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12 day itinerary w/questions, W/SW Ireland

Hello,
We are a family of three "rookie" travelers visiting Ireland in July. It will be my husband, myself, and our 12 year old son. We're planning it ourselves and are a bit overwhelmed. Wondering if this is a do-able itinerary and would love thoughts/suggestions from all of you seasoned and very knowledgable travelers in this wonderful community. We are laid back, love to explore and soak up the culture wherever we travel and tend to stay away from guided/driven tours and prefer the do-it-yourself route when feasible. (We've used Rick's audible tours before to guide us and have loved them!) However, if there is a tour/driver that can't be missed we would be willing to consider that, too. My husband and I have been to Ireland before and spent much of it along the East coast; this time we'd like to focus on the West and Southwest.
Day 1: Fly into Shannon; pick up rental car and drive to Galway.
Day 2: Galway
Day 3: Galway
Day 4: Drive to Limerick, stay in Limerick.
Day 5: Drive to Dingle, stay in Dingle.
Day 6: Dingle
Day 7: Dingle
Day 8: Drive to Kenmare, stay in Kenmare.
Day 10: Kenmare
Day 11: Drive to Limerick; stay in Limerick.
Day 12: Depart Shannon.

-Is this a do-able itinerary? We don't want to feel too rushed so we want to make sure we're spending a fair amount of time at each spot. Nothing is set in stone yet--wanted to check in here for tips/advice from those who know.
-Would Tralee be better to stay than Dingle?
-If there is one central location that would be good for Dingle/Kenmare/Killarney area we'd prefer to do that over 2 different places but from what we've read it seems like it might be too much driving?
-Any advice is appreciated for potential changes to itinerary/places to stay. We have some things booked but not others and since there's no fee to cancel what we have already we're still able to make changes based on advice.

Posted by
54 posts

This actually looks pretty doable to me; others will likely weigh in who have more experience in that part of Ireland.
We were in Dingle and Kenmare in Sept '24 for multiple nights each. Loved Dingle, and found plenty to do in addition to the drive around the peninsula. The falconry place is fun, as is the Dingle Distillery and simply walking the town. Great trad sessions, lots of good pubs and restaurants. July will be pretty crowded, of course. We stayed at O'Neill's B&B and enjoyed it very much.
Make reservations very early for the nicer places to eat - Out of the Blue was our favorite.
Kenmare was nice, less interesting for us than Dingle, but a good base for driving the Ring. If you do the drive, don't miss the Kerry Cliffs - stunning. And the chocolate at Skelligs is great! We followed RS' recommended route and had no trouble other than the usual narrow roads.
Have fun!

Posted by
2512 posts

Are you coming off a transatlantic flight? If so, you might want to make your fist stop Limerick and spend the rest of the day recovering form jet lag. Rent the car the next day (after a good night's sleep) and then drive to Galway.

From Galway drive to Dingle - it is probably about 4-5 hours drive plus stops. If you don't want to drive back through Limerick, think about taking the ferry across from Killimer to Tarbert instead.

Apart from this it looks gooid. You have a reasonable amount of time in each place.