My friend and I are spending a week in Ireland in April, i'll post the schedule below so you can get an idea of what all we're seeing and doing, and if you think by our last day we should spend it around Dublin or if you think we just cannot miss out on Wicklow Mountain national park:

Day 1: Arrive in Dublin, 10am- spend day in Dublin
Day 2: Take a morning bus to Donegal
Day 3: Donegal day tour- Donegal Town, Killybegs, Slieve League, Glencolmille
Day 4: Donegal day tour- Glenveagh National park, Mount Errigal, Wild Atlantic Way, Dunfanaghy
Day 5: Afternoon bus back to Dublin
Day 6: Ring of Kerry day tour from Dublin
Day 7: Dublin or Wicklow Mountains national park?
Day 8: Fly out of Dublin

When are you going to actually see Dublin? There are some great things to see there.. we loved Collins Barracks.. and there are two great musuems ( go see the "Bog Mummies " ) or all the gold treasure ( Broighter Gold) displayed at National Museum..

Or.. perhaps take the train out of Dublin and visit Howth and walk the cliffs.

@justineparis well we planned in seeing book of Kells and potentially the archaeology museum our first day there. We've been told though that Dublin is really just like any other large city.

As far as your recommendation of Howth, I read about that while researching. However, being that we will have seen ring of Kerry and will have traveled around Donegal earlier in the week it seemed like it would be underwhelming. Our question is more by the time we've seen everything else can we live without Wicklow Mountains or are they an absolute must see! Or do we absolutely need another whole day in Dublin?

As far as Dublin we definitely want to tour trinity college, grafton street, st. Stephens green, and st Patrick's cathedral. If time permits the Guinness storehouse or the old Jameson distillery in addition to the archaeology museum. I live in New York City and am originally from DC so I'm not necessarily in need of a big city experience just the places you really shouldn't miss.

If you are flying in long haul arriving at 10 AM you won't be settled into your hotel until well after Noon. And likely jetlagged. So don't count on doing much (and especially not museums) on your arrival day.

Ok well i guess we are dfferent i would skip the Guinness tour and see a museum, and I would not consider Dublin "like any other large city"..different tastes I suppose.

There are several bus/coach daytrips to the Wicklow Mountains advertised in Dublin, and because of your time constraint, a good choice. They usually visit Powerscourt Gardens, Glendalough and possibly Avoca. As distances are short, you should have fair amount of time exploring the sites.

I'd suggest that you ask yourself a different question. The Ring of Kerry is a long tour if you start and finish in Killarney, or any other point on or near the circuit. To top and tail it with rail trips from and back to Dublin makes for an extraordinarly long day.

And you will already have experienced some fine mountain and coastal scenery in Donegal - obviously not identical, but of somewhat similar character.

If you cut that from your itinerary, then you would not have to choose between Dublin City and the Wicklow Mountains: you could have both.

@padraig yeah, that's true and could definitely be an option. We've just read how amazing it is and it might be hard to give that up..

I would skip Kerry and do a tour like this for a different change of scenery and not so much time on the bus/train getting there. You are seeing the best of the coast in Donegal imo.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...ty_Dublin.html
You might like Newgrange also.
He is a bit wordy but we saw a lot in 8 hours and it was a smaller bus. There are a couple other good tours listed on TA also.

Dublin is nothing like NYC or DC and you will be there at the height of the 1916 Easter uprising anniversary so many historical events going on during the month of April. The literary tours at night are good with a couple of actors.
You have a short visit so take advantage of every hour, jet lag is not a problem with many. I get it on the return trip. I always hit the street running on my first day. Your hotel most likely will let you leave your luggage and you can come back and check in later in the day. You will also have longer sunlight in April, gets dark around 8:15 to 8:30 so that makes it a bit nicer.
Guinness over Jameson just for the view from the Gravity bar.

The ring of Kerry from Dublin and Back? 18 hours last time I looked and 16 of those sat polishing a Bus seat. I can fly to Australia in less time! dump that wasted day and you don't need to make a choice over a couple of sensible days.

My opinion of the Ring of Kerry is that it is a good, but not an amazing, circuit. I don't think it is worth the amount of suffering that you would be imposing on yourself when there are some truly good alternatives available.

>> We've just read how amazing it is and it might be hard to give that up.<<

Yes it is very pretty -- but there are a hundred other places you'd also be missing.

IMO the RoK is maybe 8 or 9 on my list of musts in Ireland (I'd place the Dingle Peninsula above it)

@janisj out of curiosity, ruling out Dingle if we're ruling out traveling to Kerry, what would be your 1-7?

@flpab that was so helpful, thank you! What kinds of events would be going on surrounding the uprising? I hadn't even thought of that!

Cad...you have a mountain of opinions and I'll just add one. No matter what you do on the remainder of your visit, remember this...Dublin is the heart and soul of a highly emotional country, and to give it such little attention will be a great loss for you, IMO and E. My wives and I hsve enjoyed esch snd every minute spent in Dublin, while visiting most corners of Ireland on four wonderful trips over the years.

"have" "each and"..excuse please.

@tower yes and I love all the help! It's not so much that we don't care about Dublin, I'm sure someone could spend weeks in Dublin alone and not be done. It's more that our ancestors are from Donegal so we especially wanted to spend time there. From that vantage point it became how to best allocate the rest of our time given what we had been told!

We're probably going to go ahead and forget Ring of Kerry given everyone's advice!

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/he...aled-1.2160368

I would love to see the parade. The post office use to have huge paintings of the happenings of that day back in the late 90's but they have since been moved. I asked and no one seems to know why. Hoping they are returned for the anniversary.
https://www.facebook.com/www.1916uprising.ie

Hoping more info will be posted.
Easter Sunday is April 23rd this year.

Do you have any relatives still in Donegal? I have Dublin area connections so understand. I have a distant relative that fought in the GPO so the uprising is always interesting to me.
I am a big fan of Ballykissangel and it was filmed in Avoca. I skipped the Avoca mill tour and headed for a beer at Fitzgerald's pub. It is just down the road from the village.

Easter Sunday is 27th March in 2016.

Alec, I must have been looking at 2015, early this year.

Google just made this great video
https://dublinrising.withgoogle.com/welcome/