Shannon to Dingle - Too Much?
 

Greetings all - We're heading to Ireland next spring (late April/early May), and are wondering if the drive from Shannon to Dingle will be too much to be sensible upon arrival after a long flight from the States. We'll be a little jet-lagged and shell-shocked, but want to enjoy the beauty of the Irish coast as soon as is reasonable! We only have 7 days planned.

Although possible to do this drive in one day, I think it would be a bit ambitious upon arrival. We made a similar trip a few years back and stayed the first two nights in Adare. Just poked around the immediate area on the first day and drove up to the Cliffs of Moher on our second day which was incredible and there's plenty of beautiful coastline to explore around there. The drive from Adare to Dingle takes you though some areas where the roads are pretty twisty turny - and you'll want to keep stopping at interesting spots the further south you get to check out the fabulous scenery. All told, it probably took us about 4 hours to make the drive - taking our time and driving very carefully on roads that were somewhat challenging - but boy was it worth the trip! You're gonna love it!

Hi Kris, <BR>We recently drove from Shannon to Kenmare on our first day and it was probably a little too much. That trip took about three hours (dingle would be the same or a little more I think.) As everyone says, the roads are narrow and twisty and depending on where you are from you are driving on the "wrong" side. Although getting to Kenmare put us where we really wanted to be to start our trip we were pretty zonked when we got there. I think you should try to limit your first day's drive to no more than 2 hours. By the way, we had a great time and you'll love the country.

My wife and I had the exact same thought in mind when we were planning our trip...big mistake!!! Relax and stay in Adare for the night. One more quick note, Kris if you haven't driven in Ireland before get ready for a surprise!!! after two days you won't even give it a thought, but for that first day.....wow...stay in Adare...or preferably the parking lot of the airport :)

Another thought is to go from Shannon to Tralee and stay at Ballyseede Castle for the night. Not much to see in Tralee, but it gets you that much farther to Dingle. The drive to Dingle from there is lovely, and you wouldn't want to do it while jet lagged. We have also stayed in Ennis at the Old Ground, very close to Shannon and just slept off the jetlag and visited local pubs for the first day. I guess some of it depends on where in the US you're coming from and what time your flight arrives. From the East Coast going to Ireland is not much of a trip: from California it's a pretty major time change. Enjoy!

Thanks to everybody for the great tips. I'm glad that we won't overdoing it. The road maps in the travel books are a little misleading - everything seems close together and easy to get to. We had been mulling a stop in Adare with a first night's dinner at Dirty Nellie's for local music and brew our first night. Decision made!