The Reference.
Longform essays for the decisions that actually matter: where to stay, when to come, how to shape the trip. Written for the American reader planning Ireland properly, by Americans who live here.
Where to stay
- 01
Country Houses At Christmas And In Winter: How To Choose
Which Irish estates are worth the money between November and February, which ones genuinely work with children, which ones we would skip, and what the Christmas packages actually buy you.
10 min read
- 02
The Five Great Irish Country Houses, Ranked And Differentiated
Ashford, [Ballyfin](hotel:ballyfin-demesne), Adare, Sheen Falls, Dromoland. Which one is actually for you.
9 min read
How to shape the trip
- 01
Ireland With Children: The American Family's Reference
How to shape a first Irish trip around children: two bases, a two-hour driving ceiling, hotels chosen for grounds rather than prestige, and the week we would actually book.
13 min read
- 02
Halloween In Ireland: The American Family's Reference
The American family's reference for Halloween in Ireland. Where the night actually comes from, what October 31 looks like with children, and which version of it is worth the drive.
11 min read
- 03
Christmas In Ireland: The American Family's Reference
What Christmas here actually feels like, what closes, where to spend it with children, and the version we would cross the Atlantic for.
11 min read
- 04
St Patrick's Day In Ireland: The American Traveler's Reference
The definitive American guide to March 17 in Ireland. The real rhythm of the day, where to stay, which hours to disappear, and which hours to show up for.
11 min read
- 05
What To Actually Do With That Parish Name
The practical companion to Canon No. 9. Four things to do before you fly, and the shape the day should take when you get there.
7 min read
- 06
What Americans Get Wrong About Being Irish-American
The Ireland your family left is not the Ireland you are visiting. The heritage is real. The continuity is not. What to do with that, on a trip, without grief and without performance.
7 min read
- 07
First Trip To Ireland: The Honest 7-Day Spine We Send Friends
What we tell American friends who are coming once and want to do it properly.
8 min read
Golf
- 01
Playing Ireland As A Single Golfer
The quiet art of getting on Ireland's great courses as a party of one. Which clubs welcome the single, which times to ask for, how the pairing actually works, and why the solo round is often the best round of the trip.
7 min read
- 02
What A Four Day Golf Trip To Ireland Actually Costs
The real, line-item number for four days of serious Irish golf: green fees, caddies, hotels, the car, the dinners, and the pints. Written for Americans who want the true figure before they start the group chat.
8 min read
- 03
Caddie, Buggy, Or Trolley: How To Get Around An Irish Links
The decision every American golfer gets wrong before the first tee in Ireland: who or what carries the bag. Where buggies are not allowed at all, where a trolley is the smart call, and where the caddie is the whole point.
7 min read
- 04
Three Days Around Portmarnock: How To Shape The Dublin Round
Portmarnock is not a stay-and-play. It is a city round with a peninsula at one end and a Georgian hotel at the other. Three nights in Dublin, one round on the Old course, one round to the south of the city, and a Sunday that behaves like a European weekend.
8 min read
- 05
Where To Eat Around Portmarnock: The Dublin Rooms We Book First
Portmarnock is a city round with dinner in town. The eating problem is not the peninsula, it is which of the four or five rooms inside two blocks of St Stephen's Green you should book for the night of the round, and which pub takes the first pint before it.
7 min read
- 06
How To Book Portmarnock: The Visitor Sheet, The Caddie, And The Dublin Room
Portmarnock is a members club that likes visitors, but it is a members club. The green fee is the least of what to arrange. What matters is the visitor window, the caddie, the Dublin room the round is anchored to, and the reservation your concierge cannot make for you.
7 min read
- 07
How Much To Tip A Caddie In Ireland
A quiet guide to what a good Irish caddie is actually worth, and how to hand it over without a speech. Written for American visitors who do not want to underpay and do not want to look uncertain doing it.
10 min read
- 08
Shipping Your Golf Clubs To Ireland
When shipping your clubs to Ireland genuinely improves the trip, when checked baggage on Aer Lingus is still the honest answer, and how to arrive at the first tee at Ballybunion feeling rested rather than logistical.
7 min read
- 09
Renting Golf Clubs In Ireland
The honest case for arriving in Ireland without your own clubs. Where the good rental sets actually live, what to budget, when to reserve, and why, for most first trips, renting is the calmer decision rather than the compromised one.
9 min read
- 10
Which Irish Courses Require A Handicap
How American groups planning an Irish golf trip should think about handicap requirements: which clubs typically ask, how to plan around a mixed-handicap fourball, and how to avoid the one conversation nobody wants to have at check-in.
7 min read
- 11
The Real Dress Code At Irish Golf Clubs
How Irish members' clubs actually dress, why the conventions exist, and how to walk into any clubhouse in the country feeling quietly at home rather than quietly out of place.
9 min read
- 12
How To Book A Tee Time At Ballybunion Golf Club
The Tom Watson round, the Old Course visitor calendar, the Cashen decision, and how a small town in North Kerry sells the most-requested tee time in the country without pretending to be a resort. What Americans need to know before they open the Ballybunion booking page.
8 min read
- 13
How To Book A Tee Time At Lahinch Golf Club
The village course, the online sheet, the euro deposit, and the way a members' club on the Wild Atlantic Way quietly runs the busiest visitor calendar in Irish golf. What Americans should know before they open the Lahinch booking page.
8 min read
- 14
Three Days Around Adare Manor: How To Shape The Stay
Adare is not a golf trip. It is a stay with golf inside it. Three nights in the Manor, one round on the course, one round off the estate, and a Sunday walk through a village that has been rehearsing its role for four hundred years.
7 min read
- 15
How To Play Adare Manor: The Golf Course Ireland Rebuilt For The Ryder Cup
Adare is not a links, and pretending otherwise is the first mistake. It is a parkland course rebuilt for the 2027 Ryder Cup, on the grounds of a Manor that has been rehearsing this moment for two hundred years. Here is what the course actually asks, and how to walk it without being intimidated by the room.
8 min read
- 16
Where To Eat Around Adare Manor: The Rooms Inside The House, And Two In The Village
Adare is the rare Irish golf trip where the best dinners are inside the hotel. That is not a compromise. It is a decision the Manor has earned. Here is how we sequence three nights of eating, on the estate and in the village.
7 min read
- 17
How To Plan Three Days Around Royal Portrush
The definitive three day itinerary we book for American golfers coming in for a round at Royal Portrush. Where to sleep, where to eat, how to build the round into the day, and how to spend the third morning across the Giant's Causeway, the Antrim coast, or the road south to the Mournes without wasting it.
10 min read
- 18
How To Play Royal Portrush: The Dunluce Links, Calamity, And What The 2019 Open Actually Revealed
The Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush is the round most visiting Americans now try to build a Northern Ireland trip around, and the round they most consistently underclub. Here is what the course actually asks, and what we now do differently after many rounds on it.
10 min read
- 19
Where To Eat Near Royal Portrush After A Round
Portrush and Bushmills have a golf-course problem when it comes to dinner. Here is what we actually book around a Royal Portrush trip, in what order, and why.
10 min read
- 20
How To Book A Tee Time At Royal Portrush
The visitor window, the online release, the deposit that clears in sterling, and the way an Open venue actually sells its Wednesdays. What Americans need to know before they open the Portrush booking page.
8 min read
- 21
How To Plan Three Days Around Lahinch
The definitive three day itinerary we book for American golfers coming in for a round at Lahinch. Where to sleep, where to eat, how to build the round into the day, and how to spend the third morning across the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren without wasting it.
10 min read
- 22
How To Book A Tee Time At Adare Manor
The house-guest rule, the Ryder Cup calendar, the Fazio course fee, and why the room and the round are one booking, not two.
8 min read
- 23
How To Plan Three Days Around Ballybunion
The definitive three day itinerary we book for American golfers coming in for a round at Ballybunion. Where to sleep, where to eat, how to build the round into the day, and how to spend the third morning without wasting it.
9 min read
- 24
How To Book A Tee Time At Royal County Down
The ballot, the visitor days, the deposit, and the moment a concierge earns their fee. What Americans actually need to know before they call Newcastle.
8 min read
- 25
How To Play Ballybunion: The Cliffs, The Dunes, And What Tom Watson Understood
The Old course at Ballybunion is the round most American golfers travel to Ireland to play, and the round they most consistently misread on the front nine. Here is what the course actually asks, and what we now do differently after many rounds on it.
9 min read
- 26
How To Play Lahinch: The Architecture, The Blind Shots, And The Wind
The Old course at Lahinch is a puzzle of three architects, two blind par fives, and one Atlantic wind. Here is what the course actually asks of a visiting American, and what we now do differently after many rounds on it.
9 min read
- 27
How To Plan Three Days Around Royal County Down
The definitive three day itinerary we book for American golfers coming in for a round at Royal County Down. Where to arrive, what to eat, where to drink, and how to get back to Dublin or Belfast without wasting the last morning.
10 min read
- 28
Waterville, Shot By Shot: The Course At The End Of The Ring
Payne Stewart called it the finest links course he had ever played. What Waterville actually asks of you is stillness, and the round is longer than the eighteen holes.
8 min read
- 29
Tralee, Shot By Shot: The Palmer Front, The Wild Back
Arnold Palmer said he designed the front nine and God designed the back. What he meant, and what the course actually asks of you when the wind comes off Tralee Bay.
8 min read
- 30
Where To Eat Around Lahinch After A Round
Lahinch is the rare Irish golf town that doubles as a coastal food destination, once you know where the seafood is honest and where the tourist trade has taken over. Here is what we book across three nights in West Clare, and why.
9 min read
- 31
Carne, Shot By Shot: The Course At The End Of The Road
Eddie Hackett's last routing sits on the tip of the Mullet Peninsula in north Mayo, three hours from any airport. It is the wildest links in Ireland, and the reason serious golfers make the drive.
9 min read
- 32
Where To Eat Near Slieve Donard After A Round
Newcastle, County Down has a golf-course problem when it comes to dinner. Here is what we actually book around a Royal County Down trip, in what order, and why.
9 min read
- 33
Where To Eat Around Ballybunion After A Round
Ballybunion is one of the great trips in Irish golf, and one of the least obvious towns in Ireland for dinner. Here is what we actually book around the Old Course, in what order, and why.
8 min read
- 34
Royal County Down, Shot By Shot: The Course That Reads You Back
The Championship course at Newcastle rewards a specific kind of decision-making. Most Americans arrive without it. Here is what we have learned.
9 min read
- 35
Portmarnock, Shot By Shot: The Most Honest Links In Ireland
The Old course on the Sutton peninsula is flat, blind-shot free, and the truest links test in Ireland. Here is what we have learned from returning to it as our round out of Dublin.
8 min read
Region decisions
- 01
Where To Eat On The Wild Atlantic Way
The coast road as a sequence of meals rather than a list of restaurants. Where to stop between Kinsale and Clifden, how far apart they sit, and which ones justify the detour.
7 min read
- 02
Irish Oysters: Where, When And Which
Native flats and rock oysters, the season that actually matters, the three bays worth driving for, and how to order without hesitating.
7 min read
- 03
Galway At The Table
The city that eats better than Dublin for half the money. The tasting rooms, the market morning, the oyster bars south of the bay, and the order we would eat them in.
9 min read
- 04
Kerry vs Connemara: The Choice Most Americans Get Wrong
Two beautiful Atlantic regions, two completely different trips. Pick the wrong one and you spend the week annoyed.
8 min read
Money, timing, logistics
- 01
Ireland In Winter: The American Traveller's Reference
What November through February actually feels like, what closes, where the season works, and why we would still come.
14 min read
- 02
Tipping, Service Charge And Restaurant Etiquette In Ireland
What to tip in Irish restaurants, what the service charge already covers, why nobody tips at the bar, and how to be generous without looking like you are apologising for something.
8 min read
- 03
How To Get A Table In Ireland's Best Restaurants
Booking windows, deposits, cancellation culture and the ninety-day plan. Everything an American visitor needs to stop losing the table before the trip has started.
8 min read
- 04
What To Actually Pack For Ireland
The version we send friends the week before they fly. Two Americans who moved to Ireland on what to leave at home and what to actually bring.
8 min read
- 05
The Concierge Letter: What To Ask For, And Who To Ask
The exact letter we coach friends to send a hotel concierge in Ireland. What to ask, when to send it, and which requests quietly mark you as a guest worth bending the rules for.
8 min read
- 06
When To Come: A Month-By-Month Honest Calendar For Affluent Travelers
What every month actually feels like in Ireland, the months we book friends, and the ones we politely talk them out of.
8 min read