Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your insight and feedback. This has been a great process. Here is the latest and greatest - I plan on calling goireland tomororw to make reservations:

Pls. provide feedback...

Day One - Arrive in Shannon and drive to Dingle Bay - I prefer to stay at The Shores but my brothers prefer to stay in town. Any suggestions on a great B&B in town ?

Day two - drive to Killarney - again - my brothers prefer the "lively" town to Kenmare. I am looking at eithr the Carrigleas House or Fairview Inn - which is right in town.

Day Three - explore Killarney and surrounding area - stay overnight in Killarney.

Day Four - Drive to Kinsale for two nights. We have reservations at Rocklands House - any feedback on this B&B? Is there another one that comes highly recommended ?

Day Five - explore Kinsale - overnight in Kinsale

Day Six - Drive to Cahir or Cashel. Looking at staying at Darrynaflan. Has anyone stayed there ? Any feedback or suggestions.

Day Seven - explore the Cashel area - stay overnight.

Day Eight - Drive to Shannon and stay overnight. Any suggestions on a nice place to stay on our last night ?

Fly home to Rhode Island !


Thanks for all your help.

Carolyn

I would try to add one day at Doolin and experience the amateur Irish folk musicians who play in the local pubs. The Cliffs of Moher are nearby and worth a visit.

Without a map in front of me, it sounds like you may be able to cover a lot more ground in a week than just the SW. To me 8 days is perfect. B&B's are so abundant, well marked & good they should becomme a non-issue.Ireland is small, consider doing a bigger loop up the west coast,over to Dublin and back.Portmarnock & Malahide are beautiful suburbs of Dublin w/easy bus access to the city.I would also hate you to miss the Waterford factory tour.All you really need to enjoy Ireland is a car, Fodor's travel book and plane tickets.

Kinsale is the gourmet capital of Ireland. What a charming town it is.
Be sure to go on a mini pub crawl.
A must is The Spaniard on the hill over
looking the bay. Also, at any restaur.
get the sauteed garlic crabs, they
are sensational.

oh doolin is wonderful! (as shane said, you could see the cliffs of moher) we flew into to dublin. train to kinsale (culinary capital of ireland). and then drove to doolin. kinsale is...indescribable. now, you would be doing yourself a huge diservice if you do not drive out to mizen head/crookhaven once in kinsale. it's app. 2 hours drive. the roads in ireland are small, and not like highways. so it's not the distance, it's the "technology". but it's a must! the food and music in ireland alone make the trip worth it! (of course, the people!) enjoy it!

I remember Kinsale very well- a lovely port town close by Cork. From where we stayed, Mrs. Prior's B & B, you could see the Atlantic from her back porch. Eight miles out from there, I believe, the torpedoed LUSITANIA lies on the ocean floor. I also remember Kinsale because my wife and I spent our last real day as man and wife. Ireland was our honeymoon trip. A grand time.

I loved Kinsale! Would have spent my whole trip there if I'd headed there first. Got to go to the Mad Monk! And the walking tour is lots of fun. I stayed at a hostel, so I can't recommend any of the nicer B&B's, but boy was there fun to be had in Kinsale. There's a major golf course there, and one night we hung out at the White Lady with a lot of their staff and just had a BALL! Kilarney was fun as well, met some great guys at the pub there who were from Cork. Dingle was BEAUTIFUL. You can't go wrong in the Southwest -- that's where I would have stayed after I spent 10 days there going in a circle. Also had a great time in Galway. Heard the northern part of Ireland Sligo, etc. is something to behold as well -- next time. But DEFINITELY KINSALE!

kinsale was wonderful, great pubs, great views charming town and people. i wish i could go! one thing that was wild was the dingle penninsula and the bay, the tide change is really something to see.