Getting to Lahinch

Jul 16
3 min read

14-15 July 2026 and my next adventure! Meeting Lisa and her peeps in Lahinch, Ireland for a week of sports and social fun!

Lahinch is a popular seaside and surf resort town located on Liscannor Bay in County Clare, Ireland. It features a population of roughly 1,000 people, a famous championship golf club, and a mile-long Atlantic beach. It sits on the northwest coast of County Clare along Liscannor Bay, about 10 km south of the famous Cliffs of Moher. Laginch also offers the perfect introduction to the Wild Atlantic Way. I haven’t been to Ireland since the pandemic, so will be interesting to see how it has changed.

It was an early morning to get to LHR. Check in was a bit weird as I was no longer a gold card holder so had to find the silver check in. It seems that BA was getting used to some new DIY check in machines and some of the people they had on were worse than useless.

At least I could still use fast pass security and got to know the club lounge (first time- normally am in the first class lounge). Buni and I celebrated the start of the trip together.

Buni enjoyed the flight, but it took forever to take off waiting for several long haul flights before us.

I checked my bag (against my better judgement) and thought it was lost, along with about 50 other people’s bags, when the carousel sign said the last bag had been delivered. Kind of freaked me out that my AirTag in the suitcase wouldn’t update and still showed it in LHR. Thankfully that was just a “joke” and finally more bags came out- including mine.

I waited around 30 minutes in beautiful weather for the Hilton bus to finally show up and we had about a 20 minute drive to the Hilton airport hotel- further than I expected. A nice room and near a mall where I went for some groceries for a light dinner.

Up very early after almost no sleep, but at least my hotel room was blessedly cold. Liphook has very few Americans, so I felt like I was back in the States when I went down for breakfast. It was a very nice spread.

I had to be at the airport for 7:30 when the US flights came in. I found Tomas almost immediately, thank goodness he was wearing a red vest with the name of the company on it. This trip was organized entirely by Lisa and her group gets more varied each time - this time including a MAN (Wayne). I am really pleased to be included and is always a different vibe for me - bringing out a social side.

We all managed to get connected at arrivals and piled in the bus to start the 4.5 hour trip to Lahinch. (This picture without Wayne who was already in the bus and has evaded all photo attempts, so far).

The trip was uneventful, except for poor Tracy (and others who weren’t asleep) as they were subject to my incessant nattering the entire way so I wouldn’t fall asleep.

Lahinch is an ocean front town and our hotel is on the high street. There are 2 hotels (the Atlantic hotel and the Shamrock) which are joined together. We are spread out between the two.