8 nights in Ireland

Personally, I think your best bet would be to move around and stay in three or four different places. Whether you do so or stay in a central location, where to base your camp(s) depends a lot on what your interests are. Do you want to see Dublin at all? It is well worth a couple of nights, but if you really aren't interested, then spend it somewhere else. Killarney is a good location for seeing County Kerry (including the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry), but I would rather just drive and stay in Dingle itself (but this could not be a "central location"). A town outside of Galway (maybe Salthill), could also be a good base for seeing Connemara, the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher, etc. If you wanted to stay in southeast Ireland, you might consider Kilkenny, which would be a good base for the Rock of Cashel, Waterford, Glendalough, etc. Are you interested in visiting Northern Ireland or Donegal?

So I would recommend first trying to identify what you really want to see while you are there.

For what it's worth, my wife and I did 8 nights there, and broke them up as 2 in Dublin, 2 in Kilkenny, 2 in Dingle, and 2 in Galway, and found this to be entirely doable and well worth it. The only change I would have made to that trip is to have stayed in Salthill over Galway.

Rick's suggested itinerary gives you an idea of about the most travel you can squeeze into a given time frame. I would not try to do it faster. Three or four different overnight bases sounds best to me, too. While finding and checking into a new hotel does take a bit of time, it can also reduce backtracking time on the road.

If a rural sights road trip is what you'd like to gear for, I say fly to/from Shannon and spend the whole time in just Kerry and Cork.

Ireland is not an ideal day-trippers destination. Embrace your wanderlust or consider spending the week in Brussels or Luxembourg City (two great train trip hubs!).

Hi Jennifer! My husband and I did 8 nights in Ireland last June and have a returned trip planned for this June. We too loved being in the countryside and are really into hiking/active sightseeing. We flew into Shannon and started in Dingle. We spent three nights there, the Greenmount House was amazing, the best B&B we stayed at in Ireland. Dingle was by far our favorite spot and the only place we're returning too on our next trip (2 nights). We loved having a few days in one spot to get our barings and there is so much to see and do there...you could easily extend another night or two. From there we drove North, saw the Cliffs of Moher and spent the night in Lisdoonvarna (again a place Rick recommends). Then we again headed north and started the Connemara Loop staying Westport. The next day we hiked Crough Patrick, saw the Kylemore Abbey and stayed at a castle in Clifden. We then headed to Dublin for two nights and flew out from there. We did move around a bit, but it didn't feel like it. If Dublin isn't your thing (we were so glad we only planned one day there, it was the perfect amount of time to see everything we wanted) but we were sad to be back in a city having so enjoyed the countryside. You could mirror our plans adding another night or two in Dingle or elsewhere near Galway or Shannon if you fly in and out of there.