Hi Denisea,

We have never done a whale watching excursion while in Ireland. We live in New England (central Massachusetts) and can do this type of activity locally; for example, we have been on a few trips from Maine and just last week we did a whale watching trip from Boston Harbor.

That being said, we have seen dolphins, porpoises and seals while on ferries and other boat trips in Ireland. Specifically we have spotted this activity in Dingle Harbor (April) and on the ferry out to Inishbofin (an island off the coast of County Galway where my grandfather was born; this happened in August).

We saw a lot of seals and dolphins in Inishmor. We do the traveling funeral with a friend's ashes and when we put a little of him into the water off the boat a seal popped up. It was magical. He was a sailor so loved the water. They have seal colonies there.

I love the nonstop we have on Aer Lingus from Orlando. Perfect timing on Dublin departure since we don't have to be out of apartment till 11 am. I looked at going into Shannon and found that you fly into Boston on Jet Blue and then Aer Lingus flys you via a charter to Shannon. No thanks. If you fly from Atlanta I am sure it will be different on Delta. I was checking for a friend that wants to meet us there. One stop in JFK but 400 dollars more. Donna will fly Delta from Atlanta. We booked an apartment for four nights in Galway after landing at 10 am. Smack in the middle of everything. Great day trips. We are going back to Inishmor. Four nights in Ballycotton and four nights in Dublin. It was between Galway again or Dingle. I now have everything sort of planned.

With the time available to you for the trip, I would suggest you give serious thought to the Wild Atlantic Way as a route to explore the Atlantic coast, Cork city to Galway.
Arriving at Shannon, you could take an express bus (2.5 hours) to Cork, relax and explore (2 nights) then rent a car and make tracks for Galway over the next week. Galway should be fine for overnight on the evening before your return flight.
I'm getting thirsty even thinking about the pubs along the way - Mutton Lane in Cork, the Spaniard in Kinsale, de Barra's in Clonakilty...............
Golf is widely available along the route but us Irish golfers would regard the green fees at places like Ballybunion and Lahinch to be bordering on a tourist rip-off. These are also places where the non-golfer has very little on offer to spend their solitary five hours a-waiting. Would suggest leaving the golf to Galway (Galway Bay Golf Resort) where you will have a city to explore while himself takes to the fairways. Always better to make direct contact with the golf course, by the way, as online booking will ensure that you will be asked for the premium rate.

Already on the Wild Atlantic Way and downloaded the app. Thanks for the pub listing! (I will probably be a disappointment to the Irish as I just don't care for beer, ale, etc...now Chaz loves a porter or stout, but it's not my thing at all. Macross - love the ashes and seal story! It's a good one.

You guys are a wealth of information! Thank you!

I personally feel your time along the West of Ireland will be worth spent. In terms of diversity and sights its hard to match it elsewhere. Kerry, Galway Cliffs of Moher would be ideal. Just give yourself some time as the roads can be quite hard to navigate around as driving is very slow with lots of tourists and camper vans along some routes. Maybe have a look at possible itineraries on some travel websites such as https://www.discoveringireland.com/ just to get some suggestions as it would give you a good idea of how many days to spend in each place? Have an amazing time!

Great advice Mary - thanks for the website. We need resources on planning!