Holiday Ideas - Donegal

LeakingLava

CeilingFly wrote: »

Diesel is about 10c-15c more expensive in NI. Petrol is about the same price northa nd south.

Factory Outlet Banbridge is half empty last time I was there in February. (Family in Ballycastle) Even the other half didn't buy anything it was that bad. Most fo the stores are stores you only ever see in outlets centres with the stock "made for outlet". A few exceptions such as Timberland, Gap, FatFace, Nike & M&S (quite small) As I live close to Kildare Town, I'd be comparing with Kildare Village. Worth dropping into for a break, but you won't spend more than a couple of hours there.

Electronics - most of the newer stuff has been repriced due to sterling weakness, so you may find difference very small and probably not worth it considering any hassle you may have if there's a fault.

Seems like regarding the S3 smartwatch, on argos ie vs argos uk price competition, uk wins by about 60-70euro. Are there issues regarding returning into argos ie from argos uk?

LeakingLava

NIMAN wrote: »

There's a big outlet place in Antrim, junction one.

Are they considered better than the Banbridge version?

NIMAN

Never been in the Banbridge one tbh, so can't comment.

CeilingFly

LeakingLava wrote: »

Are they considered better than the Banbridge version?

Looking at their website - worse range and mostly "outlet only" shops.

Technique

LeakingLava wrote: »

Any other ideas of 'hidden gems' to visit?

in Inishowen there's a waterfall which could be considered a hidden gem. There's a nice 15 minute walk to it and there's a cafe or restaurant at the car park if I remember correctly. It's just outside Clonmany.

NIMAN

Technique wrote: »

in Inishowen there's a waterfall which could be considered a hidden gem. There's a nice 15 minute walk to it and there's a cafe or restaurant at the car park if I remember correctly. It's just outside Clonmany.

Glenevin waterfall

http://glenhouse.ie/glenevin-waterfall-park/

Technique

Two restaurant recommendations that are worth a drive.

Rathmullan House - delicious wood fired pizza and local craft beer on draught overlooking a beautiful beach.

The Olde Glen Bar - an little country pub in the middle of nowhere with a top class restaurant attached. The sort of place you could stay all evening.

muffler

Technique wrote: »

The Olde Glen Bar - an little country pub in the middle of nowhere with a top class restaurant attached. The sort of place you could stay all evening.

Went there once but never made it past the bar so cant comment on the restaurant. The beer was good though

NIMAN

Forgot to mention The Railway Tavern & Firebox Grill in Fahan, a nice spot if you like your meat cooked over a flame.

LeakingLava

NIMAN wrote: »

Forgot to mention The Railway Tavern & Firebox Grill in Fahan, a nice spot if you like your meat cooked over a flame.

This actually looks really good. I think the Surf 'N' Turf would be really delicious. Definitely an option. Thanks!

LeakingLava

Man! Quay West! Heavenly! Thanks so much guys.

NIMAN

Have you been in it?

LeakingLava

NIMAN wrote: »

Have you been in it?

Yes! Just tonight for dinner. Absolutely packed due to the Twelfth, but got a table straight away as it was 9pm when we got there. It was so worth it. Loved the meal. My partner absolutely loves carbonara, and she's saying that their carbonara is the best she has ever tasted and she's willing to come back just for that. Great recommendation. Hands down. Thank you very much.

NIMAN

No problem.

Yeah it's a very busy place. I think mainly due to the value for money. Did you find it good value?

I have been in there maybe 6 or 7 times, and it never disappoints.

You got a cracking day weather wise too, so all good, eh? Think your weather is going to get slightly cooler over the next couple of days, but hope you enjoy your visit.

LeakingLava

NIMAN wrote: »

No problem.

Yeah it's a very busy place. I think mainly due to the value for money. Did you find it good value?

I have been in there maybe 6 or 7 times, and it never disappoints.

You got a cracking day weather wise too, so all good, eh? Think your weather is going to get slightly cooler over the next couple of days, but hope you enjoy your visit.

Absolutely gorgeous food! I was prepared to pay full price because I knew the food was glorious, and I forgot about the 30% off, then seeing the bill with that applied just took my words. It was really amazing.

Yeah amazing weather throughout the day, too! Woke up early this morning to catch some more of the weather as I knew it's going to get cloudy today and went to Malin head and Five Fingers strand beach. Awesome spots. Absolutely perfect.

Going to marble arch next, the fort thing, and some of the inishowen 100 so even if it rains, it should be fine. Not going to be taking up the whole day so we may go to derry for a bit of walking and may stay in for pool time in the hotel afterwards.

Great great holiday so far! Must say though, just a little disappointed with the hotel. I will provide some details later tonight or after the holiday.

NIMAN

Great that you are enjoying it so far, we are a well kept secret up here, although word is getting out.

Sorry to hear you aren't mad on the hotel. Must have changed a lot since I was last in it.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

LeakingLava

NIMAN wrote: »

Great that you are enjoying it so far, we are a well kept secret up here, although word is getting out.

Sorry to hear you aren't mad on the hotel. Must have changed a lot since I was last in it.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Definitely been an amazing trip.

It must've. Quite a few things just happened and I really didn't expecr those to happen in a 4 star hotel, or maybe I'm just really nitpicky due to previously working in one. First, as soon as we came in, there was a spider hanging down from cobwebs on the ceiling. Second, the window was left open. Third, the tissue box had around 4 sheets in it. Fourth, floors were quite squeaky, which I didn't mind, but I pity the lower floor room occupiers. Fifth, the only table that's in it, wobbles and is about to fall off. Sixth, hot water barely existed in the morning. Last, not once going through reception and everything, were we asked if 'everything was okay'. It's just a little weird. The only thing that's stopping me from complaining is that I don't want the housekeeping staff to be blamed on. I'm sure there's some reason behind it and I didn't want the blame to be just on them. For all I know they could br short staffed or something, so I'm leaving the issue I think. Plus, restaurant staff made up for it and the food, too, so that's great.

Edit: Oh and also, the semi-clogged sink. Water fills up as you use it and goes down the drain reaaaaalllyy slowly.

Dats_rite

NIMAN wrote: »

As I mentioned, consider:

Nancys Barn, Ballyliffin
Rusty Nail, Clonmany
McGrorys,  Culdaff

If visiting Derry for a day, consider Quay West,  a short walk out of town centre. It always has 30% off your food and drink bill, and food is good. Probably best to book in advance, as always busy.

Sooty Olive also nice.
If you fancy something different, I have heard good reports on Cedar, a Lebanese restaurant in the city centre.

Harrys in Bridgend is always worth a visit too.

Just in case anyone reading this and is planning to go in the future - Harrys in Bridgend has closed as a restaurant.  It is being used as a pub since the 19th was burned down a few weeks ago.

Harry's is now in the Craft Village in Derry and is still doing great food.  Highly recommend.

NIMAN

Didn't know that, thanks for the update.

NIMAN

Well LL, you must be back home after your NW break.
Care to tell us your final thoughts?

LeakingLava

NIMAN wrote: »

Well LL, you must be back home after your NW break.
Care to tell us your final thoughts?

Of course! Apologies I wasn't able to do that. Got straight back to work so kind of got busy.

Anyway, we did ~1500Km during the 4 days so this may be a long post. Please bear with me.

First that we went to is Junction One. We went there on the way to Donegal because I wanted to get the S3 as a present for my partner so she can use it during the holiday. She was delighted to come out of a 'Homebase(Argos collection point) toilet visit' with an S3 Frontier in her hands. Of course I told her 'I think we're lost, but I need to go toilet anyway so let's go here'.

Drove around the Junction One, and it seemed a little empty so we didn't bother going in anymore and instead, went for Arena 7 in Letterkenny and met with my past colleagues and friend/boss. Stayed there until late and proceeded then with a late night drive up towards Redcastle for check-in.

Redcastle Hotel was a little disappointing to be honest. I really expected more from a 4-star. I do understand that of course compared to other places to stay, it would probably be the best, but at the same time, you don't really have to call yourself 4-star for that. I'm really not trying to be mean or anything, but have asked my partner an honest rating for the hotel and we both agreed that the hotel would only pass for maybe around 2, maybe 3 star for the great views around the area especially for the dining area. As mentioned on one of my previous posts, there are quite a lot of complaints that I would be able to list during our stay, and in the end of it all, again, not once were we asked if everything about the stay was okay. That felt very weird for me as I work in customer service myself and I would always ask that despite me only being in the retail area. TL;DR - It really felt like going back to the hotel kind of brought the holiday mood right down.

Going past all the complaints about the hotel, EVERYTHING ELSE WAS PERFECT. Absolutely amazing trip. The itinerary was:

Day 1:
- Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge
- The Gobbins
- Quaywest Restaurant

Day 2:
- Malin head, Five Finger Strand beach early morning
- Drive through Derry
- Marble Arch Caves
- Firebox Grill Restaurant

Day 3:
- Inishowen Head(stumbled upon while waiting for Kealy's Seafood Bar opening times)
- Kealy's Seafood Bar
- Belfast City Centre
- Steamboat was disappointingly closed without any notices online or via VM machine, so we resorted to walking into Cosmo in Victoria Square.

First off, being the fat bastard that I am, I have to comment on the food. Absolutely hands down on all the restaurant suggestions. They were all absolutely amazing. If I had to rank them, Quaywest has to be top for all aspects: price, food quality, and choices. Firebox Grill would be next, then Kealy's Seafood Bar. But that's not saying that the seafood chowder wasn't amazing. My partner really doesn't like fish but she ate the fish that was in the chowder! We were both blown away.

Second, it's a pity we couldn't walk through Derry. We just had a little bit of a time constraint due to the kilometres that we had to cover. We decided to just drive through the city centre with the aim of being lost and finding cool spots, which we did, but at the same time, it's a pity that I can't name them or show them to you on a map :pac::pac:

Everything was absolutely amazing! Of course this is with the exception of the hotel, but still, I don't we would've been able to relax the way that we were able to without that hotel being there. Would've just liked the '4-star' claim to be more of a reality. Regarding the nature, people, experience, and attractions, I am truly amazed. I really find the North absolutely fascinating especially the differences/similarities of the two areas split by the border. I really like how the petrol stations right at the border has both GBP and EUR prices! Made me chuckle a bit everytime we passed one, don't ask me why .

Thank you so much guys for all your inputs for my trip. I really greatly appreciate it. Any questions, do of course ask away and I will gladly answer. I know this probably isn't much of a review thing, but that's because I just didn't know what I should and shouldn't add into it. :pac::pac:

NIMAN

Delighted that you had a good trip, shame about the hotel.
You could likely have booked into a Derry hotel and got a cheaper stay?

Pity too about missing Derry city itself. It really has come on a lot over the last decade or so, and is a nice place to dander around.

Anyway, make sure you pass on the great news to all those who wouldn't think of coming this way.

LeakingLava

NIMAN wrote: »

Delighted that you had a good trip, shame about the hotel.
You could likely have booked into a Derry hotel and got a cheaper stay?

Pity too about missing Derry city itself. It really has come on a lot over the last decade or so, and is a nice place to dander around.

Anyway, make sure you pass on the great news to all those who wouldn't think of coming this way.

I really wanted to have great views/walks around the hotel and a pool was 'almost' a necessity as both of us are swimmers and we enjoyed that too. Seemed like all the other hotels that had pools were at least 50% more expensive.

Well we did drive around it, but yes, it was still something that we should've done. If we had time, that would've been the priority in the list, but just didn't have enough.

We will do, definitely. I myself had no idea it was that beautiful until we got there. The drive up was mesmerizing. I'm the type of person that, in a travel, loves the journey more so than the destination, and I adored that drive. The views were breathtaking. We'll definitely suggest.

Once again, thank you guys very much!