7 days in ireland - trip planning ideas?
 

already bought r/t flight to/from dublin - arriving july 22...for 7 nights.
i've been to dublin before so probably only need one night..probably
the night before we leave since the flight home is at 0900.
ideas?
mom traveling with 21 y/o daughter. we are renting a car and
winging it. the only things i can think of we don't want to miss
is kissing the blarney stone (yea...touristy!) and the ROK.
i'm not a fan of the big highways..we are renting an economy car so
hopefully we won't use up much of the narrow lane space!
itinerary suggestions?
what towns to stay in ? which direction to head?
what else is in waterford besides the waterford? is it worth
heading south then across along the coast to ROK .. or best
to drive through the middle of ireland to ROK?
any thoughts/ideas are appreciated.
also...where would be the best place to pick up a car rental to
avoid having to drive through the dublin traffic?

Look up my reply under the Heading, "Take an umbrella to Northern Ireland". Belfast is booming and it's only 2 hours? at the most on the Motorway from Dublin. The Antrim Coast Road has the best views in the world and the number one tourist attraction of the Giant's Causeway.... a must see.

"the only things i can think of we don't want to miss
is kissing the blarney stone (yea...touristy!) and the ROK."

if we take and umbrella and head north..would we still have time to do the 2 things we want to?

"i'm not a fan of the big highways..we are renting an economy car so hopefully we won't use up much of the narrow lane space! itinerary suggestions?"

you mention taking the motorway from dublin. isn't that 'the big highway' i'm hoping to avoid? any other way to get to where you are suggesting?

The Waterford Factory has closed down,so you can take that off the itinerary.

I still would take the highway to Belfast and arm yourself with a big map if you travel up from Dublin. The highways in Ireland are much faster and stay in the left lane if you want to go slower. We traveled in one day from the very bottom of Ireland at Kinsale (get a map), stopped at the Rock of Cashel (fab ancient spot) for a few hours, then got back on the highway to reach Belfast around 8 p.m. (we were tired but we didn't kill ourselves) It's not a big country. Down the west coast, there is no main highway and it took us 2 days from Killybegs, Donegal at family home, stopped at Blarney Castle,(didn't kiss stone, didn't want disease of 5 million tourists), overnight in Galway (rain pouring down),stopped at Ashford Castle, just to admire, and then spent the night in Kinsale.

As you drive through Ireland it's amazing to find everything is easy to reach and one just stumbles on places that I've heard of for years....

Super B and B in Kinsale, quaint fishing village with super pubs and the best crispy duck and garlic mash we've ever found.

You need a day to do the Antrim coast road, you could always drive north up the w. coast, avoiding highways, see Blarney, Ashford Castle, Dingle... Perhaps overnight in Galway. Then continue up to N. Ireland and do the Coast Rd. starting around Bushmills - oldest distillery and head east. Overnight in one of the Glens of Antrim. Head into Belfast, spend an overnight. Then you could head down towards Rock of Cashel (don't know what you mean by ROK???)

First: Buy a big current map.