Itinerary Help - 8 Nights in Dublin / Scotland
 

My friend and I will be flying RT NYC to Dublin in March for a quick trip to Ireland and Scotland. It's our first time - and we know this is way too short to see everything, but we hope to get a feel for Dublin (and hopefully a few other Irish sights) and maybe one region of Scotland.

Any Ireland / Scotland travel experts want to drop some itinerary help on us? :)

Here's what we're thinking so far:

Mar 16 - take train to the cliffs of Howth
Mar 17 - explore Dublin, celebrate St. Patrick's Day
Mar 18 - Fly to Edinborough, rent car, drive up to Speyside region - stay there
Mar 19 - Tour villages / whisky distilleries - continue stay in Speyside
Mar 20 - Drive to another region of Scotland - highlands? galoway? - stay the night there
Mar 21 - continue exploring
Mar 22 - Drive back to Edinborough - explore the city
Mar 23 - Fly back to Dublin, tour the city / Glendalough?
Mar 24 - home

Questions:

1) Any suggestions for our 5 nights in Scotland? We'll have at least 1 night in Edinborough - and we're thinking 2 in Speyside? 2 somewhere else?

2) Would you take 2 nights in Scotland and trade them for 2 nights in Ireland? I know it's a quick trip- and we'll surely be back, but any ideas what's best for a super-quick trip like this?

Thanks soooo much. We're finding it difficult to plan such a quick trip, of course, and think we should probably just focus on 2-3 places. If you have any suggestions as to where those 2-3 places should be, we'd really appreciate it.

Just some background as to what we're looking to do:

* Coming from NYC, so we've seen our share of St. Patrick's Day celebrations - but we just think it'll be fun to be in Dublin on that day

* We don't want to miss at least a few Scotch distilleries

* We're happy just driving and exploring the (surely frigid) countryside

Just a couple of very quick comments right now- more later but others will also chime in I'm sure.

"<i>* We don't want to miss at least a few Scotch distilleries</i>" I LOVE single malts - in fact I'm hosting a whisky tasting on Fri . . . But one distillery is pretty much the same as all the others. I'd visit just one distillery and do the rest of your tasting in pubs/restaurants.

"<i>Drive to another region of Scotland - highlands? galoway?</i>

Speyside is IN the Highlands and Galloway is in Ireland.

It is Edinburgh BTW . . .

Where is this Edinborough? When we went to Scotland, we stayed in the capital, Edinburgh.

The itinerary is fairly daft - you'll be able to do about 1/2 of what you think you can.

<<Would you take 2 nights in Scotland and trade them for 2 nights in Ireland? >>

Not a chance. Scotland > Ireland, and Edinburgh > Dublin about 10x over.

Why did you decide to fly back to Dublin from Edinburgh instead of just returning home from Scotland?

Are you arriving early enough in Dublin (and able to drop your stuff at your residence there) to catch the train you seek?

Speyside is in the Eastern Highlands. Galloway is the other end of the country and you can't get from one to the other with time to "tour." You can't do any sort of justice to Edinburgh with your current schedule. You also don't understand Scottish roads - in general they are like US country lanes - and travel is not at 65 mph. US-equivalent highways are rare and mostly confined to the box on the map formed by Glasgow-Edinburgh-Stirling-Perth.

JJ: thinking they meant Dumfries & Galloway . . .

Still looking for Edinborough on my map . . .

Haha, sorry guys. Edinburgh... Not a 'borough' like Brooklyn/Queens. I promise we won't be 'clueless american's on our trip. We'll do our research. Yes, Dumfries & Galloway is what I meant.

We're only flying back from Dublin to save money. Our flight arrives very early to Dublin - but I'll definitely check the train schedule to make sure we can make it to Howth.

Thanks for the comments about the roads. We're happy concentrating on one region of Scotland - sounds like that's our better bet.

Galway is in Ireland...Galloway is definitely Scotland..Rabbies Tours might be an option for Scotland rather than hiring a car http://www.rabbies.com/
Maybe consider coming back some other time to see Ireland, as above Galway is in Ireland ,, Dublin is in Dublin.

OOPS!!!!! -- GALWAY is in Ireland Jeeze louise!! (I was dashing out and just had total brain fade).

Of course Galloway is in Scotland.

But it is in FAR SW Scotland and very far from your other sites.

Embarrassed font off :)