Travel Guide: Ireland & Scotland

Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland Trip

This was a 3-week trip back in 2017.

Safe travels,

Esther xx

Scotland August 27-September 2

Note: It was freezing the whole time that we were there, and we went in August. Recommend that you take a packable jacket or something similar, and bring layers.

2 people on this leg of the trip.

We didn’t have a car (nor for Ireland. V expensive for under 25s)

Day 1 Sunday, Aug 27 ◆ AirBnB

• Arriving at midnight

  • Airbnb Ian and Emma:

  • Good location, cheap, nice. Recommend!

    • Note: at the time we travelled, airbnb was cheaper than hosteling. It might be different at different times of year, but its something to consider

Day 2, Monday, Aug 28 ◆ AirBnB Ian and Emma

• Explore Edinburgh, Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh Uni, etc

• Fringe Festival

• Watched Fireworks from Calton hill

Day 3, Tuesday, Aug 29 ◆ AirBnB Ian and Emma

• Arthur’s Seat and Holyrood Park

• Surgeon Hall museum

  • incredible! Highly recommend

• Jameson Whisky experience

• Script Concert at Usher Hall

Day 4-6, Wednesday, Aug 30 - Friday, Sept 1

• Highlands Tour

  • Recommend if you're short on time and don't have a car. You see the beautiful landscape, the famous monuments, a lot of history. Driver talks all about history, legends, culture etc throughout the drive. We had a great experience

  • We had a good experience with this company

• Day 1: Loch Luss, Loch Lommond, Eilean Donan Castle, Glen Coe, Isle of Skye

• Day 2: Full day exploring Isle of Skye, Portree Town

  • Museum of Highland Life: Highly recommend. Excellent museum

• Day 3: Loch Ness, Culloden, Balnuaran of Clava, Pitlochry Town

  • Outlander fans: you can visit the ring of stones, and culloden, etc!

Day 6, Friday, Sept 1 ◆ Airbnb Esther

• Return from tour late in the afternoon

• Dinner at Chabad of Edinburgh (the Weinmans)

  • 12 Blacket place, Edinburgh EH9 1RL

Day 7, Shabbos, Sept 2 ◆ Airbnb

• Kiddush with Chabad

• Free walking tour of Edinburgh

• Walk around the city

  • If you have time, go to the National Museum of Scotland, it’s free. We heard it’s excellent but didn’t have time.

• Motzash: night out

Suggestions:

Visit the writer’s museum in Edinburgh.

Also, there’s a kosher restaurant and shluchim in Glasgow

Ireland September 3-10

Day 1: Sunday ◆ Ashfield House

• Land in Dublin early a.m.

• Take bus to city center

• Ashfield House Hostel

  • HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Clean, professional, normal, excellent location, incredibly helpful staff, free breakfast etc

• Explore Dublin. Trinity College, Grafton Street, St. Stephen’s Green, Oscar Wilde house etc

Day 2: Monday ◆ Ashfield House

• Kilkenny Tour

  • Booked through hostel.

  • Tour Kilkenny town, Kilkenny castle, monastery, double lakes, visited the sheep dog farmer

Day 3: Tuesday ◆ Neptune (bad. We don’t recommend!)

• Killarney

  • Cute town.

  • Killarney national park--pretty!

  • Soccer game in a local pub

Day 4: Wednesday ◆ Savoy Hostel (decent)

• Cliffs of Moher

  • Recommendation: don’t come here on a tour, which only gives you 2 hours to go up, take pics and come down. Give yourself a good 5 hours or more and do the full walk--go all the way to the end of the cliffs. Worth it!

• Galway

  • Cute town to walk around and explore. Great pubs, nightlife etc.

Day 5: Thursday ◆ Ashfield

• Explore Galway

• Back to Dublin

• TBH dont remember what we did ths day :)

Day 6: Friday ◆ AirBnB Esther

• Trinity college: Book of Kells, old library.

  • Kells exhibit is okay, the library is super cool though!

• Dublin Castle (amazing!)

• Guinness Storehouse

  • Cute, IMO overpriced and not necessary, very touristy

• Dublin’s Writers Museum

  • Recommend if you’re interested in literature/history/writers. Great! Don’t need more than 1.5-2 hours

  • Also, the Dublin museum next door is free entry, you can go on shabbat

• Friday night dinner at Lents shluchim

Day 7: Shabbat ◆ AirBnB Esther

• Made a mini meal

• Free walking tour of Dublin

  • There are free walking tours on the north and south side of the city so you can do one at 11 then the other at 3 if you don't want to “waste” Shabbat.

• Went out at night

Ireland Notes

• Honestly we didn’t really plan this, we just took it as we went--so if you want an itinerary that maximizes your time in Ireland, this probably isn’t it :)

• Beware of bus schedules; they aren’t always accurate. One ticket agent gave us a schedule from 2015 and we missed the bus--we had a few stories like ths

• Shluchim

  • Lent in Dublin

• Lots of kosher in Dublin

  • Bretzel Bakery has kosher pastries and bread (under Rabbi Lent’s hechsher.) They run out pretty early in the day though

  • Supermarket in the area I believe called Churchtown with a kosher section

  • There’s a grocery with a big kosher aisle about 30 mins away from city center, dont recall the name

• Jewishireland.org

Other People’s Hostel Recommendations

Dublin:

• Generator Hostel Dublin--highly recommended by multiple people

• StayCity Aparthotels

Galway:

• Savoy Hostel

Other People’s Recommendations

• Highlights were Galway, Dingle Peninsula, and Kinsale

• Places like the Dingle Peninsula or ring of Kerry would need a car, though there are probably tour buses that do those things as well, but not with the freedom to explore that a car provides.

• You could technically skip Cork (cute but busy trafficy city) if you're short on time and want to avoid heading south

• Visit the GAA stadium (Gaelic Athletic Association)

• If there’s a Hurling game on, go see it!!! (Hurling is Irleland’s sport, its crazy)

• Cork

• Blarney Castle

• Dublin Bay

• County Kerry

• Wicklow Mountains

• Northern Ireland:

  • Belfast, Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, giant's causeway, Bushmills whiskey Brewery

• Sadly we didnt get to do it, but many people say its a highlight. Go!

• Note: they use different currency