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Me and the wife are planning a family trip. I've been thinking about the Ring of Kerry. I've only been to Germany and Italy in Europe. My wife has never been out of America. We want to visit several places in Europe but I've wanted to go to Ireland for years. Is this a good place to go. Or do you have any other suggestions. Thanks in advance for any info.

yellowfever wrote:
Me and the wife are planning a family trip. I've been thinking about the Ring of Kerry. I've only been to Germany and Italy in Europe. My wife has never been out of America. We want to visit several places in Europe but I've wanted to go to Ireland for years. Is this a good place to go. Or do you have any other suggestions. Thanks in advance for any info.

My family is from that part of the world. Bear in mind Kerry is known as the Kiingdom. There's pride there. And warmth, friendliness and great humour. In equal parts to the rain! Assuming the weather is good (June, August and April, weirdly! But probs the summer months. Just a warning as Kerry can be wet. ) the ring of Kerry is one of thr most beautiful places and routes to take in the world. When the weather is bad, or in winter, Kerry looks like the place god forgot. Head out to the west to the various peninsulas for good old fashioned small town Ireland (dingle, cahirciveen, etc). Killarney and tralee are great towns. Head out even further to the skellig islands (see the most recent Star Wars movie? It's where luke sky walker went to hide out from the empire! Yeah, go figure. Twenty miles from where my dad is from!)
A good out of the way spot is a wee village called annaskaul - local hero was a legend of Antarctic exploration by the name of Tom cream and you'll find a great little, weirdly named pub there called the South Pole in, slap bang in the middle of rural Kerry. Well worth some awesome photos as it's got some amazing history behind it that you won't find anywhere else.

Ask for subtitles or for people to speak slowly because the Kerry accent is quite something! It's hard even for us, I can imagine it freaking out an American, especially the more rural dialects. Great, and very friendly people though.

Beyond that, if you want to look beyond Kerry, anywhere along the west coast of Ireland is well worth visiting. The burren in county Clare, the cliffs of moher further north and well, the whole west coast of Ireland and it's islands like the Aran islands are generally quite stunning and well worth visiting.

If you like cities, make sure you visit cork and Galway. More so than Dublin if you ask me. Great places and you will very likely lose your heart to them in short order.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot for the info. I'm looking more for the country experience. Me and the wife grew up in San diego so we've had enough of the city life.

As a boy born and raised in the suburbs near Miami, who also honeymooned in Ireland, I will tell you Ireland is a glorious country. We went in late December, and it lightly rained on us for most of the trip off and on. Well, the locals considered it rain- honestly it never got much more than a light drizzle, although they apologized profusely for so many 'soft days'. The landscape is breathtaking, and words are failing me as I recall the feelings I had as our tour bus drove us around the Ring of Kerry.

My wife, however, liked our pictures much more than the actual experience- if you aren't used to driving switchbacks in mountains, or have motion sickness, the Ring may make you feel as if you are dying. Regardless, it is well worth it. I know she'd be popping dramamine right now if we were able to go on it again tomorrow. The juxtaposition of mountains and sea are unlike anything I've ever seen before, or since.

yellowfever wrote:
Thanks a lot for the info. I'm looking more for the country experience. Me and the wife grew up in San diego so we've had enough of the city life.

Then you want the west coat of Ireland. In terms of 'cities', Kerry is nothing like what you're used to. The occasional town is about as big as it gets.

No problems by the way! I'm always happy to point folks in the right direction when they're visiting my island!