Caroljingles

Have about 7 days to just motor around after leaving Dublin on 10/12. Where should we head? He likes history and I just want to see pretty scenery. We'll be celebrating the BIG 30 Wedding anniversary so need recs on a great dinner place as well as B&B to spend the first night out of Dublin. Many thanks.

OReilly

You have lots of options! I'd recommend Frommer's Best Loved Driving Tours as a start. It gives you basic information on routes, times and places to stop. You can then chose which one appeals to you. I have the book, so if you like, I can list out major towns on the following routes.

There are three options that I think you should consider:

1. Wicklow area
2. Kerry
3. Connemara

The first one is the best for a 7-day trip and allows you to maximize your time, as Wicklow is a stones throw from Dublin.

The second two, are not very practical and it would mean that you would spend a day traveling there and back, (to Killarny or Clifden as bases) so you would would waste a lot of time in the car, but both are (mostly) nice drives. I only mention them because, if you have not already booked your flight, consider flying into Shannon instead of Dublin.

We go back to Ireland every year. For the past four years we have based ourselves in Clifden and enjoy the peace and tranquility of Connemara. Before that, we used the Killarney area as a base (Inch, Sneem) and explored Kerry, Clare and West Cork.

Browse the book I mentioned. Its a great resource for planning a driving tour.

isabel

I thought the west coast was definitly the most interesting part of Ireland so I would suggest you concentrate there. Kilkenny is a fairly intersting city, one of more "medevial" in Ireland (but still not like what you find in Italy or France). There are many old castles and ancient sites (abbey ruins, etc) in central Ireland that you could stop at on your way from Dublin west. Glendalough and the Rock of Cashel are both very well known and I though worthwhile. Just outside of Kilkenny is Jerpoint Abbey and Kells Priory (both within a half hour of Kilkenny). Probably the best castle in southern Ireland is Cahir Castle which is wonderful. There are lots of posts here about it if you do a search and they were all right. It was great fun. And there is a B&B in Cahir that is in a small castle - Carrigeen Catle (they have a web site). It's not a big luxury castle stay but for only 55 euro a night double it was worth it. Lots of opinions on that on this forum also.

Dingle Peninsula was my favorite part of Ireland so I certainly wouldn't miss that. We also did the Beara Peninsula which was nice. We skipped the Ring of Kerry because we were there in August but by October I would guess it wouldn't be too crowded.

One other place I would suggest if you like history is Knappogue Caslte in Quin which is just north of Shannon. We did it and the Cliffs of Moher as a day trip from Bunratty (which also has a castle and a folk park, worthwhile but in my opinion not as good as Knappogue - although that could be due to the bus loads of tourists at Bunratty while we were really totally alone at Knappogue, when it opened on a rainy day - talk about atmosphere.)

Caroljingles

I should have mentioned that we are flying into Dublin and out of Shannon, so we don't have to go back to Dublin. Thanks for your help and input. How far do you think we could go on Sunday, which would be where we would like to have a nice anniversary dinner.

methinks

I think any drive would be good. Almost all of the scenery in Ireland is pretty. You should also add about 2 hours to how long a tour book says it will take. If you are traveling with someone who has never really been up close and personal with rural surroundings, you will be stopping every 1/2 mile. My partner was born and raised and has lived only in urban areas, so we stopped for sheep, horses, and cows. We watched farmers and their children and dogs bring in the cows. We have more pictures of sheep in the road, on rocks, in fields, butts hanging out into the road, cows staring at cars, than we do of the family. We also found some great fields and castles by being bold and opening gates and doors. I also second the Connemara area, it is alittle less travelled and will be crisp in the fall.