We will be coming from London to Ireland in July for 6 nights arriving and departing from Dublin. Our must sees are:
Rock of Cashel, maybe waterford, Blarney (if possible) ROK and Cliffs of Moher with the Aran Islands if possible. Looking for suggestions as to where to base out of. We do have one reservation for our first night in Dublin and then from there, we are looking for suggestions. Thank you!
Posted by
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3223 posts
I think your wish list is nice, but not feasible. Unless, of course, you want to see Ireland behind the windsheild of your car. I would skip Blarney for sure, as it’s mostly regarded as a tourist trap.
ROK takes one FULL day.
For six nights, I would pick three places you would like to see. You wish list is very spread out from each other so one base would make for too much driving.
I would concentrate on the south and southwest. Do the Rock of Cashel, Waterford and ROK and leave the rest for another trip!
Enjoy Eire!
Posted by
OP
2 posts
We aren't planning on doing one base. We will be in Dublin the first night and then looking for suggestions for the other nights. Definitely want to do Galway, ROK and Rock of Cashel.
Posted by
Vermont USA
359 posts
In that amount if time trying to do that you will spend the majority of your time in a car. Driving tines on maps are notoriously off. Add 30%+ for driving time and that doesn't include stops. In addition to do all that .........you will have to fly by or through the sites....... and have little to no time for self discovering sights and interacting with the people.......the two things where the real magic that is Ireland resides.
Definitely skip Blarney. It's on Rick Steves top ten tourist traps in all of Europe for good reason. There are literally hundreds of other better historic sights. Also why Galway ? It's a fairly pretty city, but very congested in July and is far out of the way. Connemara near Galway is very pretty but Galway itself is a long haul bypassing better stuff. For that matter the Cliffs of Moher are beautiful but terribly congested, with tourist hoards, tour buses, a built in mini strip mall and are NOT the wild windswept cliffs of Irish literature. And they are a day long drive from the ROK.
The good news is though on the ROK are the cliffs of Kerry which ARE the quiet windswept gorgeous cliffs of movies and literature .... far more enjoyable than Moher. So rather than lose a day driving to an inferior location you can use that time to choose from and see right there......Skellig Michael including a boat trip out to it, ancient ring forts, Abbey ruins, castles, insane vistas, horseback riding on the beach in Glenbeigh or Caherdaniel, incredible easy-medium or hard hikes, great Irish language areas and be in a very rare UN dark skyv preserve with a night sky that is beyond words.....with wonderful towns, pubs, restaurants and people OR you can be in a car going to one inferior location. And not that far away are the amazing sights near Killarney or on the Dingle/Slea Head peninsula.
Before deciding......consider not the sights you see on some must see lists but what you want out of the trip. On our first we basically wasted and ruined the trip by driving all over Ireland trying to see every thing possible. What a mistake. From then on we have put a premium on experiencing Ireland....and we end up seeing far more, interacting more and have life memories that are part of our souls.
You could spend a full week just on the ROK and Dingle and not even come close to exhausting fantastic things to see and do. In focusing you see far more and experience far more. I would recommend stopping at Cashel on the way to the SW. Then enjoy the Beara-ROK/Skellig Ring - Dingle area and be content there. We've spent months there and still have more to see. So much to see and do there.....avoid so much driving. Often times magical amazing things are right around the corner.....no need for 5_7 hour drives.