Ireland Airbnbs

To continue the Ireland series, I wanted to share our Airbnb accommodations, plus a bonus castle stay!

Hello and welcome back to KD’s Korner! I am happy you found us! To continue the Ireland series, I wanted to share our Airbnb accommodations, plus a bonus castle stay! I will include the links in the description.

If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel and give this video a thumbs up. Also, don’t forget to check the other Ireland playlist of videos to hopefully help you make the most of your visit to the Emerald Isle!

To recap our Ireland trip, my husband, my mom, our friend, and I traveled around the island for about 16 days, including some time in Northern Ireland, although all of our lodging was in the Republic. Note, all of these rentals had WIFI available, and they are all full homes, meaning we didn’t share a space with anyone. Although, some hosts live next door or onsite, but not IN the rental.

Our first stay was at Croneybyrne Courtyard Holiday Cottage in County Wicklow.

Set in the woodland area of Clara vale and located near popular attractions, plus there were nice views and opportunities for hiking or cycling.

The house is part of a small holiday complex of 3 houses. Each house is independent of each other. Ours had a lovely garden view, full kitchen, three bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms. It was cozy and magnificent. It truly was probably our favorite lodging the entire trip. And if you recall from my other Ireland video, we also had the best meal of our trip nearby! Heather Wicklow or Wicklow Heather, either way – delicious!

The host and the home were truly lovely. I’d love to go back and visit again.

Our second Airbnb rental was in Portnascully Mill, County Kilkenny, which is a great location for exploring the southeast of Ireland. This was a cool Airbnb, as it was a beautiful renovated mill in a woodland setting. And there were cows next door! I always enjoy international livestock!

The mill home, called Mooncoin, is three stories and has beautiful grounds. There is a full kitchen, sunroom, games and a pool table, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It can accommodate 7 guests. We enjoyed our visit there, but unfortunately, we were only there for one night.

We spent three nights at our third location, which was in the Gap of Dunloe next to Kate’s Cottage, which is a popular pub with live traditional Irish music and good food. Our cottage was called Betty’s Cottage, and it has 3 bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms. 6 people can stay here. It is important to note that the cottage is attached to the Coffee Pot Café, but we didn’t experience any major noise or other disturbances. You have your own private entrance, and it’s across the road from Kate’s Cottage, which closes kind of early anyhow. You may recall from my other video, the Gap of Dunloe is a place to behold. I’m glad we had three nights there, and it was an excellent spot to launch into our tour of the Ring of Kerry. Our stay here was lovely and everyone was friendly.

Our next place was in Dingle, which is a peninsula area, making it a cute coastal town. You can also carefully cruise a beautiful drive along cliffs. We did a sheepdog demonstration while in this area, as well. The accommodations themselves were nice. It was in a townhouse, and while we didn’t have any pets with us, they are dog friendly. We were close enough to restaurants, amenities and the town, so it was perfect to be able to park and explore.

The home sleeps 6 people with 3 bedrooms, 2 and a half bathrooms, a full kitchen, and it was overall very comfortable. My Mom really liked the Dingle area.

Next, we stayed two nights at “The Shed” in Carn, which is in the heart of the Burren, County Clare. This was a 3 bedroom, 3 bath very comfortable home, and it can sleep 7 people. The host was wonderful and took us on hikes in the afternoon if we were up for it, giving us history and general information. It is in the middle of the countryside, and a nice location to tour the surrounding areas. We stayed here for two nights.

We stayed two nights in Barna, which is near Galway. This townhouse had 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, and it was close to conveniences. We enjoyed a really cute, traditional Irish pub – that had a dog inside! – not too far away. The home is located on the Wild Atlantic Way, so visiting Connemara was an easy day trip, as were the Aran Islands. The home was comfortable and a nice place to stay while on our journey.

Our last Airbnb accommodations were in Donegal for three nights. Originally, we were going to stay two nights, then move over to Belfast, but we decided mid-trip to request an additional night here and forgo Belfast. They said you may see the Northern Lights from the home, but when we went, it wasn’t the best time of year for this and we weren’t fortunate enough to see them.

“The Gables” is an entire home that has 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and can accommodate 8 people with 4 beds. Located on the Wild Atlantic Way, we used this as our homebase to explore into Northern Ireland, driving up to Dunluce Castle and Giants Causeway, which was a very doable day trip from Donegal. This home was very comfortable and perfect for winding down our trip. It was an easy drive back to Dublin to wrap up our vacation.

Lastly, and this was a bonus stay as a surprise to my Mom. We stayed at Clontarf Castle! It is Dublin, and we stayed there the night before we had to fly home, so it gave us an easy checkout, easy location, and a little fancier accommodation. I will always prefer a home-style stay so we have more space, a kitchen, and so on, but for a quick one-night stay, a hotel is a great solution. The icing on the cake was that Clontarf is a castle! It was pretty and fun to explore.

I’d like to share some tips on lodging that may be helpful. Some things that are important to note about a lot of lodging outside of the US, and specifically talking about Ireland right now, is it’s not super common to have flat sheets, washcloths, or air conditioning. That doesn’t mean you won’t find it, especially in hotels, but I’d rather you not be surprised when you don’t find these items commonly available. Some places will keep it on hand in case you request it, but it’s not necessarily standard. It’s important to know that sizes of beds might not match the same size as back in the United States. A king in Ireland (and other countries) may only be a queen there.

Also, plumbing can be on the older side, making flushing toilets interesting. However, at least for plumbing issues, we did not experience many issues along our travels. The worst we experienced is having to hold the lever down and or flush multiple times. Sometimes it would fill up very slowly, so the next person would need to flush for you (yes, that slow of a fill up that you give up and go on).

Many places that we stay, by design, have washing machines, and some have dryers and some have a combo washer dryer. The combo washer dryers are interesting and it’s important to not overload them. They can take forever to dry if you do put too much in them, as they aren’t very big to begin with. I recommend looking up how to use them on Youtube because they can vary and are different than a standalone washing machine and dryer set. They are great space savers though, and I am always grateful for them when we travel. It helps us pack less.

Well, that wraps it up!

Which place was your favorite? Comment with which one you loved most. Our first one in Wicklow was my favorite, and my Mom loved Donegal, which was our last Airbnb of the trip.

Thanks for joining me, and I hope you found some inspiration and maybe fallen a little more in love with Ireland like we did. There are so many amazing places to see and visit, and having a great home base to feel comfortable and get some rest is so important. If you ever have questions about a place, message the host. Most sign up because they enjoy the hospitality side of it, and they are happy to answer questions.

Happy Travels!

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