Dreaming of the Emerald Isle*

*Note: it is an isle, not an aisle. Isles are found in a body of water; aisles are found in a grocery store or theatre. Isle is short for "island," which does not have an A at the beginning. Hope that helps.

In April of last year, I mentioned that Steve and I were talking about taking a trip to Ireland. Well, we spent the afternoon today with a travel agent, sucking his brain for all his insight into destinations and travel packages.

While we could have built a custom package, neither of us feels confident enough to drive in Ireland, and neither of us really has the time to plan a full itinerary. So we've decided to go with a package and will head over at the end of April this year.

Here are the highlights of the 12-day trip we've selected:

View Ireland Tour 2013 in a larger map

Dublin - St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Phoenix Park, the Georgian Squares, and Trinity College (The Book of Kells).

Belfast - City Hall and Queen’s University

Giant's Causeway - a UNESCO World Heritage site - a geological wonder formed by huge basalt columns.

Londonderry/Derry - Walking tour along the City Walls including views of St. Columb’s Cathedral

Omagh, Connemara, Galway, Limerick
Adare (Ireland’s prettiest village with its thatched cottages.)
Ring of Kerry
Blarney Kiss the Blarney Stone at the Blarney Castle.

If you click to view the map in a separate window, you can see details of each stop.

The site that I am most excited about is the Giant's Causeway. But there are a few locations that we'll be missing, most notably Inishmore Island (in the Aran Islands). With our time constraints, we could not find a package that included both the Giant's Causeway and Inishmore. In fact, we couldn't find any packages that did so. (Very few include much of Northern Ireland.)

It may mean we have to take another trip back to Ireland. I'll keep you posted.

The Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Ireland
Photo by Flickr user Code Poet