Does anyone have any advice for the best places to see or stay on the East, Southest,South,Southwest, western northwest part of Ireland?

WE found this was not a concern at all. We would decide about 3 or 4 p.m. to decide where we would stay for the night and we would chose a B&B at random. It worked so easily I couldn't believe it (but I must admit we were not there in the heat of the tourist season. We went in September to avoid the crowds and enjoy the locals.)

How long is your trip? That is a lot of ground to cover. A rule of thumb that worked well on my trip to Kerry and Clare was to average about 35mph.

What are you interested in? Coast, mountains, lakes, history, architecture...? I would start with doing some research on your own to see what looks interesting to *you*, since the trip someone else may plan may be different from what you might plan.

As jent103 points out, not much of the country left out of that list, really. You have to help us out a little bit if anyone is to make suggestions.

"<i>Does anyone have any advice for the best places to see or stay on the East, Southest, South, Southwest, western northwest part of Ireland?</i>"

Kidding, right? "I'm going to the USA - tell me where I should stay in the NE, SE, South, SW, Pacific Coast, NW, and the Midwest". Sure - Ireland is smaller but your question is just as broad and pretty much unanswerable w/o a LOT more info from you.

How long do you have?
What time of year?
Driving or taking public transport?
What research have you done - what are you already planning to include?
Do you have any "musts"?
What sorts of things do you enjoy?

(Generally, a forum like this is good at helping you refine/improve your own itinerary - not creating one from scratch. We've all been there/done that and you are the ones who will be taking the trip)

BTW - To cover that much ground, hopefully you have a month or more.

Thank you!! We are also going in september.

Thanks janisj, but I'll stay with the kinder people above. We will be going in September of this year we have 8 days in Ireland, we are driving and have 100% insurance coverage. I apologize for not being clearer. We do have a couple reservations one in Dublin( we're flying into) and one in Kinsale. We want to stop at the parish of Glenflesk on N22 between Cork and Killarny to get a few dates for our Pedigree chart.(O'Brien) We want to see the Wicklow Mts,Cliffs of Mohr, Ring of Kerry,Adare,Dingle,Aran Islands, Galway,Connemara.
We're just not sure what to pass over along the way to be able to see the things we want to see. Or how long it will take us to see them. We will be flying out of Shannon. Thanks so much for your help.

I don't think you can see all of that in eight days. (Do you mean eight days actually in Ireland, or do those eight days include your travel days, so you really only have six days on the ground?) Assuming you have eight full days between your flights (or 7.5, assuming you're coming from the US and will arrive in Dublin in the morning), you could do this:

Day 1: arrive in Dublin, check in, half day for sightseeing
Day 2: sightsee in Dublin
Day 3: pick up car, spend time in Wicklow (I definitely recommend Glendalough), overnight somewhere (sorry, I'm not terribly familiar with driving in this area)
Day 4: drive to Glenflesk, do what you plan to do there, overnight in Kerry somewhere. Though I love Dingle, Kenmare (or Killarney, but I'd prefer Kenmare) seems to fit better with your plans. This would be a long driving day, probably, and as I haven't driven outside Kerry and Clare, someone else will have to comment on the feasibility of this day. But it looks like it should work.
Day 5: Explore around Kenmare (maybe Ring of Kerry or Beara Peninsula).
Day 6: Explore around Kenmare (maybe around Killarney National Park).
Day 7: Drive to Galway, visiting the Cliffs of Moher en route.
Day 8: Aran Islands, catching the ferry from Galway. (There is another ferry from Doolin, so you wouldn't necessarily have to drive all the way to Galway. But from what I've read, the Doolin ferry is more weather dependent, and I don't know when it stops running in the fall.)

Just a possible itinerary. That one is still quite busy, but lets you see a lot of things on your list. It depends on how much time you want to spend in the car. If your eight days include your travel days, you'll have to cut something else out.

Sorry if you thought I was "unkind". But I was only trying to get you to focus. Your original questions were totally unanswerable.

Now that we know you only have <u>8 days</u> and plan on two nights in Dublin and one in Kinsale -- you will have to cut the rest of your list about in half. Remember - day 1 will be jetlagged, and day 8 is mostly spent getting to the airport and flying out. ROK and Dingle will each take a full day.

Think 35 mph just about everywhere, slower in some places. Since you don't want suggestions from me -- I'll leave it to others to explain why you can't cover that much ground in that short a time . . .

was posting the same time as jent103 . . . .

One thing I neglected to mention - I would stay closer to Shannon on your last night, if your flight is a morning one. I don't know when the Aran Islands ferry returns and if it would be possible (or desirable) to do that, arrive back in Galway and drive to Ennis or Bunratty to be closer to the airport, all in one day.

We want to see the Wicklow Mts,Cliffs of Mohr, Ring of Kerry,Adare,Dingle,Aran Islands, Galway,Connemara.>

Not far from Dingle Town is the beautiful Killarney area - the Dingle Peninsula will take a whole day minimum to go around from either Tralee (sp?) or Dingle Town.

In Dingle Fungi the Friendly Dolphin is a sightseeing site in his own right. A dolphin that swam into Dingle Bay (or whatever it is called) over 20 years ago and hung around and started cavorting with local fisherman and boaters - now the dolphin is a cottage industry with boats taking folks out to cavort and swim with the friendly dolphin - check this link for more info on Fungi and going out to play with him.

http://www.dodingle.com/pages/fungi_dingle_dolphin.html

Just 1 night in Dublin. We do plan on staying near Shahhon our last night.

Arrive Sept 9th @ 8:30am - leave Sept 18th @ 8:00am. I know there is a lot to see. I have researched some and have gotten some ideas from a Docter from Ireland who is currently working with my husband. Thanks for all your input!