I have happy memories of my two weeks in Ireland. It was a great place to ride for more than one reason. The people are wonderful, the scenery is beautiful, and the roads are lightly traveled. When I talked to locals - non-cycling locals that is - they always told me that there was too much traffic on their very narrow roads for good cycling. But, as we all know, traffic is relative. There weren't any roads that I rode on that I would consider too busy to be comfortable. That said I would not have been happy riding in central Dublin. But then again, I'm not happy riding in the center of Boston either.
One thing that you should consider if you're thinking of touring in Ireland is that most of the roads are very narrow and for the most part there are no shoulders. I didn't find this to be a problem, although I'd imagine it could be a challenge if there was a lot of traffic. Not much traffic, so no shoulders was not an issue for me.I originally had planned to ride about 50 miles a day, but after some thought adjusted the mileage downwards to 40 miles a day. I've always thought that 50 miles was an ideal daily mileage, but I'm really happy I made the change on this trip. I was always relaxed, never feeling like I had to push on when I really wanted to stop and take pictures and talk to people. And I was finished riding by 3 almost every day. That gave me time to relax, take a shower, sit and work on my journal, wander and explore the town that was my home for the night. I was a happy cyclist!
The planned tour worked well for me, but if you're looking for the freedom of deciding where (and how far) to ride each day, Ireland is an easy country for a show up and just ride tour. There are B&Bs and hostels available all over the country, and unlike places where you have to know where the B&Bs can be found, these are very well-signed. And since it's a simple matter of buying an inexpensive train ticket for your bike, the trains can be used as an alternate mode of transportation when you want to avoid urban cycling (as I did leaving Derry and entering Belfast) or when you want to quickly get to another area of the island. I really wish this roll-on-board option was available on more trains in North America - I'm sure I'd make use of it!
On the reservations front - I think I'd be inclined to plan ahead and make reservations if I was traveling in an area that was a tourist magnet, or if I was traveling in high season (which I believe is July and August). There was only one night on my tour where the B&B I stayed in was full, but it's possible that was due to my visiting in September rather than in one of the more popular months. I did two tours this year, and both were planned out ahead of time with reservations set before I left home - my Hawaii tour which I planned myself, and this tour which was planned for me. The two tours were very different, and I enjoyed both of them. If I'd been able to stay in B&Bs every night in Hawaii that would have been my first choice as it was in Ireland.
A couple of plugs for my favorite B&Bs: My favorite room was at the Island View House B&B in Donegal Town, and my favorite hostess was Helen Dunlop at Ballyness B&B in Bushmills. All of my B&Bs were good places to stay (the names can be found in the journal entries for each day), but these two were my favorites.On the travel front - that is, the getting to the tour travel - my first day was a very long travel day. I flew from Boston to Dublin, took a bus to Belfast to meet Tony, and then we drove to my first B&B in Belcoo. I was pretty much sleepwalking by the end of the day - but I'll do the same thing again on my next trip. I'm not one of those people who happily assemble my bike in the airport and ride out. I usually plan for a non-traveling day as my first day on tour. I use that day to assemble my bike, get acclimated, do a little riding, and rest. I considered staying in Dublin the first day, but then I would have had another travel day to get to my bike start location. The long travel day worked well for me, as did the non-traveling first day.
I did have some food issues on this trip, but they really should be blamed on the fact that I spent most of my time in very small towns, not that there is an issue with the food in Ireland. I had the same issues on my trip across the United States in 2002. I tend to eat a diet that is a combination of vegetarian and fish, leaning more heavily to the vegetarian side. I could get vegetarian dishes in most places - but they typically only included vegetables with no protein source and no grains. And I do need more than vegetables! Of course once I got to Belfast and Dublin this food issue absolutely disappeared. Fish was readily available everywhere, and was very good. And yes, you could get non-fried fish - it's not all fish and chips! Most pubs served lunch and dinner, but pubs were out for me. I'm very picky about the air that I breathe, and I refuse to sit in a place that reeks of smoke. There were no non-smoking areas in pubs (yes, I'm spoiled by where I live!), so I didn't eat there.
The other food issues revolved around my usual touring snack foods, which typically include fruit, nuts, energy bars and Gatorade. Fruit was readily available, and once I figured out that peanuts were often behind the counter in small stores I was all set there. I never found energy bars other than cereal bars in any stores, and that surprised me. I eventually figured out that Kellogg's Elevenses bars were good, so that filled in the energy bar gap - but next time I'll consider bringing a larger stash of my favorite energy bars with me. I never found Gatorade, but I could usually find Powerade. Of the three available flavors, I only liked one, so I was forever on the hunt for blue Powerade. I must have done something right on the food front though, because I managed to maintain my weight on this trip.
Let's see - the money... as I mentioned earlier, I was juggling two forms of currency - pounds sterling, and euros. I came home with some of each, and I ran into an issue when I went to change the money back into US dollars. There was no problem with the euros, or with the pounds that were issued in Great Britain, but I was unable to exchange the pounds that were issued by the Bank of Ireland. Luckily I only had a 5 pound note from there... So - a word of warning if you're planning on traveling in Northern Ireland (and according to the banker, there would have been the same issue with pounds issued in Scotland or Wales) - if you still have pounds left at the end of your trip, try to make sure that the bills come from Great Britain and not from a Northern Ireland bank!
Friendly people, lightly traveled roads, beautiful scenery - a wonderful place to ride. I'll be back some day.
