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Forget the tour and do Ireland your way |
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Written by Ann Allen, KRT
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Monday, 03 July 2006 |
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 KILLARNEY, Ireland — Imagine Ireland in summer, misty and magical. The views are spectacular — until you turn from that scenic overlook and get a whiff of diesel fumes from your idling tour bus.
Instead of relaxing with your family, you face a crowd of strangers and a tight schedule.
Forget that. There's another way to go.
Instead of booking a tour, you can lease your own private cottage, rent a car and have it your way.
I did this recently with my family, and what a great time we had. Our cottage was cheaper and more private than a motel room or bed-and-breakfast, plus it provided the roominess of a house and the practicality of a kitchen. Our car gave us the freedom to go whenever and wherever we wanted. We whisked past the parked tour buses and returned each evening to our own cozy retreat, complete with easy chairs and gas fireplace.
We chose Killarney, in County Kerry, for our base, right on the famous Ring of Kerry scenic highway in southwest Ireland. I checked on the Internet for rental houses and quickly stumbled on that language thing: The Irish call them "self-catering cottages." No problem, though. The Irish Tourist Board has 520 choices for self-catering places in County Kerry alone, including 120 around Killarney.
 The tourist board rates these accommodations and doesn't list places that aren't tourist-friendly. Prices vary; you can book online. You can book your car, too, and pick it up at the airport.
We got a cottage on the grounds of the Castlerosse Hotel, which gave us access to the hotel amenities, plus the expertise of hotel staff. Our place had a porch with a picnic table, two bedrooms, two baths, kitchen and a great room overlooking woods and a golf course. The hotel dining room offered a postcard-worthy view of the lakes and mountains of Killarney National Park, plus decent food when we didn't feel like cooking or choosing among Killarney's wide variety of restaurants.
Our typical days involved either driving around the region, exploring the national park or shopping and pubbing in Killarney, a town of some 12,000 people (not counting tourists) reputed to have more than 60 pubs.
My favorite spot in Killarney was a crowded, one-room store called Variety Sounds ("The Complete Music Shop").
 Laid-back proprietor Pat O'Connor offered a selection of Irish tunes on CD and plenty of instruments for making the music yourself _ everything from harmonicas and accordions to bagpipes and that intriguing, flat Irish drum, called a bodhran, that often carries the rhythm in traditional Irish bands.
My son bought an $80 bodhran and got a free lesson tossed in from O'Connor, who nonchalantly picked it up and began beating it with his palm and a little stick. Just like that, we were transported to a long-ago age of druids and bards, feeling the spirit of Ireland come alive in his hands. It was pure magic.
Poets for centuries have tried to capture the heart of Ireland. I'm no poet, but I'd sum it up like this: It's old and it's haunted and everything's full to brimming with life. It has its own fresh scent.
We wandered the national park and saw evergreens that were easily 5 or 6 feet in diameter. The entire forest floor was covered in ivy and moss. In the early morning, we saw a big Irish deer browsing for its breakfast, and in the afternoon we climbed to the towering Torc Waterfall, then poked around a half-acre of spring-blooming rock garden at a 19th-century mansion called Muckross House.
Ross Castle, another local landmark, was open for a tour that took us back to the 16th century, and another day trip took us to a 5,000-year-old standing stone structure called a "portal dolmen."
"Old" in Ireland is a lot older than "old" in America.
We also drove around the southwest coast, where we saw dozens of tumbledown rock structures _ ancient round forts, tower castles and little homes that were abandoned during the Great Famine of the 1840s, forgotten dwellings my kids dubbed "unpotato houses." We saw seascapes that mixed surf and stone into a kaleidoscope of sparkling saltwater spray. We saw dozens of tiny black-faced lambs and their shaggy, plump parents.
We drove narrow streets through quaint towns busy with pedestrians. We followed at least a half-dozen farm tractors down winding rural roads lined with stone walls and no shoulders. Driving on the left provided a mild but constant adrenaline buzz and sometimes quite a jolt when a truck loomed up and zoomed past. But having our own car let us stop whenever we got an itch to explore. Anybody could say, "Pull over!" and it was done.
Ireland is a great place to walk, to ride and to sit in pubs with friends and family. Enjoy it however you like, whenever you like. It's a joy.
RENT A CAR, RENT A COTTAGE
- You'll save money and headaches if you book your car and cottage online before you leave for your trip. Here's how:
- Most American car rental firms operate in Ireland: www.hertz.ie, www.budget.ie, www.thrifty.ie, www.avis.ie. We used Dan Dooley, an Irish company, www.dan-dooley.ie. You can pick up your car at the airport; you'll need your driver's license and a major credit card.
- To rent a cottage, go to www.ireland.ie, Ireland's official tourist site. Follow the accommodation links for self-catering cottages in the town or county you want to visit.
- Our cottage was at the Castlerosse Hotel in Killarney, www.castlerossehotel.com.
THINGS TO KNOW
- Renting a car and cottage will give you some insights into everyday Irish life.
- The Irish drive on the left; the frequent roundabouts go clockwise. For pedestrians, traffic comes from the right.
- The driver sits on the right side of the car; stick-shifts are left-handed. Most roads are narrow. Plan to rent a small car with automatic transmission.
- Gasoline costs about $4.80 a gallon.
- Prices are in euros. Credit card companies often charge extra for paying in euros. In other words, things may cost more than you think.
- Prices include tax, some of which is refundable to foreign tourists.
- Grocery stores charge for tote bags. Take your own.
- Our Irish cottage kitchen had a gadget that boiled water for tea in a minute flat, but no coffeemaker. Our little refrigerator was just countertop height.
- We had a combination washer-dryer (all one unit) with a clothes container not much bigger than a lettuce spinner. ("Use half-load," the instructions said.) It washed and spun, but we never got it to dry.
- Our cottage electricity cost extra, about $6 a day.
- The hot water only heated overnight. If you wanted more hot water during the day, you had to give it a boost.
- Most cottages aren't air-conditioned; the Irish open their windows.
- The weather changes quickly. A hooded jacket beats hauling an umbrella.
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