But first, man, what a PITA planning this trip seems to have been.  At this rate, all the travel agent did is book the flight and our hotels in both Dublin and Belfast.  I’m researching and booking the entire rest of the trip.  Oh well, I’m sure we’ll have fun and that’s what matters.

We’ll start if all off by flying into Dublin and driving 3.5 hours to Kinsale in County Cork for two nights.  This will give us some good food, pretty sights and the Midleton Whiskey distillery. Kinsale is actually considered the gourmet capital of Ireland. And well, I’ve heard that Midleton Whiskey is great (and that the distillery is authentic and doesn’t feel as “fake” as the Jameson one in Dublin – we’ll visit there as well).

From there it’s one night in Dingle over in the Ring of Dingle for some good music and pretty sights.  I hear that the Ring of Kerry is crazy busy (maybe not in November, but still) and that most folks that have done both rings enjoy the Ring of Dingle much better.

Next it’s up to Galway for two nights (might just go with the Jury Inn since it’s in the heart of the Centre and has wifi – that husband of mine will NEED his wifi).  We’ll finish things off  with two nights in Dublin, one night in Belfast and then one last nigiht in Dublin again.  We have to do it that way since one of the reasons we’re going is to see Herbie play in Dublin on his daughter’s birthday, with his daughter and his manager.

So now I just need to send out a bunch of emails to the B&Bs in Kinsale, Dingle. I still have a couple emails out to B&B’s in Galway that I’m waiting to hear back from in case we decide to go that route.  In the meantime, I’ll have the travel agent send over some boutique, family-run hotel suggestions for Kinsale & Dingle (though I’m pretty certain Dingle will be a B&B since it’s so small).

I expect we’ll have things finalized (no, REALLY finalized) by Tuesday or Wednesday the latest.  At least now, I know where we want to go and why we’re picking the locations we are.  This puts us miles against our original, early planning stages.