After a really short flight from Iceland to Ireland we had finally landed in Dublin the start to our crazy week and a half in Ireland. Honestly I hadn’t heard or seen much about this beautiful country until a few months before when I found cheap tickets out of Iceland to here.

So when we first booked our tickets we knew we wanted to stay in the heart of Dublin for our first night to get the true Irish experience. We did just that by staying at Abbey Court Hostel - literally walking distance from everything. Touring all the bars, shops and cafes I realized one day in the city isn’t enough. There’s so much to see. After about 6 hours lost in the streets we got back to our hostel just in time for the pub crawl. Something the hostel (and most others) put on every night; for just €12 you get a free shot at each of the four bars you go to and free entry to the club after. An easy must do to get the whole experience in the city - it’s led by a great tour guide and you meet so many new friends this way.

We partied until 3:30AM, got back to our hostel and climbed into our bed just for our alarms to go off 6 hours later.

It was time for the whole adventure to start through the country picking up our campervan..

One thing I want to note about getting to Spaceship Campervans from the city center of Dublin.. Plan to spend €60 on a taxi ride, something we ended up doing in order to just get there stress free. OR you’ll have to take a couple busses, they have a bus stop right next to their location!

I do love how Spaceship is situated outside of the city though and more in country land so you don’t have to panic your first time driving on the opposite side of the road and wheel. (If you come from the states like I do)

So once we picked up our van we were given a great tour of it.. The double size bed that folds up easily with the wood board underneath, all the storage we had from top to below, the mini fridge in the back with a water container for doing dishes afterwards, plenty of internal charging units with an exterior charger for at campsites, all the cooking utensils / camperstove and all the other extras we could add on.

Here’s a quick list of everything included or you could get as well:

Winter comfort pack

Summer comfort pack

Camping chair and table

12V USB charger

GPS

Cooking gear / cutlery

Bedding and pillows

Literally all you could think of needing to live out of a van and in a foreign country, so you don’t have to worry about packing it all. After a tour of the van and getting all situated we ended up taking care of insurance something I knew we would want. Not because I’m a bad driver but because other people are so crazy on the roads - mostly being because they’re more narrow and the speed limits are a little higher than back home. So just drive carefully and always get insurance in case! Within 30 minutes of getting there we were already on the road with our first stop being the grocery store. One thing that was good about our ride in the taxi was that our driver told us everything we needed to know about driving, some historical moments about Ireland and the best place to get groceries for cheap.

Lidl - And boy he was not kidding! When we walked in and started seeing the prices for everything a huge relief was lifted off my shoulder.. especially coming from Iceland where it had you questioning if you even needed food for the trip.

One tip I’d love to give is buy items that are easily universal for other meals: a quick list of some main items we buy include

Noodles & spaghetti sauce with bell peppers

The bell peppers include for a good snack

PB&J stuff - using peanut butter for apple slices and then in oatmeal for the mornings

Sliced cheese - for quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches and then for a snack with pepperoni and crackers

Just a little tip from me to you buy items that you can easily make into other meals! Keep it basic because you’re living out of a van and don’t want to spend a lot of money on food or time making it all - there’s always somewhere waiting to be seen and gas to be bought.

So after picking up our groceries for the week and a half we were on our way to Northern Ireland. The drive up to the border between Northern and Southern Ireland from Spaceship Campervan is only about an hour. One thing I was scared about crossing the border was wondering if I needed an enhanced drivers license for this part or some sort of document to cross - but it’s as easy as just crossing over into it.

The only thing that changes is going from KMH to MPH in Northern Ireland.

Our first point on the map was:

Torr Head:

Since it was almost sunset by this point we knew it would make for a beautiful setting since it’s right along the coast. With it being our first real stop on our trip it gave me a little taste of what to be expecting the rest of our trip.. Rugged coastlines where the cliffs meet ocean, tons of sheep everywhere and very narrow roads to get to it. I had no complaints though.. When we pulled into Torr Head the only other car that was there was actually leaving so we had the whole place to ourselves! We walked the short 5 minute path to the very top, weaving our way through all the sheep along on the trail. Right when we got to the top there was 360° views and the sun just starting to set.

There’s an abandoned and run down castle at the top and is fun to explore and stand on top of to get more views. Definitely recommend for sunrise or sunset.

This stop is only 2 and a half hours from Spaceship Campervan if you drive straight there. There is definitely more you could find along the way - we personally just wanted to get there in time for the sky to change colors.

After spending an hour or two at Torr Head we figured we needed somewhere to camp, luckily there was a campsite just 20 minutes away called Maguire Strand Camping, we decided to call that home for the night.

(We also did see a couple other vans on the side of the road leading up to the campsite meaning they probably didn’t pay - so if you’re up for this definitely try it out!)

Once arriving at camp we threw on our window covers provided by Spaceship to block out the lingering sunset.. That’s one thing I found to love about Ireland. The sunset is always slow and beautiful but we had the equipment to make do for a perfect night sleep.

Day 1

Fully on the road here in Ireland we decided to start out our day in the town of Ballycastle.. About a 10 minute drive from the campsite listed above. The town has a true Irish feel - colorful buildings, tea houses, tons of little cafes and grocery stores. We decided to stop at a really cute coffee shop that I wish I remembered the name to but you’ll just have to find one that screams your name.

The workers here were so sweet and gave us some other places to explore nearby that hadn’t been on our map before and let us sit there for awhile using the WiFi as we planned our whole day.

The first stop of our full day in Ireland was ..

Dark Hedges:

I’m sure if you’re a Game of Thrones fan you’ve seen this area before in an episode! I personally haven’t watched any of the seasons but when I was there, there were multiple tours happening. Since it is just a road they don’t have many parking pull outs along it, so you can just park across the street in the golf course / hotel parking lot.

It’s a beautiful road that has such a way of making you feel small. If you get here early enough in the morning you’ll be sure to beat the tours and crowds.

Dark hedges is only about 15 minutes away if coming from Ballycastle.

One stop I’d also like to add in that we sadly didn’t visit was

Carrick - a - Rede - Ropebridge:

This was on our list but we ended up not hitting it because we had lost directions to it and didn’t have service on our phones yet. So again make sure to have your maps downloaded offline on google or get your service figured out beforehand.

This spot looks absolutely beautiful sitting 100 ft. above the sea and connecting two cliffs together by a rope bridge. It’s a definite must see that I regret not going to so much!

NEXT ON THE LIST

Giants Causeaway:

Another stop I’m sure you’ve seen or heard about in Ireland since it’s a popular place to see. We did drive here but sadly weren’t able to find parking right away and it was a wait we didn’t want to make. Especially because you must pay for parking which I didn’t know before as well - so be ready to pay about €13 but it looks well worth it!

Giants Causeaway is about 20 minutes if you come from Dark Hedges or 15 minutes if you add in the rope bridge.

After kind of driving all over the place and making other random stop offs like any other good roadtrip..

We made it to

Downhill Beach:

A beautiful white sand beach with even more gorgeous clear water. It feels so much like Ireland here; being on the coastline but also having a castle right on the green cliffs above. We spent an hour or so here just running around, chasing the waves, looking for seashells and keeping our feet in the sand. It was one of the warmer days we had in Ireland surprisingly so we felt like spending it here was perfect. Make sure to also hit a couple of the viewpoints from above before getting down here. They are absolutely breathtaking..

Also you can drive right on down to the beach - we chose not to just because we didn’t want to damage the van in anyway. But if you feel like it, it’d be a great place to cook up some lunch! We saw all sorts of different cars along the white sand.

Downhill beach is about 35 minutes from Giants Causeaway.

Because we had spent a lot of our day with just taking our time and seeing where the road takes us. It was getting close to sunset.. We knew exactly where we wanted to spend it and surprisingly planned our day pretty well to make it happen.

Slieve League Cliffs:

Yes this is sort of cutting off a part in Northern Ireland but we didn’t want to add in places we thought could be a miss. Especially with only a week there. So making the 2 and a half hour drive here felt so worth it.. Then when we actually got there I knew it was. One thing I’d like to note though: If using google maps make sure you type in directions to Slieve League Viewing Platform. That way you’re not taken up a washed out gravel road to the literal mountain of Slieve League. Bless that one women we saw hiking the road that stopped us and told us that the road was completely gone only a few miles up. Don’t get me wrong it was a gorgeous view for the time we spent on it but save yourself the heart attack and just go straight to the viewing platform. From there, there’s so many places to run around. Small lakes, every angle of the cliffs you could think of, short hikes to an even bigger summit. You could easily get lost up here for hours. Luckily we had an hour until the sun actually started to change colors before us and then when it slowly started to get dark we were able to see the full moon. A truly special place to witness sunset - also a very quiet one too! We only saw about 2 other cars here and they were all off doing their own thing so it felt like the cliffs were ours.

Like I said above earlier this is the most driving you’ll do that day which is two and a half hours! But again well worth it.

One of the things that I found totally different about camping in Ireland than anywhere else I’ve been.. Is that most campsites actually have an electronic gate so if you don’t book ahead of time you can’t get into most places. Unless it’s before 8:30PM. So word of advice try to plan out your campsites ahead of time or at least call / get checked in somewhere before their closing time to make sure you’re guaranteed somewhere to camp especially if you’ll be doing sunset like us.

After a stressful night of calling and talking to so many people we ended up staying somewhere close to our first stop of the day

Day 2

Silver Strand Beach:

One of my favorite spots I think we went on the whole trip. (There is two different silver strand beaches this is the one in Malin Beg. Sort of a back track from Slieve League Cliffs but where we ended up camping was near so it worked out great!) Anyways it’s a beautiful overlook that I feel not a lot of people go to because it’s down mostly a small neighborhood so you would never guess to find a beautiful beach at the end. I remember seeing my first photo of this place wondering how it could even be real, the white and perfect sand with the ocean that looks so untouched by how blue it is. I didn’t think it would be that beautiful in real life.. But it’s even more surreal standing there. Definitely a must see and if you can maybe do it for sunrise I’m sure it’d be that much more gorgeous!

If you end up coming here from Slieve League Cliffs or that area from your campsite expect about a 30 minute drive.

We spent a good two hours here as we used the parking lot to cook up some breakfast in the back of our Spaceship Campervan. It was an absolute perfect start to our day knowing that we would be driving a lot and covering some ground on the map as we headed more south.

So that led us to stop two of our second day..

Fairy Bridges:

This place is so unique as you know many Irish people believe in elves, giants and fairies so this place actually goes back in history as you explore the bridges and the Wishing Chair. Also a beautiful place to sit and watch people surf - there’s 360 degree views ranging from the turquoise blue water and the beautiful green hills.

Also the town that this beach is situated in is such a cute little place to get lost in. We spent about three hours here walking the trail down to the bridge, sitting above the ocean and watching the world slow down before us and exploring the areas nearby. If you end up going in late May how we did you’ll see all the flowers and it starts to make it really feel like spring. One of my favorites we visited!

Fairy Bridges is about an hour and a half drive from Silver Strand and well worth it.

One thing I want to add in is that sometimes I personally like to cover a lot of driving ground mostly to get somewhere so the light is good, to spend a good amount of time at certain places or because we just want to slow down and see what else the road has for us. So after these two stops we knew the next place on our map was about two and a half hours away and that we wanted to be there for sunset. That resulted in us driving down some beautiful roads off the beaten path, grabbing a lunch somewhere that was well deserved and also getting a couple more groceries for breakfast the next day. Word of advice: Take some slow days it’s always a good way to really feel yourself in a different moment of time. You start to experience more of the places you’re traveling.

After getting caught up on errands and exploring some places along the way to our main destination we found a great campsite online.

If you’ve never heard of IOverlander I would definitely reccomend downloading it on your phone! Basically it’s wild camping spots that have been reviewed by other people so you feel more safe camping there since others are more likely to be there with you too. So we headed actually to a spot we had found on iOverlander which was right in

Achill Island:

And yes it is exactly how you probably read the name of it. It’s such a quiet little part of Ireland that has some of the most gorgeous coastline views we saw our whole trip and within such a short driving distance.

Day 3

Like I said we camped right along the ocean for that night and watched sunset there cooking up a good dinner of Fettucine Alfredo with chicken, right out of the back of our van. Went to bed a bit earlier than we have most of the trip and then woke up the next morning early to cook up breakfast. Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas, coffee and yogurt was on the menu Always a good choice. It was definitely a great way to start the morning just taking it slow knowing we’d have a lot to see on our third day. So we took a bit of time to organize our van more and clean up the kitchen we have in the back. After an hour and a half of slowly waking up it was about 9:30AM so we started to make our way around Achill Island.. There’s so much to find just on your drive around this area

Also check out our van from Spaceship Campervans. It was perfect to live out of! We had the VW Delta

One main destination to see in Achill island is

KEEM BAY:

Again another magical coastline view but the drive down itself is so dreamy too. The way the green hills tower over you while you drive down the road with the sound of the ocean on your other side. Keem Bay is absolutely gorgeous! We stopped off at the overlook first to get a good look at how quiet the beach was and how clear the ocean is. For some reason I felt I was back in Thailand - it’s that beautiful. We spent a half an hour or so at the overlook above until driving down to the actual beach area where there’s a small truck selling espresso, tea and hot chocolate. I noticed they have this at mostly every tourist viewpoint so we decided to actually buy something for a cheap 2 euros and grabbed hot chocolate. It was pretty good so we sipped on it for awhile as we walked the beach and tried counting how many sheep there were everywhere. I would recommend spending about two hours here especially in the little town and finding viewpoints along the way.

Another stop in Achill Island is Keel Beach just for a little bonus one to add on the journey to Keem Bay!

On our drive in we noticed we had missed one of our other stops because we knew we wanted to catch sunset at Achill Island the night before.. So we made our way out of the little island and back on to the main road to

Ballycroy National Park:

A gorgeous little park that is mostly for hiking trails, as we found out all of the ones in Ireland are. But they’re all so gorgeous and there’s no fee for getting into any of the National Parks, which is unheard of from back in the states! On our drive in we started to notice the dark clouds come in and the rain start to hit the car so instead of just hitting one of the trails we decided to go to the Visitor Center instead for awhile where there’s free Wifi - I was able to catch up on some work and emails, then also text my dad to let him know I was alive. Only an hour or two passed sitting in a cute little cafe until it started to clear up a bit so we decided to head to the little trail we saw coming in.

Claggon Board Trail:

Just honestly a short walk along a boardwalk but it leads up to some of the only mountain views we saw on our trip here. A really cute stop to just get out and stretch your legs before heading to the next destination.

Claggon Board Trail is situated in Ballycroy NP so this is about an hour drive from Achill Island.

Our next stop was to

Rhineville Beach:

Where we tried to go for sunset but got rained out of. So this was sort of our first miss on a place but we at least sat in the car for awhile just listening to the rain and seeing the faint pink in the distance. Not honestly a bad night at all; we listened to our favorite songs for moments like this and just sang so loud because nobody was around for miles and miles. Not a bad place to attempt sunset.

After this we made our way to a campsite nearby that I don’t remember the name to honestly because the lady who owned it was very rude. So we did camp nearby I just can’t remember where..

Day 4

We woke up the next morning about 8AM with another long but EXCITING day ahead of us because we had some of the best places to see in one day. Cierra is always designated chef so she cooked up some eggs, bacon and bell peppers for us as we started to drop our pins down on the map for the day.

First stop of the day for our Ireland journey was..

Clifden Castle:

Our first castle we actually were able to see! Most castles have a fee to get in or even view from the outside and with hours that close about 5:30 it hadn’t worked out yet for us. This castle in particular is actually on a very sweet man’s property who has opened it up to the public and for no fee. You do have to park your car on the road in a good size parking lot before starting a 10 or 15 minute walk through a farm though. Truly a unique experience to cross over a short hill and see this magical castle wrapped in leaves and moss down a small path. I felt my Disney princess fairytale coming alive here

The castle itself is huge! And the owner like I said earlier was super sweet he came down and introduced himself and told us a little bit about the property.. A really great experience. I would recommend this to start off your morning because nobody else will be there and you might get lucky to have a free tour guide for a couple minutes!

Clifden Castle is about a 2 hour drive from Ballycroy NP the last stop we had on our third day. Like I said we camped nearby the castle but can’t remember the name.

One thing I’d like to throw in as well: Most campsites usually always have a price just from 20 - 25 euros for a night so make sure you plan to pay for that every night but Spaceship does give you a great camping book in the glove department of your van. With a map of the different campsites throughout the country, what each campsite includes, the price of them and more!

It definitely helped us out a lot so make sure you get one before you hit the road!

After spending an hour or two living out my princess fairytale we made our way to our next stop

Pines Island Viewpoint:

Honestly probably my favorite little spot we were lucky enough to stumble upon. It’s just along side of the road but if you walk down to the shore it starts to feel like you’re in Jurassic park or something. Also you can walk right on over to the island - I honestly loved the drive in and then even more stumbling upon little views like this, that turned out to be some of my favorite.

Pines island viewpoint is only 20 minutes away from Clifden Castle.

Seriously within 10 minutes we were at our next beautiful stop..-

Lough Inagh:

A view of another lake surrounded by beautiful mountain peaks and a small little cabin. Instead of walking down to it we saw a road right across the street leading up to what looked like a gorgeous overlook. The drive up was covered in sheep’s per usual but also wild horses.. A true Ireland feeling to be exploring the mountain back roads.

The horses even wanted to come in and join in my photos!

After spending about two hours here cooking up lunch and taking photos we headed to our next quick stop

Dunguiare Castle:

Another beautiful castle in Ireland that is actually free to view just from the outside! (Not many are) It’s a pull off on the road so we decided to spend a quick 30 minutes here. One thing to note is we did pass through the city of Galway which I heard is really great as well! But we were sort of in a rush when we realized we wanted to hit Cliffs of Moher for sunset..

So if you go from Cliffs of Moher from Lough Inagh expect two and a half hours of driving. With the choice of the stop off at Dunguiare Castle.

We read alot about..

Cliffs Of Moher

If you can go in after sunset or if there’s a payment. I’m here to let you know: YES you can get in for sunset and frankly it’s the best time to. There is hardly anybody so it truly feels like the place is to yourself. We found the best view up a path that was actually considered out of Cliffs of Moher’s visitor site.. meaning we were able to sit and stand at what felt like the edge of the world. Truly one of the best feelings and views to match. There’s not one view to simply choose for being the best here because of all the trails and panorama views there are. You could get lost here forever. But again for sunset is the best because you have it to yourself

After watching the sun fully set all around us and see day turn into night. We were so happy when we found a campsite within only 15 minutes of the Cliffs called Nagles Campground. But like I mentioned earlier you do have to check in usually before 8:30PM to get a code for a gate.. So please remember this if you’d like to camp close to the cliffs and for a good price! We had such an eventful day we were so happy when we were able to lay in the back of our van. Cierra cooked up some dinner and then soon after, we were ready to go to sleep.

Day 5

On the road now and we knew it would probably be another day of sort of slowing down time. Exploring places more in depth and seeing what we could find along the long drive

Cierra and I decided to start off with a coffee at Moher’s Cottage:

A cute coffee shop just on the way back to the Cliffs. It’s situated right on a cliff side and has outdoor and indoor seating. We hung out here for a couple hours just catching up with family and using WiFi.

So basically our first stop of the day was

Conor’s Pass:

One of the most beautiful views I have ever seen honestly and definitely in Ireland. The only thing bad I have to say about it is the road is so sketchy! It’s mostly a one way but the difference is there’s huge boulders on one side and a cliff on the other. Pull offs are pretty limited but once you get to the parking lot of the view.. It calms your nerves so much. Just drive slower than the speed limit posted and always see who is coming up or down at the same time. Keep your lights on as well to be extra safe!

Conor Pass is about three hours from Moher’s Cottage / Cliffs of Moher so be prepared for a bit of drive time this day if following my route!

After spending an hour or so roaming around here we decided to carry on to the town of Dingle. Honestly my favorite town we visited! Maybe it was because of all there was to do but how it seemed so small still. Whatever it was I definitely fell in love with it. So make sure to check it out! We ended up getting some gifts for family and patches / pins for ourselves. Grabbed dinner for the first time basically that trip. Then knew we had to make it to Dingle Peninsula. One place that I had been DYING to go to!

Dingle is 10 minutes from Conor Pass.

Dunquin Harbour to be exact:

Truly the only pictures I had seen prior to planning my trip of Ireland, but even then I didn’t know it was here. I absolutely loved the way the rocks out in the middle of the ocean aligned, the different cliffs you could see every which way you turned or how the place made you feel so small. It was just a feeling I knew I had been waiting for my whole trip. We stayed here for two or three hours just running around the cliffs making our photo ideas come to life. Seriously just so lost in the moment.. It was my favorite sunset and sunset spot.

Dunquin Harbour is about 20 minutes outside of the town of Dingle.

There are so many spots to see along the Dingle Peninsula I would recommend camping nearby. We found literally a spot on Google maps titled “Free camping” about 10 minutes away from the Harbour and it did not disappoint! It was right next to the ocean and beautiful cliffs. Then was perfect to wake up to so we could drive the rest of the coastline. We started day 6 by doing just that.. Taking it slow and appreciating our last couple days in the van.

Day 6

We drove back into the town of Dingle so we could grab breakfast since we were starting to finally run low on groceries from buying them a week ago! Something we’re not used to since we don’t have a fridge to keep things cool back home while camping. One thing I knew I’ll definitely miss about the van.

5 minutes or so of walking through the cute town we arrived at Harrington’s Cafe - which was really good especially for their prices! We used their WiFi to plan our day knowing it would be an eventful one as we start to make our way back towards Spaceship the next day.

Point one on the map was to

Gap of Dunloe:

We sort of took a loss here not realizing you can’t drive directly up to the beautiful view. You instead have to hike up the road to it since it’s impassable for through traffic. The area itself was gorgeous to take a break at..If we would have had more time we definitely would have done it! So if you have the time you should.

Gap of Dunloe was about an hour from the town of Dingle.

We just shook it off and made our way to

Killarney National Park

Like I said above you can get in to all National Parks for free which is AMAZING. So we took our time driving through the park and arrived to the one point we had scouted online for which was

Ladies View:

It’s a gorgeous overlook of a lake and some of the only mountain views we had found mostly the whole trip! It was such a sunny day when we went so we spent our time sitting at this place - probably an hour or so.

Ladies View / Killarney NP is about a 45 minute drive from Gap of Dunloe.

After spending a couple hours at this spot making lunch and then sitting at the overlook we knew we had a couple places left on our journey..

Next being

Ballaghisheen Pass:

A very very SKETCHY drive.. Like I’ve said before in this blog the roads are pretty narrow and with limited pull offs, this one being a tad worst. But the drive is absolutely gorgeous and honestly worth it. The road goes on for what feels like forever through some of the most green hills I’ve ever witnessed. Sheeps everywhere with the occasional wild horses. Something that is definitely worth the drive and out of a dream.

Ballaghisheen Pass is about an hour from Ladies View. But again: TAKE IT SLOW ON THIS ROAD.

About an hour and a half of driving through the beautiful pass we made it to a cute little town situated again on the coastline.. Cahersiveen. We decided to sit down for some pizza and found a really unique place in town. It was a pizza / wine bar that was in a church. We spent our time here waiting for sunset to hit our next stop..

Kerry Cliffs:

A place that looked absolutely gorgeous and we thought we could hit for sunset. But sadly it truly does close at 7:30PM - the gates are locked up and there’s no way to walk to to them still. So just make sure that if you want to go here to do it in mid day and there is a fee. It looks gorgeous though!

Since we weren’t able to hit the spot we were waiting for, we instead were luckily enough to find a place right up the street

Coomansapig:

A beautiful overlook through the rolling hills with a far enough view to a small city below and the ocean on the other side. We sat here for a long while knowing it was our last night with the van and the last day of a crazy week living out of it. How much we were going to miss all the little things about van life.. Cooking up breakfast or lunch somewhere in nature, the sound of ocean waves singing us to sleep, being able to have everything we need in our home on wheels. It was the last night of truly living wild and free. It was a hard goodbye but luckily the sun slowly set giving us all the time we needed. We sat here an extra long time.. appreciating things a little more.

Kerry Cliffs and this overlook are about 20 minute drive from the town of Cahersiveen.

The sun finally set at about 10:30PM - where the pink hues changed to a sky lit up by stars. We decided it was time to leave and camp somewhere for the night.

Day 7

We woke up and started our day at a really cute cafe 30 minutes away

Beach Cove:

Two and a half hours passed and then we realized we were still sitting at this cafe. So we decided to start making our way towards Spaceship Campervans. About a 5 hour drive away but we had an early flight to catch the next day so we knew we needed to drop the van off then. Plus the speed limit is 120kmh on the freeway so that helps on making the drive a bit better.

One thing to note: there are tolls usually on the route back so make sure to have change on you as they don’t accept bills usually.

After a surprisingly quick journey we had already made it back to where our crazy beautiful week started. The process of dropping off was so easy as well.. As they do all of the work for you, of taking photos before and after to see if there’s damage. Having a checklist of what was given to you and what you return with.. Within 30 minutes of getting there we were on our walk up to the bus stop. already missing the beautiful places and memories we had.

One thing that’s super nice about Spaceship Campervan’s location in is that like I said earlier: It’s a great place to start driving on the opposite side since you’re more in the country.

AND there’s a bus stop right up the street so it makes getting to Dublin City or the airport that much easier.

We ended up going back to Dublin though and staying at a hostel again in hopes to meet some new last minute friends and say goodbye to everything about Ireland.

Because we were staying at another hostel they were doing the pub-crawl again so we said screw it even with the flight the next day.. It turned out to be one of the best ways of saying farewell. We met again such an awesome group of people and at one point and one bar I was screaming with a girl who lives in the same city as I do! I couldn’t even believe it.. A girl from my small town was at the exact same place and time I was. It felt like such a small world but also then such a big world. It was just a night of really making me appreciate everything Ireland had taught me. It was another reason to make it harder to say goodbye.

So we stayed out extra long, took more photos than before and hugged all our new friends even longer. Just saying we’d back.. Because we will. There’s a lot more left of Ireland to explore and a lot more van living from me waiting to happen.

Some things I want to share with you about a road trip to Ireland!

I’m going to break down these helpful tips into two sections one of Northern Ireland and then Ireland.

Northern Ireland:

Currency -Pound sterling

Exchange rate - Pound to USD:

1 Pound = $1.27USD

Speed limits are in MPH and as following -

Town/city: 40MPH

Open roads: 50MPH

Freeways: 70MPH

Another thing to note Ireland’s roads are much more narrow than back home in the states!

Also fun fact: there’s more sheep than they’re are people in this beautiful country - watch out for them on the road!

Everyone speaks English which is super nice!

I would recommend 3 or 5 days at most to spend in Northern Ireland.

Ireland:

Currency - Euro

Exchange rate - Euro to USD:

1 Euro = $1.13USD

Speed limits are in KMH and as following -

Town/city: 50KMH

Open roads: 80KMH

Freeways: 120KMH

Things to note about driving in main Ireland: There are a couple toll roads! They only accept coins so make sure you have about €1.40 - €2 on hand.

There is a couple toll roads that you must remember to pay online and as well within 12 hours that website is:

https://www.eflow.ie/i-want-to/pay-a-toll/

A couple other random things to note about your time in Ireland:

You CAN shop tax free! Just ask for your tax receipt at stores you spend a lot at (There is a store minimum usually) but once you fill this out you just take it with you to the airport and drop it off! Within a couple weeks you can get some of your money back if you’re non European and buying stuff here. SCORE! So keep this in mind - we didn’t know this until a couple weeks in and we did most of our shopping.

Gas prices of May 2019 are as follows:

€1.45 a liter - equaling to about $6.20 (USD) a gallon

Luckily our van was diesel so yes it was a bit more expensive but it felt like we got a lot more bang for our buck!

Lidl, Tesco and SuperValu are the cheapest grocery stores and indefinite supply throughout Ireland! Always shop here!

For a whole experience throughout Ireland out of a campervan (The Northern side included) I would recommend at least 6 days and at most 8!

Everything is closer than you think honestly

Budget wise- I’d expect to save around $1500USD for all of the groceries, gas, campsites, drinks, gifts and extra goodies you pick up along the way!

This is traveling with someone else though: Meaning we switch on and off for getting gas and the costs are split same with our groceries.

So grab a friend or two to make it more budget friendly.

Living out of a van definitely saves a lot of money though since you’re killing two birds with one stone; roadtripping the country and having a home on wheels.

Again I just want to say thank you so much to Spaceship Campervans for helping me put this story together. Especially for being so helpful along the way; with any questions or concerns I had, you guys made my trip that much easier! Also for providing me with everything I needed for a week living on the road. I couldn’t of done it without you!

If you’re ever in Ireland and want to experience it whole heartedly like I did. Make sure to check them out and use this route to see it all

Ireland Guide

Thank you guys for being Lost in a Dream with me

With lots of love always,

Niki

PS.

Who wants a Photo Diary of Ireland? Comment below if you do and make sure to click the little heart below to like <3

IRELAND ROADTRIP GUIDE