samsmom

Can someone suggest an itinerary that begins and ends in Dublin, goes to the Dingle Pennisula and crosses the border into Northern Ireland in a week? I am concerned it may be too much, but my husband wants to go to Northern Ireland and I want to go southwest. Any ideas?

MaryZ

That's not easy to do in a week. Do you absolutely have to fly in and out of Dublin? It would be a little easier in you could either arrive or depart from Shannon.

If you have to do Dublin, I'd try this:
Night #1: Dublin
Night #2,3: Dingle
Night #4: midway bewteen Dingle & Belfast
Night #5, 6: Belfast
Night #7: Dublin

You'll have a long drive from Dublin to Dingle, and an even longer drive from Dingle to Belfast.

MaryZ

I've been thinking about it and here's another alternative.

Nights 1, 2: Belfast
Night 3: midway between Belfast & Dingle
Nights 4,5: Dingle
Nights 6,7: Dublin

njc

I'd say that's a bit much. Unless you have a strong desire to do NI, I'd suggest going a bit south from Dublin and circling west. We did it in 8 days logging about 850 miles. One tip: allow twice as much time as it looks like in miles. Most roads are very narrow and windy.

Ardfert

Northern Ireland is only 50 miles from Dublin Airport and there is a motorway from the airport to Dundalk,a few miles south of the border.That should take a little over an hour and another hour will see you in Belfast.Have a look at www.viamichelin.com for suggested route.When you return to Dublin take the M50 motorway a few miles south of the airport and you will have a dual carriageway or motorway for about 40 miles to south of Kildare town on the N7.If you are travelling in the summer consider going very early in the morning e.g. 6am and you can travel a long distance rather quickly before the traffic builds up.Day is 6am-10pm in June and July in Ireland.

wojazz3

I haven't seen that Belfast is a requirement so why not try something like:

Day 1 - Dublin: stay there the first night to avoid musch driving with jet lag.

Day 2& 3 - Dingle

Day 4 - Galway area perhaps. Goal is Enniskillen

Day's 5-6 Enniskillen area. Beautiful lake country

Day 7 back in Dublin.

This is not the amount of driving I would want to do, but especially in the summer months, it can be done. Just a month or so ago, Syv (one who has posted here) did a trip with at least as much driving. It will be a bit of a blur. If you want to do one night stops, which can be very tiring for some, then just pack light so that you're not hauling huge amounts of stuff in and out of B&Bs. I would still suggest 2 days for Dingle since you would probably be arriving fairly late in the day and wouldn't get to see a lot that day.

Now, if you haven't booked your flights yet, consider flying into Shannon and out of Dublin. That could take some pressure off. It can end up being about the same price.

Hope this helps.

Bill