Please help with tentative itinerary to Ireland
 

I come once again to these boards (used them last year for London/Paris trip and this year to go to Australia) begging for input from you.

I am planning to take my parents to Ireland, a first time trip for all of us. Here is my first draft of a possible itinerary. Can you please give me feedback? Looking at end of March/early April 2005, but that could change. This could be done in reverse order too.

Thanks!
Monica

Day 1: 25MAR
Arrive Dublin - tour city
1 nt Dublin

Day 2: 26MAR
Drive to Cashel
Rock of Cashel
Tipperary/Cahir
Continue to Cork
1nt Cork/Blarney

Day 3: 27MAR
Cork
Blarney Castle
Kinsale
1nt Kinsale

Day 4: 28MAR
Drive to Beara Peninsula
Mizen Head
1nt Kenmare

Day 5: 29MAR
Ring of Kerry
Killarney National Park
Maiden's View
1nt Killarney

Day 6: 30MAR
Dingle Peninsula
1nt Dingle

Day 7: 31MAR
Drive towards Cliffs of Moher
Bunratty Castle
2nts Doolin

Day 8: 01APR
The Burren
Aillwee Caves
(Doolin)

Day 9: 02APR
Fly out of Shannon back home

You're packing a lot in and moving almost every night, but I'm guessing that's what you want to do. You have only one 2-night stay and I think you might rather have the extra time in Kenmare instead of Doolin.

Here's what I'm thinking:
Day 1: great
Day 2:Unless you have reasons to want to go to Cork City, I'd skip it.
Day 3:Again, I'd eliminate Cork City.
Day 4 & 5:I'd add a second night in Kenmare if you'd like to see both Mizen and Beara.
Day 6: Plan on seeing Killarney Natl. Park and a bit of the Ring of Kerry. (You can't see the park and drive the entire Ring in a day.)
Day 7:Great
Day 8:It's a pretty long drive from Dingle to Doolin (approx. 4 hours), but if you get an early start you could visit the Cliffs and see some of the Burren. I'd skip Ailwee.
Day 9: I'm hoping you have an afternoon flight and could see Bunratty in the morning.

Hi MaryZ,
Thanks for your thoughts. Hope you don't mind my asking a few questions...

Would you recommend doing this backwards (starting in Shannon) so we could do Bunratty Castle and the Cliffs of Moher on the day we arrive, spend only 1 night in Doolin, then the Burren the next day?

Would you recommend driving from Dublin to Kinsale, seeing the Rock of Cashel on the way? Then next day could do Blarney, then back to Kinsale or is that silly? I put Tipperary down mostly because my father would get a kick out of going a "long, long way to Tipperary". Not sure what all there is to see there.

We don't have any flights set up yet, so not sure what time we would head out of Shannon back to the US.

We could always do 2 nights in Kenmare, is there some where you would recommend along the Ring of Kerry to stay in for 1 night if we decided to do 1/2 of the Ring one day and the other 1/2 and Park the next?

Thanks again for your help!

Since your flights aren't booked yet, have you considered skipping Dublin and flying in and out of Shannon? You don't have much time in Dublin as it is and eliminating it would free you up for all the other places on your list. Of course, if you have your heart set on seeing Dublin...

I wouldn't recommend doing your plan backwards for one reason. If you spend the first night in Doolin, you'd spend your second day touring the Burren and driving to Dingle. I'm afraid that wouldn't get you to Dingle until late in the day and you have only one night there. The Dingle peninsula really deserves some time.

The drive from Dublin to Kinsale via Cashel is a good 4 hours, so I prefer your original plan. (Do you know that Cashel is in County Tipperary? Do you think that would be enough for you dad?)

If you want to stay somewhere on the Ring of Kerry, I'd look at Sneem, Waterville, or Cahirsiveen for starters.

Thanks for the reply Mary -

We are doing Dublin, to do Dublin, and mostly to see the Book of Kells. I figure we'll spend the night here as to not push ourselves to drive anywhere that day. We would leave early the next morning. I was thinking of looking into a B&B in the suburbs of Dublin to avoid the traffic the next morning.

My parents will be here from Argentina for the 4th of July weekend, so I will try to get specific wants/things to see/do from them and see what can be tweeked.

Thanks again.
Monica

A couple of comments. You will probably want more than one day in Dublin. Also, unless you are doing some sort of geneological search in Doolin that's way too much time there. Think at least of staying in Ennis for your home base for the Cliffs and maybe moving on to Galway. Things are much closer than they seem sometimes in Ireland. Also, I agree with flying into Shannon. It is much easier to tackle the driving there the first day rather than Dublin. Finally, we found that doing 2-3 sites per day was about right for pace while touring and enjoying the countryside. Doing too much at once will drive everyone crazy.