jenn2126

I am in the beginning stages of planning a trip to visit Ireland for the first time. : ) I'll be traveling with my boyfriend and we are looking to keep it around 7 days and would love to get in as much as we can without sacrificing the sites. From what I've been reading a lot of comments have been made about spending too much time in a car.
Below are some things we'd like to see. Can anyone recommend what to hit and what to skip.
I'm a planner and my boyfrend is more of a take it as we go. We would like to get some history in as well and if we could get a round of golf in that would be awesome!

dublin-guiness brewery, brazen head
killarney (i would love to go horseback riding in Ireland and head this is the best area?)
dingle peninsula
ring of kerry
cliffs of moher
gallaway

we havent booked flights yet so it is an option to fly into dublin and out of shannon

any help or thoughs would be so greatly appreciated.

thanks much, cheers and happy travels !

kswaiz

We spent this past July in Ireland. We visited everything on your list except the Ring Of Kerry (we did Beara instead). We did not enjoy Killarney (the town) at all and we much prefered Kenmare!! We loved hiking in Killarney National Pak and touring Muckross Houses and hiking at Torc Waterfall and in the Gap of Dunloe. Dingle is in my top 3 as well as my 11 year old son's top 3. I spent an afternoon riding there while hubby and son went on a boat trip to see Fungie. It was a dream come true for a me. Ever since I was a little horse crazy girl I dreamed of cantering thru the green hills of Ireland. Loved every second! It was a nice private ride-excellent if you are an advanced rider. We had a nice gallop as well. It was Coláiste Íde Stables near the start of Slea Head. Not super expensive either. If you head over to Trip advisor and search the Ireland forums for kbswaiz you can read my trip reports for each day of our trip. We went for a month but I have only got half of them written. Hope that helps some.

jenn2126

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts! I appreciate the input : )

egnolive

I think you are attempting to do too much in one week. You might want to make a list of your top things to do in your order of preference and then blot them out on a map. Its hard to advise you when we don't know what type of 'sites' you like.

Also, keep in mind that driving is MUCH slower than you probably think. The collective wisdom is to think of an average of 35mph, so that may restrict how far you want to go in a week if you want to do more than sit in the car.

There are some on this forum who are not Dublin fans, but I am. A must see from my perspective is Kilmainham Gaol, as well as Trinity/Book of Kells, but that may not be your thing. Not sure how old you are, but its a city with a large young populations, so that may be an attraction for you.

There is also a lot to do in the Killarney area. I could spend a week there alone, although I prefer Kenmare as a base. You can drive the Ring of Kerry while staying somewhere there. Don't know about horseback riding, though.

Dingle is farther south so once you are there, need to spend a few days there to explore. Lots of Dingle fans on this forum.

Galway is another young, university town. You can go to the Aran Islands, Connemara and easily spend many days here as well.

I've golfed several times in Ireland. Its wonderful, but may be too much for this trip. You will find golf courses everywhere in every price range.

So you see, you will need to cut out something. Good idea to read some travel books first and get an idea of your interests, then repost and we can help with more specifics.

You are going to wish you had more than 7 days.

jent103

I agree - don't try to fit all of that in. Ireland moves slowly. With seven days, I'd stick with Dublin and either Kenmare or Dingle (I found Killarney to be very touristy and hard to find inexpensive places to eat, etc - we only visited Kenmare, but based on impressions, I liked it much better). Dingle has stunning scenery, and I believe you can ride horses around there as well (I don't have any information on that, though). However, the Killarney/Kenmare area has a bigger variety of things to do and is a little closer.

Assuming you have a full week,

Saturday: leave US (I'm assuming you're American)
Sunday: arrive Dublin
Monday: Dublin
Tuesday: Dublin
Wednesday: drive to Kenmare
Thursday: Kenmare
Friday: Kenmare
Saturday: drive to Shannon, seeing Cliffs of Moher "on the way" if that's a must (it's not really on the way, but not too bad of a detour) - this will be a long driving day
Sunday: fly home from Shannon

jenn2126

First of all thank you so very much for all of your comments, I really appreciate it and I am already wishing we could extend our trip! I think we will only be able to do 7 and I will most definitely take into account all of your recommendations.
We are heading to Ireland to celebrate our 30th Birthdays and we really want to enjoy the spectacular sites and just explore! This trip will be more about that than about adventure. (e.g. hiking, biking etc)

I am taking your advice about kilarney and now leaning towards kenmare! Galaway I think we can pass this time around so I think our focus will be Dublin and then drive over to the "other side"

I'll do some more research and post again. Thank you soo much!