Our family of 8 will be visiting Ireland and flying into Dublin on Thursday, 4/23 early morning and then fly out of Dublin on Tuesday, April 28 for Scotland (late morning). We would like to spend a day (or two in Dublin) and then drive to see Kilkenny Castle, Rock of Cashel, Blarney Stone, Killarney, Cliffs of Moher. We aren't sure based on the sites we want to see what route makes the most sense in terms of limited amount of driving time, not having to change where we stay every night. We also have Kinsale, Dingle. Cork and Galway as potential spots. Is it unreasonable to try and visit all of these places in such a short amount of time? We will be renting a car when we leave Dublin and want to experience the beauty of the countryside and stop and see some sites along the way. In the evenings we would like to enjoy some music in the local pubs. Also, will it be hard to find decent affordable accommodations with the trip only 3 months out? Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Posted by
Bellingham, WA
1609 posts
First you need to determine if you can rent a vehicle that will hold all 8 and their bags. You need to have at least one enthusiastic left-side driver because the vehicle is going to be pretty big. If you're flying in from the US, it's not advisable to make a long drive right out of the airport. OTOH, you don't have a lot of time. Can you fly into Shannon Airport instead? I'm guessing you already have your tickets. Another option is to the take the train from Dublin to Killarney and use Rabbies or Paddywagon to do day tours from there. Paddywagon also has day tours originating in Cork, Limerick and Galway. Rabbies also offers 3-day tours starting and ending in Dublin. None of them cover all of the areas you mentioned. https://www.rabbies.com/en-us/tours/ireland?departure=Dublin Before you say it's too expensive, compare it to the cost of the car rental, and keep in mind that the driver rarely gets to enjoy the scenery.
Posted by
Lincolnshire, UK
2864 posts
Don't be too optimistic about what you can see in the limitred time available to you.
Driving in Ireland is slow and will take a lot longer to cover the distance than you might expect. If using google maps it is recommended to add 25% to their driving times AND THENADD IN TIME FOR STOPS (comfort braks, food etc.)
I'm assuming you are not wanting to spend all your time in the car?
Your initial list of Kilkenny Castle, Rock of Cashel, Blarney Stone, Killarney, Cliffs of Moher is ambitious and completely unreaslidtic if you try and cram in Kinsale, Dingle, Cork and Galway as well. .
SLOW DOWN
Either do a circuit from Dublin to Kilkenny, Rock of Cashel and Blarney stone. Is kissing the Blarney stone a must, if not you might have time to fit in Cork/Kinsale.
OR head to Killarney and Cliffs of Moher. Dingle can be fitted in travelling between the two. Galway will need to be left gfor another visit.
with the short tiome scale, you may find your itinerary is determined by where you caan find accommodation nfor 8 people.
Posted by
Mountains of S. Oregon
1064 posts
Given your initial thoughts, I'd drop the Cliffs of Moher. Although they are nice, there are lots of other cliffs on a par without the crowds (not THAT bad in April), but they are by geologic forces, all in the west. I think they're overrated. Blarney is another skip for us, even after five 3-week trips to Ireland. Dingle is way out of range. I'd just stay in the southeast. Maybe you'll get some good cliff action in Scotland.
Although we enjoy one night stays to keep the juices flowing, doing it with eight people would be a nightmare, unless you're all members of a precision marching band or one of you is a real bossy-pants.
My suggestion would be to spend three nights in Dublin and two in Kilkenny. Assuming you're coming from the US, the first day will feature tiredness and jetlag, and maybe even a nap. You could do a day trip to Newgrange/Bourne Valley for one day, and spend the next day poking around Dublin - there's many things to see/do. You won't want to gamble on being much farther way from the airport than Kilkenny for night five, so you could spend two nights there. Upon arrival, see Kilkenny Castle, then Rock of Cashel, Cahir Castle, and even Blarney (if you must) could be on one long day trip from Kilkenny on the next day.
Don't forget the pub music!