So much to do, so little time.

Goose
Aug 31, 2017
3 min read

I asked Jake what topic I should focus on today and he said to talk about picking things to do and see. It seemed very fitting because it ties in so well with yesterday's topic of doing your research. My primary source of research is actually Pinterest. You would be surprised how many pins there are with "hidden gems" or "sites to see" in whatever location you choose to vacation in. I have a whole album dedicated to those pins, places I have gone and places I plan to go to. After you have found a few things you absolutely have to see while on vacation, narrow down your timeline. That is not to say you have to have an itinerary set for every minute of the day, BUT you do want to have a general idea of where you are going/what you are doing so you aren't wandering around aimlessly. For me, I end up finding places I want to visit by just seeing them in pictures, on movies, or friend recommendations. After I pick a few places, I compare it to my timeline and see if it is manageable to reach each location within the allotted time. You don't want to spend ALL of your time en route to each destination, you want time to explore as well.

The best example I have is the trip we took to Ireland back in May. The country itself is not that big to get around but we did not want to be rushing to see everything. We just have the mentality of "oh well, guess we have to come back", twist my arm about it. But we picked the major sites such as the Cliffs of Moher, city life in Dublin, Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle, the countryside. There were other places that we wanted to see like the Ring of Kerry or the city of Cork, but there just was not enough time, not if we did not want to be in the car majority of our trip. So I literally opened a map of Ireland and created a route for us to drive that would mitigate the driving time as well as enabling us to see those specific places. I checked the mileage/car time spent in between each city and place. We flew into Dublin so we stayed there for two nights. While there, we ate at some local restaurants like the Hairy Lemon and saw a dinner show at Celtic Nights (so much fun, check out the videos page for a clip). Since Dublin is on the east coast and the Cliffs of Moher are on the west coast (thanks Joe), I found us a middle ground to stay at that would break up the drive. That middle ground was dead center of Ireland in a little town called Athlone. We spent two nights there. The first day, we drove to the Cliffs making a pit stop at an old monastery called Clonmacnoise, then straight to the Cliffs. From Athlone to the Cliffs directly was a 2 hour drive. The second day, we explored Athlone and one of the oldest pubs called Sean's Bar, dating back to 900 A.D. (found it on Pinterest). After leaving Athlone, we drove up to Belfast, which is technically in Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. That was about a 3 hour drive but we made a stop in Enniskillen for lunch. While in Belfast, we drove down the Coastal Causeway stopping at Dunluce Castle ruins and Giant's Causeway. We explored Belfast on the second day then on the drive back to Dublin, we stopped at Tollymore Forest Park. One word-- GORGEOUS. They have different marked trails and just wonderful scenery and nature. Continuing the drive to Dublin, we stopped by a small town called Dundalk for lunch and found castle ruins off the beaten path called Castleroche. Then we spent the last day and a half in Dublin where we went to the Guiness factory and drank lots and lots of beer. Check out my Ireland album in gallery to see pictures of these amazing places. If you click on the pictures, I put descriptions of the locations and ticket purchasing information.

I am more than happy to help anyone create a manageable route or timeline, in fact I love doing that research. Please let me know if I can help you! But for now, enjoy your long Labor Day weekends and Sláinte! (pronounced slancha, meaning "good health" or the modern day "cheers" in Irish Gaelic)

Goose, out.

Link to interactive map: https://drive.google.com/openid=1aEqkcucUspIPlTQcVOyTbtB79sI&usp=sharing