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## nerodog (Aug 21, 2020)

silentg said:


> Thanks, we have been to Ireland 3 times, first time we did a tour. We have a week at Fitzpatrick Castle in Dalkey.
> But this time we want to go to Galway for a few days too!


Connemeara area real nice. Galway has built up more since the last time I was there  more touristy shops etc. I like the countryside.


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## nerodog (Aug 23, 2020)

Cornell said:


> @elaine I, too, will be traveling to Europe if possible late spring / early summer 2021  we can.  My dreams are a bit different than yours and they include MALTA.
> 
> Keep dreaming and let's hope they come true!


Where  are you staying  in Malta ?


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## beejaybeeohio (Aug 23, 2020)

silentg said:


> Hoping to go to Ireland next year. Covid has put a damper on all our trips. But we have been virtually traveling and will start with some in state and US trips before end of this year. Masked travelers with Lysol and hand sanitizers.
> Stay safe and healthy Tuggers!



We gifted our Fitzpatrick's week to our son & his wife. They've been there more times than we have!
I highly recommend a day trip to Howth Head. You can get there by DART, but to see more of the area a car is needed.


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## elaine (Aug 23, 2020)

thanks to all.  We've been to Dublin/Cork/Belfast before on a cruise, but not the West coast. I saw that AA is planning to fly next summer nonstop from KEF-PHL,  so looks like Iceland might beat out Ireland for this trip.


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## nerodog (Aug 23, 2020)

beejaybeeohio said:


> We gifted our Fitzpatrick's week to our son & his wife. They've been there more times than we have!
> I highly recommend a day trip to Howth Head. You can get there by DART, but to see more of the area a car is needed.


I did a train ride  from  Malahide which was really pretty. We had taken a ride along the coast then came  back .


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## Cornell (Aug 23, 2020)

nerodog said:


> Where  are you staying  in Malta ?


The plan is to stay  @ the Marriott 
39 Main Street, Balluta Bay St. Julian's, Malta STJ1017 .
I have Bonvoy points that I want to use.  

I really hope we can go on this trip .


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## nerodog (Aug 23, 2020)

Cornell said:


> The plan is to stay  @ the Marriott
> 39 Main Street, Balluta Bay St. Julian's, Malta STJ1017 .
> I have Bonvoy points that I want to use.
> 
> I really hope we can go on this trip .


Me too !! I have been looking at Radisson Golden Sands.


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## Cornell (Aug 23, 2020)

nerodog said:


> Me too !! I have been looking at Radisson Golden Sands.


If Europe opens up for us USers, my plan is to travel to Zurich and spend a few days in Switzerland so that my daughter & I can spend time w/her Swiss AFS host family. I would love to meet them.  She wants to show me all the sights in Switzerland that were her favorites.  Then we can fly direct from Zurich to Malta & plan on spending 5 days there.  Malta looks so cool & interesting (except for the mosquitoes).  Then a return trip home with a one night stop in Zurich again.  Malta is NOT easy to get to!


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## nerodog (Aug 23, 2020)

Cornell said:


> If Europe opens up for us USers, my plan is to travel to Zurich and spend a few days in Switzerland so that my daughter & I can spend time w/her Swiss AFS host family. I would love to meet them.  She wants to show me all the sights in Switzerland that were her favorites.  Then we can fly direct from Zurich to Malta & plan on spending 5 days there.  Malta looks so cool & interesting (except for the mosquitoes).  Then a return trip home with a one night stop in Zurich again.  Malta is NOT easy to get to!


Sounds wonderful! Zurich is a nice city and the train system in Switzerland  is fantastic...lots of beautiful  places to go. From USA, Malta is a hike...for me , not too bad... I hope we can all resume our travels soon!!!!☺


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## beejaybeeohio (Aug 24, 2020)

elaine said:


> thanks to all.  We've been to Dublin/Cork/Belfast before on a cruise, but not the West coast. I saw that AA is planning to fly next summer nonstop from KEF-PHL,  so looks like Iceland might beat out Ireland for this trip.



Elaine- You can do both "I" countries in one trip if you fly Icelandair using their free stopover between the US and European cities. Several years back they were expanding their routing from the US, including CLE! But alas, that was short-lived.

For our 2015 trip we drove to Toronto to fly from there to KEF where we did our first stopever of 3 nights in Reykjavik before continuing on to CDG. Spent several nights in Paris and flew on a LCC to Southampton England for a r/t 7 night Norewegian Fjords cruise. On our return we took a train to Manchester, rented a car for 2 weeks to stay in a Yorkshire t/s and a Lakes District t/s before flying out of MAN, stopping over in Iceland for a night again, before returning to YYZ.

Today we should have been on the Jewel of the Seas with a port day in Oslo.......


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## Laurie (Aug 24, 2020)

Cornell said:


> If Europe opens up for us USers, my plan is to travel to Zurich and spend a few days in Switzerland so that my daughter & I can spend time w/her Swiss AFS host family. I would love to meet them.  She wants to show me all the sights in Switzerland that were her favorites.  Then we can fly direct from Zurich to Malta & plan on spending 5 days there.  Malta looks so cool & interesting (except for the mosquitoes).  Then a return trip home with a one night stop in Zurich again.  Malta is NOT easy to get to!


Good plan! Looks like that Marriott has a great location, you can literally walk (and ferry) into Valetta, lots to see and do there plus a transportation hub. Don't miss the Hypogeum, make reservations in advance, and other pre-history sites. We got a direct flight to Malta from Vienna, probably on a low-cost carrier. This was part of a 4-wk trip across the pond and there weren't that many ways to go directly to Malta

Another easy return route could be to take a jumper flight over to Catania Sicily, cheap and plentiful (or ferry if you don't mind), spend a few days as we did in Taormina, then EasyJet has many cheap flights into Milan which historically, for me at least, has been the easiest Euro hub to find FF flights in and out of -- if you didn't want to retrace your steps back to Zurich.


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## Cornell (Aug 24, 2020)

@Laurie Thank you so much!  Sounds like you've been. What did you think?  It just looks so cool & different!  And, no, we don't need to retrace our steps back to Zurich, so these are some wonderful ideas.  Thank you!

I really, really hope this trip works.  I always planned to take my daughter on a Euro trip upon HS graduation.  Let's hope it happens.


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## Laurie (Aug 24, 2020)

Cornell said:


> @Laurie Thank you so much!  Sounds like you've been. What did you think?  It just looks so cool & different!  And, no, we don't need to retrace our steps back to Zurich, so these are some wonderful ideas.  Thank you!
> 
> I really, really hope this trip works.  I always planned to take my daughter on a Euro trip upon HS graduation.  Let's hope it happens.


Malta *is* really different, so glad we went. We love pre-history, and there are multiple places to visit (ruins, goddess temples, and as I mentioned the Hypogeum which is older than the pyramids). And more recent history too, from early Christian, to medieval, to WWII and more - and the landscapes, the architecture, and the language with some Arabic derivation. We ferried over to Gozo too, where we visited another pre-historic site and explored some rocky coastline. Never spent any lounging beach time, we ran out of days.

I'll mention this in case you always rent a car, which we prefer to: though others have found the driving not too challenging, we did, especially since we didn't have GPS back then, and the roads were poory sign-posted; many drivers were fast and aggressive similar to Italy, plus driving is on the left. (With GPS I assume it's easier, and maybe signage is better now, this was 12 years ago.) Our rental car ended up getting scraped while we had it parked in our timeshare's parking deck. I was anxious for awhile about that, but we didn't mention at turn-in and weren't ever charged extra - probably because it's so common. We did leave it parked for a few days and used the cheap bus when possible, changing thru Valletta which is a hub of the bus system. Some of the history sites we wanted to visit were even poorly sign-posted, and bus drivers helped us find our way. 

Here's hoping your trip can happen.


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## nerodog (Aug 24, 2020)

Laurie said:


> Good plan! Looks like that Marriott has a great location, you can literally walk (and ferry) into Valetta, lots to see and do there plus a transportation hub. Don't miss the Hypogeum, make reservations in advance, and other pre-history sites. We got a direct flight to Malta from Vienna, probably on a low-cost carrier. This was part of a 4-wk trip across the pond and there weren't that many ways to go directly to Malta
> 
> Another easy return route could be to take a jumper flight over to Catania Sicily, cheap and plentiful (or ferry if you don't mind), spend a few days as we did in Taormina, then EasyJet has many cheap flights into Milan which historically, for me at least, has been the easiest Euro hub to find FF flights in and out of -- if you didn't want to retrace your steps back to Zurich.


There are flights to Munich  and Frankfurt  as well from Malta.  Looks like  alot of connections  made there. Munich is a good stop off and central to many sites.


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## geist1223 (Aug 24, 2020)

So is Malta a small Island off the Scotttish or Irish Coast?

I am sorry if I offended anyone. But if I was searching for info on how to travel to Malta or things to do in Malta I would not search in the middle of a thread about Scotland and Ireland.


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## nerodog (Aug 24, 2020)

geist1223 said:


> So is Malta a small Island off the Scotttish or Irish Coast?





geist1223 said:


> So is Malta a small Island off the Scotttish or Irish Coast?


We got a bit sidetracked....oops!!!☺☺☺


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## beejaybeeohio (Aug 25, 2020)

geist1223 said:


> So is Malta a small Island off the Scotttish or Irish Coast?
> 
> I am sorry if I offended anyone. But if I was searching for info on how to travel to Malta or things to do in Malta I would not search in the middle of a thread about Scotland and Ireland.



It must have been a misspelling....it's the Isle of Man, not Malta! My DS has this island between Scotland and Ireland on his bucket list to see the tt race there.


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