Can you help? We have never been to Ireland before and we want to go to Southern Ireland this July/August for a week or so in a cottage.
Where is the best place to base ourselves? and where are the best places to visit? Also, should we go from Pembroke to Rosslare, or Hollyhead to Dublin on the ferry?

I'm answering this on the assumption you live in England. There are LOADS of US-based Irish experts on this site, and they'll give you lots of advice about Ireland, but if you are English:

- Ireland is surprisingly big (bigger than England) and their roads, believe it or not, are even slower than ours. So, based in a cottage, you're not going to see much of Ireland. Don't try to. Pick somewhere nice and limit yourself to visiting what's within at most 100 miles.

- You can get a flight to Dublin for a couple of quid from practically every strip of concrete in England, and the area immediately around Dublin is of limited interest to us: it's just more English countryside. So visit Dublin separately

- The best centre for a driving round, cottage, holiday is south and west of Cork, in my opinion. The countryside - especially the coast - is stunning. Which ferry is best depends where you live. From Southern England, consider Swansea-Cork, which saves a lot of driving time through dullish bits of Wales and Co Wexford compared to Rosslare (for which Fishguard is as handy or not as Pembroke). Before the Welsh get all defensive, yes I know there's lovely scenery in S Wales. But you don't go through it on the direct roads to Fishguard or Pembroke. From Northern or Central England, Holyhead or Liverpool. BUT: the Dublin-Cork drive is quite boring, and if you've got the time there's a really nice roundabout drive from, say, Birmingham to Fishguard.

Thanks for the reply, yes I do live in England, but I need to know abour where is good to go in Southern Ireland now please. We would also like to whale watch and surf a little. Quaint towns and lovely countryside with good places to eat that are reasonably priced.
Any info please?

Ireland (entire island): 84,412 sq. km.
England: 130,395 sq. km.

Slow roads or not, it's not as big as England. It's bigger than Hokkaido or Hispaniola, though.

OK but it feels bigger

Now surely there's an Irish expert who can give this poster some suggestions - apart from the screamingly obvious one that if she's said she was interested in whales and surf in the first place, she might have got a more useful reply from someone.

Anyone?

I would suggest West Cork. You could take the boat from Pembroke to Rosslare and then drive to somewhere like Clonakilty. We've just spent a week in the self catering apartments at Incydoney and it was fantastic http://www.inchydoneyisland.com/. You get full use of the hotel facilities including the gym and spa , and you're right on a beautiful beach. There were surfers out every day and there's also a surf school. Clonakilty is a lovely little town and you can do great day trips to Cork City, Kinsale, Skibbereen, Mizen Head, etc. There's also Whale Watching off the coast of West Cork too. Hope that helps!

If you wanted to spend a lovely evening in East Cork en route to West Cork, I would highly recommend Aherne's in Youghal - http://www.ahernes.net/. Gorgeous hotel and excellent food.

I secong west Cork its lovely scenery. The ferry you take I would work around timetables etc. Not sure which is best. If you want to go further North in the west I have seen kite surfing on a fab beach (Dog's bay) outside roundstone in Galway and Westport in May a short drive away is where some people I know surf. Nt sure what the name is nbut can find out. Cork though is so scenic and nice to drive around the small towns

Thanks for that. I've looked at ferry to cork now from swansea and that looks good - thanks! Do you know about further west - Killorglin or Inch and Dingle?
Could do a couple of days round cork on way back.
What do you think?

Dingle is great. As is Kerry - i.e. the ring of Kerry - although this is much more touristed, but very pretty still. If you plan to stay in a cottage for a week I would recommend staying in Dingle.

The Swansea-Cork service, sadly, is not running this year. The ship was sold last autumn and is now running between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Swansea Cork Ferries were, apparently, unable to obtain a suitable replacement. I don't know why they sold the ship before they found another.
Your choice depends partly on where you start from and where you want to go. There are crossings from Pembroke or Fishguard to Rosslare, from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire or Dublin, or from Birkenhead or Liverpool to Dublin, as well as services to Northern Ireland.
www.irishferries.ie
www.stenaline.co.uk
www.norfolkline-ferries.co.uk
www.poirishsea.com

http://www.whales-dolphins-ireland.c...e_watching.htm
www.whalewatchwestcork.com/boattours.html
Another vote for West Cork - the area around Rosscarbery and Glandore/Union Hall is lovely. If you have the car you'll find plenty to do for a week.

Thanks for all your infor folks! And especially the hyperlinks - how do you put those on here?
Some great info so far. Many thanks - Trip is booked now though and we are going to killorglin, Kerry in a cottage for a week.
Any info on where to look around there would be fab.