We Should Move Here Travels
Searching for our new home while traveling the world ✈️🏡✨
We Should Move Here Travels is a hybrid audio and video travel podcast that follows a couple’s journey exploring cities and countries internationally. Each episode dives into authentic local experiences, walkability, food culture, community vibe, and potential for relocation. Join them as they uncover hidden gems, share honest insights, and contemplate what it’s really like to move and live abroad.
We Should Move Here Travels
Ireland: A Journey Through Wicklow, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, and Dublin
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Ireland Trip Recap: Wicklow, Donegal, Galway, Kerry (Dingle) & Dublin | Ratings, Hikes, Food & Would We Move Here?
Brittany and Josh recap their two-week Ireland trip, saying it exceeded expectations for beauty and highlighting stops in Laragh/Wicklow Mountains (scenic hike), Teelin/County Donegal (Slieve League cliffs), a night at Lough Rynn Castle (notable dinner), Clifden (a difficult and dangerous hike), Dingle (Dingle Distillery and favorite town), and Dublin (major foodie hotspot). They compare Ireland’s beauty to Scotland but felt a stronger emotional connection to Scotland, with Dingle coming closest. They wish they had more time to add Northern Ireland and more of Ireland overall, and they learned the value of public transit alongside driving and that they can do hard hikes. They rate: food ~7/10, alcohol 10/10, coffee/social ~7.2–7.5, walkability/transit ~5–6, affordability ~5–6, relocation difficulty ~4–5, pace/wellness ~8–8.5, and nature/beauty 10/10. They would visit again but wouldn’t move there now.
00:00 Ireland Trip Recap
02:08 Favorite Moments
03:22 Scotland Comparison
05:33 What We'd Change
07:48 Lessons Learned
11:45 Food Ratings
12:59 Best Bites
14:32 Guinness And Whiskey
15:36 Whiskey And Beer Rating
16:11 Coffee Scene And Favorites
18:25 Walkability And Transit
19:58 Affordability Breakdown
21:01 Relocation Reality Check
22:58 Pace Wellness Culture
24:50 Nature Beauty Highlights
26:06 Travel Advice And FOMO
28:18 Would We Move Here
29:46 Wrap Up And Next Episode
@WSMHtravels
Hello and welcome to the We Should Move Here Travels podcast. My name is Brittany.
joshI'm Josh
britand we are your host today, we are wrapping up our Ireland trip and doing a bit of a recap for you.
joshReally loved this trip. It was, I think, just about everything that I hoped for in a trip to Ireland.
britIt really was. It was so beautiful. I mean, I don't know that I knew what to expect. I don't know that I ever really knew going somewhere new. but I didn't expect it to be as beautiful as it was.
joshI think that's such a common thing when you're looking at pictures of a place. Mm-hmm. And you're gonna be like, oh, that's stunning. But it never does it justice.
britYeah.
joshSo even our photos and videos from our previous episodes describing each county and city we went to, none of 'em are gonna do justice, the beauty of Ireland, unless you go there yourself and see it.
britYeah, I agree. So just to recap a little bit, we started in Laragh in the Wicklow Mountains, and we did a hike there that was absolutely beautiful. Then we went to Teelin in County Donegal and we saw the tallest cliffs in Europe. Then we stayed one night at the Lough Rynn Castle fringe castle. had an amazing dinner there. And then we went to Clifden and did an insanely beautiful and pretty difficult, and I would also say dangerous hike. And then we went to Dingle where we did get to Tour Dingle Distillery, which was amazing. Definitely recommend. Then we ended our trip in Dublin, where it was a true foodie hotspot for us. We ate so much food there those last two days.
joshWe sure did. I think that was a really good recap. Pretty much sums up most of the trip.
britYeah. so what did you like about the trip?
joshOh, my, there's so much I loved about the trip. Just the expansive beauty of Ireland every single place we went, I think with the exception of Dublin, which is beautiful in its own way.
britYeah.
joshBut all of the other places, Laragh Teelin, Mo Hill, where Lough Rynn Castle was Clifden and Dingle, all really dramatically beautiful.
britYeah.
joshIt was just stunning and a joy to walk around, hike, drive around. Beautiful. What about you? What'd you like about the trip?
britI really loved the new adventures that we added to this trip. So hiking and seeing the beauty of Ireland from those hikes. We've never really done that before. It was, a new edition. I just think it was so beautiful to see Ireland in that way. I had talked about how some of these hikes were life-changing and they really were life-changing experiences because of how beautiful and challenging and, difficult they were, but also how proud they made me feel. I almost feel like, this trip of Ireland solidified my number one spot of Portree Scotland. Mm. Mainly because I think that there were parts of this trip where it was very similar to Port Scotland in a lot of ways. the small town, the, the beauty everywhere, the cliffs, the hikes, all of that. I think. The only difference is I got the feeling so much stronger in Portree than I did all throughout Ireland. Okay. I think I'm really grateful to have done this trip and have that kind of solidify my number one spot as of right now. That could certainly change in the future, and it might, I just think it's a really hard one to beat.
joshYeah,
britI do.
joshMm-hmm.
britYeah. I'm grateful that we went to si similar places because it did make me recognize, like my feelings of wanting to be in a place that I'm so drawn to, like I am
joshthat makes a lot of sense because there was, for me as well, more of a emotional connection to Scotland while we were there.
britMm-hmm.
joshI constantly felt emotionally connected and even though Ireland was, as we both said, beautiful and stunning, it just didn't have that emotional connection that Scotland provided.
britI think there were parts of Ireland where I was very drawn to it, like Dingle.
joshMm-hmm.
britI loved Dingle. I think everybody loves Dingle, honestly, like it's such a beautiful town and it just has, it has a lot to do. And you drive 10 minutes out of the city and you're like in the middle of the fricking. Like Irish Cliffs and On the Peninsula. And it's just so beautiful. I think Dingle, if any town would have done it for me, it would be Dingle.
joshDingle would've solidified it if it would've, yeah.
britYeah.
joshwhat do you wish we would've done, uh, different or was different about the trip?
britI really loved the way we did the trip.
joshMm-hmm.
britI think that we hit a lot of the spots that I had envisioned us hitting. I had always envisioned what Ireland would look like and we went to the spots where that's what Ireland looked like and more so it really brought my imagination to life. I love it when a place does that because it's always better. Mm-hmm. It is always better than you can envision it.
joshYeah.
britSo I really appreciated that. However, I do think that going to Northern Ireland would've been fun. Like going to Belfast, going to the Titanic Museum, doing some of that stuff I think would've been really fun. If I had to pick something, it would be that, but I really think that our two week itinerary was perfect. I, I don't think I would change the two week itinerary, but if we had three weeks, I would've wanted to go to Northern Ireland. what about you? What do you wish it was different?
joshNot a lot, to be honest. I felt pretty great about the trip. Maybe something similar along the lines of going into Northern Ireland. Mm-hmm. If we had more time, I would add that to it as well as more Southern Ireland.
britYeah.
joshAs well as along the East coast. I don't think I would actually changed where we went at all. I think we picked really great places to go. Just wanting to go. More places in Ireland would be something that I would change or add to if I could. And I just mentioned all that and nothing about the middle. There's the whole center of Ireland that we didn't get to spend much time in. Really?
britYeah. Yeah. That's true. So I think we both wouldn't change anything, but if we had to choose something, we would make it longer.
joshMm-hmm.
britWhich is fair. Yeah. I think every traveler can relate to that.
joshYeah, for sure. Always want a longer trip. Yeah. Or just to see more.
britWhat do you feel like you learned on this trip? I feel like we always learn something different on each trip. What do you think you learned here?
joshA couple things. One that really comes to my head is I do appreciate public transportation in a country.
britMm.
joshYou know, I love driving. I think it's a great way to explore, especially a country like Ireland. You get. Much more out of the country. I think when you have the ability to go off and do things at random and on your own, I can understand people who go on bus tours or jump from city to city, but I think a car is great for Ireland.
britMm-hmm.
joshThat being said, driving for. Two weeks straight in Ireland, it would've been great to have a little bit more, maybe a, a train station, go to a few different places at times instead of having to drive there.
britYeah. I think there are buses that you can do.
joshMm-hmm.
britBut we didn't look too far into that just because. You get a bus and then you're kind of stuck at the, at the accommodation that you choose.
joshMm-hmm.
britAnd we were like, yeah, we wanna go out and do things. And we would've never gotten the chance to do half of what, what we did if we did it that way. So,
joshyeah. I, I think I also just meant in general, as like our podcast of looking for a future place to live. I think I can see that in places as well.
britYeah. Yeah.
joshI do like going on hikes with you. I thought that was really fun. I thought it was a great challenge for us. I thought we connected really well on hikes and
brityeah,
joshkept on learning more about each other, so I think that was a great learning moment. That's something that you and me share.
britYeah. We know each other really well. Mm-hmm. And I think there's always something more that you can learn about your person.
joshMm-hmm.
britAnd I think that's so true. Like when you do new things like hiking, all you're doing is talking and walking. Right. So
joshExactly. That's what I was gonna say. When you. Experience something new. Have a new experience. Yeah.
britYeah, yeah.
joshWhat about you? What did you learn on the trip?
britUm, I learned that you and I can do hard things. Hmm. And there were parts of some of these hikes where I could have fallen to my death, and where we walk above the clouds, where we hike to above the clouds, and I just think that. These moments, they come back to me and I remember them and I'm like, wow, I can't believe we did that one, two, like how beautiful it was. And also, I'm just so proud of us for doing that. So I mean, I learned that we really can do hard things. Those were really hard hikes, some of them.
joshMm-hmm.
britWould I do them again? Not all of them, but, but I do think like doing them once was enough for me and it was enough to prove to not just like other people, but to myself that I can do hard things.
joshYeah.
britSo they say it all the time in yoga when we're like holding a minute long plank. the yoga instructor's always like. You can do hard things. I'm always thinking to myself, ugh. Yeah, right. I get that, but I can.
joshYou can. It's so true, true, true though. And you, yeah, absolutely.
britso when we went to New Zealand, we started doing this thing where we would rank in different categories each town. We didn't do that for each town or city. Here we are going to do that as Ireland as a whole. Mm-hmm. So as far as food, what would you rank Ireland's food scene outta 10.
joshIt does make it more difficult. Not being city by city. No. Got, I know as a whole
britit does,
joshWe had a lot of great food. I'd probably give it. A 6.9 outta 10. Oh.
britMm-hmm. I was very close. I was gonna say a seven.
joshSeven. Are
britwe seven? 7.5.
joshAre we gonna include alcohol in our food?
britI mean, we could include a whole alcohol category because that would be a 10.
joshThat's what I was gonna say.
britI mean, the Guinness is insane,
joshI think. I think on the, on the spot here, we're gonna make up another category called alcohol. Think we're gonna throw it in there. All right. So yeah, I'm gonna stick with 6.9 for food outta 10.
britOkay.
joshAnd you're gonna do seven, you said?
britYeah, seven. 7.5.
joshOkay. If, if we look back, if you had to pick one, one thing we had there for food, what would you say or suggest?
britOh my gosh, that's so hard. I think, uh, the first thing that pops into my head is the Guinness Beef Stew. Mm-hmm. At the Rusty Mackerel.
joshYeah.
britThat was so delicious. Another dinner that pops into my head is the Lough Rynn Castle.
joshYep.
britThey had amazing food and it was just an incredible experience to be there. And then I also think about like the foodie hotspots and the food tour in Dublin
joshfor sure.
britSo, I mean, Dublin's food scene is so good. It is. It is so good. If you are a foodie and you're in Dublin, you gotta check out some of these places 'cause it's really good. I think that my top spot, yeah, I think I would have to give it to Lough Rynn Castle.
joshOkay.
britWhat about you,
joshthe Harbor Restaurant and Bar. We had great pasta there. Great salmon. Really nice dessert. I think that one sticks out to me a lot when I think back.
britYeah. That was really good. That was county Donegal.
joshMm-hmm. Yes.
britMm-hmm.
joshYeah. Minus, minus any Guinness stew, any of the stews. 'cause those are. Those are locked in. But otherwise the Harbor Restaurant in County Donegal was great.
britYeah, that was really great. Wow. We had some really amazing food here.
joshI guess if we're gonna add alcohol as a category, what would you rate alcohol outta? 10.
brit10.
josh10.
britThe Guinness just made. Every day feels so comfortable. I mean, I didn't drink every day. but most days we did, and we would always have a Guinness.
joshMm-hmm.
britAnd the Guinness is just so delicious. It's different there. It really is. I mean, we are gonna try, we have to try, uh, one of the, the cans where they have the, the little ball that drops in.
joshOh, sure. Yeah.
britYou know what I'm talking about.
joshYeah.
britUm. We have to try one of those, but I don't think that it's gonna be as good as a Guinness in Ireland.
joshNah, it can't
britbe. We'll see.
joshYeah.
britBut God, I'm craving one now. What would you rank the alcohol scene?
joshProbably a 10 as well. I think also for the whiskey.
britOh yeah,
joshbecause we are coming into a whiskey era, I think
britwe
joshare, we have been getting into whiskey a little more and both Crolly and Dingle Distillery were fantastic and there's so much more great Irish whiskey pairing that with the fantastic beer, not only Guinness, which was obviously great, but we had. A few other small brewery beers there that were really great. So I think, I think it's a 10. Even if it was just based off of Guinness, it'd be probably a 10.
britYeah, I agree.
joshYeah,
britI agree. What about the coffee and social scene?
joshI thought it was good. I'm not. As hard or tough on coffee as you are, so you'll probably have a different take. I love the social aspect of 'em. They were, for the most part, all kind of sit down and like
britmm-hmm.
joshMeet friends there sort of place. There was one early on that was a window on the street.
britYeah.
joshI forget the name of it. But that was even, that was cool.
britAnd they had seating outside too.
joshYeah. And they had seating outside. if Italy's a 10. This is, I'm gonna go 7.2.
britI'll go 7.5 again. I think it was pretty good. definitely not Italy, where you sit down and every single cup is like the best coffee you've ever had.
joshMm-hmm.
britBut I think that it, Ireland really surprised me with their coffee actually. I didn't really expect there to be a good coffee scene because, I keep comparing Ireland and Scotland and I shouldn't do that, but they are so close together and they have a lot of similarities. I kind of. Expected Ireland's coffee scene to be kind of like Scotland's, which wasn't good. but it wasn't. It was a good coffee scene. I really appreciated their coffee. So, uh, 7.5.
joshNice. Not every
britcup was the best I've had, but there were a lot of great cups of coffee,
joshlot of great cups of coffee. If you had to pick one, what was your favorite one?
britI think for the social aspect, it would be my boy blue. Where we had the raspberry white chocolate muffin. I can't stop thinking about it. they had pretty good coffee too. But then Bean and Dingle, both of these are in dingle, but then Bean and Dingle was really great coffee. So that was probably my favorite cup. but both of them are in Dingle and that was my favorite place in Ireland. So I don't know if that contributed to,
joshit's a whole vibe thing. It all counts.
britYeah. walkability and transit,
joshI think driving is its own experience. In Ireland, we didn't really get into the public transit too much, so can't base it off that there is some in Dublin. There are some out there. But we can't really grade it on that too much.
britMm-hmm.
joshWalkability the towns when you're in 'em, like Dingle and Clifden, very walkable.
britVery.
joshI, I think we gotta give it the benefit of the doubt a little bit. Probably keep it right around like a 6, 8, 6 point.
britYeah, I was gonna say around a five or six.
joshMm-hmm.
britjust because the public transportation, I think would've been solely buses.
joshMm-hmm.
britAnd then you wouldn't be able to get outside of the cities, but the cities themselves are very walkable. Mm-hmm.
joshSo
britI think half of it got a really good score, and then half of it got a really bad score for me. So I would say like a five or six.
joshOkay. Yeah. I think the fact that the cities that we stayed in Clifden and Dingle, and then some of the other cities we drove through you, if you lived there, you could probably do without a car if you were just looking to stay in your city.
britAbsolutely. Yeah. The cities themselves are so incredibly walkable.
joshMm-hmm. Very community minded. Because you can, from your house, walk to the grocery store. Mm-hmm. Walk to school, get around very easily, like where we live, it's much more difficult. We're walking. A mile at least to a grocery store.
britYeah. So what about affordability?
joshI think the way the Euro is right now. With the United States dollar, it was pretty much dollar for Euro. It was pretty close. Didn't see much of a difference across anything really.
britYeah. because we went outside of tour season mm-hmm. We didn't spend as much as things would've been during tour season.
joshYeah.
britThat's just something to keep in mind.
joshMm-hmm.
britBut what would you rate it?
joshI mean, not better. Like we were getting more bang for a buck, but not worse off where we were losing, you know, money was bad conversion rate. So I'd probably have to give it like a six.
britI would say like a five because of that. Like right in the middle?
joshYeah. Maybe gas. I think gas or petrol was a little more expensive. If I remember correctly. We were fortunate enough to have a smaller or like mid-sized car that was good on gas, so we actually didn't have to fill up that much.
britYeah.
joshBut I think that was a little more expensive. So yeah. I think five's good. Yeah. Okay. What do you think about relocation? How easy it might be?
britthat's difficult because we met up with Amy, who had a very easy time relocating from the US to Ireland, and that's because she had family ties that came back to Ireland and it was close enough to where she could easily get dual citizenship. for us though, we don't have that. So I think what would need to happen is, Either I would have to get a specialized work visa or one of us would go back to school.
joshYeah.
britThere are pathways that way.
joshMm-hmm.
britBut I think they're more challenging than some other countries.
joshYeah.
britSo it just kind of depends on what our situation would be at the time of relocation. It definitely is possible. I don't know. That is something that we're looking at right now, there are options, but they're a little more difficult for us. I think I'd give it like a five. Yeah. What do you think?
joshI was gonna say very similar things that you'd have to get a specialized, like job visa or one of us have to go back to school and then be a spousal exemption for that. The only problem would be, is. From what we've heard from people on our social medias and comments that finding a job is difficult and finding housing is difficult like a lot of places in the world. with that in mind, and not having that direct ancestry tie to get us like a dual citizenship, I think it's. A four at this point as far as the knowledge that we have. Of course, if we had that direct ancestry tie, like Amy or several other people in Wisconsin and around the world, then it seems pretty doable.
britYeah. Mm-hmm. Seems easier that way. as far as pace and wellness, what would you rate Ireland
joshagain, we. Talked to a few people on our social media and then talked with Amy they said that the change from the United States to Ireland was a big difference from them. Yeah. They said that life really slowed down in a positive way, and it seemed like that while we were there, and it seemed like people with all different kinds of jobs were able to. Take a breath, take it easy, and maybe not have 3, 4, 5 jobs like is often common in the United States.
britYeah,
joshI think that along with the fact that I think a lot of the communities are really close knit and you become close with your community mem members. From what we know, I'd probably give it an eight.
britI agree. I think that the pace and wellness culture here was, pretty apparently different Than the US and I think for that reason I did. Think about life there. Yeah. And what it could look like.
joshMm-hmm.
britBecause it was so slow. People weren't like in a rush. Obviously in Dublin it was a little bit different because it's a big city. There's always gonna be, you know, that time crunch it feels like in a big city.
joshRight.
britBut outside of the big city, it really felt slow. It felt like people walked, a lot of places, there was a lot of like social things that I saw happening in groups and stuff like that. So I, I think that we could see ourselves in that kind of pace.
joshYeah.
britAnd that kind of environment.
joshYeah.
brityeah, I think like a. 8.5.
joshMm-hmm. What about access to nature and beauty?
britOh, that's a 10. That's a 10. Yeah, I mean, I, I, it left me speechless. It was so beautiful. one of the most beautiful countries I think we've been to.
joshIf you had to pick one point in Ireland, you're like, oh, I could go back and I could, I could stand there and see that again, or I could sit there, or we could drive past it.
britI'll pick my top three.
joshOkay.
britThe Wicklow Mountains
joshclassic. Nice.
britthe Slieve league.
joshMm-hmm.
britAnd the upper and lower diamond loop. I think those are my top three most beautiful places that we went in Ireland.
joshYeah.
britWhat about you? If you had to pick just one?
joshIt would be all of Donegal.
britAll of Donegal.
joshAll of Donegal. Really beautiful. So that includes this Slieve league. A beautiful place.
britYeah,
joshEverywhere we went. Had beauty to it.
britYeah.
joshYep. Definitely rank it out 10. Just like you. Easy. We like picking beautiful places to go.
britWe do. Mm-hmm. I mean, what can we say?
joshWe
britlike the beauty. We like the beauty. Is there anything else you wanna say about Ireland that we haven't talked about?
joshI think it's important for people who are looking at taking a trip to Ireland to choose places and choose activities. Because they wanna do 'em. I think there's a lot of places to go, things to see in Ireland, and lots of people have been there, I wanna tell you. Like this is the place to go. This is the place to see. it's a big country you could spend every day for a hundred days seeing something different. Hmm. I think you just gotta pick out what you wanna see and what you wanna do and just go with your gut. I think we did that on this trip.
britYeah.
joshAnd it really paid off. Sometimes we get stuck in like, oh, everyone says we gotta go see this. And we did a few of those things and it was absolutely worth it. But then we skipped some others and I really feel like we didn't miss out.
britYeah. I don't feel like we missed out at all. I think that I've learned a lot through traveling and that in my early twenties, I. Definitely suffered from some fomo, which if you don't know what that means, it's fear of missing out.
joshYeah.
britas I got older and as I traveled more, I started to recognize that there were things that we did that some people will never do that I'm so glad we did them, like some of these hikes and. You never really know unless you do the things that you wanna do and kind of tune out the outside voices, like, of course, there's some things that we did that were really famous and popular. And I'm glad that we did those. if you compare for instance, the Cliffs of Moher and the Slieve League. The Slieve League is absolutely incredible. It is so underrated. They're the tallest cliffs in all of Europe. And yet the cliffs of Moher are so much more popular I think because they're more towards like the tourist towns
joshand just easier to access.
britYeah.
joshSo, as far as this podcast, we should move your travels. Would you move here?
britI think if I were to move anywhere in Ireland, it would be dingle.
joshMm-hmm.
britI don't think it's going in my top three.
joshMm-hmm.
britOnly because my top three is very hard to beat for me, so I have. Scotland, Belgium and Sweden, I just don't think that dingle, outshined any of those places for me. Yeah, it was beautiful. I want to go back, I do think we should go back at some point, but. It didn't give me more of the feeling than the other places, so
joshyeah.
britwhat do you think?
joshI totally agree. I had such an amazing experience going with you and being with you on this trip, and like we said, we learned so much more about ourselves and it It gave us that emotional connection. But as far as emotional connection to live there, I didn't feel that.
britYeah.
joshYeah. I would also definitely go back. Definitely go to. county, Donegal, county Galway. Go to Dingle, go back to Dublin. I'd go back to all those places
britI would too.
joshMm-hmm.
britYeah. I think it was a very beautiful trip. It, we crafted it really nicely. yeah. I just don't know if it's a place that I would choose to live in right now.
joshYeah.
britthat may change in the future. Who knows?
joshThat could we change every day
britwe do. So next episode, we'll do a brief check-in about the pod, how we think it's going, and if we wanna make any changes, don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube @wsmhtravels
joshYou can listen to our podcast on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. YouTube is where we have our video record version, including pictures and videos. Also, please continue to leave your comments and send us messages on what you liked from our trips and suggestions for future trips. We really appreciate it.
britThank you so much for listening. Until next time.