By Sheyla Paz, Sheyla Adventure Travel

There are many ways to see Ireland.  You can rush from castle to castle, ticking attractions off a list and filling your camera roll with landmarks you’ll barely remember.  Or you can slow down.  That’s how I design Ireland.

Not around how many sites you can visit in a day, but around the moments that stay with you long after you’ve returned home: the golden evening light stretching across the River Liffey at 9:30 PM, the clouds parting over ancient stone ruins, the laughter shared with friends while standing at the edge of the Atlantic.

For this recent small-group Taste of Ireland journey, I arrived in Dublin a day before my clients, allowing me to reconnect with the city and conduct several hotel site inspections.  I spent the night at The Alex Hotel, part of the O’Callaghan Collection, and toured three of the collection’s four-star properties: The Alex, The Mont, and The Davenport. 

As my Galápagos adventure was coming to an end, I never imagined that some of my most meaningful travel lessons would happen not on a remote island, but while recovering from an injury.
After hurting my foot earlier in the voyage, the final days of the expedition looked very different than I had originally planned. Instead of hiking volcanic trails and participating in every excursion, I found myself slowing down, following doctor's orders, and learning to navigate the world from a new perspective.