Kenmare advice
 

Our itinerary has us spending 2 nights in Kenmare. We probably won’t arrive too early the first day so we will play that day by ear. The second day we have mapped out a drive to include the Ring of Beara & Mizen Head. How much farther should we venture and what else does anyone recommend we see? We will be there the first week of June and don’t want to be driving in the dark. We are staying at the Shelburne in Kenmare. The following day we are off to Dingle so basically we are trying to take in as much south of Kenmare day 2. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

The good news is that you will have plenty of daylight. Personally, I think Beara and Mizen Head on the same day is too much. My feeling is that Mizen takes most of the day unless you just drive the route. The roads are tiny and if you take the coastal routes, even tinier. By the way, you should take the coastal routes. I tend to get out of the car a lot.

Bill

We were at the Shelburne 3 years ago and loved it (stayed two nights in Kenmare). We had been in Dingle first, which we also loved. The first day we got there in the late afternoon and hung out and walked around the town. The next day, we walked the Gap of Dunloe near Killarney, which was just beautiful and one of our favorite days of the trip. We didn't make it further south although would have liked too. My advice is don't try to do too much, enjoy the people and scenery. The driving is slow.

The day we checked out we headed to Kikenny, as we were flying home out of Dublin.

actually, I meant to say BEARA takes most of the day.

Bill

I probably wouldn't try to do both the Ring of Beara and Mizen Head in one day. We did the Ring of Beara in February and it ended up taking a lot longer than we had anticipated. Its extremely beautiful, but, like most of Ireland, the roads are very twisty and narrow so you must drive slowly and the views are incredible enough that you stop often. It took us about 7 hours, and that included a relatively short 45 minute lunch break.

Tracy

We will have the day we arrive to enjoy Kenmare. What would you do if you had one additional day to plan and you were based in Kenmare.

If you had to choose between the Ring of Beara or Mizen Head what would you choose and why? And if we choose one would there be time for anything else? Any suggestions for stops along the way that we shouldn't miss?

Of our whole trip this day needs a little work to the itinerary. I don't want to view the SW thru the window of the car but the reason for using Kenmare as our base is to see the south western most part of Ireland.

From there we are heading towards Inch on the Dingle Penn. for 3 nights. We may do the Ring of Kerry while in Inch or at least part of it if weather permits as we hope to take a trip out to the Skellings. If the weather doesn't cooperate we may forgo the ROK since we may have already done the Ring of Beara.

Thanks for any suggestions.

My first thought is Beara because of proximity and there is such a wide variety of terain. That said, I love Mizen also. You wouldn't go wrong with either.

Bill