whirlwind month in Ireland -- is this doable?
 

I'm staring to narrow down our trip for June/July and make bookings but would very much appreciate input. My partner and I love hiking and good music and prefer small towns to big cities. I know I'm probably insane to tackle this much in a short-ish time. All comments and suggestions welcome. i can take it.
Thanks!
Dublin - 3 nights. Pick up rental car
Belfast - 1 night (yes, not long enough, but I'm committed now)
Portrush - 1 night, hiking to Giant's Causeway
Causeway hotel - 1 night, hiking to Carrick-a-Rede
Portrush - 1 night to recover
Derry - 2 nights, including crazy- quick drive around Donegal and Glenveagh
flex night - yes, I'm sure we'll need it
Westport - 3 nights, to cycle to Achill Island one day and walk to Newport next day
Galway - 4 nights to see Cliffs of Moher, etc.? Or just 3?
Inishmore - 1 night
Dingle - 3 nights for more hikes
Kinsale - 2 nights
Ardmore - 2 nights
Waterford or ?
Wicklow Mountains - 2 nights
Dublin - 1 night
Fly home. Pass out.

Dublin 3 nights Fine
Belfast 2 nights to enjoy the middle day
Portrush 2 nights includes the 1 you have for the CH moving about for 3 nights makes no sense.
Derry 1 night
Donegal (huge county) 2 nights and split the Derry-Westport leg.
Westport 3 nights.
Inis Mor 1 night
Galway 2 nights assuming you have driven the Connemara from Westport
Ennis (or somewhere else north of the Shannon estuary) 1 night so you can see the Cliffs/Burren Geo park on the way down.
Thats 17 nights above the Dublin - Limerick line

Dingle 3 nights would have thought 2 enough Beara is better walking.
Kinsale 2 nights
Ardmore 2 nights ?
Kilkenny over Waterford 2 nights
Wicklow 2 nights
Dublin airport hotel last night.

That gives 29 nights total

Tony2phones, can you suggest an airport hotel for us for the 2 nights before leaving Ireland?
Thank you.
Erna

We found a good sate at the Radisson Blu and it was quite nice. We went to dinner and to pub hop a bit in Swords, then returned the rental car to Hertz, a quick walk back to the hotel.

Premier Inn is a good clean comfortable business class hotel with an airport shuttle.. No point paying silly prices for a few hours sleep before a (probably) very early start.
http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/D...dublin-airport
There is a bus stop right outside for transport into the city.. You could of course just have your last night at the airport and use the other elsewhere.

I generally recommend heading North as soon as folk arrive, its an easy drive straight up to Belfast and save Dublin time to the end of the trip.

You could do worse than the premier Inn for your Belfast stay http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/B...hedral-quarter

If you haven't already done so, go to Trip Advisor to find B&Bs for your destinations. Since your itinerary will be fixed, there is no reason not to go ahead and book your accommodations. After a long day of hiking, the last thing you need is to have to hunt down a place to sleep.

If you are unfamiliar with the TA accommodations reviews, go to the specific forum where you are seeking accommodations, e.g. Kinsale. Click the "Hotels" tab at the top and then click "B&Bs and Inns". I found each of the 10 B&Bs we have stayed in on our two trips to Ireland this way and they were all good choices. Note: Look for the Northern Ireland towns in the United Kingdom forum. (And Avenue House B&B in Belfast was one of our favorites!)

Finally, Aran Island Ferries offers a sail-and-stay special which includes the ferry and one night in a B&B (probably Clai Ban) at a discounted price.

Never used TA reviews to select anywhere. Somewhere I used to use and recommend has got a lot higher TA ranking now. I say used to use as It is hard to get a room these days and I wouldn't pay the inflated price that is suddenly being charged this year..

>> can you suggest an airport hotel for us for the 2 nights before leaving Ireland? <<

May I ask why you'd want to stay at an airport hotel for <i>two</i> nights? Oner night - maybe if the flight is very early in the AM. But for two nights that just doesn't makes sense to me. If you are leaving the Dublin bit til the end -- stay in the city center. There are easy ways to get to the airport even early.

Wonderful information! Thank you for Northern Ireland and Belfast suggestions, but we need a visa to enter UK.(!!!) Any other suggestion north? We will be driving from County Galway to Dublin before leaving for South Africa. Janisj, this is our second visit to Ireland and we stayed in the centre the first time. Not that I would mind. Just thought it may be nice to experience Malahide/Swords, and then closer to the airport. I'm always open for advice. We must be at the airport at least 08:00.
Thanks, really appreciate.

Think we have slipped from the original question on this one..

Erna might be better to start a new question with your itinerary which is I assume a lot different to the one which started this thread.

Thanks, Tony2phones, for your wise counsel. Thanks, too, for rerouting the discussion back to my original query.
The reason I'm spreading us between Portrush and Giant's Causeway is to allow us to arrive at the Portrush B&B in the evening after a full second day in Belfast and then leave our bags there as we hike our way to Giant's Causeway. I thought we'd spend the night there and then set off the next day for another full-day hike to Carrick-a-Rede, catching the bus back to the Portrush B&B and our bags. Is there a better way?
Also, could you give me a few more details on your Donegal suggestion? Do you mean two nights in Donegal town or the county itself?
My itinerary has us on the move a lot. I wondered if I should be centering us in fewer towns and stopping to smell the clover, but there is much to see, and it's hard to think what I'd be missing to do so.
Many thanks again.

You have probably thought out a tad more than me coming in based on one sheet of info.. http://goo.gl/maps/gl8uv is a map I did for an Australian couple and you have more time than they had.

Avarest Guest House is the place we use in Portrush. Donegal depends on where and what,, Letterkenny is probably the most central base? we stay just a few miles North of Donegal Town at Drumcorry Farm B&B but its a long time since I made serious use of hiking boots.

Given the point of covering the whole coast run then a month isn't that long and I doubt you could explore an area using 3 day bases without a lot of backtracking.

see if you can get hold of a copy of Footlose in the west of Ireland, long time since Mike wrote that and you can get copy off Amazon for less than the postage. some good walks in there and tales.

past my bedtime, so leave it with you for now

Tony2phones, thanks again for all your help. I'm already tweaking plans to limit our time in Derry and throw in a night in Bunbeg (in order to spend some time at Glenveagh) and Donegal Town.
That's a great map. Thanks for sharing it.
And I'll definitely try to track down that book recommendation.
Cheers!

Understand. Will do.
Thanks.

After 21 trips to Ireland I agree with Tony regarding The Premier Inn...its my choice of stays for last night in Dublin. Its clean, clean, clean, comfortable, close and the food is good in the restaurant (really, it is!)..plus, there is a bar as well. Having said that, we don't need to go into Temple Bar, etc. on our last night...we want a place to relax and get a good nights sleep before our long flight back to CA. So, we don't travel into the city...so, this works well for us. Love love love the Premier Inn/Dublin airport (and, no I don't work for them...just very happy with this place). haha! Have a wonderful time in Ireland!!!