17 Days in May 2020

If Day 2 is on a weekend, especially one with good weather, get to Glendalough as early as possible. We tried it on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in October and the parking lot had overflowed into the street, so we skipped it (we ended up at Clonmacnoise on the following Monday, rainy and devoid of tourists). It took us about 2-2.5 hours to get from the Avoca woolen mill (worth a visit!) in the Wicklow Mts. to Kilkenny.

BTW, I can recommend staying at the Pembroke Hotel in Kilkenny—its price can be pretty comparable to a B&B, and it’s around the corner from the castle, has a great restaurant for dinner right across the street (Zuni) with a decent pub next door, and free off-street parking. We definitely enjoyed our night there.

In looking at your itinerary, I really recommend thinking about staying put for a few days and explore out from your base, especially if you don’t mind driving. It is nice not to pack up every morning.

Thanks Kathy.

The day to Glendalough is on a Wednesday so maybe not as busy as you had mentioned. Thanks for the Kilkenny hotel recommendation, looks ideal. I agree with staying put for as long as possible. Possibly could stay an extra night in Kinsale ( 3 nights) to travel in the area and omit staying in Kenmare. Also maybe stay the two nights in Portrush to visit Belfast on Day 15 and continue on to Dublin?

We recently returned from our Irish adventure! We loved Ireland, but as everyone said prior to our visit, the roads take a lot longer to drive than you expect. Boy, did we find that out! Hubby was exhausted since it was intense driving and long. And, we have driven in England and Scotland before, so the left sided driving was not new to us. Most of our drives ended up being a full day with stops. Day after day it really is exhausting!

Glendalough parking lot was packed when we went there, too. But, after seeing the monastic site we realized all the people where actually locals taking a walk to the lower and upper lakes. We joined them and enjoyed that more than the site itself. Powerscourt was ok, but we've seen better gardens. We loved Sallys gap! Be well rested when you go, intense driving again.

Plan to do nothing on your first day (in my opinion) except check into your hotel, check out the area. We live in CA and we were exhausted after arrival, getting our car, and driving to the Wicklow Mountains. We got a nap, dinner and we were done for the night.

We spent 2 nights most places, and 3 nights in two locations. I think you are moving too fast. I know, its really hard to slow down, but our favorite things when our trip was over were hikes, and pubs, and talking with the people. Go into a small pub in a little village and have a drink, talk with the locals, slow down a bit. Those turned out to be our favorite memories!

Next time we go to Ireland we will slow down and spend less time driving! We will only plan to drive an hour or two between places, which in reality might be 3-4 hours! Seriously, when we had a 4 hour drive, it took the full day!! Tiring day after day!

FYI our flight from CA to Dublin rented a car and drove to Wicklow, Castletownshend, Kenmare, Dingle, Inishmor, Clifden, Trim and fly home. All in 15 nights. I think you are going a lot further and faster than we did. I'd say slow down and enjoy more!!

Susan and Monte are spot on with their advice to slow down. We had a similar experience on our first trip to Ireland--15 nights, covering the entire perimeter of the island, with my husband as the only driver. We flew into Dublin from the west coast and spent three nights (one more than is really needed to see the city, so we could recover from jet-lag). After that we had a series of 2 night (Belfast , Dingle and Kinsale) and 1 night (Bunbeg, Westport, Galway, Doolin and Waterford) stays. Although we were able to check off many of the things that by conventional wisdom are considered "must see" (Cliffs of Moher, Rock of Cashel, Book of Kells etc.) we were not left with much time to enjoy the in-between spaces. I will say, though, that we returned home fully satisfied with our experience. It wasn't until several years later when we took a much slower, three week trip through just southern and western Ireland that we realized just how much we had missed the first time through. Picking two, three or four spots in which to base yourselves and doing day trips from there will not only give you a chance to enjoy a more thorough exploration of your surroundings but also the opportunity to interact more with the locals, a highlight of any trip to Ireland. You might want to consider saving Northern Ireland for a future trip, thus freeing up a couple of days so you can slow down a bit.

As for a few specifics, we were not terribly impressed by Waterford (although, as I said, we didn't spend much time there) so skipping it shouldn't be an issue. We did enjoy Kinsale very much though. It's a cute little town with great restaurants and B&Bs. We spent our one full day there visiting Cobh and Charles Fort, both very interesting, and found some great music in one of the local pubs. We also enjoyed Dingle and Westport, so much so that we returned on our second trip. Galway was not high on our list, but the trip to Inishmore was a highlight.

I am liking all the ideas so far from all that have visited or live in Ireland. I am starting to lean towards staying a little longer in a couple places and then opt out of driving up to the Antrim Coast and after a stay in Westport, just drive back to Dublin on Day 14. Do a separate day trip from Dublin to Belfast either by train or a bus tour before we fly out. That would still give us two days in Dublin.

Anyone have experience with day trips from Dublin to Belfast?