Seeking advice on one-week Ireland itinerary
 

Planning on touring West/Southwest Ireland the first week of September. Seeking advice on itinerary beginning and ending at Shannon airport and, hopefully, not having to change accommodations multiple times. Sites/locations interested in seeing are Kinsale, Dingle Peninsula, Cork, Galway, Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty. Is this doable? Thanks in advance for your help.

Are you flying in from somewhere where you will need to deal with jet lag? If so, I would stick fairly close to Shannon your first day. By changing accommodations "multiple times," do you mean you hope to stay in one hotel the entire week? I don't think that's feasible - you would be spending your entire week in the car.

Cork does not get great reviews around here. I haven't been, so I'm not saying you shouldn't go, but just a heads up - that may be the first thing you want to think about taking off the itinerary. It and Kinsale are somewhat out of the way; it depends on your priorities, whether you want to cut something else short in order to visit them.

One possibility:

Day 1 - arrive, drive to Galway. I wouldn't drive any further, personally (i.e., don't drive to Dingle or Kinsale the first day).
Day 2/3 - Galway area
Day 4 - drive to Dingle, seeing Cliffs of Moher on the way. This is a long driving day.
Day 5/6 - Dingle area
Day 7 - drive back to Shannon, do Bunratty that afternoon/evening

We're flying in from Newak, NJ. Your suggested itinerary sounds good and we can skip Cork, which I only chose because I thought that's where Kinsale is. I heard that Kinsale is worth seeing so I'd like to fit it in, if it's not too out of the way. If I understand your itinerary correctly, we would be staying over in the Galway area, the Dingle area and Kinsale, if we still choose to go there. By multiple times, I meant not having to change accommodations more than two-three times. BTW, do you have any suggestions for good B&Bs or guest houses in the above areas? Thanks again.

I like jent's itinerary. We just returned from a nine day trip and spent four nights at the Greenmount House in Dingle. I cannot say enough good things about this B&B. It was truly a wonderful place to stay.

I also included driving times in the trip report that I recently made, in case you're trying to gauge how long it will take you to get around. We spent two nights in Dublin, four in Dingle, and two in Galway.

Enjoy your trip! Ireland is amazing. We cannot wait to go back.

There are many threads here with suggestions on lodging, especially in Dingle. The poster TPAYT has a thread going right now discussing a few places in Dingle, including Greenmount House that Haven17 mentioned. You might find that one helpful. I can't help with Galway or Kinsale, but I stayed in Emlagh Lodge in Dingle and loved it. (Just FYI, a budget is very helpful when you ask for lodging/restaurant recommendations.)

Kinsale is in County Cork, but there is also a city Cork, which is what I was referring to earlier. Unless you have an extra day I didn't account for, you'd have to cut a day from either Galway or Dingle to get there (Google Maps has it at 2.5-3 hours from Dingle and 3.5 hours from Galway, so it's probably more like 4 and 5 hours, respectively). I would do some research on what exactly you want to do/see in each area and then make your decisions about priorities.

Re Kinsale: I didn't hate the place, but would not place it high on a list of places to which I am eager to return, so would not feel bad about giving it a miss this trip.

Jent's itinerary sounds just about right for a week. Whatever you do, enjoy your trip! I love Ireland and always feel as if I am "coming home" when I return for a visit.

jent - I think your itineray sounds good too. Thank you all for your advice.

I agree with irishface. Kinsale is pretty, but there are many beautiful places where you'll be. If you had more days it would make sense, but don't make yourself crazy this time!