In November we're considering driving to the Cliffs of Moyer upon landing at Shannon, and return to Shannon for the night. The drive to the Cliffs is about 1 1/2 hours each direction, and passes through Ennis. Is Ennis worth a stop for a visit, lunch or dinner, or do you recommend another stopover along the route?

Drive through the Burren and stop at the Dolmen at Poulnabrone. It is basically along the road, pay attention or you'll drive pastit easily without noticing. Park the car as much as possible to one side of the road and go to explore the dolmen.

Go for fish at Monk's in Ballyvaughan.
Lahinch is nice for a stop and a walk.
In Ennis I would suggest Cruise's for drinks/ food/ music.
Bunratty is the place for shopping, drink/food in Durty Nelly's or check out Mac's Pub of the Bunratty Folk park (It's part of the open air museum but also a real pub!)

Hope this helps and enjoy!

Des gave you great ideas. I like Ennis, but found in-town driving there pretty overwhelming on my first visit. Very narrow streets and very congested traffic. Of course, the very narrow streets are part of the charm of Ennis. If you stop, you'll find many restaurants and pubs to choose from and interesting shopping.

Just my opinion but I was going from Shannon to the Cliffs this summer and thought I'd stop in Ennis but when we got there there was so much traffic, couldn't figure out where the "center" was, drove around for a while trying to figure out where we wanted to go and didn't really see anything worth stopping for. Looked to me like a medium size town without anything special. We stopped in Lahinch instead and thought that it, while smaller, had more to offef a casual tourist.

We also stopped in Quin which is very near Ennis. It has Knappogue Castle (one of our favorites) and Quin Abbey (also very nice). Bunratty Castle is very similar to Knappogue but much more crowded (more tour buses) and you have to do the Folk Park to get into the castle (I guess it used to be seperate options, but now it's all one admission, 10 euro). The Folk Park is Ok if you have time but really need a couple hours to do it and the castle. Durty Nelly's and Macs were both nice. You can only get into Macs if you either pay to go to the Folk Park or go after it closes (the Folk Park, not the pub). If you need a place to stay in Bunratty I can recommend Dunaree B&B, just a short walk from the Folk Park. Bunratty is 10-15 minutes from Shannon Airport.

Thanks for the suggestions on my post for driving from Shannon to the Cliffs. Hopefully in November the tourist traffic will be at a minimum, and we will not have the congestion and confusion to be found in these towns as in the summer months.
TwoTravelers.

I would not try to make the return trip to Shannon on the same day you land in Ireland, unless you are well aquainted with driving there.

If you really want to stop in Ennis - do it on the way to the Cliffs, eat lunch there, and then end your day with the Cliffs and Doolin.

Daylight ends early in November - sunset on Nov 1 is 5:05pm , by the 30th it is down to 4:25pm.

Trust me - you do not want to drive those narrow roads at night on your first night in Ireland.

Also add into that, November is the start of the 3 rainy-est months there. You will have a bit better chance of running into some rain on any given day.

I, for one, would probably schedule my lunch stop at O'Connor's in Doolin but Ennis is definitely worth a stop: To avoid driving in the center of town, park in the large carpark at the Temple Gate hotel. That puts you a few meters from the Tourist Office (on The Square) and 100m from O'Connell monument. Go left from the monument down O'Connell St. - Brogan's restaurant is on your left and about 75m further is the Old Ground hotel. Turn right from the monument and go down Abbey Street - Knox's restaurant is on the left hand side and further down on the right is the Queen's hotel. For a 'sit down' meal I would recommend Knox's (if you are 'up to' climbing steps up to the third level). The Queen's Hotel has an excellent Hot Buffet-type service.

I'm not a great fan of backtracking. Why return to Shannon for the night? Why not stay in Ennis? Cruise's Restaurant & Pub, adjacent to the Queen's Hotel, has Traditional Irish music every night starting around 9:30PM (best on Fri or Sat). You could do like I do: take a 3-hour nap after dinner and just have 'bar food' for supper.