i have never been to ireland (been to italy,france and spain ). my first thoughts are to land in shannon,coming form philadelphia, spend 8 nights in country at B+b's. probable places are Galway ,aran islans, cliffs of mohr, killarney,dingle and ??? i'm open to all and any suggestions. we plan (4 adults over 50)to rent a car (suggestions from whom? ) and enjoy The country-not much desire to see dublin ,should I? any advice on flights b+bs ,car rentals will all be more than i know now -thank you in advance for your assistance

You'll probably get better responses if you repost this question with the heading - Planning trip to Ireland 2008

Also, you will get more helpful responses if you: a) give an indication about budget for accommodation; b) where you're flying from (hard to tell you much about flights since we don't know where in the world you live); and c) what the group's interests are? Why do you want to go to Ireland? Are you walkers, are you interested in history, writers, pub culture? And why do you think you're not interested in Dublin?

Hi calvo2,

With just 8 days, and the areas you mention, I would suggest flying in and out of Shannon. Too many wonderful places to see in the Southwest, i.e. Galway, Clare, Kerry.

Calvo check out your last post. Some suggestions their.

I was in Ireland less than a month ago, and I have to say that my favorite cities in the Republic were Galway and Sligo. Northern Ireland is also gorgeous.

For the Aran Islands, you'd have a much easier time just staying in Galway and doing a daytrip to Inismore. It's the largest island and only 800 people live there.

If you venture further North, the Giant's Causeway is not to be missed!

thanks for all the helpful replies. actually i did repost but somehow it vanished