mmculp

Can anyone take a look at our itinerary so far and tell me if it's doable?

Flight from Chicago to Dublin
Day 1 am- Arrive in Dublin, explore Dublin (try to stay awake as long as possible)
Day 1pm - sleep in Dublin
Day 2 am - visit Glendalough, travel to Kilrane
Day 2 pm - stay in Kilrane
Day 3 am - visit Hook’s Head and Waterford, explore Ardmore.
Day 3 pm - Sleep in Ardmore.
Day 4 am - Rock of Cashel and Tipperary.
Day 4 pm - Sleep in Ardmore.
Day 5 am - Visit Cobh and Blarney Castle on the way to Tralee.
Day 5 pm - Sleep in Tralee
Day 6 am - visit Dingle Peninsula.
Day 6 pm - Sleep in Ennis.
Day 7 am - Visit Loop Head and Cliffs of Moher.
Day 7 pm - Sleep in Spiddal.
Day 8 am - Connemara all day
Day 8 pm - Sleep in Westport
Day 9 am - Glencar Waterfall, drive to Strabane
day 9 pm - sleep in Strabane
Day 10 am - drive to Giant’s Causeway. Explore.
Day 10 pm - Sleep in Bushmills
We have 3 more days to get back down to Dublin and explore Dublin

I've read messages that Tralee isn't anything special to stay at - does anyone have any other suggestions (we are going through 12 travel and need to find places that are on townandcountry.ie or irishfarmholidays.com

Once we leave connemara, we head north really just for the Giants Causeway - is it possible to make it from Westport up to the Causeway area in one day - or should we still plan to stop in Strabane?

Thanks in advance!

pooka

Wow, what an itinerary! My 2 cents worth: I am assuming that you don't suffer from jet lag, nor on your first trip to Ireland (I live in MN- I went on a 9-day trip last October, and was useless for 3 days due to jet lag).
Tralee or not Tralee~ if you're there just to rest, I would do just that. I would also keep to your itinerary & stay in Strabane- for no other reason than to take a breather (there's no air quite like it)! Your itinerary seems to be mildy packed, but still doable if you've got the energy to burn.
I hope you have a wonderful time.

janis

I'm not going to make any comments about your specific itinerary -- It just needs too much work.

BUT think about this -- you want to stay in NINE different hotels/B&Bs in 10 days. This is just nuts IMHO.

Every time you have to pack, check out and check in again takes a lot of time out of your sightseeing day. Plus these nine different towns are spread over the entire country.

I really think you need to go back to the drawing board. . . . . .

ira

I think I agree with Janis.

Mags8

This is mmculp's sister. We are taking the trip together this summer.

I know our itinerary is extremely aggressive...we'd appreciate any suggestions you could give us.

I know we are going to have to cut something out...
We were looking at Tralee as just somewhere to sleep on the way to Giants Causeway.
Most of our itinerary is in the south and west, which we've heard is the best. But we'd really like to see the Giant's Causeway.

We'd really like to hear any advice you have regarding what to leave out, etc. Please help us "get back to reality" in what we can and can't accomplish during our trip.

Holldoll

To help this become more doable, you might consider flying into Shannon and out of Dublin. Then you'll already be in the SW when you arrive. Explore that area for a couple days in whatever order, then head north and west through the Burren, Connemara, etc., up to Northern Ireland, and then down to Dublin. We did that last year without the Dingle portion, but we had less time. It worked out fairly well.