Advice on Scotland/Ireland Itinerary
 

Hello! I'm planning a 10 day vacation where I want see and experience Scotland & Ireland. It will be just my husband and I traveling. In general we enjoy exploring towns & hiking and try to avoid extremely touristy/crowded places. We like to walk though & see cool castles, but are less into tour-guided ones. We similarly, do not generally spend much time in museums & going to shows. I'm trying to narrow down a good itinerary so I can start booking places to stay, but I'm struggling with deciding how mobile vs. stationary to be (especially in Ireland). My tentative itinerary looks like this:

Day 1: Arrive in Dublin (morning)
Day 2: stay in Dublin until we've seen enough and then Kilkenny for the night
Day 3: Drive to & stay in Cork
Day 4 & 5: Drive to & stay in Galway
Day 5: Fly Dublin to Glasgow
Day 5-7: Stay in Glasgow with a day trip to Edinburg
Day 8 - 10: Drive up to & stay in Inverness, before flying back to Dublin & then the US

My major goals for Ireland are to hike in and around Galway as well as one day trip out to one of the islands. And in Scotland I want to spend a relaxing 2-3 days in Inverness (maybe Skye Isle instead? but I've heard better things about Inverness). Other than that I'm very flexible and up for plenty of advice as I'm very torn, in Ireland mostly, as to what cities to see/experience. I've previously planted myself in 1 or 2 locations on a trip and done day trips from there. But it seems like most cities are 1.5-2 hours away from each other, so I was worried if I just stayed in Dublin & Galway that I'd be spending my whole vacation in a car.

Thank you very much for any/all advice!

Oh if it matters/helps - we will be there the month of April

I don't really like either leg of your plan. Why drive all the way to Cork (why Cork) only to turn around and drive up yo Galway the next morning? If Galway is your main aim just do Dublin and Galway.

And there are MANY nicer places in Scotland to spend two quick days than Inverness.

I haven't checked but I'm sure there are flights from DUB to EDI - if it was me I'd base in Edinburgh and not Glasgow. If you wanted to check out Glasgow you can always do a day trip from Edinburgh. Glasgow is fun, but for most visitors, Edinburgh would be the preferable.

Then pick one area - closer than Inverness, maybe Fife, or the Trossachs, or glencoe for your additional time in Scotland.

" I want to spend a relaxing 2-3 days in Inverness (maybe Skye Isle instead? but I've heard better things about Inverness)"

That's probably the least believable thing I've ever read on these pages.

I doubt any human being in history has ever spent a "relaxing 2-3 days in Inverness" - a tedious and ugly oversized small town, albeit one surrounded (at some distance) by magnificent countryside.

Some might say it's a useful centre to explore parts of the Highlands from. So you might plausibly argue it's a handy place to stay.

But there are lots of nice places in and around the Highlands and Islands that are BOTH pleasant, relaxing places to be AND useful centres. Some of them are in the historic county of Inverness-shire

But what was once called the Royal Burgh of Inverness absolutely isn't one of them.

Why are you not going Dublin >Galway > Cork fly Cork to Glasgow?

<i> Advice on Scotland/Ireland Itinerary
Posted by: Allysonkh on Feb 12, 17 at 10:02am</i>

If you are going to Cork stay at least two nights. Go to Blarney Castle and kiss the stone.

Scrub Glasgow. Do Edinburgh for a few nights.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm personally very naive to both places, so I've been exclusively planning my itinerary based on suggestions I received from family & friends. I have a co-worker who's wife is from Glasgow and they couldn't stop raving about Glasgow & Inverness. Their opinion was that Edinburgh is extremely touristy, and is worth a day trip but not worth spending a lot of time in. Similarly, I've had a few other close friends that are absolutely in love with Inverness - one is fairly well traveled and went so far as to say it's her favorite place in the world, hence where I got that idea.

In terms of the trip around Ireland, I was basically trying to get to experience as much of it in general as I could in a short time. I picked Cork because I heard it's a very interesting town with some unique culture compared to other areas in Ireland. I did see there was an airport, so Dublin > Galway > Cork was something I was considering and spending an extra night in Cork does sound appealing as well. I just similarly had a friend rave about Kilkenny so I was afraid I was going to miss something by not stopping through there.

Thanks so much for the feedback so far!

If Inverness is their favorite place in the world . . . I have nothing to add. Just bizarre. Maybe ask them for suggestions because (having been to Scotland more than 20 times and stayed IN Inverness three times) I would never ever rate Inverness more than a quick stop over if I had no other options.

And tbere is a competition/rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh which 'might' explain your co-worker's opinion.

But just weird . . .

And IMO there is nothing at all 'unique' about Cork city. There are some great things in County Cork, but the city is just a city. Certainly not worth a huge detour.

Glasgow does has some interesting places and I probably prefer it to Edinburgh. Even then, for a first time tourist Edinburgh wins hands down.

Inverness; perhaps someone was pulling your leg?

You are not going to see much of Ireland with the time you have available even if you put 10 days into Ireland you would only see a limited amount so don't worry about what you miss, enjoy what you see and come back when you have a couple of weeks to spare.