Still trying to get a game plan for my trip in September to Ireland. I'm leaning towards staying just on the South West Coastal area- Clare to Cork?
If I were to stay in 2 locations and travel out from there...Where would be the best places to base myself. Not overly touristy.

sullivansvaca wrote: "Where would be the best places to base myself. Not overly touristy."

So you want to be a tourist and avoid places popular with tourists?

Try Limerick and Tralee. You might see why they are not overly touristy. They are well located for access to touristy places.

We were in Ireland last year in late September/early October and it was not overly crowded with tourists anywhere we went. Newgrange was the only place we had to wait for 45 min or so for our tour (we waited in the Visitor Center which is nice)

After much deliberation and help from this board 2 of the places we stayed were Kenmare and Dingle. We liked both towns. (I have recommended them to a neighbor who will be going to Irleand this year)

That said, we were staying at self catering so we liked the closeness of a nice town for dinners. There were many lovely B&B's and small hotels outside of Dingle and Kenmare/Killarney.

How long is your trip and what type of accomodations were you looking for?

Kenmare and Dingle were actually 2 places that I was leaning towards. We originally were going to stay in Killarney- but I heard it was very touristy and therefore more expensive! ( which is why I want to be a tourist and not stay somewhere overly touristy! )
We are going for at least 9 nights, possibly 11. We are going to do the self-drive thing, and will most likely plan to stay at 2 or 3 different hotels. But I am very open to suggestion since this is our first trip. Thanks!

Both Kenmare and Dingle are "touristy" in the sense that tourism is the main economic activity in each town. They are, all things considered, no cheaper than Killarney.

Almost all towns in the region offer you a wide range of accommodation types at a range of prices, and dining options from low-price to high end.

I like Dingle and Kenmare more than I like Killarney.

"Touristy" is a word that probably means different things to different people.

Touristy to me means Disneyland glitz, loads of people and lines, overpriced fast food and cheap souveniers. And then you find out that the place wasn't worth it!

In Kenmare and Dingle, yes there were cheap souvenier shops ( just stuck my head in and turned around!) but there are nice shops in both towns. In Dingle I can personally guarantee there's a nice Crystal Shop ( the owner/designer worked at Waterford) nice jewelery shops and of course the woolens. Kenmare had a lovely Lace Store that differed from others in that on the shelves on the right, she had some boxes with Antique Irish Lace.
These are both small towns that are fun to walk around.

Killarney was more crowded and larger than Kenmare, we drove through, but did not get out to walk around.

Are you flying into Dublin or Shannon?

Some self catering places will rent for shorter periods of time in the fall. Is this a consideration or are you planning on hotels, B&B's?

We liked staying in self catering so we could skip out early in the morning and not have to sit down to a big breakfast. We thoroughly enjoy the B&B experience and talking with people but we find we don't get away until 9:30 - 10:00. One reason we probably didn't encounter many crowds is that we were always the first ones there!

We stayed in Westport and it was wonderful. It felt like the only tourists there were Irish. The pubs were fantastic (but they're fantastic everywhere). We were able to take a number of day trips from there: Clare Island, Crough Patrick, Connemara National Park, etc.

Thank you all so much for the advice..it is really helping me. I want this to be a very special trip- it is a surprise for my hubby for our ten yr annv!

Wrenwood- could you give me a little more information about self-catering?? I hadn't even considered not being able to get "away" from the B&B's! Plus my husband isn't a big breakfast eater anyways.

sullivansvaca ~ the first time we tried self catering was in Grindelwald Switzerland in 2007. We liked it so much that we stayed at 4 self catering places in Ireland last year.

In addition to more flexibility in schedule, it is usually less expensive. In high tourist season many places have a 1 week minimum, but I found many will rent for as little as 3 days in non-peak seasons. The other reason I liked it was that if it has a washer and dryer you can pack lighter.

Some are just "rental apartments or condos" We don't like this type, we like something with a little character so we know we are in a different country. Some are close to towns, some are quite remote. We never cooked dinner at one, so we have always stayed within a short drive to nice restaurants. It was nice to be able to pack lunches also, and take home "doggie bags" if we couldn't finish dinner.

I did miss the company of people at a breakfast table at times.

We have found that if we take a "nap" the first afternoon we arrive in Europe we are good to go the rest of the time. Lately we have booked our first night within a reasonable drive at a B&B or Hotel that maybe has some stuff we would like to see but not necessarily on our #1 list. That way we can pick up groceries for our self catering time, take a nap and do as we please.

We also book close to the airport for our last night before flying home.

That leaves you the time in between to figure out where to stay for several days at a time.

Another thing I learned on this board is to make sure to allow for rain ~ don't schedule yourself so tightly that if it's rainy one day you miss out on the views and outside scenery because you have to leave.