jboogs40

We are two couples traveling in Ireland in August, arrive in Dublin at noon on Tuesday, leave from Dublin the following Monday. Drive to Kilkenny, spend Tuesday night, sightsee Wednesday. Drive to Killarney on Thursday make this a home base for Dingle. Leave Saturday morning, spend the night in Adare. Head to Dublin on Sunday. We have one driver with experience driving in the UK, Please advise.

catdill

I met my daughter in dingle 11/2 yr ago. I rented a car in Shannon , drove to Dingle. Wonderful B/B there.

we stayed in Kinsale, Kilkenny and Ballymalloe where we took a cooking class, Ballycotton
great trip music , food, relaxing, walking tour kilkenny, whiskey factory tour.

I have been to Ireland as she has so steered clear of Dublin.

jboogs40

I am looking for advice if this itineray is reasonable or too ambitious. I love the idea of a cooking class.

allisonm

Can you fly into Shannon instead? That would cut out criss-crossing the country as your plan has you covering quite a bit of distance in 6 nights. There is much to see in the Killarney area besides Dingle.

jboogs40

Our flights are already booked, after reading these forums,it's clear that we should have done that.

allisonm

The great thing about being able to go in August is that the days are long, as the sun doesn’t set until around 9:30 early in the month, or 8:30 later in the month. So more time for scenery.

You will be spending a lot of time in the car, so try to make lots of stops for breaks and photo ops. Try to get off the motorways a bit. Will you have a second driver to relieve the one who is experienced? (You pay a little more for the rental when you have a second driver, but it could be worth it.)

On your last night in Dublin, you don’t want to have a car in the city. You could stay in Malahide (a very easy 15 or 20 minute drive to the airport), and spend your last night in town there, or stay on the northern outskirts of Dublin and take the bus into the city if you want to see a bit of the center. You can find a B&B fairly close to the airport.

(As an example, we stayed in Tinode House on our last trip. They had a small car park, so we left our car there and took the bus into city center. We then only had a short, easy drive to the airport when we left.)

Hope this helps a bit.

jboogs40

Yes,thank you!

Bette

With such a short trip I would not leave Killarney and then stop in Adare for an overnight. They are not significantly far apart.

Also, if the point of staying in Killarney is to see Dingle, then just stay in Dingle for a few nights and maybe do a night in Killarney to see the sights there. Killarney has a lot to offer.

Will you sightsee in Dublin or are you basically skipping those sights on this trip?

Are you arriving jetlagged? Driving to Kilkenny might be a bit too far on day one.

jboogs40

We are arriving from Budapest so no jet lag, we are open to sightseeing in Dublin, but are more interested in the coast and countryside. We are open to other suggestions, have seen comments that the cliffs of Moher are crowded, maybe worth trading for other placed.

allisonm

You have probably heard that the scenery around Dingle is spectacular, and it is. There is really so much beauty that it is hard to choose the best place to go.

With your limited time, Galway might make a nice base. (We like to stay in Salthill.) From there you could see some beautiful countryside as well as spectacular coastline by visiting Connemara.

You could take a drive up to Westport and Croagh Patrick, then come back down through the Doolaugh Valley. Or drive down through the Burren to the Cliffs along the coast. When we first visited the Cliffs in 1995 you could walk right up to the edge. Now they have some barriers in place to try and keep people back. Don’t go if it’s a foggy day because you won’t be able to see much.

From Galway you could also take a ferry to the Aran Islands. These, too, could be crowded in August.

Just tossing out some ideas to see if you could make better use of your time...