After 15 days and €5,800, the Stoy family go home to Switzerland. So was Ireland worth it?

Two weeks ago, the Stoy family came to Ireland on holiday, and agreed to share their experiences of travelling from Dublin to Cork and Galway with The Irish Times. Here, they give their final verdict on the experience

I would describe Ireland to my friends at home as rainy and cold, so you couldn’t get tanned. Ireland has a nice, green landscape and you can see a lot of things, like old castles and churches.

I enjoyed staying in our cottage in Ahakista, Co Cork and the hotel in Galway. The cottage was good for relaxing and Agnes, the landlady, took good care of us.

The hotel had a good breakfast and a big indoor swimming-pool and a fitness centre.

We did a lot of tours and museums, which were difficult to understand from time to time.

For me the highlight was the small towns with all the different coloured houses. My favourite place was Dublin, because it had so much to do. My least favourite was Limerick, because there wasn’t really anything special to see and it didn’t look very nice overall.

I would like to return to Ireland, and to other nearby countries, such as Scotland and England. I would maybe like to go more into the centre of Ireland.

ENYA ‘It didn’t rain as often as I expected’

I loved the beautiful landscape and the friendly people. Sitting in the car for hours was less enjoyable.

Surprisingly, it was very sunny on a few days and didn’t rain as often as I expected.

The highlight for me was seeing the “fake” solstice sunrise in the tomb at Newgrange. My favourite place was one point on the Ring of Kerry, where the view was amazing.

If I ever have the chance to come back to Ireland, I would love to return. I think I would want to spend more time in one place to really get to know the culture.

Ireland is a country with beautiful nature, really nice people and great musicians. If I could change one thing about the holiday, I would have slept more.

ANDREJ ‘We were surprised to find a great jazz band, between all the folk music’

I enjoyed seeing the many historic buildings and sites that are still here and are sometimes even integrated into modern buildings. I liked the smaller roads and the fantastic views. The very long car rides were tiring, as was the weather on some days.