Kristina

My husband and I have flights booked from LAX to Dublin for mid-April 2019. We arrive on a Sunday afternoon and depart the following Monday. I would like to focus on the southern half of the country for this trip. The week we will be there is the week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, so if the holidays factor in anywhere, please let me know.

This is what I have so far:
Sunday- Arrive into DUB mid-afternoon, pick up the rental car and drive to Drogheda. Hotel booked.
Monday-See Newgrange in the morning and then drive to?
Tuesday-
Wednesday-
Thursday-
Friday-
Saturday-Drive back to Dublin, drop off the rental car in the city by mid-day. Hotel booked.
Sunday-Dublin
Monday- Fly home

The places which interest me are Kilkenny, Rock of Cashel, Kinsale, Ring of Kerry or Dingle Peninsula, The Cliffs of Moher, and the Aran Islands (REALLY want to do at least a day trip here-thinking 2 nights in Ennis for this). Other items of interest; standing stones, Neolithic ruins, great food and markets, castles, and a falconry experience. I know we can't do everything.

We don't mind driving and have experience driving on the left. We drove all over Scotland on trips the past two summers. This is our first trip to Ireland.

Everything I've booked so far is cancellable except the plane tickets. The reason we chose to pick up the car first was that we thought the drive to the area around Newgrange was the best use of our time given our mid-afternoon Sunday arrival since it's not that far from the airport. If we head into Dublin, by the time we get to our hotel, there will be nothing left to the day, leaving us only 1 full day there. I only want to spend 2 nights in Dublin. If we do it at the end of the trip, we might squeeze out a day and a half.

So, thoughts on the best way to organize this and maximize the routing?

Thanks in advance!

Kristina

No replies yet? Well, here's what I'm thinking so far based on recommendations elsewhere...

Sunday- Arrive into DUB mid-afternoon, pick up the rental car and drive to Drogheda. Hotel booked.
Monday-See Newgrange in the morning as soon as they open and then drive to Kilkenny
Tuesday-Kilkenny and drive to Ennis via Rock of Cashel
Wednesday- day trip to Aran Islands, see cliffs of Moher
Thursday-drive to Ring of Kerry Area via Dingle? Stay in Killarney or maybe Kenmare?
Friday-Drive Ring Of Kerry
Saturday-Drive back to Dublin, drop off the rental car in the city by mid-day. Hotel booked.
Sunday-Dublin
Monday- Fly home

This leaves out Kinsale (which I'd heard was a great food town) and all of the southern coast which also has some stone circles. But it does give us mostly 2 night stays, except for the first 2 nights. Honestly though, it's so hard to figure out what is a "don't miss" and what's just "meh" from guidebooks. EVERYTHING looks good to me.

northie

I loved Newgrange . Where are you staying Tuesday and Wednesday ? Grear t o see the cliffs but sometimes you can't see them - covered in fog . Not sure if the Aran Islands and Cliff can be done on the one day .
Travel is a lot slower in Ireland - farm trucks and tractors on roads . I'd map out the distances you are planning to drive
I haven't been to the Ring of Kerry but people do talk about its beauty and how crowded it can be making progress slow.
Kilkenny is worth a day to see.

Kristina

Northie-There are ferry boats from Doolin which do day trips to one of the Aran Islands which include seeing the cliffs from the boat.

Macross

You can see both easy. I love the cliffs from Inishmore best but that is from Rosseveal ferry. We are staying in Galway four nights in May and plan to go back on the sunniest day. My husband has never seen the cliffs or fort there. The cliffs of Moher are very pretty from the boat. We had tons of puffins which made it even better.

Yes to Newgrange and smart to be first in line. It is something I won't ever forget. No backpacks.

Look at rome2rio so you aren't backtracking so much. We are doing public transportation so we picked Galway, Cork area and Dublin for two weeks. Five nights in Ballycotton. Cabs, bus and trains. We sandwiched two cities between the country. I don't think you can do Cork this trip if you do Dingle. We were between Dingle or Cork and decided on Cork. It has been a number of years since being in that area. We love Northern Ireland and West Ireland.

Kristina

Macross- I am hoping to see Puffins! We've been to Scotland the last two summers but have missed them both times. We will be renting a car so fortunately don't have to worry about train or bus schedules this trip.

Kristina

How much will the holidays have an impact? The Friday of the trip is Good Friday (we may be driving the Ring of Kerry that day) and the last Sunday is Easter (we'll be in Dublin).

mkmiller0202

Hi Kristina.

These are just a few of my personal highlights.

Trim Castle - not far from Newgrange
Clonmacnoise - In the Midlands on banks of river Shannon
Longford - In the midlands, it has an amazing Cathedral that burned down on Christmas day a few years back but has been rebuilt.
Galway City - Culture overload
Fly to the Aran Islands from Galway city, stay the night and take ferry back - Flight is only approx $40 and take approx 15 minutes, amazing experience!!
Cong - Mayo on west coast
Tralee - County Kerry in the south west
West Cork - All of it is breathtaking.

These are just some of my favourites.

Best,
Mike.

janisj

just time for a quick note right now: In mid April you could have great luck, or you could have terrible weather (or some of both most likely). You would need some plan B's for things that wouldn't work out if it is raining sideways . . . any ferries/islands, the RoK, etc.

Bette

If you plan on visiting any of the famous churches in Dublin (St. Patrick's Cathedral, for example) they will probably busy with Easter services on Sunday morning.

Kristina

Mike- I love the idea of an overnight on one of the Aran Island but I can't figure out how to make it work into my itinerary which didn't include Galway. Still, where did you stay while there?

In general, I am now debating with myself the Ring of Kerry. I keep reading that it's over-touristy, etc but many people say it's their favorite place.

Kristina

Hello-

I'm still working on my itinerary. I would love to spend one night on Inis Mor, but I don't know how to re-work our itinerary to accommodate it and fly in and out of Connemara Airport.

Below is the last draft of the itinerary. What could I drop or move? Or is an overnight on Isis Mor asking too much?
Should I skip Kilkenny? Should I move Newgrange to the end of the trip before dropping the rental car? Take a day from the Killarney/Ring of Kerry area? Go directly to Connemara or Galway on arrival? Should we do an overnight on Inis Mor via ferry from Doolin?

Sunday- Arrive 2:30 pm to Dublin. Pick up the rental car and drive to Newgrange (stay in Drogheda).

Monday-See Newgrange in the morning and then drive to Kilkenny

Tuesday-Drive to Ennis via rock of Cashel

Wednesday-Ennis/Aran Island Day tour

Thursday-Drive to Killarney, stay in Killarney

Friday-Ring of Kerry/Killarney

Saturday-Drive back to Dublin, drop off the rental car in the city by mid-day. Best route?

Sunday- Dublin

Monday- 1pm departure

Again, if it matters, this is all the week prior to Easter Sunday in April.

lolfn

Consider driving the Beara peninsula instead of the Ring of Kerry, less crowded and just as stunning. Then you can stay in Kenmare instead of Killarney, which is also less crowded. Drive by Killarney National Park on way there, it's gorgeous.

On Beara, we stopped at Ardgroom stone circle and it was our favorite of those we saw. You have to walk thru cow/sheep pastures to get there from small parking area, stones are taller than most and the views are stunning.

We are returning in March to travel the northwest/northern areas and will include the Aran Islands. We are also trying to decide if an overnight is needed. They say it is during high season to experience it without the crush of day trippers, but in March, I doubt it will be crowded. You could skip Kilkenney and go direct to Ennis Monday. Then do the islands and Cliffs of Moher on Tues/Wed. Hit the Rock of Cashel on your way back to Dublin at the end of trip.

Kristina

lolfn- thanks for the ideas. The Ardgroom stone circle looks amazing! I would really love to do the overnight on Inis Mor, but because we will be there in April, I don't want to risk booking it all, including a hotel there and then have weather be an issue. If we have to cancel that in the itinerary below, at least we can drive somewhere and do something else on that day and we'll already have a hotel booked.

Below is the most current version of the itinerary. I moved Kilkenny to the end to be closer to Dublin so we can at least get a half day there on Saturday.

Sunday- Arrive 2:30 pm to Dublin. Pick up the rental car and drive to Newgrange (stay in Drogheda).

Monday-See Newgrange in the morning and then drive to Doolin

Tuesday-Day trip to Aran Islands/Cliff of Moher

Wednesday-Drive to Killarney, stay in Killarney

Thursday-Ring of Kerry (or?) /Killarney

Friday-Drive to Kilkenny via Rock of Cashel

Saturday-Drive back to Dublin, drop off the rental car in the city by mid-day.

Sunday- Dublin

Monday- 1pm departure

ssander

Two points:

1. No one has said this, but I strongly advise you not to drive after a redeye flight from LAX to Dublin. You will be greatly jet-lagged (8 time zones and probably not the best sleep). True it's only about 30 miles, but still dangerous,and you'll be driving on the non-US side of the road in a left-hand steering wheel car. If you must, you must...but be VERY, VERY careful.

2. We have stayed in Kenmare and found it very, very nice.

ssander

ssander

If you are staying in Kilkenny, a nice circular day trip by car is:

• Dunbrody Famine Ship - in New Ross about 45 min from Kilkenny
• Jerpoint Abbey - about 35 min from New Ross; then about 20 min back to Kilkenny

A really interesting pair of sights you can see with little driving...though some of the roads were incredibly narrow.

BUT...be sure to download maps to your phone's Google Maps app before you leave the US. We found the GPS excellent pretty much everywhere we went, and it doesn't use your cellular data if you have downloaded them in advance (though it does use battery...most rental cars now have USB ports, so that should not be a problem either.)

Biggest disappointment in Kilkenny -- the tourist office's walking tour. Maybe we just got the wrong guide, but he had lots of misinformation in his pre-talk - that lasted about 20 minutes before he was ready to actually go somewhere. We ducked out and did our own self-guided walk that was very nice. The castle was great, however.

ssander

ssander

I just looked at your itinerary...it looks like a lot of driving and very little sightseeing.

Example: Friday & Saturday. By the time you arrive at Kilkenny, going from the west and stopping at the Rock of Cashel (which is great, but takes some time), you won't have any time to do much there.

If you're going to see the Ring of Kerry, I advise hiring a driver. The roads are tough and the driver won't see much because he/she damn well better pay attention to the road.

ssander