7 Day Itinerary - Help Needed

Waaay to much driving. Most roads 2 lane. Country bigger than you think. Dublin to Rock of Cashel is at least 2 hours. From there to Cork another hour. So that’s 3 hours on the road enjoying Ireland from the inside of your car.

Agree with Claudia on too much driving. There’s jet lag, customs, picking up a car and figuring out how to drive. If you’re going for a record of how many sights and towns you covered in a week it’s good. Staying in a new town every night is not a good use of time and not relaxing. I’d do 3 towns max in 7 days and enjoy the Irish pubs and the local village at night.

We're perfectly comfortable with single night stays as we're more interested in things "between" towns and travel very light. Music pubs at night, of course, BUT you're biting off way to much driving, and not seeing much along the way.

Unless you're an experienced left-side driver or you sleep soundly on flights, Cork is too far to drive jet lagged. Maybe spend your first night in Dublin (without a car!) and go straight from Athlone to DUB? In August the roads are full of slow American drivers, tractors, and sheep so don't trust Google Maps for accuracy off the main highways and the back roads are part of the adventure.

Seeing Kerry Cliffs and Moher seems redundant. Your itinerary looks a bit like speed-dating. I'm guilty of planning some fast paced trips, but we return exhausted only wishing we had had more time in places. I'm now finalizing our sixth 3-week trip to Ireland, so don't worry about running out of stuff to do!

I agree it's too much. I suggest shifting Dublin to the start of the trip. This is a popular jet lag recovery strategy. Another is to pick up and drop off the car somewhere (e.g., Galway or Limerick) that has direct train service from Dublin and bus service to the airport. From your itinerary, I would cut Kilkenny, Cashel and Cork.

Thank you all so much. Will adjust and appreciate your responses.