Hi! I am 51 yo single male traveling to Ireland for 10 days arriving in Dublin on October 21 and leaving early morning October 31. I want to see amazing sites, hike, and meet locals and make genuine connections if possible. I am renting a car for 10 days and plan on driving nearly the entire coast of the island. I plan to start going north in a counterclockwise fashion in order to maximize my odds for the warmest possible weather. I have packed way too much in this rough draft itinerary with the idea of removing a lot, so advice on what to remove and how best to reach my goals would be great. I would like to do meetup.com, do a yoga class, see live music, group hikes, or other things to meet people while I am there. I took some of the information from The Irish Road Trip and some from Irish travel YouTubers. Nothing is set in stone and I do not plan on booking AirBnbs, hotels, hostels, etc until the day of in order to leave the itinerary very flexible for my likes and dislikes. If you have great towns to use as a base, let me know. Any recommendations are welcome.

Day 1 Monday 10/21 - Land in Dublin airport get EuropCar rental 9am

• Drive to Bru na Boyne
• Ring of Guillon - drive it
• Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - hike mountain

Day 2 - Tuesday - 10/22

• Belfast - free walking tour
• Causeway Drive and Antrim Coast and Glens National Landscape
• Glenariff Forest Park
• Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
• Giant’s Causeway
• Dunluce Castle
• Binevenagh National Landscape

Day 3: Wednesday 10/23

• Griananan of Aileach
• Inishowen Head Loop
• Malin head - Last Jedi - long time to get there because its so far north - 30 minutes
• Pólifreann or Hells Hole
• Lough Salt Mountain - less than 40 minutes to the top
• Murder Hole Beach (The Boyeeghter Bay trail) - 20 minute hike to get there - 40 minutes total
• Rossguill Peninsula - Downing (town) Pub - The Signing Pub
• Harry’s Hole
• Letterkenny
• Glenveagh National Park - waterfalls Astellan
• Astellan waterfall in Glenveagh National Park
• Muckish - mountain
• Horn Head
• Falcarra beach - catch the sunset

Day 4: Thursday 10/24

• Crohy Sea Arch - short hike
• Mount Errigal
• Dunlewey
• Glengesh Pass
• Assaranca Waterfall
• Glenlough Bay - amazing views
• Maghera Strand - come at low tide
• Maghera Beach and Caves
• An Port
• Sturall Ridge
• Glencolumkille -
• Malins Beg
• Silver Strand Beach
• The Pilgrim’s Path - hike
• Slieve League

Day 5: Friday 10/25

• Sligo
• Mallaghmore Head -
• Gleniff Horseshoe valley
• Benbulben Mountain -
• Devils Chimney-
• Keshcorran Caves, Cloonagh
• Downpatrick Head - sea stack
• Dun Briste Sea Stack
• Portacloy Cliff Walk
• Achill Island -
• Dugort
• Slievemore mountain
• Keem Beach
• Cliffs of Croughan
• Minaun Heights
• Clew Bay
• Crough Patrick Mountain
• Doo lough Valley - great views - come from the Westport side)

Day 6: Saturday 10/26

• Killary Harbour and Leenane
• Kylemore Abby
• Connemara
• Scenic drive from Galway City to Clifden
• Connemara Park
• Diamond Hill
• Sky Road

Day 7 - Sunday 10/27

• Galway
• The Burren
• Dooling Cliff walk (see Cliffs of Moher)
• Hags Head (see Cliffs of Moher)

Day 8 Monday 10/28: The Dingle Peninsula

• Dingle Peninsula Loop
• Conor Pass
• Ceann Sleibhe and the White Cross.
• Radharc na mBlascaoidí viewpoint
• Coumeenoole Beach
• Dun Chaoin Pier
• Ceann Sraithe
• Clogher Strand
• Killkee Cliffs
• Gap of Dunloe
• Killarney National Park - bike

Day 9 Tuesday 10/29:

• The Ring of Kerry Drive
• Skellig Ring - Kerry Cliffs, Valentia Island
• Ross Castle
• Torc Waterfall
• Ladies View
• Moll’s Gap
• Kenmare
• Coomanaspig Pass
• Kerry Cliffs
• Valentia by way of Portmagee
• Cahersiveen
• Rossbeigh

Day 10: Wednesday 10/30

• Wicklow’s Wonders
• The Sally Gap Drive (multiple stops)
• Djouce Mountain Walk
• The Spinc Walk

Back to Dublin for the evening. Flight leaves at 6am on October 31.

Thanks for taking the time to read it all and for your recommendations. --Dan

Are you flying in long haul?? If so DO NOT drive on your arrival day. Full stop.

If you are just flying in short haul, then driving on arrival would be OK - however day 1 is tough. DUB to Belfast via Brú na Bóinne, and Ring of Gullion National Landscape is about a 4 hour drive and you want to do at least one hike that would probably take 3 to 4 hours plus a scenic drive. (Which Mourne area mountain are you planning to hike?? - there are more than a dozen)

Most of your other days are reasonable doable drives - but it looks like you plan a LOT of stops and hikes so those will be very long days. You have 10 one night stops so a lot of packing / checking out / checking in / unpacking

"I plan to start going north in a counterclockwise fashion in order to maximize my odds for the warmest possible weather."

Meant to add -- that's a fool's errand There is absolutely no way to organize your route to maximize weather. It could be decent in Belfast at the same time it is raining sideways in Wicklow - and vice versa. Ireland / N. Ireland is an island (well, duh ) and the weather in every corner is totally changeable year round. There is no magic doing this clockwise or anti-clockwise - you aren't maximizing your odds of anything unfortunately.

Thanks, janisj! Which Mourne mountain(s) would you recommend? If you were me, what towns might make sense to use as a hub for a couple of days or so as to not have to pack and unpack 10 times. Maybe cut it to 5.

Anything on the itinerary that is not worth the time?