4 nights London Area 5 nights Ireland

How are you getting from London to Ireland? I would suggest you fly from London to either Shannon or Cork, rent a car, and visit the southwest corner of Ireland and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Return the car at the Dublin airport and fly home.

It all depends upon your interests and what type of food you like - London pretty much has it all. Art, history, music, theatre, shopping and cuisines from all over the world. Hard to offer advice without knowing your preferences! if you could provide a bit of background vis a vis these subjects, I'm sure the fine folks here can provide excellent guidance!

Welcome to the boards for your first post :)
Is this your first trip to London? The list of possible attractions could be VERY long, literally months long, so it would be up to you what really "calls to you" the most if you're only spending 4 days there. Might be good to have your list, and ask husband to make his list of favorites, and then see which places are on both of them, to start :) Then add things that are close by to the sights you Have to see.

Once you know where you really want to be, then it'll be easier to choose your hotel. London's so huge, it's important to map things out, and stay near the things you want to see. It's way too easy to find a bargain hotel that turns out to be an hour away from your favorite places, and you find that you spend the saved hotel money on your transportation :( wayyy too easy for that to happen.

Then your hotel can help you find the kinds of restaurants that you like.
If you've never been there and want to see the top sites, the LondonPass card can be a good bargain if you want to see quite a few things in a day. It also can include bus tours, tho the regular buses with Oyster cards work just fine, bus route 24 went to many major places the last I knew, and Google maps did a great job for me and my daughter when we lived there for 2 months, back in 2011. Transport for London's web site is the authority, and they have a good app too.
I would personally spend more time in London than in Dublin, but that's personal preference cuz of SO many things to do there. Recently one of my cousins had a DNA match on Ancestry.com with someone in Dublin, we finally connected my grandmother's Irish ancestry to a real person over there :) So my hope is that I will have a tour guide over there in Dublin some day, and stay a while :) We emailed, she seems nice.

Have a great trip, get very choosy about what it is you Must see when you're there in London, and the rest will fall into place. :)
-Alison

Research is needed on your end regarding the sites that you want to see.

You have chosen to travel at the height of the tourist season. Queques for popular London attractions like the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Museums will be long and the crowds of Temple Bar in Dublin at their peak.

My comparison will always be Disneyland on speed when talking about London in the summer months.

Stating this reality so you know in advance and aren’t disappointed by the hordes when you arrive.

Besides food and drink do you like history? Art? Architecture? Theatre? Museums? Cathedrals? Shopping?

As noted London has all of the above. Narrowing your preferences would help us suggest sites.

You’ve asked if you can get to cities in 3 days of Eire travel staying in Dublin at the beginning and end.
My answer would be no.

Are you comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road on narrow 2 lane roads? Would you enjoy driving 4.5 hours from Dublin to Dingle on Ireland’s West Coast?

Ireland’s scenic beauty and its people are what you want to enjoy while on the island. Best for you to decipher if Dublin or the stunning West Coast is what you want to experience.

As far as restaurants research food blogs. Always great restaurant recommendations on them.

In my humble opinion the London Pass is a rip off but you’ll need to do the math once you decide what is important for you to see. Remember most London Museums are free and that you could take advantage to the Days Out 2 for 1 deal.

Lastly I’d take Nancy’s advice and fly from London to Shannon or Cork, get the rental car and head East to Dublin.

Thank you all for the wonderful advice! When I first posted I think I jumped the gun, and did need to do some research before hand. I especially loved Nancy's advice about flying into west Ireland rather than needing to backtrack- thanks! Definitely doing so.

After some online digging, the West End seems like a safe bet for our 4 nights in London. We made the mistake of getting a better deal staying a little outside the ideal area of Paris, so I feel like I'd rather pay a premium and save on time and expense of traveling to main attractions. I'm thinking we'd like to squeeze in a ride on the London eye, visit the palace (and maybe do a tour there, an art exhibition happens to open our first full day there), see the tower bridge and Parliament, and potentially a visit to the Harry Potter studios (although only 3rd party tickets are left and the start at $100 so I'd love to know if anyone has done it and if it's worth that). Any restaurant or pub recs in the west end vicinity would be helpful, as well as an attraction I'm missing that's a must see.
We are then planning on flying into Shannon, landing around 9am, and immediately renting a car to drive to Doolin to hopefully stay at a b and b. We would spend the entire afternoon exploring the Cliffs of Moher. My Husband's ancestors were from Killarney, so we were then thinking of taking the 2.5 hour drive the following mid-morning and spending two nights there. Is there a close area we could day trip to, or take an hour ride or less for a must-hit restaurant for lunch or a castle? Or maybe Dingle? After our second night we would drop the car off and take a 2:50pm short flight from County Kerry airport to Dublin for our final two nights. The Guniness tour is on my list, and maybe Temple Bar, but again, suggestions would be great.
Everything is totally flexible at this point, according to your expertise :) I know we booked during peak season, but with our work schedules we are limited to a quick itinerary, and have curbed our expectations accordingly.

Again, thank you so much!!!

"How are you getting from London to Ireland? I would suggest you fly from London to either Shannon or Cork, rent a car, and visit the southwest corner of Ireland and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Return the car at the Dublin airport and fly home." Cynthia

(Well I am glad you liked my advice even though everyone seems to think someone else wrote it!)

When we stayed near Killarney, we enjoyed the jaunting car donkey ride which leaves from Moll's Gap.. After the donkey ride ended, we boarded boats on a lake before returning to Killarney.

Another enjoyable trip is driving part of the Ring of Beara. Instead of driving the complete circuit, consider driving just the northern side and returning the same way. The best scenery is on the north side, IMHO. If you decide to drive the Ring of Kerry, the south side is more scenic

Dingletown is very enjoyable and you can also drive around the tip of that peninsula. However, I think Beara is more scenic.

If you are heading north for the Cliffs of Moher, you might also enjoy a stop in the very unusual Burren area.

You can connect County Clare with the area south of the Shannon River via the Limerick / Shannon tunnel. No need to drive through Limerick traffic. Kenmare is an excellent location for visiting both the Ring of Kerry and the Beara Peninsula. Kenmare has several good restaurants and music pubs and is far less touristy than Killarney.

After four or five days in London which is a world class city, you may find two days in Dublin a bit anti-climatic. If you see the three main attractions there in a day, you would have another day free for the lovely west side of Ireland.

Cynthia, I’m so sorry for the mistake! You’re recommendations have been wonderful and I need to give credit where credit is due!
Going to spend the afternoon researching these western Ireland alternatives :) and now also fly into Dublin later on our arrival to the city to really get to spend the time around Clare County instead.
Thank you again!
Haley