dingo

I have taken my now 78-year-old father on several trips over the last 10 years: Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium (day trip to Paris), Amsterdam with a stop in London, Austria with a stop in Munich, Italy (Florence and Rome). On most of those trips, we based in one city and saw outlying towns. We stayed in Brussels and took take trips to Bruges and Ghent; we stayed in Prague and took day trips to Pilsen and Kutna Hora, and so on.

I offered to take him on another trip and his selection is giving me some problems: Ireland (he picked Dublin specifically). The more that I read up on Ireland, the more frequently I read about cliffs, overlooks, and other geological formations that just aren't what I or he and I typically visit. And much of what I read assumes or suggests the renting of a car, which I am not at all interested in doing for a couple of reasons (we like to visit pubs, and I generally don't like driving in foreign countries). Everyone that I know who has been to Ireland has been on one of those organized bus tours. I'm not at that point in my life where a multi-day organized bus tour with the same people every day appeals to me, and my father is still very capable of getting around just fine (except going down tons of stairs).

So I need some help dear FT'ers.

Is my impression of Ireland incorrect? I think he and I could easily fill 2 to 2 1/2 days in Dublin which would leave us 2-3 days to fill with side trips. I would need to find two to three towns that are fairly easily accessible from Dublin without a car, which would be interesting to walk around and just enjoy. Then we could possibly check out some of the cliffs either as a separate trip or as part of one of the side trips.

I guess there are two other options: 1. Hire a private car service to take us where we want to go on our time frames, or 2. Spend a few nights in Dublin and the rest of the trip in another city (I don't want to move hotels more than once on this short of a trip). Any thoughts on something like that?

FWIW, my likely routing on this would be CLT - LHR and then either a train or additional flight (most likely) into Dublin. FWIW2, out of all of our trips the least favorite of my father's was Paris ("it's a big city"); he seems to have really liked Amsterdam and Belgium; we visited two - three smaller towns on each of those. FWIW3, we like checking out a museum or two or three with those being art as well as something kind of local and off the wall (the resistance museum in Amsterdam, cold war museum in Prague), we like popping into churches, we're not huge foodies (at all), and we enjoy having a pint or two and just talking.

I'm off to check out some guidebooks at the library but I would immensely appreciate any help from folks here to help me make some decisions.