I'm overwhelmed in trying to plan a trip for our family of five for May of 2010. Husband insists we see the Donegal area due to a family connection and daughter and I want to see the southwest, primarily Dingle. Our two sons are noncommital for now. All three "kids" are in their early 20's. Right now we are thinking of leaving Chicago on a Friday and returning the following Saturday. I'm hearing that we would get cheaper airfare flying in and out of Dublin. We love scenic drives so would like to hug the coast as much as possible. I have a LOT of questions, so I'll be writing often. For now, I guess, my main question would be should we do the north only or the north and southwest?

If you fly into and out of Dublin, I would opt for a loop up through Northern Ireland, where you will have a lot of coast and some fantastic scenery, then come down into Donegal. You can drive back across to Dublin through Enniskillen, a beautiful lake town, then on down through Cavan and Navan. You could probably fit in a visit to Newgrange.

If what you want to see is on the West Coast, then fly in and out of Shannon. You could also consider coming in to Dublin and leaving from Shannon. I don't think I would want to make the drive from Dublin to Donegal to Dingle to Dublin, just too much driving.

Flying in/out of Dublin <i>might</i> be cheaper - but you need to factor in the cost and time wasted looping from/to Dublin. IMO it would be a false economy.

Flying on/out of Shannon would give you more than a full extra day for your touring of Donegal and the west coast.

We wanted to fly in and out of Shannon to do the west coast only. We tracked trip advisor flights on a daily basis for Sept.'10. It was $875 to $975 from Chicago for quite a long time. Then for 2 days only it was at $633 and we took it.

Lesson learned----watch every day, know the prices, and book when you see a good price.

Ooops! I meant May of 2011.

"<i>Ooops! I meant May of 2011.</i>"

Yep - we sort of knew that