Q&A to help you find the best way to travel around Ireland in 2022 A lot of people ask me: What is the best way to travel around Ireland? As an Irish tour guide and enthusiastic explorer, I can tell you: There is no one way fits all! You could drive yourself, hire a local guide or join a tour on a set date. Your way of travelling around Ireland in 2022 will depend on your character, interests and budget. Ireland might be a small island in size but it’s certainly not short on adventures, experiences or places of interest. The good news is you can travel Ireland in any way you can think of ..read more

A question I get asked a lot is ‘What’s the secret of a real Irish coffee?’ Being a passionate Irish tour guide with a background in the whiskey industry, I can honestly tell you that I’ve seen a lot of Irish coffees in my life – and some of them had little in common with the delicious, hot Irish whiskey infused coffee ‘cocktail’ that has been warming our bellies and hearts for decades. Bartenders, mixologists and whiskey enthusiasts around the world tweaked and adjusted this famous drink’s recipe to tailor their own interpretation of the classic Irish coffee. Their creations are often bold a ..read more

How could I have possibly said no, when Padraig Marrey asked me if I’m up to do the Wild Mayo Ultra 650km, an ultra-cycling event around my home county Mayo? As a wild Mayo woman, cyclist and adventurer I was instantly hooked by the idea and I was curious if Padraig would actually be able to send me on Mayo roads that I haven’t discovered yet. *Spoiler Alert* He did ? Here I was again signing up for a challenge and figuring out the details later. When I first heard about this ultra-cycle I assumed it would be self-supported. After doing a couple of long Audax events and cycling the TransAtlant ..read more

One might wonder why you would choose to cycle up and down a rocky path on your mountain bike until you accumulated 8,848 metres of elevation – the height of Mt. Everest. Therefore, I put together some information on ‘What is Everesting?’ as well as a personal report on the off-road Everesting mountain bike challenge on the Skelp that took place on June 19th 2021. Moreover, I’ve included some notes on my training and preparations for the Everesting that might be useful for others attempting a big endurance challenge. 5 Mayo mountain bikers taking on an off-road Everesting challenge on the Skel ..read more

On Cycling, Gratitude, Whiskey, and Freedom Interview with Craig from Memoir Tour Listen and subscribe to the Ink & Peat podcast Thank you Craig, for an amazing chat about Ireland and so much more! I’m very much looking forward to meeting you in person one day. Deep conversations over a glass of Irish whiskey, I can picture the two of us and Barbara, sitting in front of an open fire place, after a fun day out on the bike of course. It’s great to have a good chat with people who are passionate about life and the west of Ireland. Memoir Tours invite you to treat yourself to an unforgettable ..read more

    Adventure Racing Food Tips Fuelling for multi-day Adventure Races This list of Adventure Racing Food Tips is part of my blog series Adventure Racing Tips to advance to the next level Check out also: Logistic & communication tips for Adventure Racing Teams Adventure Racing Gear Advice (coming soon) Why is nutrition and fuelling so important for Adventure Racing? Your body is your vehicle and most important piece of gear You might know the phrase ‘Your body is your temple’. Agreeing with the general idea I prefer a more dynamic metaphor. I look at the body as my vehicle throu ..read more

Communication & Logistic tips for Adventure Racing teams Thoughtfully planning your race-logistics and establishing an adequate culture of communication are at the backbone for a successful AR-team. That’s why I want to start this AR-blog-series by sharing some of my learnings and thoughts on communication and give you some logistic tips for your first Adventure Racing experiences. 1. Talk, talk, talk and train to talk! Honest and comprehensive communication is the number one most important thing for your team, before, during and hopefully after. Preferably you get to train with your team ..read more

Adventure Racing tipsto advance to the next level Moving from solo one day events to multi-day team challenges It’s no secret that Adventure Racing is my favourite hobby. It brilliantly combines all the different endurance sports I love, mixes in extra surprises, and sends you on a discovery tour to explore the unknown. There is nothing better than sharing a passion with others. The Adventure Racing community is amazing, and we are always looking for more ‘like-minded nutters’. In this blog I’ve put together a few ‘Adventure Racing tips’ that might be helpful when taking on your first multi-da ..read more

The story of my bike – by Rachel Nolan ‘Rachel Nolan!… slow down or you’ll fall and cut your knees!’ This is one of my first and strongest memories of being on a bicycle. My Granny staring at me with a shocked expression on her face. She was not used to seeing little girls racing around on the bike, it was just not very lady like. It got serious when she called me ‘Rachel Nolan’ and I was enjoying the attention and decided to put on a performance of ‘no hands’ going down our driveway. At the time it seemed like a big, rocky hill and rushing it down made me feel brave and free. This was probabl ..read more

Rachel’s Irish Adventures’ review of the year A different perspective on 2020 Looking back on 2020 most of us will agree that the year went different than expected. The global health & economic crisis changed everyone’s plan and deeply impacted our lifestyle. As a small Irish tour company ‘Rachel’s Irish Adventures’ was hit hard by the pandemic. Our season was almost fully booked with tailor-made tours for overseas clients. Only 5 days before the arrival of our first guests Ireland went into lockdown. For the rest of the season nothing went as previously planned. During this time of sudden ..read more