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10 day itinerary - self drive or private tour?

Posted by (Washington DC) on

I'm traveling with my adult daughter in June. She will have already been in Dublin for 5 days when I meet up with her and I've been to Dublin before so we will probably only spend 1 night on either end of our trip there. I want to spend the majority of our time on the west coast. I'm debating between renting a car because it will give us more flexibility but may make the trip more stressful vs using a driver or tour company. I generally avoid tour groups because I like to be independent and not with a crowd. Some of the places I'm interested in are Kerry, the Dingle peninsula, Doolin (I stayed here many years ago and it was a highlight), Galway, and possibly Donegal, but that may be too much.

We prefer an active trip with hiking, rather than just visiting scenic overlooks.

I'd appreciate advice on self-driving vs tour and itinerary help.

Posted by
1680 posts

If you're not enthusiastic about driving there, then don't. You don't have to take a tour, though, at least not for the whole trip. You can use public transportation to get to each of the places you mentioned. You might not have time to get to all of them in just 10 days. You can do a day tour of, for example, the Ring of Kerry out of Killarney (or probably other cities). There are loads of tour operators. Paddywagon and Rabbies are two of the larger ones. Set your priorities, then check the Transport for Ireland journey planner:
https://www.transportforireland.ie/plan-a-journey/
There are lots of posts on the Forum about using public transportation to get around Ireland. In the West, it's mainly buses (which are usually comfortable "coaches" not the type of bus you'd ride in your home city).

Posted by
2942 posts

We prefer an active trip with hiking, rather than just visiting scenic overlooks.

Unless you can find a tour company that focuses on hiking and covers the areas you are interested in, that probably rules out the usual tour companies as they do the sights rather than allowing time for hiking... A private driver would work but that is going to be expensive as you will have to pay for their lodgings too...

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