# southern Ireland in may



## kentucky (May 1, 2005)

hello everyone

any ideas where to stay and what to do better if its near pub and restauant?

going on the daily mail deal cost £100 was this cheap?

the ferry lands at about 5.30 so we though first night near Dublin this will be first trip away 
apart from Peterborough which is only an Hour from where we live and wife said we can always come home if things go wrong

thanks all


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## 89987 (May 1, 2005)

Hello Kentucky

I really don't think you'll have any problems whatsoever with your trip to Ireland. I speak from experience, the Irish are the friendlyest most hospitable people I have ever met.

Two things to watch - (1) The weather in Ireland and especially in May changes very rapidly. One minute it's sunny, next it's peeing it down. Take lots of waterproofs. (2) The roads are not too good unless you get on the new ones which are not too common. Lots of bends.

You don't say if you've booked sites or going wild. In Ireland the pubs in the country are self owned, so the landlord has full say over the car park. Don't be shy to ask to park up overnight in the pub car park when you buy a Guiness, you're sure to be welcome.

My fav areas are - The ring of Kerry in the west (long trip of spectaclar coastline with lots of wild camping spots) and also Wexford area (don't miss the Celtic Heritage Park).

Have fun.
Tá failte romhat.

Drifter


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

A couple of websites which may help:
http://www.motorhome-list.org.uk/ireland.htm
and
http://www.motorcaravanclub.com

HTH. Enjoy the planning as well as the actual trip.


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## dodger148 (May 9, 2005)

We did the Daily Mail offer last year, and it was a good deal, but cheaper than this years, and didnt have a time limit. There were no problems with the deal. This years recent offer was time limited and we couldnt fit it in.

Regarding Ireland you have to assume weather similar to ours.
We love Ireland, I worked over there for about 6 years but you have to be selective on the roads you choose. 

Last year cost me a new suspension strut on the van, which fortunately lasted till we got home. 

The site fees are higher than here, but not prohibitive. The Ireland Sites Guide cann be got off the internet for free but if you get one off the ferry or in Ireland will cost you around 3 euros. It is worth getting from the Irish Tourist Board.


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## 89425 (May 23, 2005)

We've been all around Ireland. The Ring of Kerry is bar far the best area. Get off the tourist roads and get down in to the valley's, its just spectacular (and that’s from a guy who lives in the wilds of the country!). Loads of places to park up, including a lots of ‘rural’ beaches, Found loads of fire type hydrants for water with taps on them.

There was quite a lot of wild camps by the cities, but on our last visit there has been an increase in no overnight camping signs (reiterate by the cities only), but around the cities they do suffer from travelling families, would you believe Irish decent!

Read in a local paper that a load of these travelling families took over a church carpark (lots of churches over there have carparks), and when asked to move on they wanted something like £400 for each family to move on. The church wardens told them they had no spare money, anyway they moved on a day or so later.

Before you get worried about the negative aspects I have to point out, you will have to search hard to come across that sort of behavier.

Maps. We spent a fortune on maps. Eventually found a very good one which has all the small roads as well. Its published by Ordnance Survey Called ‘The Complete Road Atlas of Ireland’ 3rd Edition. Scale 1:210 ,000 ISBN 1-903974-06-2 Measures about 9” x 10” and is steel ring bound. Whilst the map is very good, sometimes its hard to differentiate the size of minor roads.

The roads as posted above are from one extreme to the other, with little in between, more 'dog rough' than smooth. On the larger roads there are picnic spots with tables etc, but sadly with height barriers.

As pointed out, the ferry gets in early evening, however there is a campsite over the main river bridge in Wexford. We didn’t actually use that one, but went up the coast a bit and found one which charged us about £4 which included a hook-up as well! On the way back there is a small carpark which overlooks the docks which is very handy. If full, it seems accepted practice to park along the road with all the lorries etc.

Beware… Most of the signs are on single poles which are highly attractive to the mischief makers (or the wind gets very strong) as they get turned around quite a bit. We ended up driving in circles one day looking for a location. That was my justification for GPS.


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## dodger148 (May 9, 2005)

LOL - your comment on the Ring Of Kerry reminds me, Forgot about the narrow road and all the coaches going one way to save passing each other - what did I do, yes youve guessed

One other thing, some road signs in miles, and some in Kilometres, mainly the newer roads with the latter


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## kentucky (May 1, 2005)

*Thanks All*

Hi everyone and many thanks for all the info I am looking forward to our first ever proper trip away in our new toy
Will be going to Peterborough and is it worth staying for the 4 nights
which club site will anybody be using?
hope everone is as friendly in person
best regards to all 
Geoff


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## 89425 (May 23, 2005)

Regarding the RoK, I think the coaches go anticlockwise, and they DO own the road, so don't try to argue with them. 

If you do get the map I sugested, I can forward some (non gps) references as I did mark a few on our map.


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## 88838 (May 9, 2005)

Averywildwildcamper said:


> Regarding the RoK, I think the coaches go anticlockwise, and they DO own the road, so don't try to argue with them.


Yes - to both comments, 
also noticed a lot of height barriers going up, especially at places like RoK, altho you can try the coach park areas.
8)


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