The Holyrood Hotel on the main street in Bundoran, Co. Donegal is one to avoid. I was attending a work-related event there and booked in overnight. That was my first mistake. Room freezing, €10 deposit for TV remote, ancient thin towels in bathroom, a soap/shampoo dispenser scewed to the wall like in a public toilet. No food available after 7pm (at least on the day I stayed) even though the hotel brochure said otherwise. When I pointed this out I was told, yes but sorry, the chef has already left! The only three stars are the ones you might see through the ceiling! Next day breakfast was incinerated, and the function room where the meeting was booked had sections of the ceiling falling away! The paint job and colour scheme seemed vintage 1970s - the last time I'd actually been in the establishment. I was embarrassed for the foreign delegates and my Donegal friends. Grubby and shoddy, I complained, wrote a comment for the management and never got an acknowledgment or a reply. Stayed in other McEniff hotels like Great Northern (OK - 5 out of 10) and Skylon (appalling and rude and no reply acknowledgment to complaints there either.) I've complained about two hotels in Ireland in all my years guess which two... Looking for an hotel... My advice, keep looking. I would rate this my worst hotel experience in Ireland and that includes being in a hotel that was car bombed in central Belfast!

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Bundoran, remembered as Ireland’s Premier Seaside Resort, it has now fallen upon quieter times. It is located on the shores of the Atlantic against a backdrop of the majestic Ben Bulben mountain range and just south of Donegal town. Many people point out that it is a great place to start from... to visit other places... but it has it's own character and assets too. Now one of the top surfing locations in Ireland it has achieved a 'new tourism' breakthrough with this group of visitors. Waterworld, a fun water themed play facillity makes it good for kids under 12. The shale cliffs abound with ammonites and other sea fossils and there are spectacular walks and short drives. The town is evolving from the 'amusement arcades' and cheap hotels into a more interesting and 21st century place and more still needs to be done in terms of sustainable tourism but a place definately worth a visit.

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After Donegal we headed back to Bondoran for the evening.  Our new friend gave us a call to see if we wanted to go out that night.  We met up with him later at a place called the Chasin Bull.  We took a long nap first and met him and Micheal out later.  After our nap we headed out for food at a place called Cafe Ceylon and walked down the path by the beach afterwards.  There are caves at beaches to explore, and we watched the sun set over the water. 

We met the boys out at the Chasin Bull later.  School had let out, so a lot of college age kids were in the area.  We hung out there for a little while, but the place was relatively quiet.  Then we went to a place called Sole Mio where they had dance music playing in one room and a band in the other.  We spent the rest of the night there and had a great time. 

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Finally..  we got to where we were staying overnight.  Everybody was tired, so after check-in most of us crashed for a few hours.  I wasn't tired, so I took a walk down the main street.  Bundoran is a nice little beach town with a few bed&breakfasts, a hotel, and couple pubs.  It was way too cold for swimming, but the cliffs and caves made for a nice walk on the beach. 

Dinner was provided again tonight, so I headed back to get ready.  We ate and hung out at the hotel for awhile till we went out for the night.  Our first stop was a place called The Bridge, which had a local band playing.  It seemed kind of like a fishermans hangout, and in any event.. three young blondes stood out like sore thumbs in that place.  We ended up meeting some people from Whales and headed on to another pub. 

We went to a place called The Warf with a few people that we met.  A gut named Cillian and his friend Micheal were very friendly to us.  I dont remember much about the pub, because we weren't there for very long.  They walked us back to the hotel, and we called it a night.  It was nice to meet some locals. 

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In the early evening, we arrived in the resort of Bundoran passing some more pretty dark green mountain scenery of Benbulben. The rain had stopped as we arrived at the Great Northern Hotel which also had a golf course. Our rooms were so cute, well for a female anyways. Leanne's and I shared a room and we had  pink walls and a view of part of the golf course while  Suzi's room had pink lamps, dark green walls, a red phone and a view of the Atlantic. We had some time to explore around the hotel before dinner, so the 3 of us went down to the rocky shore after an earlier storm and walked around. We were out on a rock when high tide started to come in, so we high tailed it out of there before the water took us. lol
Suzi and I decided to try to catch sunset since we were in the perfect place for it, or so we thought. While sitting on a bench on a hill, we waited and waited and waited until dinner had started and we never did see it. The view was rather nice though seeing the Atlantic Ocean and a small beach and across the way was town with buildings of different colors of peach, yellow, white, and even purple and pink! We were also entertained by a guy trying to ride the waves in. There was some surf going on. At first he was riding a bike then I don't knw exactly what he was trying to do!

After dinner, we got ready and were going to walk into town for some "pub action" but our director, Bill advised us not to because it was a "rough" town. We took his advice and just drank cider at the hotel bar instead. This was where I had my first Irish Guinness. It tasted like cold coffee to me but I liked it! When I went to order a drink, an older man asked me, "Do you want some hanky panky?" to which I just giggled and said "no thanks". I think he may had been a little drunk. haha There were also some golfers in the bar room and I think there was some sort of tournament going on. It was an early night for us since it would be an early morning the next day.

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