Start right here by reading Fodor's Destinations guide to Ireland. Then go to other guides and do the same. You have to make up your own mind; nobody around here can read your tastes and interests. One person's absolute must is another's downright bore. And nobody sees everything, or in real time actually would want to. Then, when you have reached some tentative priorities, come back with specific questions, which always draw more useful answers.

Southam is correct. But I will add this, you are correct in limiting your 7-8 nights to just the south. You will find you are woefully short on time even with that. So you must begin the painful planning process of eliminating things you won't see. On our recent trip, we wore out the pages of Fodor's book as well as Rick's trying to decide what to see. It's all about your interests; geologic, history, culture, music, etc. No one can design your trip for you.

Cliffs of Moher are a must..the Dingle Penn. is a must. Lots of lovely guest houses (check KAREN BROWN'S BOOKS) they worked for us, stay on the left side of the road, don't talk politics with anybody, and stay humble--they don't like 'uppity' Americans dropping by to tell them what to think and do. Especially, don't let them think you are English...the Irish can stay mad 100 years.

Good advice from Southam and BillJ. You do need to decide for yourself what interests YOU. I would consult a variety of guidebooks and you may find them at your local library. (Ours probably has over a dozen different guides just for Ireland.) Personally, I like the Lonely Planet and Rough Guide series, but you may want to start out with a Fodor's guide to get you started on the basics since you have never been to Europe.

Please ignore any "advice" from Justwishin (except for the part about staying on the left hand side of the road.) There are no "must-sees" in Ireland because it's all good and the Irish are lovely people.

Thank you all! I will come up with a tentative itinerary in the next few weeks. The hard part will be crossing things off the list. I don't even know where to start!

When you start your planning, think about flying into Dublin and out of Shannon so you don't have to come back across the country.

As far as overrated tourist traps...Well, the Blarney Stone comes to mind. Lots of people go there. We took two teenaged boys there and they loved it. I didn't and still wouldn't kiss the Stone, but I thought the grounds were lovely. So it is really hard to know what will appeal to someone.

We are looking forward to our tenth trip next spring. I have no idea where we will end up, but we seem to be drawn to the south, southwest, and the west. We like to spend a couple of nights in places so we are not always packing up and schlepping our stuff with us.

Driving will take longer than you think. Yes, the roads have improved and there are great motorways. But if you take them, you will be missing out on the small towns and villages. On the more rural roads, plan on stopping for cows crossing the road or sheep grazing on the side of the road. Photo opportunities abound!

Come back here with a rough itinerary and you will gets lots of good advice.

You're a ways from this but when you decide to book your car, The Husband had a good experience with easytourireland.com. Now they have a "guest blogger" who answers the most sought-after questions I have seen posted on these forums. You will have a wonderful trip, I'm sure, as Ireland is one of the friendliest, most beautifiu countries in the world!

A really nice Dublin pub is Stags Head on Dame Court

Thanks for the car rental recommendation! My cousin works for enterprise and can get family discounts for there and a few other dealerships (assuming discount still applies for out of country) so i'm hoping to take advantage of that as there is one in Dublin. I have looked into flights into Shannon and out of Dublin and vice versa but the difference in price is over $500! FYI- we have decided on mid June.

I have done quite a bit of research last night and today and have more of an idea of the areas we'd like to be. Let me know what you guys think or any suggestions you may have:

Saturday, Day 1- Arrive in Dublin at 8:25 am-- pick up rental and head on the road to Kilkenny and hit (options, obviously not all) Dunmore cave, rock of cashel, cahir... Thinking of staying the night around here as we will be tired from travel. Any good suggestions in that area? More importantly, any good pubs? We will definitely need a pint or 3 after our first travel day!

Sunday, Monday, Day 2 and Day 3- Head back on road early. I think we're going to skip Cork and Kinsale unless I'm convinced otherwise. Maybe we will stop by Blarney on the way to Kenmare but I feel that may be too much driving? What do you guys think? We plan to do 2 nights in Kenmare/Dingle area taking a look at (again options) Dingle peninsula, ring of kerry and killarney national park. What would be your suggestion of taking that on and what towns would you stay in both nights?

Tuesday, Wednesday, Day 4 and Day 5- Head up early to County Clare/Galway and within those 2 days see (options) Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Connemara, Doolin.

Thursday, Day 6- Head back over to Dublin and return the rental car to save money. Stay in a hotel/B&B for 2 days and tour the city!

Saturday Day 8-Leave

Thoughts? Things I should rule out?

Thanks!

Based on the two 8-day self-drive tours of Ireland we have made, I would say this is do-able. Just to make sure you are comfortable with the driving times/distances, you may want to take a look at the AA Route Planner. Add about 15% to the stated driving times to make them more realistic.

Day 1: Some people may say that you are trying to do too much that day. It, indeed, may be too much for some people but it would not be for me and it might not be too much for you either. On our last trip to Ireland, we landed in Shannon, drove to Killarney NP, toured Muchross House, hiked 12 kilometers around Muckross Lake and then drove to our B&B in Kenmare. We are confident drivers on the left hand side of the road (having lived in several countries where this is done), we sleep well on planes and we are active people. If this describes you as well, I say "Go for it". If you find it a problem driving on the left or if you are tired when you land, please do the safe thing and limit your driving, particularly on minor roads.

There are a lot of interesting things to see in Cashel, Cahir, Kilkenny and those are the areas on which I would concentrate. Dunmore Cave, which we did visit, is not a particularly remarkable cave and would not be high on my list of things to see in this area, especially with your limited time.

As for pubs in Kilkenny, your B&B hosts will be an excellent source of information. We stayed at the Abbeylodge B&B and one of pubs recommended by our host was Kyteler's Inn. We enjoyed our evening there very much. (BTW, check B&B reviews on Trip Advisor. I found all 10 B&Bs we stayed in during our two trips to Ireland through Trip Advisor and there wasn't a bad one in the bunch!)

Day 2 & 3: I would recommend staying in Kenmare. We stayed there two nights and found it a convenient base for our travels in the area and a nice little town. We stayed at the Abbey Court B&B which I highly recommend. You might want to consider a drive around the Beara Peninsula in lieu of the Ring of Kerry. While I enjoyed the ring forts and other historical sites around the ROK, for sheer scenery, the Beara Peninsula has the ROK beat, hands down.

Day 4 & 5: You have stated that the Cliffs of Moher are a "must" for you, but be aware that fog and rain may not make a visit there possible or worthwhile. (Fog kept us away). But there is plenty else to see in County Clare (including the cliffs at Kilkee, should you take the Tarbert ferry to get to Co. Clare). One place that I found completely overrated by the guidebooks was Doolin. There is basically nothing there but 3 pubs, lots of B&Bs and a shop that sells chocolate. We tried to visit all 3 pubs in the evening to hear music and they were over-run with tourists (like us), but some of them had been bused in from elsewhere for the evening. Plan to base yourself someplace else.

We enjoyed our 8-night trip in the south & west (Killarney, Dingle, Galway). Here are some photos and commentary if that helps.

http://ukfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/ireland.html

We don't sleep much on the plane so I have award first day and usually hit the bed by 7:30, so I miss out on the pub action for night #1.


We stayed in Kilkenny for a night last year. Our B&B was Abbeylodge and it was an easy walk to the town center. We were there in April and the B&B was quiet but very nice. We had lunch at Kytlers and dinner at a place across the alley, in the dining room upstairs. I can't remember the name of it but we really enjoyed the meal.

For the ROK area, we prefer Kenmare over Killarney and the Beara Penninsula over the full ROK. The ride between Killarney and Kenmare is lovely, and the park in Killarney makes for a great afternoon. The drive around the Dingle Penninsula is spectacular.

We are not fans of Doolin and have never stayed there. We love the drive out to the light at Loop Head, but that takes a whole afternoon. wherever we go, we try to take the coastal route when we can.

Hmm, I seem to be agreeing a lot with Longhorn!

Damn autocorrect. That should be a "hard" first day.

Don't count on getting too early a start. Most B&Bs don't serve breakfast before 8 am or even 8:30 am.

I don't know why the original poster has ruled out the open jaw option (in Dublin, out Shannon). I just searched several dates in June from JFK (using Kayak) and the prices are nearly identical as for RT in Dublin. With only 7 or eight days for the trip, this makes alot of sense. They need to also consider they could literally save a day by not having to traverse the Country a second time, so even a small differential in price could be offset by saving a night's lodging, one day car rental, etc. It looks like Aer Lingus and Delta have the best non-stop economy fares right now.

Note: I went to Ireland in 1999 and we made the mistake of driving Dublin to Dingle Town in one day with a stop in Adare for lunch. It was an all day trip! Has the motorway been improved materially since then?