I have been reading many of the posts and have narrowed our trip down greatly from all of your suggestions! We are arriving in Shannon on September 24th at 7:30am and leaving from Shannon on October 2nd around 1:00pm. We have 8 full days and 8 nights. The places we are planning on going include Dingle, Kenmare, and Kinsale. The 3 questions I have are as follows:
(1)How many nights should we spend in each place and where should we spend the first night (see items we would like to do in ques. 3)? Since we would like to go to the Cliffs of Moher from the airport should we head to Dingle for the 1st evening?
(2)Other things that we would like to do on the trip include: Drive accross Connor Pass, Dingle Pennensula, hike the Gap of Dunloe, Killarney National Park, Ring of Kerry. In what order do you think these items should be done?
(3) Lastly,when in Dingle the question is whether to stay at the Shores or stay in town?? How far is the Shores from town?

Thank you all in advance for all of your assitance!!

LDK, the Shores is on the other side of the Conor Pass from Dingle -- near Castlegregory if you look on a map. It's a 20-25 minute drive into town.

The Cliffs of Moher are about 45 minutes from Shannon and takes a couple of hours to tour/walk around. It's a hike from there to Dingle, especially after jetlag. You might want to consider spending your first night in Doolin, Kilkee, or Kilrush, and head towards Dingle in the morning via the Killimer/Tarbert Ferry.

You've got a pretty good order for seeing things. You will have to chose between staying in Killarney or Kenmare. It will probably take you 2 days to do the Gap, Muckross Park, and Ring of Kerry. We stayed in Killarney and enjoyed the town -- others prefer Kenmare. Either place, there won't be a lot of tourist that time of the year.

Have you considered Mizen Head Peninsula to see the lighthouse, or the Beara Peninsula and driving the Healy Pass. Both are worthwhile and can be done in a day or so. Good Luck. Lots of great stuff/recommendations on this board.

"Since we would like to go to the Cliffs of Moher from the airport should we head to Dingle for the 1st evening?"

Dingle is quite a ways from the Cliffs. I think doolin might be a better choice.

We have thought to go to Beara Peninsula but I was not sure if there was enough time. I will keep it in mind now that I know it can all be done in one day. Would you go there from Kinsale or only from Kenmare or Killarney?

I have seen mention of the Killimer/Tarbert Ferry in postings. I will look into it further. Thanks for the sugestion.

Budman - Do you have any suggestions on the number of days to stay in each location? Thanks.

Hi LDK:

I wouldn't suggest Shannon to the Cliffs to Dingle on the first day. Too much driving. Consider this option:
Doolin (1 night)
Dingle (2 nights)
Kenmare (2 nights)
Kinsale (2 nights)
Bunratty (last night)

Drive from Kenmare to Kinsale via either the N71 over Caha Pass or tarvel onto the Beara Peninsula and perhaps of Healy Pass. Doing the entire "ring of Beara" in one day and still enjoying the southern Coark coast would be too much IMHO.

Hope this helps.

Bill

Bill, Would you recommend taking the ferry to Dingle? or drive? And I presume that you prefer Doolin to Kilkee? Thanks.

We did very much the same trip last Sept.
First night: Doolin
2nd: The Shores at Castlegregory
3rd: Dingle
4th, 5th and 6th: Kenmmare
7th and 8th: Kinsale
9th: Bunratty

Click on my name and you can read my trip report, How the West Was Wet (Sept. 04). You will have a great time- please come back and give us a trip report. We love to live vicariously through others.

Yes, I would take the ferry. I've never stayed in Kilkee, so I can't comment on it. The scenery just south of there (and around there in general) is beautiful. I've heard others say that it is a nice place to stay. If it will be your first night, you may not be too concerned about nightlife as you will be ready to collapse by then. Last time I was there, it was very sleepy, then again, it was November.

One of the reasons I like to stay in Doolin is to catch the cliffs of Moher after the buses are gone. It'll be you and about 10 photographers. The sunset over the Arans is quite a sight. The Cliffs at midday are usually pretty crowded. They are always spectacular, but MUCH more so when very few are there. Early mrnings can be nice too, but the light is not as good for photos.

If you stay at the Shores, You'll certainly do Connor Pass which you can do on the same day as the rest of Dingle. Dingle is very compact so it's easy to get a nice overview in a day. As always, I really love the Shores. Annette is great and the view and the peaceful location are wonderful. If you stay there, say hi from Bill & Felicity.

Bill

Bill- My husband and I love to take photos so since the scene of the cliffs sounds so beautiful in the evening maybe we will stay in Doolin as opposed to Kilkee. Thank you for the suggestion.

As is usually the case, I totally agree with Bill regarding Doolin and the Cliffs in the early evening. Last October we arrived just in time to spend the last 45 minutes of daylight at Moher free of charge watching the sun set. FYI - Doolin only has 3 pubs which make for a fun pub crawl (although we drove over to O'Connors). While definitely the most "rustic" of the three, the meal we had at McGanns might have been the best of our entire trip. O'Connors had the best music. We stayed at Cullinans Guesthouse which also has a nice restaurant that should still be serving dinner in late September. http://www.cullinansdoolin.com/

We followed a somewhat similar path on part of our Ireland trip last fall: one night Doolin (we didn't stay in town because we were travelling with a toddler and didn't think we'd get out to enjoy the music scene but we loved our stay at nearby Ballinalacken Castle, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and the view from room 16 was terrific); two nights at The Shores in Castlegregory (Bill's recommendation is spot on and for my own part it was the best french toast I've ever eaten), one night in Kenmare (at The Lodge, an excellent accomodation with a very helpful staff) and we originally scheduled 2 nights in Kinsale but only ended up staying 1 (due to a significant misunderstanding about the age of our child). As a side note, the Cliffs of Moher are spectacular but weather can be a factor. I was looking forward to the wonderful photograph opportunities, but we arrived in such a storm that we barely lasted 5 minutes on the Cliffs and I managed three very quickly taken shots. Dramatic and beautiful if not exactly what I expected.

Polson,

We are going to stay at Ballinalacken Castle Hotel our first two nights, so I'm curious about it. I actually regret booking there, because it is the only one of our accomodations that is not walking distance to town. And being our first two days, it would have been nice not to have to drive everywhere.

I've actually been considering trying to book elsewhere closer to town, but we have two rooms booked (two teens traveling with us) for two nights, and they charge 10% for cancellations, which is stricter than all the other places I've booked.

It does sound like a very nice place, and I supppose we can always take walks in the area if our teens are too pooped to go for a drive? We would like to go to the pubs for the music, but probably won't be able to stay late since our youngest is only 15 and he won't be allowed past about 10 pm, I think.

We will be there on a Friday and Saturday night, and the owners recommend reservations for dinner, but I hesitate to even do that since our body clocks will be so messed up and it will be hard to predict when we'll want to eat.

Any more details about Ballinalacken are appreciated.

As previosuly mentioned we did not get into town at all as we were only there one night and travelling with a baby. That said, I really loved the place. The proprieter (whose name I forget) was really nice and our room (#16) was terrific. The room was located at the end of a hall with a glass enclosed sitting area that looked out on the countryside and distant water. Really lovely. Near the hotel is a Castle ruin, though closed to the public it made for some good pictures. The dinner at the restaurant was among the best of our trip. The restaurant was completely filled so I agree that recommendations are probably a good idea. Maybe you could plan to eat in one night (the first night) and catch some pub food and music in town the second night. Also, they had a pub on premises (not terribly lively but easy to get a Guinness without going into town, which might be just right on your first night - I know we appreciated it). I can't really advise you, but I can say we did not regret staying there.

Thanks Polson,

I think we'll be happy there. It sounds quite nice, and having a pub on premises would be good for my husband, who will be anxious for a guiness but tired that first night. I guess I'll go ahead and make reservations for dinner...after all, we have to start getting adjusted to the time change so we may as well try to get on some type of schedule right away.

I like quiet places and we're not late night partyers, so maybe we'll be better off staying here than right near one of the pubs in town.

Bucky:

I think its a good choice for the start of your trip. We started ours at Ballynahinch (near Clifden) and really appreciated a beer, dinner and bed all at the same place. We also enjoyed a leisurely first day to get settled in and relax a little.

I also realized that I wrote "recommendation" when I meant "reservation" in the last post but you figured it out. Have a great trip.

I have been reading about flying into Shannon and driving to Dingle on the 1st day. We are a group of 4, and we may be crazy, but we are going to do that. We always sleep on our flights over, so I am hoping that we are not completely mad to do this. I went to Michelin and it stated it was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Shannon. I estimated that even if it took us 4 hours that would be ok as we arrive in Shannon at 7:30 Am. Hope we are not messing up! We always try to get on their time asap, as we usually sleep pretty good flying over. Kathy

We considered that, but were told it's kind of a difficult drive. However, we didn't sleep a wink the one time we flew to Europe years ago. It seems they kept waking us up to offer coffee, etc.

Just curious, are you flying Aer Lingus into Shannon? WE are scheduled to fly them in June and I recently discovered they changed our flight time and we now land after 10 am instead of at 7 am. We only leave an hour later from chicago, so I guess we are stopping in Dublin longer. Not happy about that.

We are leaving on June 2 from Boston,Aer Lingus into Shannon, and so far they have not done any schedule changes. I hope that they don't! This is for Bucky..when are you flying?

Doolin is the place to stay for the cliffs of Moher. You can walk there if so inclined, but not if you plan to stay late and have to go home in the dark. Steeleyes, liked your comment on the food at McGann's in Doolin, proves it hasn't changed since we were there in 2000. Don't get too hung up on where the best music is - I think the local musicians rotate round the pubs, and anyway personal taste comes into it.