Penguin

We just planned an impromptu trip to Ireland in October for 6 days. All we have as we are leaving the baby at home with Grandma. Any help with the proposed itinerary would be helpful. We have been to Europe a number of times and tend to be able to ract through places - 7 countries in 16 days on one trip - but would like this to be a bit more leisurely. Here are our original thougths...
Day 1 - Arrive Dublin, rent car, go through Wicklow Mtns to Glendalough and spend the night in Kilkenny.

Day 2 - Drive to Kenmare and spend a night there exploring the South, possibley at The Lodge.

Day 3 - Drive to Dingle and see the sights on the way - spend the night in Dingle at the Greenmount.

Day 4 - Bike the Peninsula - anyone ever done this? Another night in Dingle

Day 5 - Head back to Dublin - not sure what there is to see from Dingle to Dublin so any help is appreciated. Arriving Dublin that evening and staying at the Conrad Hilton.

Day 6 - Dublin, Trinity College etc. Last night in Dublin.

Day 7 - Depart

Our question is, since we have such a short time should we go directly to Dingle from Kilkenny and skip going south to Kenmare or would it be an easy enough stop over? Also, is it worth cutting down to Waterford or not?

Your help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Penguin

Okay, not a reply but an update. After hearing from a few friends there is a slight alteration. Instead of going south we would spedn our first night in Kilkenny and then go straight to Dingle for 2 nights. Then we are thinking about heading up to the Cliffs of Mohr for one night to see them and spending the night there before heading back to Dublin the next day.
Is this to crazy? How long will it take to get to the Cliffs from Dingle.
Thanks for your help.

Toro

JMO - Don't skip Kenmare, do skip Waterford. Have you considered flying in and out of Shannon? Do Dingle, Kenmare, and Doolin/Cliffs of Mohrer.

Or fly into Dublin and out of Shannon or vice versa?

DOCK

We did Ireland August 2004. Flew in and out of Shannon. From Doolin,(which is close to the Cliffs) to Dingle, via the ferry and a lunch stop in Ballybunion and a wonderful must see route thro Connors Pass took the better part of a day. We got to Dingle around 5pm, but for us the day was planned to see things along the way. We spent 2 nights in Dingle. Did Dingle peninsula on our full day in the town. Personally the 1 night would have been fine I should have added on an extra night in Killarney,or spent 1 night in Kenmare.If you search for Budman you will glean a ton of info from his posts.Have fun.

Penguin

Thanks for the info - I will search Budman as I believe I have seen some of his posts. It doesnt' sound like it is too crazy to hit the Cliffs of Mohr - in which case we would skip Kenmare. I am thinking if we hit Dingle for 2 nights and bike around the peninsula we will get the feel of the coast which is basically what Kenmare is..correct? I think it is an either/or between Kenmare and the Cliffs so if anybody has a strong opinion I would love to hear it.
As for flying into Shannon we got a great deal of $300 roundtrip to Dublin, plus we have friends there we are seeing on our last two days. If I had thought about it I may have paid a bit more to fly into Shannon but it was an impulse buy to begin with and the research is now following.
Thanks for your help.
Amy

beach_dweller

With your time frame and the need to get back to Dublin, and although Kenmare is wonderful; I don't think you could really do justice to both Kenmare/Killarney and Dingle. Stick with Dingle, which will allow you to also explore a little of County Clare (including of course the Cliffs of Moher).

debbrown

Penguin, no advice but wanted to post that we are doing the same trip! We got the $350 bargain fare from Chicago and will be arriving early on 10/5 and returning 10/10.

It sounds like you are a bit ahead of me in the planning. I just returned from the library with a pile of travel books to peruse. Our tentative itinerary is quite similar. I wasn't sure if we could make it to Dingle and back in the short time without driving past many other interesting sites.

Keep posting!
Deb

Mags8

If you planning to stay in a B&B in Kilkenny, stay at Dunromin. We stayed there in July 2005. Val and Tom were great! They gave us lots of great advice for our trip!