Hi, my husband, teenage son and I are travelling to Ireland in December 2022 for approx 5 weeks and would like to stay in cottages in smaller towns to live like locals! Looking for suggestions and recommendations for areas and available cottages.

Moved to Europe board and tagged for Ireland.

December is cold and dark and wet. Small towns will have limited appeal at this time of year so it would probably be better to be at least in easy reach of a bigger town for more amenities. Are you wanting one place or to travel around? Car or public transport (very limited in smaller places)?
AirBnB will give you ideas on what is available. And prices, which might be a shock....

Thank you. I had not considered smaller towns will not have many amentities. We will most likely hire a car. Could you suggest a few good towns in County Mayo, County Kerry and County Wicklow. We are hoping to spend a week or so in each area.

Have you been to Ireland before?

In winter, I'd be looking at Killarney, Westport and Greystones. An alternative might be Kenmare for Kerry if you think Killarney is too big.

Bring wet weather gear and be prepared to be driving in the dark if you go anywhere for the day as it won't get light until almost 9am and gets dark again at 4 in the afternoon. At least in December the shops will be decorated for Xmas and the towns will have some Xmas lights up. But the countryside can be bleak and depressing.

Bleak is exactly the word I would also use for some of Ireland in winter. It must be lovely and green in Summer, but I only made it in November, December and April. It was often rainy, chilly to cold, once an ice and snow storm, and gray, and in places, at times it was sooty. Always wished to go in Summer. Never made it.
We were there in the big freeze and snow of 2010. Flights were cancelled or redirected. Frozen pipes burst, pouring water everywhere, then the streets froze. Houses in the countryside were without power, water, etc, in many places for a week or so. That was really hard.
However, the snow was beautiful and from the train, we saw many, large red fox playing and leaping in their lovely white fields.
So, choose the places you stay very carefully. There may be very little to do or see.

Yes back in 2015 on a 3 week driving holiday. Stayed in Dublin, Kilkenny, Kilarney, Galway, Sligo, Belfast. Had a wonderful time but was a blur! This time we just want to stay in a couple of areas and explore more. Coming from Australia we don't mind the cold and wet experience.