Itay and Ireland Summer Vacation

What a trip! As it was Leah's graduation trip (in leu of a big party), she choose to go to Ireland years ago, inspired by the show "Derry Girls" but also by recommendations from some close friends. Then, we got into the lottery to buy tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Milan a year ago. So we joined the two destinations and created the itinerary for our Family Summer 2024 Vacation! Here's the breakdown and some helpful links.

Milan, Italy

Hotel: Hotel Tocq (Our Rating: 9/10)!

We started our trip with three hot and humid days in Milan, thanks to Taylor Swift tickets we were lucky enough to buy last year.

Putting aside the life-changing, extraordinary concert experience that is the Eras Tour (future post), our time in Milan was super. I booked and rebooked three hotels and finally settled on this hotel on the north side of the city. Let me tell you ... I can't talk enough about how awesome the location of this hotel was. First, it's next to the Metro line that went directly to the stadium, so our concert commute was taken care of. It's also next to Eataly, which is one of our favorite destinations in any city. There are light rail lines nearby, as well as the airport train (literally across the street). It's near a commerce street with shops and restaurants, plus a large NEW mall at the base of a high-rise for good shopping options.

On top of seeing the Duomo and Sforza Castle, I insisted on a museum stop, which we've never done before. I was blown away by the Da Vinci exhibit at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, which is just a few blocks from the Duomo. Housed in an old mansion, it's an absolute excellent collection of Italian (obvious) and Flemish art with a fantastic Da Vinci library.

We ate pasta and gelato. Met up with Dave's old work colleague and her kids at Biano Latte -- a coffeeshop I took the kids on our first trip here in 2010. So much fun!

Belfast, Ireland

Hotel: AC Hotel Marriot Belfast (Our Rating: 8/10)

After a frustrating travel day on Lufthansa through Frankfurt (note to self: stop flying Lufthansa!), we ended up in Belfast's tiny airport to our nice Marriott in the north side of the city on the river. We were delighted that the temperature was a lovely high 60s, low 70s with a breeze after the 90+ weekend in Milan.

Once we checked in, we were starving and Gnostic near the hotel was the ideal start to our time in Belfast. Great seafood, great service, run by nice young, handsome Irish lads. ;)

We walked through the small city and loved all the graffiti everywhere. There's so much construction and rebuilding happening here and they're super excited to welcome tourists -- after some very violent decades (the "troubles"). The girls were interested in seeing the Titanic Museum, which surprised me, and it's a very modern and well-created museum to the Irish builders and innovators that created huge ocean liners at the turn of the century. "Built by Irishmen, sunk by Englishmen."

We did a bus tour one day to Giant's Causeway and that was also a huge hit. The bus was comfortable, lots of stops for bathrooms, snacks and old, crumbling castles, a yummy pub for lunch and sheep. And Giant's Causeway is well-worth the visit. I'm glad we didn't try to rent a car to do this, the tour guide was so entertaining and, again, so happy to be welcoming tourists to Northern Ireland.

Important note: Northern Ireland is part of the UK and uses GBP currency. They also speak English, but also bringing back Irish and Gaelic dialects.

Dublin, Ireland

Hotel: Beckett Locke (Our Rating: 9/10)

First you should note, Dublin is in Ireland which is NOT part of UK but a member of the EU. So, they use Euros (?!) and we had to show our passport as we passed through the "invisible boarder."

Also, this city is condensed and crowded and very frenetic. It's like the blue-collar cousin of London, that's more gritty and not as architecturally pretty. I was so happy I booked a hotel in the docklands, a mile out of city center, in an area that's rebuilt and new and quiet. There was a light-rail that took us right into the center of the city in 15 minutes. Or it's an easy, 45 minute walk along the river.

The Beckett Locke hotel was a new, apartment-style room, with two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room. This was ideal because we had ample space to stretch out, have our own spaces and relax in the evenings. We watched the Maze Runner trilogy over the three days we stayed there and ordered pizza one night just for the break. Loved it.

I got a recommendation to check out this 14 Henrietta Street Museum that showed/told the story of an old Georgian mansion that was converted to tenements in the 1800s. I thought it might be more of an experiential space, but it wasn't quiet there yet. It was a lot of stories and some videos about the history of Dublin and the crowded and dangerous tenements. We didn't love.

But we hit the Guinness Storeroom Tour and that was A LOT of fun, really nice and informative. We tried the Guinness at the end, but only Dave liked it.

Lots of walking and seeing various bars and areas and it was all really cool but crowded. The food was great and so was the scenery.

Thanks Leah and Taylor Swift for sparking this awesome family vacation.