Budget-minded British Isles Port Review

Hi,

We just finished a British Isles cruise, and since I gain so much information about ports from this board, I thought I'd share back. We are mid-50s and enjoy walking. We were on the Royal Princess, but I'm sure there are tons of reviews about the ship on the Princess board, so I'll leave those details to others. This was a fairly last minute booking, for us anyway. We booked towards the end of April for a May 25 cruise. We try to do a lot on our own where feasible and I try and get what I see as good value for the dollars we spend.

We flew to London Gatwick and took the train directly from the airport to Southampton. We walked to our hotel the Travelodge for one-night pre-cruise. We were able to walk to the ship the next day.

Guernsey

Our first port of call was to be Guernsey, but it got cancelled. Our intent there was to hike around part of the island, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Cobh/Cork

The next day was Cobh/Cork. We booked an all-day tour with eCoach. To make up for missing Guernsey, we arrived at Cobh earlier than planned. eCoach was there and waiting and sent buses out to the Blarney Castle as soon as they were filled. We were notified about this in advance by an email so got off the ship as quickly as we could. The first stop was the Blarney Castle/Gardens, so we essentially got a longer time to visit. It wasn't a stellar day - rain off and on - but we enjoyed it. We waited in line about 1.25 hours to get up to the 'stone'. You do wend your way up through the castle which was interesting, lots of narrow, winding staircases, until you get to the top where the stone is. DH kissed the stone; I did not.

We spent the rest of our time wandering around the gardens and following some of the hiking paths around the property. They are beautiful and there is lots to see. Then back on the bus to head to Kinsale. Our guide was informative on the bus rides, but I have to admit, I kept falling asleep during those rides, so I only got some of the information.

We stopped at a fort just before Kinsale which had some nice views. It was only a brief stop - enough to look around outside. We arrived at Kinsale with some basic information and our first stop was lunch. We went to a recommended fish and chip restaurant which was delicious, then spent the next hour or so wandering along the bay and around the town. Unfortunately, this was one of the rainy periods so was a little less enjoyable than it might have been.

On return to Cobh, we listened to Irish music. We had a bit of a Cobh tour on return, and did have a short stop to visit the cathedral before heading back to the port.

We both enjoyed the tour, but in hindsight, I wish we had just done a half-day tour to Blarney castle and then returned to explore Cobh. There was a fair amount of driving over the course of the day, and Cobh looked like a small interesting town to spend time exploring. Although - it would have been hillier than Kinsale.

Dublin

This was probably my favourite day of the whole trip. It started badly in that the cruise ship docked at 11pm and we had to be shuttled into town. It was a free shuttle, but we basically didn't get on to a shuttle until about 12:30pm and it was close to 1pm before we were actually in the city.

Our plan today was to do a cliff walk. I had 2 in mind. One in Howth that was about 25 min away by train; and one from Bray to Graystones which looked to be about an hour away by train. Based on our late start to the day, we picked the Howth walk, so I can't comment on whether my research on the other path was correct. It was a glorious sunny day. I doubt we would have done the hike if the weather had been bad.

We walked to the Pearse train station, maybe 5 min, and got return train tickets to Howth. Our timing was good and we only had a few minutes wait for the train. Howth turned out to be a really pretty, but touristy, sea-side town. Close to the station was an information kiosk with maps of the hikes. It wasn't manned, but there was a stack of flyers. It looked to be the same as what I had printed online so we didn't take one. Given that there were no people there, I wouldn't assume that you could always pick one up. They had a nice long pier that you could walk out to the end and the lighthouse, so we did that first. Then we headed up hill to do the walk. We picked the 'cliff path loop'. The views were gorgeous and we really enjoyed the walk. The outbound half was all along the cliff tops. At the point we turned back, we were still overlooking the water. Then we headed inland. There were some gorgeous homes and as we got closer to the town it become more suburban, but we walked through some very nice neighbourhoods until we ended up back at the train station.

The hike was graded easy and we did find it so. The first part is a lot of uphill. The length was identified as 6km, but we read a review that said they thought it 9 km. We thought it was probably closer to 9km as well.

Belfast

We booked the Giants Causeway tour with Odyssey coach tours. Our guide was a retired school teacher and he was excellent. Full of all kinds of interesting information and details.

We headed out of Belfast and the first stop was the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. He asked during the drive who wanted to hike out and go over the bridge. It is an additional fee and once he had the numbers, he pre-booked. Hubby chose to do it; I did not. He did a good job describing what the hike was like so people could make an informed decision. I have been having issues with one knee and chose to skip that walk. However, going the opposite direction from the bridge was a really easy walk along the cliff top looking out over the sea that I enjoyed instead.

After the bridge, we made a brief stop that allowed for pictures of Dunluce castle. Then on to the Giants Causeway. Again, our guide did a nice job of explaining the details of the stop. You could choose to pay to enter the visitors center, but you could skip that and just head down to the stones. There was a shuttle that you could take to or from the stones for a cost if you didn't want to walk. We chose to walk both ways and skipped the visitors center. Again, you're along the water, so the views are amazing. The stones themselves are a very cool sight to see. There was a small pub/restaurant close to our tour pick up point, and we had time to stop for a pint.

We headed into a small town for lunch. Again, our guide listed a bunch of options. We picked a small bakery which was ok. Others talking sounded like they had made better choices. Our return drive was right along the water and very scenic. We made one more brief stop before heading back into Belfast.

We did a bit of a drive along the mural wall and learned some of the story behind the troubles in Ireland. I found it very interesting and if we get to Belfast again, I will look into doing something that spends more time in this area.

Time to catch our plane to head home, so I'll have to finish this later!

Thank you for your review (so far!) - we're doing this cruise May 2019. Too early to book excursions but your descriptions and commentary are very helpful since this is an excursion intensive cruise! Looking forward to your next installment.

Wow, great information.

Looking forward to reading more.

Cath - thanks for the review! We're booked on the "extra legroom" version of the Odyssey tour in 1.5w. Did you do the "extra legroom" (i.e. 19-passenger) tour, or the "normal"? Either way, I'm really looking forward to it now. Esp if they were organized enough to assist with the Carrick-a-rede crossing tickets. I know that at least 3 to 4 of our 6 would love to cross it. We had prepared them for the idea that it was unlikely they could.

Cath - thanks for the review! We're booked on the "extra legroom" version of the Odyssey tour in 1.5w. Did you do the "extra legroom" (i.e. 19-passenger) tour, or the "normal"? Either way, I'm really looking forward to it now. Esp if they were organized enough to assist with the Carrick-a-rede crossing tickets. I know that at least 3 to 4 of our 6 would love to cross it. We had prepared them for the idea that it was unlikely they could.

We were told that the tickets for crossing the Carrick-a-rede were no longer available ahead of time. That you had to get them when you arrived, and they were timed. So your 'assigned time' could be hours from when you actually arrived. We had decided that we would not be able to cross due to time constraints. I'm going to check with our private tour group again since you were able to pre book. Thanks for the information!!

We are also trying to decide if we want to do the extra driving to Kinsale after the Blarney Castle, or just spend our extra time in Cork.

Anita - that's exactly what we thought and had seen, too. Which is why we're cautiously optimistic now. I am wondering if some of the tour companies have an agreement with the operators of the bridge site for day-of pre-registration.

In any case, we'll take it as it comes. If we can only look at it from afar, okay. If we get the chance to cross it, wonderful.

We were told that the tickets for crossing the Carrick-a-rede were no longer available ahead of time. That you had to get them when you arrived, and they were timed. So your 'assigned time' could be hours from when you actually arrived. We had decided that we would not be able to cross due to time constraints. I'm going to check with our private tour group again since you were able to pre book. Thanks for the information!!

We are also trying to decide if we want to do the extra driving to Kinsale after the Blarney Castle, or just spend our extra time in Cork.

Anita - that's exactly what we thought and had seen, too. Which is why we're cautiously optimistic now. I am wondering if some of the tour companies have an agreement with the operators of the bridge site for day-of pre-registration.

 

In any case, we'll take it as it comes. If we can only look at it from afar, okay. If we get the chance to cross it, wonderful.

Sounds like a good plan. We are going this August, so will report back.

Cath - thanks for the review! We're booked on the "extra legroom" version of the Odyssey tour in 1.5w. Did you do the "extra legroom" (i.e. 19-passenger) tour, or the "normal"? Either way, I'm really looking forward to it now. Esp if they were organized enough to assist with the Carrick-a-rede crossing tickets. I know that at least 3 to 4 of our 6 would love to cross it. We had prepared them for the idea that it was unlikely they could.

We booked the 'regular' legroom trip. One of the reasons we picked this tour is because they allow time to cross the bridge. I can't remember how long we stopped there - probably an hour or more. I was really happy to have the option of an easy hike 'the other way', instead of just sitting around and waiting for the bridge-crossers! There were bathrooms and I think a small tea room/gift shop there as well.

Dublin (more)

I'm not sure why, but I forgot about the rest of our Dublin day!

We returned to the Pearse station and headed in the direction of Trinity College. It was close to dinner time, so we stopped at the Lincoln Inn and enjoyed the pie of the day and a pint for DH. They were located at a busy intersection and it was fun just watching all of the people go by! (We had a window table).

Then we headed on to Trinity College. It was just fun to walk around the college grounds. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of students out enjoying the sunshine. From there, we headed to Grafton St (I think that was the name) which was a pedestrian mall, then across St. Steven's green and then back to the shuttle bus stop. There was a line (more than a busful), so we had to wait for the one after that.

Glasgow

We used a ship excursion for this one - Falkirk Wheel and Stirling on your own (or something like that). The drive to Stirling was a couple of hours and although there was some commentary from our guide, I didn't feel like it was as good as our previous excursions. We had 2 hours in Stirling. We were dropped at the top of the hill at the castle (if you wanted), and were picked up in the city below.

Two hours really wasn't enough. We allotted ourselves an hour for the castle and an hour for the town. I think we saw most of the castle in an hour, but if felt a bit rushed, and I think this is a place that would have benefitted from some sort of guide. I believe they did have audio guides you could rent, but we chose not too. Our logic probably went along the lines that with only an hour we probably wouldn't really get full value out of them. We'd rather walk around and see everything, rather than just see a few things in detail.

It was maybe a 15 min walk down into the town, and then I felt the need to figure out where we were supposed to meet the bus which also ate into our time. In the end, we picked up a delicious bakery lunch (sandwiches, drink and a donut) and picnicked close to our pick up point.

I did find out though that although Northern Ireland uses british pounds, they also have their own notes!! I tried to use an Irish 5 pound note, and they wouldn't take it. I had to take it to a bank where the lady wanted me to have an account before she exchanged the note, but in the end did exchange it!

Another side note....we had 5 pound notes left over from a previous trip to England. They had changed from paper bills to plastic bills in the meantime. Had to take those to a bank to exchange as well as the stores wouldn't take the paper!!

After Stirling, we headed over to the Falkirk Wheel. On the way we passed a giant statue called 'the kelpies' I think, which were 2 giant horse heads. It was kind of cool!

The Falkirk Wheel is kind of like a lock moving a boat from lower water to higher water. Except, the boat floats into a 'car' (kind of like a ferris wheel), and is lifted to the upper level, and then floats out. It was very interesting, but a very slow 'ride'. We got on a boat, which moved into the wheel, was raised to the top, floated out through a tunnel, turned around, back through the tunnel and repeated the wheel back to the bottom. We were left with a few minutes to wander around. One of the nearby rivers had a number of houseboat rentals tied up and they were interesting to look at. There was also a small gift shop and tea shop on site.

Then, back on the bus and back to the ship. In hindsight, I'm not sure this was the best use of time. This was a full day, and a lot of driving. But, both sights DH was interested in, which was why we made this choice.

Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

We used the 'hop on/hop off' bus here. This got us to the main sights we wanted to see fairly inexpensively, but there were pros and cons!

We docked at 8am. There were free shuttles to the town and we got on with essentially no wait. But, we weren't the first shuttle. By the time we got to town, there was a long line of people waiting to get tickets for the bus. We were told that sales would start at 9:30am. That's a pretty long wait! We also had no idea if everyone would fit on, and wouldn't know anything until we purchased tickets. In the end, there were 2 buses. I believe everyone got on (but I don't know for a fact) and I think the last few people might have been told they would have to stand. It's about an hour to the first stop, Skara Brae, so I'm not sure I would have wanted to stand.

In hindsight, it would have been better I think to pre-purchase tickets on-line and not wasted so much time standing in-line. I have no idea what the cancellation policy was if the ship didn't dock so that would be worth investigating if it's a concern.

This is also not really a hop-on/hop-off bus. It does one scheduled loop. There is 1 hour and 25 minutes for the stop as Skara Brae and 30 min at the Ring of Brodgar.

Skara Brae has a separate admission fee. This includes Skara Brae itself and a visit to nearby Skaill House. Skara Brae is amazing and the walk going out to the village is set up to give you a great idea of how old it truly is.

We also enjoyed walking around the Ring of Brodgar.

The time allowed at each sight was enough. The bus ride allowed lots of opportunity to enjoy the Orkney Island scenery. The day started out VERY foggy, but cleared into sunshine by afternoon. I'm glad we chose this way to see the island.

On return to Orkney, we stopped at a local pub for lunch and then wandered around the downtown area. Lots of shops for those who are interested. The weather was lovely, so we chose to walk back to the ship.

Thank you for your fabulous review !

We had a lovely day in Howth last visit and intend to go to Bray on this visit .

Leaving next Monday - very excited to read about the rest of your trip.

It will be our first time on Princess.

Karen

Thank you for your fabulous review !

We had a lovely day in Howth last visit and intend to go to Bray on this visit .

Leaving next Monday - very excited to read about the rest of your trip.

It will be our first time on Princess.

 

Karen

When planning, I was leaning towards Bray, but I also wanted to see some of Dublin, having never been before. Given how the day worked out, I think we made the right choice.

It was our first Princess cruise as well...and also our first in an interior cabin.

We really enjoyed the cruise, although with so many early mornings, jet lag, and so much walking, our evenings were pretty much filled with....go to the 8pm show in the main lounge...and go to bed!

Something I haven't mentioned.....in many of the Irish and Scottish ports, we had bands on the port during sail-away. It was great, so make sure you're on deck for some of those sail-aways and enjoy!

Enjoyed your review.

Invergordon/Inverness

We had a DIY day at this port.

We had the schedule for buses into Inverness, but when we got to the bus stop, there were 'cruise only' buses waiting. They were marked 25X, the same as the regular buses, but they went directly to Inverness with no other stops. We bought a ticket which allowed unlimited travel on the local buses for the day.

When we got to the bus station, we went to the Jacobite booth to get tickets for a Loch Ness tour. We picked a tour that would get us back to the bus station to catch the 12:50pm bus. Ultimately, I think we had a 2-hour tour. For an additional 5 pounds per person you could get a ticket on the HOHO bus. The HOHO bus had a stop at the location of the Loch tour. In theory, we probably could have used our all day ticket to get local buses to/from the points of departure for Jacobite, but I didn't do enough pre-planning to know for sure, and we ended up with a pretty tight timeline so this worked best for us. Also - we got the additional commentary from the HOHO bus which was nice.

Our tour started from a lock and followed the river to Loch Ness. We went to the far end and got good views of the castle and then returned the same way. We actually did stop at the castle and picked up a few guests. They must have had a different kind of ticket than we had. The guide on the boat was interesting and we enjoyed the views and the peaceful boat ride on the lake. No Nessie sightings though!

When we were back at the bus station to return to Invergordon, there was a 25X 'cruise' bus there going directly to Invergordon, but we wanted to get off at Alness so made sure we got on the regular local bus.

We had pre-booked a tour for the Dalmore Distillery. We got off the bus at the Allness Morrisons stop where it was a 10 minute or so walk to the distillery. (We had passed the sign on our way into Invergordon, as well as directions from the distillery itself, so we had some idea of what we were doing!) The tour itself was fascinating and you could go into most parts of the distillery, followed by samples at the end.

In some of the literature I had seen, there was a walking path along the water from the distillery to Invergordon. But, we couldn't seem to figure out whether or not it was 3 or 4 miles....and we had 1.5 hours to get back to the ship. In the end, we decided to forego the walk, and just went back to the bus stop for the next one to return to the ship. The bus was running a bit late (but so was our original bus), which was a bit worrisome, but it showed up in the end. We also weren't far from Invergordon and were in front of what looked like a grocery store....so if worse came to worse, we could call a taxi!

Edinburgh

This was a tender port for us, but we were in port early. We were up and ready to go early, and essentially had a minimal wait until we got on a tender. When we got to the dock, we bought round trip tickets on the new X99 shuttle. We bought the ticket which included your choice of 1 of the 3 HOHO buses. We picked the Majestic route because our main attraction for the day was the Royal Yacht Britannia - one of the stops on the Majestic route.

When we got to the shuttle they pointed us in the direction of the starting point for all of the HOHO buses. It was a short walk and easy to find. They provided us with headphones and after a short wait, we were off and running. We got off at the Britannia stop and purchased our tickets on arrival with basically no wait. A Princess excursion seemed to arrive around the same time as we did, but after seeing them in the initial line to enter the exhibition, I didn't really notice them again. I was fascinated by the whole thing, loved all of the family pictures of the royal family enjoying themselves, so likely I was a lot slower and they all just passed me by! :D

We spent a couple of hours there and then headed out to catch the next bus. The yacht is linked into a large shopping mall if that is considered an added bonus!

We got off the bus at Holyrood Castle. We didn't take a tour here. Just peaked through the gates and took pictures. We then started the trek up the Royal Mile. We stopped for a pub lunch along the way and our trek at Edinburgh Castle. We didn't visit this castle either. Then we started working our way back to the shuttle drop-off. We did stop at the art gallery, mostly to get out of the rain and use the bathrooms....and we did spend maybe 5 min looking at paintings....but it's not really our thing so we headed back out again.

By the time we returned to the tender point, there were still a few hours before sail-away, so we decided to walk through the town of Queensferry. It was a cute little town. We stopped for a pint, then got in the tender line. I think we had to wait for a couple before we were able to get on.

Le Havre

DH and I split up for the day. DH took the Princess D-Day Canadian Beaches excursion. He thought it was a great day, but it was very expensive.

I originally wanted to go to Honfleur for the day, but a number of issues caused a late start for me. We had a time change between England and France, and while I thought that I had synced up my fitbit with my phone, it didn't work. So basically, DH had 5 min to dress and catch his tour. This stressed me out a bit, so I hung around on the ship for a bit. Once I left, I realized it was raining harder than I thought, so I returned to get my umbrella. When I got to the information desk, I asked about taking public transport to Honfleurs, and they basically said not to. In the end, I just decided to walk around Le Havre. Weather-wise, it was our worst day, and basically rained the whole time. I spent an hour or two walking around the city center and then headed over to the shopping mall called Docks Vauban. It was a really interesting building although not as many stores as I expected. I stopped for a crepe snack, and then walked back to the port.

I did not use the Princess shuttle to get in/out of the port. I think it was 8USD each way, and I just chose to walk.

Salisbury/Stonehenge/Sarum

We chose to stay in Southampton for a few more nights before flying home. We stayed at the Ibis hotel which was very close to the train station to allow for easy day trips. We took a taxi from the port to the hotel for 7 pounds, and had paid for early check-in. This allowed us to drop our luggage at 9am and then head to the train station where we bought return tickets to Salisbury.

We purchased a same-day return ticket using the machines in the Southampton train station. When we got to Salisbury, the Stonehenge buses were right outside the train station. We purchased the ticket for bus, Stonehenge and Sarum. We were given headphones to listen to the commentary on the bus.

On arrival at Stonehenge we were given entry tickets and directed where to go. On entry, we were given audio guides included with the ticket. There are shuttles which drive you to the stones although you can also walk if you choose. Another option, is to shuttle to about half-way and walk the rest, which we did, on the way out. Rode the shuttle on the way back.

If you choose not to purchase entrance to Stonehenge, I think you can do it for free. There were signs around the stones showing a path outside of the paid visitors path. The walk to/from the bus parking lot to the stones is something like 2 miles each way, and you can't see the stones from the parking lot.

There is also a small interesting museum on-site as well as gift shop and coffee shop.

We then got back on the HOHO for Sarum. We weren't quite sure where to go when we were dropped off so just followed everyone else. We ended up crossing the road and following a path up the hill to the site. Showed our tickets and walked around the site. We had a beautiful day and the view from the site were great! Both DH and I have read the Rutherford book Sarum. I remember nothing (it was a long time ago), but DH remembered some and found it all very interesting.

We returned to the bus stop, and had been told we could use the HOHO ticket on any red bus to take us to Salisbury center. We chose to do this on the next bus that came along. We did miss out on any remaining HOHO commentary though.

Lots of shops and restaurants around the city center so we had a bite of lunch. Then headed towards the cathedral. Entry to the cathedral is a donation (although they have a recommended amount), so you don't have to pre-buy tickets.

After that we walked back to the train station.

Portsmouth

The next day we bought return tickets to Portsmouth. Once there we purchased the 11-attraction ticket for the historic dockyard. This is right beside the Portsmouth Harbour train station. The 11-attraction ticket is good for 1 year. We only had 1 day, and I don't think there is anyway to actually do all 11 attractions in 1 day. Two of the attractions (submarine and fire/explostion exhibition) require boat rides across the river and there is also a harbour tour included. These 3 things along limit your schedule a lot, so pick your favourites and go from there!

We started with the submarine museum. It was excellent and included a guided tour on a retired submarine by an ex-submariner. From there we headed to the big ship (whose name escapes me) but is closest to the entrance. Also - very impressive! Next up was the harbour tour. Beside the historic dockyard is an actual naval base, so the harbour tour allowed for lots of looks at naval ships. We were lucky because there was an aircraft carrier in port. We then toured Nelson's ship Victory and several other exhibits. By then I was 'navalled' out!

We had fish and chips at one of the local pubs across the street from the train station. We then had some time to waste before the next train so headed to the big mall behind the train station. We didn't get very far because one of the first stores we encountered was a Cadbury outlet store!!! After some chocolate purchases we headed back to the train station.

New Forest

Our last 2 days were spent hiking in the new forest and visiting some of the small towns. We have friends in England who joined us for these 2 days, so were able to drive us around. If they hadn't been free, our plan had been to just take the train in to whichever towns had train stations and see what we could manage from there. That would have been VERY limiting. My research had identified some HOHO buses but we were too early in the season and they weren't running yet. One of the highlights were the wild horses that were everywhere including lots of foals!!

Conclusion

We had an awesome 18 days or so. For the most part we had great weather. Cobh and Edinburgh were both gray and rained off and on both days. LeHavre just rained all day. Other than that we might have had the odd sprinkle but for the most part we stayed dry!

We took the train back to Gatwick from Southampton. We had pre-booked the Hampton Inn for the night and flew out around noon the next day. This was a very easy low stress way to end the trip.

If you have any questions about anything we did or any of the ports we visited, I would be happy to try and give more details. I know when I'm doing research, I am looking for ideas of what to do, and how to make those ideas work. I hope this is able to help others with their British Isles planning.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings!

cathy.

Thank you for taking the time to post such great information.

Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise.

Thank you!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you, your trip report is wonderful!

thank you so much for the review and all the informations.... I'm a bit like you.... booked a cruise 5 weeks ahead (9th of june for the july 24th sailing on royal).... Looking all around to have more information as possible...thank you!

We went to the Rope Bridge in early July in a private tour with DerryBlueBadge. Our group was 15 and we read on the bridge website that the agent could prebook tickets for a group or 15 or more. Though we had 15, only some of us wanted to cross, so we did not prebook after all. During that day, we started our tour at 8am, ahead of the Princess excursion buses. Then the guide recommended us to head to the bridge immediately as the first stop to beat the crowds. We got there a bit before 9:30am, and there was no line up yet (only saw 2 tour buses ahead of us). We were able to buy 9:30am time stamped tickets immediately and walked in with no wait time.

Some of us did not want to cross the bridge. We were still able to walk in with the others to walk along the cliffs and enjoy the spectacular views (ie don’t wait in the parking lot!) The walk was about 20mins till you get to the bridge, Then those with tickets could cross, and the rest of us waited and took pictures for them. Please take note that if you change your mind and wish to cross the bridge at that moment, there is no ticket booth there and you have to walk back 20mins to the ticket booth at the entrance.

Afterwards as we headed back to the parking lot, the crowds started coming. There was now a long queue to cross the bridge and to buy tickets. So the key is to get to the bridge early in the morning to beat the crowds and you have a very good chance to get tickets without a long wait time.

Re. Kinsale: We also took the public tour with eCoach. In hindsight, we would skip Kinsale and go back to to Cork. Kinsale was nice but it was very small and the stop was mainly for lunch/rest. I would have preferred to walk around the port area but did not have time at the end of our tour.

A half day tour to Blarney Castle would be ideal.

Hope this information is useful to anyone planning for these ports.

We were told that the tickets for crossing the Carrick-a-rede were no longer available ahead of time. That you had to get them when you arrived, and they were timed. So your 'assigned time' could be hours from when you actually arrived. We had decided that we would not be able to cross due to time constraints. I'm going to check with our private tour group again since you were able to pre book. Thanks for the information!!

We are also trying to decide if we want to do the extra driving to Kinsale after the Blarney Castle, or just spend our extra time in Cork.

We went to the Rope Bridge in early July in a private tour with DerryBlueBadge. Our group was 15 and we read on the bridge website that the agent could prebook tickets for a group or 15 or more. Though we had 15, only some of us wanted to cross, so we did not prebook after all. During that day, we started our tour at 8am, ahead of the Princess excursion buses. Then the guide recommended us to head to the bridge immediately as the first stop to beat the crowds. We got there a bit before 9:30am, and there was no line up yet (only saw 2 tour buses ahead of us). We were able to buy 9:30am time stamped tickets immediately and walked in with no wait time.

Some of us did not want to cross the bridge. We were still able to walk in with the others to walk along the cliffs and enjoy the spectacular views (ie don’t wait in the parking lot!) The walk was about 20mins till you get to the bridge, Then those with tickets could cross, and the rest of us waited and took pictures for them. Please take note that if you change your mind and wish to cross the bridge at that moment, there is no ticket booth there and you have to walk back 20mins to the ticket booth at the entrance.

Afterwards as we headed back to the parking lot, the crowds started coming. There was now a long queue to cross the bridge and to buy tickets. So the key is to get to the bridge early in the morning to beat the crowds and you have a very good chance to get tickets without a long wait time.

 

Re. Kinsale: We also took the public tour with eCoach. In hindsight, we would skip Kinsale and go back to to Cork. Kinsale was nice but it was very small and the stop was mainly for lunch/rest. I would have preferred to walk around the port area but did not have time at the end of our tour.

A half day tour to Blarney Castle would be ideal.

 

Hope this information is useful to anyone planning for these ports.

Thanks so much, great information. We leave next week! We will put all of this info to good use.

I concur with this-I would do 1/2 day Ecoach to Blarney and walk around Cobh instead of Kinsale. Ecoach worked very nice, not that much more than DIY.

Re. Kinsale: We also took the public tour with eCoach. In hindsight, we would skip Kinsale and go back to to Cork. Kinsale was nice but it was very small and the stop was mainly for lunch/rest. I would have preferred to walk around the port area but did not have time at the end of our tour. A half day tour to Blarney Castle would be ideal.

Thanks for this great info! Very helpful :-)