My husband and I are going to Dublin for a week in September(he has a meeting there). It is our first trip without the kids. We have three full days after the meeting to explore on our own (Saturday to Monday). We depart Dublin on Tuesday.

I am looking for ideas to get us beyond Dublin for those three days.

Suggestions? I would prefer not to rent a car although my mind could be changed. We like scenery, harbor towns, walking and archeological/ancient Christian sites.

Oh, and pubs.

I was considering taking the train or bus to Glendalough to see the monastic site and spending some time walking in the Wicklow mountains, spending one or two nights in this area.

Alternatively, I was considering taking the train to Killarney, taking a guided tour of the Ring of Kerry, then spending the following day exploring the Killarney National Park, returning to Dublin on Monday.

As another option, I was considering a guided day trip to Newgrange/Meath and a half-day trip to a harbor town near Dublin via DART.

I would absolutely love to see the Beara peninsula, but I don't know if that is really possible with our time constraints.

Ideas are very welcome.

Another option is the train to Galway. Lots to do in that area, along with guided tours to the cliffs, or connemara.

You would very much enjoy Newgrange, I suspect, and I know there are guided tours out of Dublin for that. Maybe take the Dart up to Howth if you like harbor towns.

I would choose staying in Galway if you had more time, but by the time you get to Galway and travel back to Dublin, you really will have only one full day there to explore outside the city. The Burren has some archeological sites (dolmen, portal tombs, etc.) that are quite interesting.

If you are interested in Ring of Kerry check the Iarnrod Aerann (train) website http://www.irishrail.ie/breaks_and_trips/RailTours.asp, they offer full day and two day tours to many long-distance sites in Ireland out of Dublin, including Ring of Kerry, Burren, etc. I took one to the Antrim Coast in May and was surprised how much ground we covered in one day.

Thanks for both responses. I checked out the Iarnrod Aerann website (thanks!) and that looks really promising. Were you happy with your tour?

I was happy with the tour. Our only problem was the trains ran late that day, so we got back to Dublin about 2 hours later than expected (got the full day tour in though) and were quite tired/hungry. It is a long day if you do it all in one day, I can say that, but we saw so much that we never would've covered on our own.