Moving to Tralee... acmodation, school & broadband

Cam2012 · 01-07-2012 1:30pm #1

Hi,
Me and my wife along with three kids 10, 6 yrs and 4 months will be moving to Tralee from UK next month.
Few advices required if possible. Even though I did a bit of home work but still need advice from hard core locals.
1- family friendly accomodation. which areas are safe. I was told to avoid town centre plus Bull ring by all means. I saw some nice houses in south Listellick which is like 3 miles from work and town centre. Whats the reputation of that area. Its quiet and have lovely scenic views.

2- Primary schools. Two older ones went to state school in UK. Heard good reputation of Presentation girls secondary school and also heard how difficult to get in there as per irish times. So was thinking of Presentation primary school. any advice regarding this school reputation. Receptionist was super lovely on the phone with my mrs.

3- Good broadband connection. I have heard few comments about meteor, 3 ireland and premnet or something but wasnt sure which is the better one in view of speed and download capacity.

thanks a mill..

Ciarrai76 · 01-07-2012 4:12pm

Cam2012 wrote: »

Hi,
Me and my wife along with three kids 10, 6 yrs and 4 months will be moving to Tralee from UK next month.
Few advices required if possible. Even though I did a bit of home work but still need advice from hard core locals.
1- family friendly accomodation. which areas are safe. I was told to avoid town centre plus Bull ring by all means. I saw some nice houses in south Listellick which is like 3 miles from work and town centre. Whats the reputation of that area. Its quiet and have lovely scenic views.

2- Primary schools. Two older ones went to state school in UK. Heard good reputation of Presentation girls secondary school and also heard how difficult to get in there as per irish times. So was thinking of Presentation primary school. any advice regarding this school reputation. Receptionist was super lovely on the phone with my mrs.

3- Good broadband connection. I have heard few comments about meteor, 3 ireland and premnet or something but wasnt sure which is the better one in view of speed and download capacity.

thanks a mill..

with regards accommodation, best bet is to get in touch with some of the estate agents, whether you are buying or renting. Check out the various websites for REA North's, DNG Giles, Sherry & Fitzgerald, Ger Carmody to name but a few.
There are a lot of nice areas in Tralee, like anywhere you will get your pockets of not so nice, but even the nicest places in town will have one or two not so nice people living there. The 'Bull Ring' as you mentioned, had a lot of itinerants living there, and the majority are nice people, again you will get your not so nice. The rest of that area is broken up into different estates, and have a lot of nice people living in there. The council are regenerating the area too, and its coming along nicely.

Its a lovely town though, so hope it all works out for you

Cam2012 · 01-07-2012 4:53pm

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

with regards accommodation, best bet is to get in touch with some of the estate agents, whether you are buying or renting. Check out the various websites for REA North's, DNG Giles, Sherry & Fitzgerald, Ger Carmoday to name but a few.
There are a lot of nice areas in Tralee, like anywhere you will get your pockets of not so nice, but even the nicest places in town will have one or two not so nice people living there. The 'Bull Ring' as you mentioned, had a lot of itinerants living there, and the majority are nice people, again you will get your not so nice. The rest of that area is broken up into different estates, and have a lot of nice people living in there. The council are regenerating the area too, and its coming along nicely.

Its a lovely town though, so hope it all works out for you

Thanks a lot for your reply and helpful advice

I am in touch with pro plan property agents and going through daft as well. you are spot on about different areas and no doubt town is lovely and people are extremely nice and humble during our visit.

Regarding schools and internet and kids activity any advice or websites to recommend?

Ciarrai76 · 01-07-2012 8:41pm

Cam2012 wrote: »

Thanks a lot for your reply and helpful advice

I am in touch with pro plan property agents and going through daft as well. you are spot on about different areas and no doubt town is lovely and people are extremely nice and humble during our visit.

Regarding schools and internet and kids activity any advice or websites to recommend?

sorry I didn't get time to answer your other questions earlier as I had to rush out.

I don't have kids yet, but I do know that the schools in Tralee are all pretty good from knowing people who both went to them and send their kids there now.
Presentation does have a very good reputation and academic record. Its an all girls secondary school, and they have a primary too which I'm pretty sure is mixed. The other big secondary school is in Mercy Mounthawk, just on the outskirt of the town on the way towards Fenit/Adfert. This is a mixed school, with again a good reputation. I do know though, that you could be queuing overnight with other parents to enroll kids! Unless you or your wife went to Balloonagh or Moyderwell (they merged to form Mercy Mounthawk), then it is hard to get into from what I've been told.
Moyderwell is another mixed primary school.
Gaelcholaiste Chiarrai which is a mixed all Irish speaking secondary school (I went to this school & loved it!), and also Scoil Mhic Easmainn which is an all Irish speaking mixed primary school (I also went here!).
Holy Family Primary primary school.
The Green secondary school, which is all boys.

There is also Blennerville mixed primary school which is outside Tralee town, in Blennerville Village,
Listellick primary school also just outside the town.
There is a Church of Ireland school in Tralee called St. John's in Ash street. Oh and also Tralee Educate Together, which is mixed, but very small so limited places as far as I know. That is a lot of schools now that I've typed them all out! haha!

Found a few links which should help with more info:
http://www.tralee-educate-together.com/
http://www.hfstralee.com/home
http://www.ceist.ie/ceist_schools/view_school.cfm?loadref=102
http://www.mercymounthawk.ie/
http://www.thegreen.ie/

As for the broadband, well its ok I guess. We don't have fibre optic cabling yet! I am personally with Imagine, and its not too bad. The only other company I used before Imagine was Eircom, and you may get conflicting opinions of them!

Try out some of the other estate agents too as they do rental property also.

Cam2012 · 01-07-2012 9:37pm

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

sorry I didn't get time to answer your other questions earlier as I had to rush out.

I don't have kids yet, but I do know that the schools in Tralee are all pretty good from knowing people who both went to them and send their kids there now.
Presentation does have a very good reputation and academic record. Its an all girls secondary school, and they have a primary too which I'm pretty sure is mixed. The other big secondary school is in Mercy Mounthawk, just on the outskirt of the town on the way towards Fenit/Adfert. This is a mixed school, with again a good reputation. I do know though, that you could be queuing overnight with other parents to enroll kids! Unless you or your wife went to Balloonagh or Moyderwell (they merged to form Mercy Mounthawk), then it is hard to get into from what I've been told.
Moyderwell is another mixed primary school.
Gaelcholaiste Chiarrai which is a mixed all Irish speaking secondary school (I went to this school & loved it!), and also Scoil Mhic Easmainn which is an all Irish speaking mixed primary school (I also went here!).
Holy Family Primary primary school.
The Green secondary school, which is all boys.

There is also Blennerville mixed primary school which is outside Tralee town, in Blennerville Village,
Listellick primary school also just outside the town.
There is a Church of Ireland school in Tralee called St. John's in Ash street. Oh and also Tralee Educate Together, which is mixed, but very small so limited places as far as I know. That is a lot of schools now that I've typed them all out! haha!

Found a few links which should help with more info:
http://www.tralee-educate-together.com/
http://www.hfstralee.com/home
http://www.ceist.ie/ceist_schools/view_school.cfm?loadref=102
http://www.mercymounthawk.ie/
http://www.thegreen.ie/

As for the broadband, well its ok I guess. We don't have fibre optic cabling yet! I am personally with Imagine, and its not too bad. The only other company I used before Imagine was Eircom, and you may get conflicting opinions of them!

Try out some of the other estate agents too as they do rental property also.

Yes, that was a really comprehensive over view of Tralee schools

which is not easy to do and I am extremely grateful for getting time out and typing it all.

Yes I am so far emailing all property agents who are sending my type of house on daft.ie. I will be seeing more properties during my July visit. Having Kerry airport with direct flights to London stansted is such a blessing which people might not appretiate it fully until they have not used it. Plus that airport is small and lovely which is a treat itself if you compare that with ~Dublin and London airports 3 hours queues.

Good to know about broadband, i will browse more in that respect.

Regarding kids activities, I know there is aquadome but if they are looking for things like pony riding or lessons for it and hill walking, are there any clubs etc available. We are all fans of organic food so I found out that there is a farmers market in Tralee onSaturdays which has very good reviews. Looking forward for some pure clean full of ozone life away from traffic and noise with lovely people around.!!! Ta

Ciarrai76 · 01-07-2012 9:43pm

Cam2012 wrote: »

Yes, that was a really comprehensive over view of Tralee schools which is not easy to do and I am extremely grateful for getting time out and typing it all.

Yes I am so far emailing all property agents who are sending my type of house on daft.ie. I will be seeing more properties during my July visit. Having Kerry airport with direct flights to London stansted is such a blessing which people might not appretiate it fully until they have not used it. Plus that airport is small and lovely which is a treat itself if you compare that with ~Dublin and London airports 3 hours queues.

Good to know about broadband, i will browse more in that respect.

Regarding kids activities, I know there is aquadome but if they are looking for things like pony riding or lessons for it and hill walking, are there any clubs etc available. We are all fans of organic food so I found out that there is a farmers market in Tralee onSaturdays which has very good reviews. Looking forward for some pure clean full of ozone life away from traffic and noise with lovely people around.!!! Ta

there are horse riding facilities in town (well just outside), one I know is Kennedy's in Ballyard, and I think there is another one in Ballyard too, but I can't remember the name of it. I'm sure there are more, but can't think of them off the top of my head.
There are plenty of beaches around Tralee which is great, so plenty of outdoors things to do!
there's a thread on here too about the farmers markets, with a link to the various ones.

What made you decide to move to Tralee? do you have family here?

Cam2012 · 02-07-2012 10:07am

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

there are horse riding facilities in town (well just outside), one I know is Kennedy's in Ballyard, and I think there is another one in Ballyard too, but I can't remember the name of it. I'm sure there are more, but can't think of them off the top of my head.
There are plenty of beaches around Tralee which is great, so plenty of outdoors things to do!
there's a thread on here too about the farmers markets, with a link to the various ones.

What made you decide to move to Tralee? do you have family here?

Well may be some one can suspect my sanity but I have no family in Tralee. Its mainly work related committment which is making us to move to Tralee but I did had a choice to choose between few towns in other counties plus to stay in England and I choose Tralee (not going to mention towns name in order not to offend anyone from other towns and counties). Most of my life years were spend in Dublin mainly but this part of the country always attracted me and my Mrs as we use to visit county Kerry almost every summer before we moved to England a while ago.

I heard that as well that there are plenty of beaches around Tralee but I have not researched in that aspect so far. Any family friendly one or blue flag beach around? similarly are there many family friendly restaurants in town or outside.

Ciarrai76 · 02-07-2012 1:03pm

There are many blue flag beaches in Kerry, and in the Tralee area its Banna, Ballyheigue, Fenit & the Maharees. Also further out is Inch, Ballybunion & Ventry, as well as Rossbeigh.
There are water sports centres in the Maharees and at Banna Strand.

Also plenty of family friendly places to eat in & around Tralee.

Mansized Wreath · 02-07-2012 1:09pm

I rent in Oakview Village and it's one of the nicer areas in Tralee to live,clean and safe,management company ran,family friendly etc. Mounthawk secondary school has a fantastic reputation and it's where mine will go when of age. Tralee is a great town.

kingdumb · 02-07-2012 2:06pm

Just over the mountain http://www.thephoenixrestaurant.ie/

Cam2012 wrote: »

We are all fans of organic food...

Kerrydude1981 · 02-07-2012 5:09pm

There is alot of Sports clubs in Tralee,if your kids are into soccer you have a couple of really well run soccer clubs in the town,Park FC and Tralee Dynamos/Kingdom Boys both located in Mounthawk,also have the rugby club Tralee RFC up in Ballyard which is up past the Aquadome,there is also a Tennis club down near the Carlton Hotel on the Dan Spring Road and of course you have the GAA clubs John Mitchells,Austin Stacks,Na Gaeil and Keirns O Rahillys all these clubs have very well run under age clubs,these are only a small example of what Tralee has to offer sports wise.

Cam2012 · 02-07-2012 10:40pm

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

There is alot of Sports clubs in Tralee,if your kids are into soccer you have a couple of really well run soccer clubs in the town,Park FC and Tralee Dynamos/Kingdom Boys both located in Mounthawk,also have the rugby club Tralee RFC up in Ballyard which is up past the Aquadome,there is also a Tennis club down near the Carlton Hotel on the Dan Spring Road and of course you have the GAA clubs John Mitchells,Austin Stacks,Na Gaeil and Keirns O Rahillys all these clubs have very well run under age clubs,these are only a small example of what Tralee has to offer sports wise.

Thanks a mill, I will certainly keep those clubs in my mind future as my boy is only 3 months old but girls are slightly older , they love hill walking,swimming etc but love to try sports activity.

Yes seems like there is a great variety of options available sportswise which is great for kids in order to divert them from of tele and Xbox,wii etc.

I was looking at broadband option, does anyone have tried smart telecon or Kerry broadband.

whistlingtitan · 03-07-2012 12:54am

Cam2012 wrote: »

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

There is alot of Sports clubs in Tralee,if your kids are into soccer you have a couple of really well run soccer clubs in the town,Park FC and Tralee Dynamos/Kingdom Boys both located in Mounthawk,also have the rugby club Tralee RFC up in Ballyard which is up past the Aquadome,there is also a Tennis club down near the Carlton Hotel on the Dan Spring Road and of course you have the GAA clubs John Mitchells,Austin Stacks,Na Gaeil and Keirns O Rahillys all these clubs have very well run under age clubs,these are only a small example of what Tralee has to offer sports wise.

Thanks a mill, I will certainly keep those clubs in my mind future as my boy is only 3 months old but girls are slightly older , they love hill walking,swimming etc but love to try sports activity.

Yes seems like there is a great variety of options available sportswise which is great for kids in order to divert them from of tele and Xbox,wii etc.

I was looking at broadband option, does anyone have tried smart telecon or Kerry broadband.

Have used eircom now with Vodafone find it good quite a few hillwalking clubs several stables around the outside of town
Listowel also has a farmers market which is also quite good and mill town has a good one
Also the swimming pool lots of social clubs and music clubs greyhound track.
Boy and girl scouts

kn · 04-07-2012 10:16am

Cam2012 wrote: »

Hi,
Me and my wife along with three kids 10, 6 yrs and 4 months will be moving to Tralee from UK next month.
Few advices required if possible. Even though I did a bit of home work but still need advice from hard core locals.
1- family friendly accomodation. which areas are safe. I was told to avoid town centre plus Bull ring by all means. I saw some nice houses in south Listellick which is like 3 miles from work and town centre. Whats the reputation of that area. Its quiet and have lovely scenic views.

2- Primary schools. Two older ones went to state school in UK. Heard good reputation of Presentation girls secondary school and also heard how difficult to get in there as per irish times. So was thinking of Presentation primary school. any advice regarding this school reputation. Receptionist was super lovely on the phone with my mrs.

3- Good broadband connection. I have heard few comments about meteor, 3 ireland and premnet or something but wasnt sure which is the better one in view of speed and download capacity.

thanks a mill..

1. The 'Bullring' i.e. Mitchells Cresent/St Martins Park, effectively no longer exists in its previous form, it has been torn down and being re-built with almost all the former tenants scattered all over the place. Listellick is good if your going for it. My only reservation I would tell people about where it is not advisable to live in Tralee would be the big council housing estates where the neighbours can be hit or miss - I am referring to the likes of Shankill or Spa Road here. The 'older' council housing estates which are probably in reality over 90% private now with various Tenant Purchase Schemes are really quiet settled areas now.
2. Re schools I suppose Mounthawk would be the preferred girls secondary school, I take it from the ages that your oldest has at least one year of primary school left, that being the case then the thing to do is to make sure that you place her in what is called an acknowledged 'feeder school' for your proposed secondary school preference. That places you ahead of everyone else in the queue for a place and the younger sister also benefits subsequently as well from being a sibling of an existing/former student. It is at the top of Cahersalee. This may also influence your housing choices.
3. I am using Meteor which is effectively Eircom who have the most extensive network and is prefectly good in Tralee. But in case the service in the likes of Listellick is not great 3 have the contract to provide broadband to rural areas at a fixed affordable price.

Cam2012 · 09-07-2012 12:34pm

kn wrote: »

1. The 'Bullring' i.e. Mitchells Cresent/St Martins Park, effectively no longer exists in its previous form, it has been torn down and being re-built with almost all the former tenants scattered all over the place. Listellick is good if your going for it. My only reservation I would tell people about where it is not advisable to live in Tralee would be the big council housing estates where the neighbours can be hit or miss - I am referring to the likes of Shankill or Spa Road here. The 'older' council housing estates which are probably in reality over 90% private now with various Tenant Purchase Schemes are really quiet settled areas now.
2. Re schools I suppose Mounthawk would be the preferred girls secondary school, I take it from the ages that your oldest has at least one year of primary school left, that being the case then the thing to do is to make sure that you place her in what is called an acknowledged 'feeder school' for your proposed secondary school preference. That places you ahead of everyone else in the queue for a place and the younger sister also benefits subsequently as well from being a sibling of an existing/former student. It is at the top of Cahersalee. This may also influence your housing choices.
3. I am using Meteor which is effectively Eircom who have the most extensive network and is prefectly good in Tralee. But in case the service in the likes of Listellick is not great 3 have the contract to provide broadband to rural areas at a fixed affordable price.

I know its a bit technical question but did any one knows what is the meg speed of meteor,vodafone or 3 boradband ?
The reason of asking is because in the past when I was in Dublin, we used a service called www.blueface.ie which is a sip technology boradband based phone. Through that service basically you will receive a router from them with pre filled setting. That router has two telephone lines pins and all you need is a boradband connection and a normal telephone hand set. So my telephone was working via broadband with normal dublin number and I was not paying any landline monthly fixed charges like 25 euro for eircome or BT.
So anything like more than 1 mg speed should be ok to run that service plus your web browsing.

Mounthawk has a great reputation no doubt about it but we are looking for girls only school to be honest. Thats why we are looking into Presentation primary school at this moment so that girls can automatically move into pres. secondary school which I presume has a good reputation for transferring children into 3 level universitites.

Thanks a mill to all for recommending those hill walking clubs, will be looking forward for that bit too.

goodies · 10-07-2012 12:12pm

hello there and best of luck with your move...we are about 10 months in to the move to Tralee and we are really enjoying it although not without ups and downs (like a move anywhere will entail).

We have found the positives to be the amazing variety of beaches and beautiful places to visit all within a reasonable drive. We have enjoyed lovely meals and nights out in pubs in surrounding towns and villages. Tralee itself can be a bit rough to take children out in at night. (sorry to cause any offence to anyone but it has been our experience).

There is high demand for good family 4+ bedroom rental properties and rents are increasing. You may even find yourself in situation where multiple people are after the same house. We have decided to go with a more rural property to give our boys the quality of life we missed living in the city. You might have a drive around when you visit and think about this option?

Our boys are small and we needed to try an number of pre-schools before we found the perfect one for our little boy. We decided on a smaller rural school outside Tralee for our other son. We are hoping for Mounthalk as the 2nd level choice if we settle here permanently.

My hubbi works from home and to be truthful broadband is an issue. Depending on the exchange you should be able to get NextGen in tralee town. Eircom promised a NextGen line where we are but we are currently confined to a 1M with measly 200k upload. If going rural check out other options, such as satelite or radio providers.

It will take a while for you all to adjust but we are pleased with general quality of life issues and quality of lovely local produce food wise. You have all the major shopping outlets in some town nearby and we haven't needed for anything. Socially it also will take a while to find your feet but the children should settle more quickly with school friends inviting them places etc. We have had some mixed eperiences ourselves with people who have long histories with each other :rolleyes: I have done some really interesting night classes over the winter and plan to do more and that has helped. We work hard though...no lolling around at work like some in the city might imagine happens in a provincial area. Please pm me if you have anymore questions.

Cam2012 · 10-07-2012 3:52pm

goodies wrote: »

hello there and best of luck with your move...we are about 10 months in to the move to Tralee and we are really enjoying it although not without ups and downs (like a move anywhere will entail).

We have found the positives to be the amazing variety of beaches and beautiful places to visit all within a reasonable drive. We have enjoyed lovely meals and nights out in pubs in surrounding towns and villages. Tralee itself can be a bit rough to take children out in at night. (sorry to cause any offence to anyone but it has been our experience).

There is high demand for good family 4+ bedroom rental properties and rents are increasing. You may even find yourself in situation where multiple people are after the same house. We have decided to go with a more rural property to give our boys the quality of life we missed living in the city. You might have a drive around when you visit and think about this option?

Our boys are small and we needed to try an number of pre-schools before we found the perfect one for our little boy. We decided on a smaller rural school outside Tralee for our other son. We are hoping for Mounthalk as the 2nd level choice if we settle here permanently.

My hubbi works from home and to be truthful broadband is an issue. Depending on the exchange you should be able to get NextGen in tralee town. Eircom promised a NextGen line where we are but we are currently confined to a 1M with measly 200k upload. If going rural check out other options, such as satelite or radio providers.

It will take a while for you all to adjust but we are pleased with general quality of life issues and quality of lovely local produce food wise. You have all the major shopping outlets in some town nearby and we haven't needed for anything. Socially it also will take a while to find your feet but the children should settle more quickly with school friends inviting them places etc. We have had some mixed eperiences ourselves with people who have long histories with each other :rolleyes: I have done some really interesting night classes over the winter and plan to do more and that has helped. We work hard though...no lolling around at work like some in the city might imagine happens in a provincial area. Please pm me if you have anymore questions.

Thanks a lot for your help and useful advice. To be honest as you can see yourself that within past ten days so many people have helped via their advices in this forum on my various queries.

You are right we are slightly going out of town to Listellick most likely in order to have better quality of life and you are dead right about 4+ houses availability. Town is only 3 miles from Listellick and so as work. We are going for presentation primary school as older one is just a year before going to secondary and in UK she was in year 6 so in fairness this year is going to be a bit easy ride for her and so as for middle one.

Its always a bit of give and take isn't it when you move from some big city to smaller town. But we are very optimistic as there are more positives. We are not a huge fan of going out late night anyway so it will not affect us regarding night and town activity.

So now major issue is broadband in Listellick area which I am not sure how to solve to be hoenst, I am planning to ask some neighbors and see what they are using and may be opt for that.

I am happy to hear from yourself that you all settled well and best of luck for the future. I will pm you if any queries arise but as you can every one is so kind to help here too

. Thanks a mill.

chupacabra · 11-07-2012 3:05pm

Listellick is a great place to live. I live in the town but I went to Listellick primary school so I grew up with a lot of the people living in that direction and know many of the families around the area and they are all really wonderful people. I often walk up the hill and pop by my old school to reminisce about the good times and the bad :P

If you are into hill-walking, mountain climbing etc. then Tralee is a great place to be. You are never more than 20 minutes away from some of the most spectacular scenery in the country and even after 20 years of exploring the dingle peninsula i'm still finding little hidden gems all the time. As said before the closest place to do any horse riding would be up in Ballyard but theres always the option of driving to Killarney for a day of horse riding in the mountains.

I also hear rumors of an all organic restaurant opening up in the town center by Lee Bradshaw who also runs the station house in Blennerville.

Either way I wish you all the best of luck in your move to Tralee and you are very welcome.

Cam2012 · 22-07-2012 7:28pm

chupacabra wrote: »

Listellick is a great place to live. I live in the town but I went to Listellick primary school so I grew up with a lot of the people living in that direction and know many of the families around the area and they are all really wonderful people. I often walk up the hill and pop by my old school to reminisce about the good times and the bad :P

If you are into hill-walking, mountain climbing etc. then Tralee is a great place to be. You are never more than 20 minutes away from some of the most spectacular scenery in the country and even after 20 years of exploring the dingle peninsula i'm still finding little hidden gems all the time. As said before the closest place to do any horse riding would be up in Ballyard but theres always the option of driving to Killarney for a day of horse riding in the mountains.

I also hear rumors of an all organic restaurant opening up in the town center by Lee Bradshaw who also runs the station house in Blennerville.

Either way I wish you all the best of luck in your move to Tralee and you are very welcome.

Thanks for those lovely reassuring comments. We were actually in Tralee last weekend and it was so nice to be there. Weather was intermittenly cloudy and sunny but was very comfortable over all.
We went to Listellick South, Drove through the whole town and saw presentation primary school. It was quiet central and parking is a bit question mark for me but then they have a school bus service for anyone above 2 miles from school, so nothing to be worried about now for us.
what place would anyone recommed for hill walking in Tralee for beginners like myself with kids onboard as well.
Hope you of all are enjoying sun and festival at westland today

Moving to Tralee... acmodation, school & broadband

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