My husband and I fly into Cork from Paris a bit after 3PM on Mon., May 25 and fly out of Dublin June 2, which gives us 7 full days (the last two enroute to or in Dublin). Since much of the trip is compliments of Delta, along with Marriott, Starwood and Best Western (and we are now virtually "pointless" with any hotel chain), there aren't many changes we can make in terms of where we're staying; we can change the one night in Cork and change the Galway hotel to Limerick. Trying to beat a Marriott point increase, I made too many reservations before I was done with my homework and realize now that we need about 3 more days just for my pared-down list. I thought maybe some of you could help me with suggestions.

Have read GreenDragon's trip report, which was helpful. But we're probably older than they and don't get as much done in a day as she and her friends . Nor, not being morning people, do we manage to get much of anywhere before 10AM. Furthermore, we discovered by accident some years ago that we actually enjoy traveling with a shorter to-do list than our previous "expeditions", as my family had always labeled our trips. We also spend a fair amount of time taking photos if the weather permits. Thus, our must-do Burren, Cliffs of Moher, dolmen, etc., may very well consume an entire day. I like to have another thing or two on the schedule for if we have time, but I wouldn't want them to be "must do".

My current plan is to spend the night in Cork, maybe wandering around town before dark, and
-Tues. morning drive to Killarney Nat'l Park, Muckross House & Farm, Abbey, Ross Castle, other things in the park area; we think we might enjoy spending the entire day there. We spend Tues. and Wed. nights in Killarney.

-Wed. we plan to spend the day driving the Dingle Peninsula, though if the weather is good Tues., we might switch and do Dingle just in case Wed. might be bad.

-Leave Killarney Thurs. morning and head northeast, stopping some places like Adare, Knappogue, Craggaunowen, Bunratty, Lough Gur along the way. (No, not all of them. Maybe 2 or 3, as our interest and time permits.)

Fri. & Sat.? Since we have to drive back to Dublin Sun. morning, we only have two days more days for the Shannon area and north. One of those days is definitely the Burren and surrounds. Options for the second day include an Aran Island (likely about all day), or Rock of Cashel (and probably Lough Gar since it's nearby), or Clifden/Connemara Nat'l Park. I booked the Galway hotel because I thought we'd go to Clifden/Connemara. Now I'm not so sure, since we can't do everything, that we wouldn't be better off changing our hotel to Limerick and not going much north of there; seems that might save us some driving time. My husband is interested in Connemara (though not Clifden) but isn't too enthusiastic about going to an island, nor Bunratty. He is also interested in Rock of Cashel. (However, as he says, he'll go anywhere I choose and enjoy it. His opinions are based on minimal information from a few website links I sent him; he's not much of a travel planner.) If we opt for Cashel instead of Connemara, we'd be better off staying in Limerick.

There's very little information on the Irish nat'l parks website and I haven't found a lot elsewhere about Connemara Park. How much time might we want to spend there, assuming nice weather? How does it compare with Killarney Nat'l Park? Would you do Connemara Park and that area, or go to the Rock of Cashel & Lough Gur?

What would be other "small" things between Killarney and Limerick or in that general area you might suggest?

Personally I love the Connemara area. I have done a loop drive around Connemara and back to Galway. As far as the Ntl. park there, the visitor center was interesting, but both times I was there it was raining so didn't do much walking around in the park. They said you could see the ponies in the park, but my short walks didn't turn up any. If you do the drive, there are lots of interesting places to stop and photograph, to walk a bit, little museums, a castle or two, some craft shops. If you do the loop, stop in Leenaune (sp?)
which is at the head of a "fiord" and have lunch, visit the craft shops and stretch your legs on a walk around.

If you do the drive to Galway from Killarney on Thursday, you won't have time for more than one stop of the ones you mentioned. I would put Cragganouwen at the top of the list. It is my favorite; I have been quite a few times, and would go again.

Lough Gur would be below the bottom of my list. I had read about it and was eager to go, but didn't find much there on my visit 4 years ago. Maybe it was because I went on the day I arrived after a rather frantic day of departure--almost didn't make it to Logan for my flight. It was also spilling rain and quite chilly!

If you do stay in Galway, you could do the Connemara loop on Friday and then Saturday do the Burren, cliffs of Mohr, dolman, Ailwee Cave, etc.

On the way back to Dublin, depending on your schedule, take a stop at Clonmacnoise, an ancient monastic settlement with high cross and round tower.

If you decide to go to Limerick from Killarney on Thursday, you could stop at Adare and Cragganouwen on the way. From Limerick on Friday, you could do the Burren, etc. Then Saturday, do the Cashel trip.

These are just suggestions. There are plenty of other here who are more knowledgeable and will pop in with good ideas.

I enjoyed Bunratty because of the 'original' village they have connected to it. Beyond that I'm no help to you as we did the northern counties of the Republic. (We were on a 'family history' holiday and so took in the 5 counties my family originated from. It was a dream trip for us but not what you're interested in really.)

I hope you have a wonderful time. We've also slowed our holiday down the last couple trips and we cover less area but see more of what we do cover. I enjoy it much more now that I'm not so greedy to see as much as possible in case I don't get back again.

Thanks for the help. (Though, Irishface, I'd rather you'd said Connemara is awful, go do other stuff. Now I'm back to wanting to do it ALL again.) My husband's input is often based on weird things since he's only willing to spend about 10 min. total looking at websites or books, then says "you decide". His disinterest in going to an island apparently is based on a ferry trip to Tilos for the day from Rhodes when the boat was full of rowdy kids on May school trips, the ferry was 2 hrs. late, we didn't want to take the bus after we got there because we didn't want to be cooped up with those masses of kids any longer, and we didn't have much time to do stuff if we went somewhere anyway because we'd lost almost half of our time on the island. So we had a great lunch and then were mostly bored for 90 min. I assume this means he will never want to take a day trip on a ferry to another island again. But since I have so much more than we can do on the list, I can give ups the Arans without a fight. It will be harder for me to give up the things in the Limerick area because of the longer drive to Galway. I'm a big neolithic enthusiast and thought Lough Gur would give me my rock fix, but maybe not. A part of my reason for staying in Limerick would be to cut driving time since neither of us got happy about driving (or riding) on the "wrong side" 11 years ago in England and we don't expect to adjust too well this time either. I will ponder all of this.

Actually, Timlin, seems the majority of the people who responded to questions about Bunratty on threads dating back as far as several years liked it. I think I'd like it, too. And I'm guessing my husband would also, despite giving it a low priority. And if I decide to do Bunratty, he won't complain.

Tough choice, Polly! I always like to leave at least one thing undone, so I have an excuse for a return visit. That said, MY inclination would be to more-or-less finish up a region (i.e stay in Limerick, see all the things close to there, and go to ROC) and leave Connemara for the next trip. Additionally, if you have enough time on the drive to Dublin, you could stop at Kildare (Irish stud and Japanese gardens) if you were driving the route from Limerick?

You have some good choices here, Polly. I agree with the above posters that Bunratty is interesting and fun. I have been several times to the folk village attached to the castle and enjoyed it every time. The castle banquet was my favorite of Knappogue, DunGuaire (near Galway) and Bunratty. The four of us laughed and sang a lot; maybe the jokes were corny and the songs old, but we loved every minute of it. It was a great evening.

If you are going to stay in Limerick, stop for a look at the ruins of Quin Abbey on your way to Cragganouwen.

Skibumette's suggestion of the national stud in Kildare is a great idea.

Last night I started thinking about some small ship cruises I noticed a few months ago around Ireland/UK, some of which sounded interesting. We've done several small ship cruises in the last three years, 100-140 passengers, and find those an acceptable way to travel and sometimes a relief from planning (since we're taking 5-8 trips a year now). Maybe I should take another look at where some of those go and make decisions based on what would be more difficult to do from the various ports. Seems a good bet that there are small ships that stop in Galway.

Also agree with Skibumette, that it would be more efficient to go to Limerick than Galway. Plus we could do more on Thurs. if we were going to Limerick instead of Galway. (Unfortunately, I booked the Marriott in Limerick for points in Jan. just before the point rates went up; the Galway Courtyard was blacked out for points to prevent people from taking advantage of the last minute "cheaper" bookings. After the change, the Galway hotel was available again, so I canceled Limerick and booked Galway for 10,000 extra points. Now if I change back, it will still cost the extra 10,000. Rats. Shoulda left well enough alone.)