Hi all! We’ll (husband, 2 teenage sons, and me) be taking our first big trip together since before the pandemic and I’m having a hard time not overextending ourselves. We’re going to fly into Shannon (we’ll rent a car) and stay near Galway for 4 nights (wanting to see Galway, the Burren, Cliffs of Moher, Aran islands,Ennius, Doolin etc), then heading to Dingle for 2 nights and then Dublin for 1 1/2 days and then home. It’s killing me not to squeeze in Kinsale/Cork and I feel like we’re not giving Dublin its due. Are we in Ballyvaughn too long? I’d love to have a mix of city/country, hikes, culture, history. Thoughts?

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Hi Jboysto,

I did a similar family trip in June of 2019 but in reverse order, we flew into Dublin and out of Shannon. We spent 3 nights in Dublin which was about long enough to go on a hop-on hop-off bus tour to get acclimated, visit Trinity College/Book of Kells, Kilmain Goal, and a tour of Newgrange about an hour outside the city (this was a highlight of the trip). My 20-something daughters also fit in a Guiness Brewery tour.

We then drove from Dublin to Dingle with a stop at Rock of Cashel and lunch along the way. Dingle is charming, with breathtaking scenery, great food (Out of the Blue has fantastic seafood) and fun pubs. We were there for just one night and I wish we had booked two nights.

From Dingle we drove to Ennis where we stayed for two nights. This was plenty of time to easily see the Cliffs of Moher, and the Burren. Could also have fit in a visit to Doolin or Galway if we had wanted but we were taking things slow.

If you need accommodation info: we stayed in an AirBnB in Dublin in the Temple Bar area. Daughters loved the location but not sure I would choose that area again. In Dingle we stayed at Green Mount House. Highly recommend. In Ennis we stayed at the Old Ground Hotel which was very nice.

Diane