Ireland Vacations with myguideIreland » Ireland Travel

Free Rail Travel in Ireland for Tourists

seamus.white — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:02:56 +0000

From Yesterday, St. Patrick’s Day, all senior tourists (aged 66 or more) are entitled to travel on the Irish Rail Network completely free of charge.

The scheme, known as the “Golden Trekker” applies to train travel in Ireland on the Iarnród Éireann (Irish rail) network.

Golden Trekker Tickets take the form of a four-day Trekker ticket, or a sequence of four-day tracker tickets for longer stays, providing senior visitors with unrestricted rail travel within the republic of Ireland. Each four-day Trekker ticket is worth at least €100 ($140) per person.

The scheme makes Ireland vacations even more affordable for seniors. Any of our selfdrive Ireland vacation packages can be purchased excluding the rental car and you can get around using your free rail pass and take a bus or taxi to your hotel.
Alternatively choose from our list of hotels near Irish train stations to make that vacation even more convenient.

To get your Golden trekker ticket you must contact your local Tourism Ireland representatives:

For visitors from the USA the process is:

Call Tourism Ireland on 800 SHAMROCK (1-800-7426-7625) at least 48 hours prior to your arrival in Ireland, and provide the following information:

- First and last name
- Date of birth
- Passport Number
- Date you wish your Golden Trekker Pass to commence (each pass is valid for four days. If you intend to travel for longer periods, you have to apply for more than one pass.)
- Country of residence
- Email address and/or Postal address
- Origin of first rail journey

Once you have provided this information, your Tourism Ireland agent will process your application for a Golden Trekker, and a confirmation will be delivered to you in time for your trip to Ireland.

For visitors from other countries visit www.discoverireland.com for details.

Irish Hotels in Top 5 in Europe for Value

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:26:19 +0000

Hotels in Ireland are now among the cheapest throughout Europe with only Hungary, Poland & the Czech Republic having lower average rates. According to the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index, the average price of an Irish hotel room fell by 21% in 2009 with the cost per night falling from €101 to €80, the steepest decline in Western Europe.

The index also shows that Killarney hotels are the most expensive rooms in the country while the cheapest are in County Waterford. The largest percentage fall was in Galway where prices were highest in 2008 but fell by 24% in 2009.

The changes by town/city are set out in the following table:

	Room Price
Town/city	2009	2008	Change
Killarney	€106	€120	-12%
Galway	€105	€139	-24%
Sligo	€84	€86	-2%
Cork	€77	€111	-31%
Dublin	€76	€98	-23%
Limerick	€63	€76	-17%
Waterford	€61	€65	-6%

DestinationAverage price per room per night 2009Average price per room per night 2008% Change year-on-yearKillarney€106€120-12%Galway€105€139-24%Sligo€84€86-2%Cork€77€111-31%Dublin€76€98-23%Limerick€63€76-17%Waterford€61€65-6%

You can download the full report at hotels.com:
http://www.hotels.com/press/hotels.com-hotel-price-index-ireland-2009-h2.pdf

Departure Gates in Dublin Airport to be renumbered

seamus.white — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:40:36 +0000

In an effort to remove confusion for the passenger and allow for the additioanl boarding gate capacity that will come on stream in Terminal 2, all boarding gates at Dublin Airport will be renumbered on Wednesday next February 3 2010.

The alpha-numerical system based on the pier location will be abandoned for a more logical numeric sequence following consultation with airlines.

From start of business Wednesday morning for the first wave of departures the following will apply:

Pier D boarding gates will start from a 100 number range i.e. D60 will become 101
Pier A boarding gates will start from a 200 number range i.e. A1 will become 201
Pier B boarding gates will start from a 300 number range i.e. B22 will become 301

In time, when Pier E is fully operational all boarding gates there will start from a 400 number range.

It is not clear if the new terminal will continue starting at 500 or if it will operate it’s own independent system.

An airport spokesperson stated in a comment, “We believe that this change in gate numbering will provide a more intuitive way finding solution with logical pier/gate sequencing for passengers and is being introduced to improve the customer journey through Dublin Airport .”

Top 10 Hotels in Ireland

seamus.white — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:25:57 +0000

We are delighted to announce the top 10 hotels in Ireland rated by genuine Guests; Unlike some rating sites where anyone can set up an account, our ratings are gathered only from people who we can verify have stayed at the property in question….because they booked it through us!

For quality control purposes, we have been gathering information on the properties we sell since our foundation over 10 years ago. Properties are rated on 7 distinct criteria: hospitality, accommodation, food, exterior, facilities, location and value.
We have always displayed this information on the individual hotel page on our website, but we have never published a ranking showing the best hotels……until now:

The hotels with the highest ratings on our website are:

#1 Lough Eske Castle, County Donegal

#2 Glin Castle County Limerick

#3 Dromoland Castle, County Clare

#4 Westin Hotel, Dublin

#5 Waterford Castle, County Waterford

#6 Adare Manor, County Limerick

#7 Markree Castle, County Sligo

#8 Carrig House, County Kerry

#9 Ashford Castle, County Mayo

#10 Mount Juliet, County Kilkenny

Congratulations to Lough Eske Castle, a new hotel only open a couple of years, for achieving a level of consistency of quality and service that has propelled it to the top of the list.

Cork gets Top 10 listing in Lonely Planet

seamus.white — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:22:02 +0000

It is with great pride, here at myguideIreland, that we welcome the announcement that Cork City has been listed alongside well known cities in the USA, Canada, UAE and Japan in a new Lonely Planet guide for the top places to visit in 2010.

The “Best in Travel 2010″ published earlier this week lists Cork as the only city in Britain or Ireland among the best places to go and best things to do in the year ahead.
Cork was listed as a “top city” alongside Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Charleston in South Carolina, USA, Cuenca in Ecuador, Istanbul in Turkey , Kyoto in Japan, Lecce in Italy, Sarajevo, Singapore and Vancouver in Canada.

The guide describes Cork as being now “at the top of its game: sophisticated, vibrant and diverse”.

Tourism figures in Cork have strongly welcomed the inclusion of the city as being “a major boost”. This achievement brings Cork out from the shadow of Dublin as the city destination when tourists plan travel to Ireland and may be start of a movement that will see other commentators take notice and give Cork the recognistion it deserves.

US Dollar jumps 10% v Euro

seamus.white — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:18:09 +0000

We have just launched an initiative that sees the US Dollar jump in value by 10% when you book a vacation to Ireland;

At myguideIreland, we always pride ourselves on putting our Guests first and are always looking for ways to offer better value without compromising the service we deliver. As you are well aware, the dollar has recently hit annual lows against the Euro and many of our Guests and potential Guests have expressed their concern. With myguideIreland, you don’t have to worry.

Behind the scenes, over the last six months, our Finance Director has been applying great foresight in currency management so we are now in a position to provide our vacation products at a great value exchange rate. Resisiting the temptation to profit from this currency hedging, we are now offering an exchange rate of just $1.35 per Euro to any US Guest booking a vacation to Ireland. This “turns back the clock” to May of this year before the recent sharp declines in the Dollar’s value.

We buy all our accommodation, rental cars, activities, tours etc in Euros so why pay $1.50 when you can book & pay now and get Euro priced products for just $1.35. We can only guarantee the exchange rate until Novemebr 14th at which point we will revert to the prevailing retail bank rate.

Yet another enjoyable Ireland Vacation from myguideIreland

robert.carpenter — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:02:24 +0000

Here at myguideIreland we take great pride in providing a professional and personal service to our Guests when they travel to Ireland. We hear about great experiences almost daily from our Guests and we just wanted to share (ok maybe show off) one of our latest responses to a wonderful Ireland vacation provided by one of our most experienced Ireland guides, Genevieve .

Genevieve – Diana and I returned last Friday from our trip to Ireland (already filled out my survey from myguideIreland on line) and I wanted to send you a quick thank you note.
We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect (which I will give you full credit for!). All of the travel details worked out from getting the car to the B&Bs and Ballyseede Castle. Ballyseede was a wonderful experience, I am really glad we stayed there two nights. We stayed in the Coghill room and it was amazing. We ate at the bar the first night and then in the dining room for dinner our second night – all of the food including the breakfasts was delicious.

We stayed at White House B&B in Blarney – excellent and the best overall B&B; Dromcloc House near Bantry – beautiful location and very nice folks; Purple Heather near Killarney which was nice but we probably wouldn’t stay there again and Roncalli House in Galway which was very nice (tiniest bathroom but it worked!).
We visited Waterford Crystal, Blarney Castle, Kinsale, Bantry, Healy Pass in Beara Peninsula, Killarney with a trap ride through the Gap of Dunloe and a boat trip to Ross Castle (perfectly wonderful!), Dingle Peninsula which was amazing, Cliffs of Moher and Galway.
Your advice and support was outstanding and I am heartily recommending myguideIreland to all of my friends and family – don’t know how our trip could have gone any better. Thank you again for helping make our 30th anniversary everything I hoped it would be.
Please pass this note along to your coworkers who also helped us.
Dennis Slevin

Four Star Hotels in Ireland -The official List

admin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:35:13 +0000

Following last week’s listing of 5 Star Hotels in Ireland , the full Fáilte Ireland list of Irish 4 Star hotels is below.

Five Star Hotels in Ireland – The Full Official List

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:08:05 +0000

We often get questions about the official Star Ratings of hotels in Ireland.
It is often much easier to find the many other ratings that are voted for by hotel Guests including on sites like Tripadvisor and, indeed, on our own website from genuine Guests that have booked the hotel through us.

Today I got the official list from Fáilte Ireland and decided that it would be a good idea to share with our readers. I’ll start with the five star properties and list other classifications in the coming days:

Saint Patrick’s day is Ireland Week

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:46:27 +0000

St. Patrick’s Day isn’t until Tuesday next March 17, but the USA is feeling a wee bit Irish already, and you certainly don’t need to travel to Ireland for Ireland’s national day to experience some St. Patrick’s day fun.

Known in parts of the USA as Saint Paddy’s day or St. Patty’s day, the celebration of Irishness sees events take place far beyond the 24 hour confines of the day itself.

While New York and Boston are famous for their St. Patrick’s day celebrations, many cities in the USA celebrate St. Patrick’s day as part of Irish Week.

Today’s Seattle Times outlines a list of festivities taking place in the Washington state city over the week:

Irish Week

Irish Week Proclamation Luncheon:Noon Friday, F.X. McRory’s Steak, Chop & Oyster House, 419 Occidental Ave. S., Seattle; $ 30, advance registration required, space limited (206-361-1713 or www.irishclub.org).

Green stripe laying:Truck leaves 6:30 p.m. from F.X. McRory’s, 419 Occidental Ave. S., Seattle, to start stripe laying at Fourth Avenue and Jefferson Street at 7 p.m. Friday.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade:12:30 p.m. Saturday, on Fourth Avenue from Jefferson Street northward to Westlake Park (between Pike and Pine streets), Seattle.

Irish Festival:: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday, Seattle Center, free. 206-684-7200. More information: 206-242-5140 or www.irishclub.org.

Other St. Patrick’s Day events

St. Patty’s Day Dinner:Comerford Irish Dancers, Irish stew, green beer, 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Southeast Seattle Senior Center, 4655 S. Holly St., Seattle; $15, reservations preferred (206-722-0317).

Friends of St. Patrick Banquet: Black-tie dinner and dance with Irish entertainment, 6 p.m. Saturday, Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Ave., Seattle; $95, reservations required, space limited (425-290-7839 or www.fosp.org).

St. Patrick’s Day, Meeker Mansion:Corned beef, cabbage and a jig, noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Meeker Mansion, 312 Spring St., Puyallup; $8. 253-848-1770 or www.meekermansion.org.

St. Patrick’s Day Dash: 4-mile run with costume contest, kids’ Leprechaun Lap, post-race bash, 8:30 a.m. Sunday, no day-of-race registration. 800-343-4411 or stpatsdash.com.

St. Patrick’s Day Brunch Cruise:Family cruise tour with Irish brunch buffet, 11 a.m. Sunday, Waterways Cruises, 2501 N. Northlake Way, Seattle; $19-$49, reservations required by 5 p.m. Friday (206-223-2060 or www.waterwayscruises.com).

St. Patty’s Day walk: Music, walking laps around the track, sponsored by Seattle Parks and Recreation Sound Steps walking program, 10 a.m. Sunday, West Seattle Stadium, 4432 35th Ave. S.W., Seattle; $10 minimum suggested donation (206-684-4664).

St. Patty’s Day Run: 5K run and costume contest, post-race party, 9 a.m. Saturday, Thea Park, 535 Dock St., Tacoma; $30-$32.50, register 7-8:30 a.m. day of race. 253-862-8890