My husband and I are planning a trip to Ireland in June. We are pretty fast-paced travelers and don't like to stay in one spot for more than three days...with that being said we have never been to Ireland and will be driving, I don't want to spend all of our time in the car! I have used the aa route planner and allowed for 30 miles per hour, to be on the safe side. Please look at this itinerary and tell me what you think...I realize everyone will have a different opinion on what is a good pace, but I would like to hear your ideas. I really did not want to leave out the north...there is so much we want to see, and we will probably never take a second trip to Ireland.

I specifically would like to know: 1. Is this too much/too much driving? 2. Is there anything on the itinerary that is not worth seeing, given the short amount of time we have?

We have about 13 vacation days we can take, here is what I have so far:

Day 1: Arrive in Dublin in the morning, explore, spend the night in Dublin.
Day 2: Pick up rental car, Drive to Waterford via county Wicklow/Glendalough area. Stay the night in Waterford.
Day 3: Drive to Dingle. Spend night in Dingle. ( I tried to limit the number of hotels we stayed at by staying in Dingle for the ROK since we want to visit Dingle anyway, instead of staying in Kenmare.)
Day 4: Slea Head Drive in Dingle. Maybe horseback riding?? Night in Dingle
Day 5: Skellig Michael and Ring of Kerry. Night in Dingle
Day 6: Killarney National Park. Night in Dingle.
Day 7: Long Drive up to Connemara. Stop to see Cliffs of Moher, drive through Burren. Night in Connemara.
Day 8: Connemara Drive, Kylemore Abbey. Night in Connemara.
Day 9: Maybe visit Aran Islands, or golf, or rent bikes. Night in Connemara.
Day 10: Drive to Donegal, Night in Donegal.
Day 11: Drive to Antirim Coast. Stay night in West park Bay area.
Day 12: Explore Antirim Coast, including Giant's Causeway, Bushmills Distillery, Carrick-A-Rede Roap Bridge, etc. maybe visit Belfast if we can do some of this stuff on day 11.
Day 13: Drive to Dublin, drop off rental car and fly out same day, or should we allow an extra night in Dublin to fly out?

If you arriving from overseas, I cannot see how in one jetlagged day you will land, get to hotel, then see Dublin in the rest of the day.

30 miles an hour is probably optimistic. There is a reason that there are so many tourist car 'bumps'. Roads can get narrow.

I like your idea of basing yourself in one spot for a few days.

good point... maybe we can add an extra night in dublin at the end and fly out on the 14th day or is this still not enough time? We don't necesarily want to see Dublin in depth, just the highlights!

IMHO yes

Why Waterford?

Where in Donegal?

Sorry but I don't think you can do this in 13 days.

Donegal and Waterford are just stopping points to break up the long trips, we don't need to see those places. Basically we really want to see Dublin, the Antrim coast, the ROK, Dingle and Connemara.... why can't they all be on the same side of the country? ha ha...

"<i>Stay the night in Waterford</i>"

I agree, why Waterford? It isn't really on the way to anywhere else and there is no real reason to go there at all. (especially so since the factory closed - and even when the factory was open it wasn't the nicest stopover)

I'd drive SW fromDublin via Cashel into County Cork/Kerry.

I like your idea of basing in areas for touring around. But the NI bits are a bit ambitious.

Meant to say >>the NI bits are <u>more than</u> a bit ambitious.<<

Also, Glendalough is lovely, but that Glendalough/Waterford swing adds a lot of extra driving.

thanks for your thoughts...deep down i knew this was too much to do...so it looks like now i need to pick between dublin and the west or dublin and the north...what are your thoughts?

also, janisj...do you mean spending the night in cashel area on the way to kerry or is the trip from dublin to kerry do-able in a day?

Would not see Waterford as a great spot to break the journey to Dingle; would suggest Cork city or Kinsale which are reachable by motorway from Dublin - with the option of a stop en route to see the Rock of Cashel.

If you were keen on Glendalough, maybe you could take two nights in Dublin on arrival and take a trip there on day 2.

For your time in County Kerry, while Dingle is an attractive place to visit, it is a little peripheral when it comes to touring the area. Kenmare would give more options to do the Ring of Kerry, West Cork and the Dingle peninsula.

If you are factoring in the Aran Islands as part of your itinerary in County Galway, you could base yourself in Galway city which would shorten your journey on Day 7.
A day trip out to Clifden, Kylemore Abbey etc is feasible from Galway.

SeeDee beat me to it. Cashel enroute to County Cork is a doable day's drive (that would be about the only <i>high-ish</i> speed/easy long distance leg.

And also doing Glendalough as a day trip from Dublin. That would simplify things.

You have a great itinerary,and it is all worth seeing, but it may be too much for 2 weeks.The roads are much better in Ireland now, but still they are narrow and you are driving on the opposite side of the road so 30 mph might be too optimistic. I have an American friend married to a Swedish man and last year they went to Ireland and fell in love with it.But they couldn't get over the narrowness of the roads. I asked "Don't they have narrow roads in Sweden". The answer was "Yes, but they aren't the main roads." Which tells you something.

You could visit Giants Causeway and Carrick-A-Rede Roap Bridge and Bushmills in one day. Not that you need more to do but Dunluce Castle is on a cliff by the sea near Bushmills.http://www.northantrim.com/dunlucecastle.htm, There is a great story about the castle and ghosts and how it fell into the sea.There are also several light houses along the coast road,and they all have their own ghost stories about ship wrecks from the Spanish Armada and sailors being lost at sea.The flora and fauna on the Antrim coast is different from elsewhere in Ireland, take time to enjoy it.Stop and have a picnic at a lighthouse or a cliff by the sea.In June the days are long and you can take evening walks.Your route should bring you through "The Green Glens of Antrim" You could spend weeks in Antrim and still never tire of the scenery which is so varied.
Again, you have a great itinerary, but driving in Ireland on the opposite side of the road is hard. I would suggest you try to do less and soak up the atmosphere more.

you read "around ireland with a fridge" it might help get a perspective?

Go back to the draft board; way too jumpy and you have not prevented the Windchill Tour you were trying to avoid, ie. staying in Dingle to explore Killarney and ROK is a bit ambitious. Kenmare is way a better home base to explore County Kerry and even a day trip to Cork County.

One critical piece of advise: arrive to Dublin, depart from Shannon (or the other way around). To RT in Ireland is bad planning to put it midly....

Viajero2, I agree with you about the flight. The only reason I was planning to fly in and out of Dublin was because so far it looks like the flights coming into Dublin and out of Shannon are more expensive. I will keep looking though...

I think we are going to spend a few days in Dublin and then head west... Is it possible to do a day tour (with a tour company) to the Antrim coast from Dublin?

I think your itinerary is fine, but sometimes it is hard to get a private helicopter serviced!

Just kidding, but your itinerary is a bit ambitious for the time alloted. We have driven in many places in the world and Ireland was one of the slowest we have experienced.

We spent 2 weeks in Sept.2010 just in the west and the drives were extremely slower than we expected. Here's an example of Waterford to Dingle. It says 4 hrs. but in our experience the drive times were a bit optimistic. This is an Irish site and the drive times are based on Irish drivers who are familiar with following these roads through the cities not looking at the few signs there are to keep you in the right direction. This site was a huge help to plan ahead. Driving in Ireland in the small towns and , for example,and on The Slea Head. was easy and wonderful. Getting through the cities was difficult and time consuming to say the least. The absolute worst drive was from Kenmare to Killarney on the Ring of Kerry Road(there is a faster inland road, and that was OK). Even our hosts at the B&B said to avoid it at all costs.

http://www2.aaireland.ie/routes_clas....asp?utc=miles

That siad, we loved Ireland, especially Dingle(Greenmount House), Westport(Plougastel House), and Kenmare(Shelburne Lodge). Our biggest surprise, the fantastic food. We are returning in May of 2011. If you'd like to read our trip reports and see photos, click on our name and scroll to the bottom of the page. The musical one is fun.

As far as flights are concerned, we flew from Chicago and back from Shannon. No direct flights which was a bummer. There were flights direct to Dublin and they were cheaper, but we wanted to stay in the west. We watched the prices every day or two about 1 & 1/2 to 2 months out----$850 to $950. All of a sudden $633 came up for 2 days only on the same flights and we grabbed it. It pays to monitor the sites daily. We used Trip Advisor and then booked through the airline direct.

I hope this has been of some help.

http://www2.aaireland.ie/routes_classic/

This is better---just fill in Waterford to Dingle or any other.

I had it in the link above, but when it posted, it took you to adifferent part of the site.

Reading suggestion: *Last of the Donkey Pilgrims* by Kevin O'Hara.

I think your itinerary is way too ambitious for 2 weeks. We did a similar one in 2004 but with an extra week and it was tight. Ireland is way too beautiful a country to fly through in a hurry. Why not see the South in two weeks and then try the North again for another week or so another time. Skip Belfast! A friend tried to convence me to do this but I was too stubburn to listen. Should have. As nice as the people were in every other place we went, that's not not nice they were in Belfast. You won't be missing anything, believe me.

Another great read---"McCarthy's Bar" by Pete McCarthy.

We have stayed in Killorglin twice and used it as base for Dingle, the ROK and Killarney. It may not be as pretty as Dingle, but it is a great base for the three destinations. And we like the hub and spoke approach.