eastave

I feel like I am being defeated in my Ireland trip planning! We are going to be in Ireland for a week in late June. It will be my husband and I and our 4 year old daughter. We will be coming from a long weekend in London. We used to be travelers that would pack a lot in, but our pace has slowed with a kid. I am thinking of ramping it up a bit this trip. Here is what I am thinking:

Day 1 Fly into Cork in the morning, stay in Kinsale

Day 2 Drive to Kenmare, stay in Kenmare

Day 3 Do the ROK, stay in Kenmare

Day 4 Drive to Dingle, stay in Dingle

Day 5 Visit the Dingle Pen., stay in Dingle

Day 6 Drive to Galway or some place like Ballyvaghan - visit Cliffs of Moher on the way

Day 7 Visit the Buren area stay in same place

Day 8 Fly out of Shannon early afternoon/evening

I haven't filled in too many details yet, because my guidebooks have so much info I feel like I need to get a rough outline before I delve any deeper. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks!

Betsy

flytheworld

This is a pretty aggressive itinerary, but you can do it if you are willing to be on the move a lot. Have you considered spending any time in Dublin? That would be the one other place I would add.

Padraig

It's not nearly as aggressive as some of the proposals posted here! I think it's tidy enough.

I don't get the thinking behind driving from Dingle to Galway when the targets to be visited are south of Galway -- unless you want the buzz of a lively small city in the evenings rather than a village like Ballyvaughan. If that's the reasoning, I'd say its a reasonable framework.

There is plenty of scope for filling in bits, for example seeing some of the good stuff around Killarney when transferring to Dingle on day 4. Personally, I'd travel with some awareness of the possibilities rather than with a set plan: there's nothing wrong with adapting to circumstances and the mood you are in.

janisj

I agree totally w/ Padraig. This is MUCH better than some of the monstrosities we see here. Not that bad but as Padraig says - I don't see any need to go as far as Galway.

Stay in/near Ballyvaughan or Lisdoonvarna.

And I totally disagree w/ flytheworld. You don't have ANY time to cross the country to Dublin - Especially since you are flying out of Shannon. No chance . . . .

Take your time. You will have daylight VERY late so you can be out exploring even long after dinner.

jubilada

Exploring long after dinner with a 4 year old sounds like a recipe for disaster. When we travelled with our 4 year old we learned to have rough ideas of where we'd like to go, but we pared down alot to keep everyone from being cranky. Just my experience. We needed lots of breaks, walks in parks, meals at weird times.

tod

Hi Eastave, I hope your little 4yr old is a quiet, patient, laidback child as the drive around ROK is long - maybe you should consider just doing a bit, not the whole thing. Dingle peninsula I think would be better suited as its shorter. I haven't done it and was sorry we didn't, but from Trip Reports and photos from others it looks a lot more interesting.

eastave

Thanks for your comments. I had the impression that the ROK has places to stop and visit, is it just a drive? (Sorry my guidebooks are in bed with my sleeping husband at the moment.) DD is a pretty good traveler, but we are going into this with the expectation that any day's planned activities could be completely rewritten. I learned this well when she started throwing up every 2-3 hours when we were in Seville and we had to bag our trip to see the Alhambra.

I think it is wise to not go all the way up to Galway too, it will make a quicker trip to the airport at the end.

tod

Yes Eastave, there are places to stop but a lot of wide open land of hills and sea as well. The weather can be grotty - ours was not the best. On a good day the scenery should be much better.
I have some photos for you in my Trip Report which may give you some idea of what to expect from the pubs and towns. Just go to the ROK bit if you like:
http://tinyurl.com/mmm492

irishface

The ROK isn't just a place to drive. There are lots of places to stop and look around. Waterville is one. We stopped there and had our sandwiches and coffee/hotchocolate on some benches overlooking the water with a grassy area where children were playing. I like Sneem a lot. In Portmagee you might want to stop at the visitor center which explains the Skelligs (you can see them off the coast on a clear day). A little way off the main road is Staigue Fort, prehistoric structure with 12 foot thick walls;you can walk around and explore all sorts of nooks and crannies. The scenery is wonderful, but maybe you could do just part of the drive.

I agree with Padraig about driving to Galway and then backtracking. I'd go to Ennis. From there you can drive to the cliffs of Moher, the Burren. You could drive out to Loop Head and view the Atlantic and the mouth of the Shannon. I don't have the info, but on one of my trips I took a boat trip from Kilkee(?) to look at dolphins and seals. This might be something your daughter might enjoy as well. Bunratty Folk Park is an interesting visit as is the Craganouwen project. These would all be a day trip from Ennis.