The Magic of Ireland Kid Friendly Vacation

One day is enough to see the significant Dublin monuments, especially when you are alongside your children. It is good to have a lens from which to view the city, and today that will be provided by James Joyce and Oscar Wilde.  You will not need to have read their works to explore the city, and with these authors providing a cue you go exploring, you will first stop Trinity College and the legendary Book of Kells. In St Patrick’s Cathedral, your guide will bring up stories from 1,500 years ago, while down O’Connell Street you hear the craic, or humorous chat, that Dublin is known for. Move next to look through a lens of history that is a little more evocative for the children, that of the Vikings that were here more than a millennia ago.

Dublin’s compact size means it is easy to get around, and you will not need to rush between the sights. You can choose to visit Kilmainham Gaol in the afternoon, or skip the spooky prison and head straight to one of two legendary places, the Old Jameson Distillery, and the Guinness Storehouse. While only the adults can drink famous alcohol, both places have created educational exhibitions for children. They can smell and feel their way through the whiskey or stout process, then taste the non-alcoholic versions. Spend the evening in an old pub, experiencing the storytelling tradition, tales of Celtic warriors, and fairies making this a great evening for the kids. The tales are unbelievable at first, but the cadence and skill of the seanchai, or storyteller, makes any fairy come alive.

Escape from the city center, and it is only 30 minutes before you are walking along the waters of the Irish Sea. Quiet beaches are back-dropped by picturesque villages where the townhouses are now home to fish and chip shops as well as small cafes. There is so much space on the golden sand that you have space and freedom to come together as a family. You can take a local train out to these beaches then return to the city and go searching for wild deer. Choose to walk or bicycle through the park, perhaps the kids trying to run and chase the deer who elegantly skip off into the distance.

Driving across Ireland, you will have the chance to break up the day with a couple of famous Irish stops. Perhaps go to kiss the Blarney Stone, which will give you the gift of the gab according to folklore. The experience involves leaning over backward to, yes, kiss a magical stone. Stop at a small village for a hearty lunch, then continue to County Galway and you can either go straight to the castle or take some time in the most Irish of all cities, Galway itself.

Bohemian lanes of bright colors and strange accents will greet you at street corners, castle ruins abound and fishing boats lull in the harbor. This will be a perfect place to walk with an ice cream cone, perhaps sit on a bench with world-renowned fish and chips, or simply walk around and use all your senses. Your accommodations are nearby, a castle from a fairytale looking out over the Emerald Isle. It will seem as if you have stepped into Ireland’s medieval era and the kids will love checking out all the castle’s features, from the slits for archers to the dungeon behind bars. Dinner at the castle’s restaurant is included, and it also feels like a medieval affair.

A relaxed morning is yours as you enjoy breakfast, hopefully outside on the terrace, to give the kids some time to explore the castle grounds. Then onto a boat, as you take a ferry onto the Irish Sea, searching for the telltale signs of dolphins and seals. The seals usually bask on rocks along the shore, but you can also see their heads bopping up and down through the water. Dolphin sightings are less predictable but still common here, a pod of fins rising and falling to get the heart fluttering. Spend the day on Inishbofin, a small island of Bronze Age remains a Cromwellian Fort and a treasure hunt in the style of pirates. A Spanish pirate was once marooned here, and it is said that his ghost lives on. Make of that what you will, but there is no doubting Inishbofin’s otherworldly feel, along with its vast open fields and coastlines you can discover.

Roll out from the castle and find the Ireland you likely imagined. Fields of emerald and lime are set like a patchwork separated by dry stone walls with flecks of sheep in the distance, along with strange rocks and a village. There are no vehicles, and really nothing but landscapes, and this will make for a memorable bicycle ride. If your family is feeling adventurous, you can ride to the port of Roundstone, or you could be driven here in the morning before cycling in the afternoon. Once there, you can bang on drums and learn the best of Irish tradition, this being the place of the bodhran. It’s an iconic Celtic drum that most kids want to take home.

From here, you can cycle along the coast to Ballyconneely Beach, a serene stretch of sand that is usually without footprints. The waters are cold here, but the atmosphere is warm, loads of space for kids to run and make sandcastles and do whatever else children like to do on the beach. You might even go for a horseback ride here, a leisurely walk, and trot running onwards across the sand. Cycling back to the castle, you may begin to realize it has been a long day, but there are plenty of memories and a happy lethargy to take in to dinner.

Kylemore Abbey stands dramatically on a green hill in County Galway, hidden away above a river. It looks more like a palace than an abbey, a majestic work that seems many centuries older than when it was built in 1920. Spend the morning learning about the Benedictine community here before visiting a sheep farm nearby for a chance to learn about shepherding with sheepdogs, an activity that is tailored for children to get involved. Lunch is nearby with a seafood feast with local shellfish farmers for a chance for kids to try foods they may never have contemplated eating before. After lunch, you are transferred to Cong and the second of your castles, a five-star property even more imposing than the last. If the County Galway castle evokes the medieval and fairytales, the castle in Cong makes it feel like you are princes and princesses or a rich emerald land.

Spend the day on the coast and drive to towering cliffs and look out onto the Atlantic, waves crashing loudly down below. Spot rocks standing isolated in the ocean, like fingers left behind by a giant. Get to know Joyce Country as you travel along Loughs Mask and Corrib, sweeping vistas and pastures to one side as salty sea air perforates the nostrils. Take a picnic lunch with you and choose where you dine, perhaps on a cliff overlooking the water, if the wind is not chilly, but also a park or fishing village seafront. You have got all day to explore, and that exploring does not stop back in Cong, where the village is a charm, and the castle has many nooks and crannies. Dinner is an old-world affair, complete with dancing and singing, and all those Gaelic quirks that Ireland is all about.

It is a short drive back to Shannon, a regional airport that makes for a more leisurely departure from the Emerald Isle. It is a far change from busy international airports like Heathrow, with nothing but a small terminal and a couple of planes on the runway. From Shannon Airport, you will fly to Dublin and meet your international departure.