Itinerary for 2-week trip to Ireland
 

Seven Family members aged 25-57 traveling to Ireland. We will be flying into Cork and renting 2 cars. I am seeking some advice since we will be staying in two spots for several days, rather than moving from place to place. So we need to plan day trips. I would like some feed back as to what I have planned (too much driving, missing something important?)
Sept 26 Arrive in Cork, drive to our place in Kinsale.
Sept 27 Explore Kinsale and Cobh
Sept 28 Visit Cork City, Blarney Castle, and relatives in Castlelyons.
Sept 29 Half the group to visit relatives in Macroom, the other half to Waterford.
Sept 30 Ring of Kerry- would like to do this on tour bus out of Kinsale if possible
Oct 1 Bunratty Castle and Dirty Nellies. How much time to do this?
Oct 2 Enjoy the City of Galway
Oct 3 See if we can get a tour bus out of Galway to visit Dingle Peninsula
Oct 4 Visit relatives in Ballymahon, Co Longford
Oct 5 drive to Dublin, give up the car, and stay for 5 days. How much time from Galway to Dublin? Any suggestions for a rest stop along the way?
Someone in the group would like to see Knock to get holy water, not sure when we could fit this in? Thank you for any suggestions or criticisms.

You need to do much more research. Run your trip through one of those distance planners to get a general idea of distances and times. Doing the Ring of Kerry from Kinsale in Oct? Don't think so. There are no bus tours from Kinsale to the ROK. Doing Dingle from Galway? Another big NO and no bus tours doing that either. Do you have a guidebook yet? One might help. I am also confused as to when you go to Galway. You need to rethink your day trip options.

Sept 26 Arrive in Cork, drive to our place in Kinsale *** OK, it's a short journey from Cork Airport to Kinsale.
Sept 27 Explore Kinsale and Cobh.
Sept 28 Visit Cork City, Blarney Castle, and relatives in Castlelyons *** Likewise.
Sept 29 Half the group to visit relatives in Macroom, the other half to Waterford *** Macroom is easily reacked from Cork, would say approx 40 mins or so. Waterford is 1.5 hours from Cork.
Sept 30 Ring of Kerry- would like to do this on tour bus out of Kinsale if possible *** Probably better off doing this by car, more independance and tour may be difficult to organise. An early am departure from Cork should do this by car in a day - it would be a lot of driving though. Allow 3 hours to get there and same to get back.
Oct 1 Bunratty Castle and Dirty Nellies. How much time to do this *** They are beside each other, easily reached from Cork, approx 2 hours to get there by car. The castle is more interesting historically, so maybe allow a bit more time for this. Guided tours take about 1 hour. There's also a replica folk village beside it which is intresting.
Oct 2 Enjoy the City of Galway *** Could be reached by car from Cork, but would be at least 4 hours. Maybe consider overnighting in Bunratty and taking a trip from there to Galway.
Oct 3 See if we can get a tour bus out of Galway to visit Dingle Peninsula - Dingle penisula would be best viewed from Cork in a day trip. maybe consider combining this with the ROK, one day on each.
Oct 4 Visit relatives in Ballymahon, Co Longford *** Do this from Galway, approx 2 hour drive from Galway to Longford.
Oct 5 drive to Dublin, give up the car, and stay for 5 days. How much time from Galway to Dublin? Any suggestions for a rest stop along the way? *** Longford is on the way from Galway to Dublin, approx. half way. Allow 4 hours by car from Galway to Dublin. Road is quite good by Irish standards.
Someone in the group would like to see Knock to get holy water, not sure when we could fit this in? *** Kniock is best reached from Galway *** Thank you for any suggestions or criticisms.

Remember the road network in Ireland is not brilliant, although it has improved somewhat over the past decade. Ireland is a a small country, but traffic volumes can be quiet heavy, getting through some towns can take a bit. As a result journey times can be increased. www.aaroadwatch.ie is a good site for route planning - Roads denoted 'N' (National) are genrally bettwer than 'R' (regional Roads)

Hi, I'm going in Nov so when you return if you have any suggestions let me know. [email protected]
Thanks Bobbie

Thanks for all your input. I thought that Galway to the Dingle Peninsula, might be pushing it. It's very difficult to come up with an itinerary with 7 adults traveling. Here's another option which I would appreciate any input on: Would it be too much to drive from Kinsale to the Dingle Penninsula, tour all or part of the penninsula, and then on to Galway in one day. How long would it take?
Thanks again!

Hi Murphy:

Are you staying with friends in Kinsale or renting a cottage? If not (and even if so) I would suggest moving a bit more. Spend the 1st four days in Kinsale, then two around Dingle or Killarney and then move up to Galway stopping at the castle on the way.

IMO Durty Nellie's is not worth a special trip. It's just another pub and there are plenty of others that are better. It tends to be crowded, especially on weekends when the big tours hit. Bunratty Castle is nice, but there are others. If it were me, I think I would leave Dingle, take the ferry at Tarbert and catch the Cliffs of Moher and then continue on to Galway. A pretty long day but do-able and a more beautiful ride than going through Shannon. If you want to go to a famous pub going that way, hit Gus O'Connors in Doolin. Not a lot going on midday though. If you want to catch a castle, stop at Dunguaire just outside of Kinvara on the way to Galway. Another castle that you can catch from Galway is Athenry which is certainly worth a visit. They are closed on Mondays in October.

Generally it seems that you are trying to stay in just a couple of places and forcing VERY long day trips that would be better accommodated by moving to a new location for a couple of days. Hope this is helpful.

Bill

I just returned from a 10-day trip. My advice would to skip Bunratty - there are better pubs and castles. If you want to do a day trip out of Galway, do Connemara. It is breathtaking and a reasonable day trip. Dingle is beautiful as well, but a tough day trip from Galway. A great website for travel times is aaroadwatch.ie. That helped a lot in my trip planning.

Thank you all again for your great advice. With 7 people traveling together we really had to make a lot of compromises, so that's why we ended up staying in only 3 places instead of moving around a lot. We wanted to be somewhat stationary so people could do different things if they wanted. Your advice has given me some great information and options which I plan on bringing to the rest of the group.

Have a look at www.irishtourism.com and for route planning www.aaireland.ie

Hi,
CU above is right, you really need to do some route planning on aaireland.ie
but be sure to add time to the estimate they give. Some of the well traveled posters here say to take the total # of miles, divide by 35mph to get your time. (My 1st trip is coming up soon but I have been cruisin' the boards for a while).

The best thing to do is sit for an hour or so and scan through some of the posts on Ireland and read some trip reports to get a better view of what is where and times/distances. Just keep working backwards through the messages for some great advice and answers. I believe someone just posted on the drive times to Dingle reciently.

Also, the time of year you are going the sun sets earlier. I know that in the summer it sets around 10 or 11pm but for you I guestimate about 6-6:30pm which will cut your driving time.

Sorry, sunset will be between 7-7:30pm at end of Sept. see website below for exact times.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...2005&day=1