Brand new to this site, forums and Ireland. We are planning our first trip to Ireland in Sep and plan to stay 6 days, 7 nights. We would like to fly in to Dublin and out of Shannon but it's not a requirement. Any suggestions as to how to make the most of our first Irish experience? Thanks for any and all help.

Welcome to Fodor's, mrswallace.

There is quite a lot of information on Ireland on this forum. You might do some searching and post back with some specific questions.

Happy planning!
H

I had read some posts and we thought we might fly in to Dublin arriving around 7:30 on a Saturday, explore Dublin, stay overnight and continue exploring Dublin if we feel we missed anything. Drive down the coast to Waterford, Hook Lighthouse and anything we find along the way, stay in the Waterford area on night 2. Nights 3 and 4 stay in the Cork area for the Cobh Heritage Museum, Blarney Castle and stone and we don't know what else to do there. Nights 5 and 6 somewhere close to the Shannon airport so we can tour the area--maybe Limmerick or Ennis? Leave on day 7 (Saturday) at about 11 am. Is this a good start?

I am usually reluctant to post itinerary suggestions since it is hard to guess whether you are more interested in cities, buildings, monestaries or in nature, the sea, etc.

One suggestion could be:

Dublin Airport
Dublin
Wicklow Mountains / Powerscourt
Kilkenny / Cashel / Clonmel
Cork / Cobh / Kinsale
Ring of Beara OR Ring of Kerry / Killarney
Ennis / Cliffs of Moher / Burren
Shannon Airport

Altogether, this would be even too much, IMO, so you may still want skim it down to your travel preferences (unpack/pack every night vs. stay in one place for more than one night).
Weather is also a factor. You may want to gather a mix of indoor and outdoor options.

Thanks for the input cowboy. We don't really have a preference for mountains, cities, nature, etc. so I guess that's where I am having trouble pinning down an itinerary. We want to experience as much as we can without trying to do much and ending up disappointed. Your suggestions will help us map out a plan.

mrswallace writes: <<... we might fly in to Dublin arriving around 7:30 on a Saturday, explore Dublin, stay overnight and continue exploring Dublin if we feel we missed anything. ... Nights 5 and 6 somewhere close to the Shannon airport so we can tour the area--maybe Limmerick or Ennis? Leave on day 7 (Saturday) at about 11 am. Is this a good start? >>

September: I wouldn't worry about the weather. I've always had great weather in September. Also, Sept. daylight is pretty long: you might consider getting out of the Dublin area Sunday afternoon to avoid Monday's commercial (Truck) traffic.

Limerick is a large City. Ennis is much smaller, but a 'fun' City. I usually spend the night before my flight home at Cruise's Restaurant & Pub on Abbey St. in Ennis. They have Trad Irish music every night.

In the Ennis area you've got the Cliffs of Moher, Lisdoonvarna with its annual Matchmaking Festival in September, Doolin and even Galway within an hour's drive.

I highly recommend the Wicklow Mountains and Powerscourt!

for a first trip experience with 6 days...

I would suggest an in/out of Shannon.

my favorites would include

day 1 drive burren...stay in doolin within walking distance of gus o'connors...enjoy some pub grub, catch the first set of traditional Irish music and off to bed

day 2- cliffs of moher (if you resisted not going there the first day...very close to doolin)...then down the clare coast, catch the kilmer/tarbert ferry across the shannon, over conor pass to dingle...stay in town so you can walk to pubs/dining/and strolling around the town/harbor...get a nice meal and definately the place for a pub crawl

day 3- drive slea head...another evening in dingle...we also enjoyed the boat ride out to see funghi

day 4-head towards kenmare via killarney national park...tour muckross house and ross castle...take scenic drive past ladies view to kenmare...again...I would stay in town...great dining, pubs, shopping, even has a small stone circle at edge of town

day 5-drive beara peninsula...be sure to drive healy pass...we also enjoyed a boat ride out to garnish island...another evening in kenmare

day 6-travel to bunratty for final evening...we did enjoy the folk park and castle...and did the castle banquet...hokey...but a great last night...have a final guinness at mac's pub at the folk park...bunratty is very close to shannon airport and you will also enjoy last minute shopping at the woolen mills and other shops in bunratty

Chip's recommendations are perfect; go for it. It will give you a taste of Ireland, and you will want to return--trust me.

Another great resource to check is www.irelandyes.com - the owner of this website, Michele, has been to Ireland 35+ times, and is a great help on her site and forums!

I want to thank everyone for their great suggestions. I know it probably gets tiresome with all the newbies asking for advice but we really, really appreciate the time you took to respond. I now have a plan and that is always a very good first step.

Most visitors to Ireland on Fodors seem to like visiting the south-west.I note in www.tripadvisor.com that three places there make the top 100 in the world- Dingle at 18, Galway at 42 and Killarney at 85. I had to laugh when I saw that London made no. 84 and Rome 87. I have to admit that I rather like the Killarney area myself but the small town of Dingle is very popular on Fodors.I would have placed Rome very high until my last visit in 2006 when it looked like there was a garbage strike but there was no strike.London deserves to be very near the top of any list.

bookmarking for cousins

Such good information. I am in a similar boat only I would like to go to the South/Southwest and just enjoy the countryside, music, sea, pubs and the locals. Would I get a feel of the culture, views, etc. enough or would I feel empty? I was thinking of flying into Shannon and getting a B&B nearby and do everything from there...is this feasible? Thanks.