Rental in Ireland - is this a good idea?
 

My Mother and husband and I have taken a couple of trips together and stayed in rentals for 7 nights. We've done this in France and Italy, but not sure if there are enought sights to see from one base location in Ireland. Mom mentioned she'd like for us to go there so I'm exploring this location. thank you for your feedback.

Tuni01, can you tell us a little more about what you like to see and do (such as scenery, crafts, museums...)?

I can think of several places in Ireland I'd love to spend a week, but we might be interested in different things.

We like museums, gardens, castles. Visiting towns or cities where we can walk around and sightsee, stopping for lunch to rest. We like to see beautiful scenery but not really hike as Mom will be with us. It works well for us to rent a car and drive out from our rental each day. We really don't like to drive too far to our daily sights; probably an hour drive out to the first site would be our max. We like to spend the full day sightseeing. We enjoy stopping for a nice picnic too. If we go to Ireland, I think we'll spend 15-16 days. I'd like to rent for 7 days and base from there.

I would think you could spend a week somewhere in Kerry, for starters, perhaps alternating some days with more driving (Ring of Kerry, Dingle) and days with less driving or more time in towns. If you search the threads you will find lots of information here. You do need to keep in mind that driving in Ireland often takes longer than you think it will, so you can't just go by how close two destinations seem to each other on a map.

spent a week near Dingle in rental cottage w/sister and brother-in-law.
Spent days doing car trips: Ring of Kerry, Dingle Peninsula, Blasket Island trip, Dingle itself, Inch strand, and more. Had a wonderful week. We all thought we would like to be in dingle itself if we did it again.

Another time rented a cottage in Doolin with friends. Went to Aran Islands (Inishmore and Inisheer)two different days, the Burren, Galway, Connemara, Kylemore Abbey, Con. NTL Park, Bunratty, Cashel, Cliffs of Moher, and a visit with relatives of my friends in Durrow.

These are just examples of what you can do in a week.

The rental idea worked for us as everyone had his/her own room; we didn't have to eat every meal out, breakfast was at our own schedule, we could fix a picnic if it suited the day's schedule. I am an early riser and my travel companions like to sleep in a bit, so I could prowl around, eat breakfast and go for an early walk without bothering anyone.

There are lots of other places where day trips would be easy and could easily fill up a week.

Bray or Greystones in County Wicklow have frequent train service into Dublin so you would not need a car, but could take advantage of all the city has to offer. There are also lots of scenic areas in Wicklow to visit for days out in the country. Glendalough, Powerscourt, Sally Gap, Avoca (aka Ballykissangel), to name just a few of many places.

The Wexford area also has much to offer--nice beaches, Kilkenny (Castle and other city sights) New Ross, Waterford, Hook Head lighthouse. And more!

West of Cork is another lovely area.

I could go on, but I think there are better advisors on this forum who can name many more places and give more suggestions for day trips from the areas which I have mentioned.

Thanks so much for your input. We've secured frequent flyer tickets for late May. I'll start looking into your suggestions so we can decide where we want to base out of it.