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9.5 Days in Ireland (during Easter)

Hello friends! I will be traveling to Ireland in April 2025. My flight lands in Dublin on Friday (Good Friday) April 18th at 14:30 and my return home flight is Tuesday April 29th at 15:30. I will be renting a car and I want to do a loop along the southern coast, getting as far north as Galway or Cong. But I honestly have nothing planned yet. This island is so small yet so many great things to see, I'm overwhelmed!

  • Should I spend Easter weekend in Dublin or should I travel somewhere smaller? I ideally would love to find a Bed & Breakfast to stay at on Easter Sunday, in hopes to observe some local Easter traditions/meals and hopefully catch a Catholic mass, but I am also open to staying in Dublin for the weekend.
  • Any other recommendations on where to go and what to see? I haven't planned a thing yet because there are SO many articles and blogs with all kinds of conflicting opinions. My main goal is to see as much nature as possible and visit as many old pubs as possible. Trying to stay away from the major tourist spots so any recommendations on any secret local spots would be so greatly appreciated!
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I can't speak to what Dublin would be like at Easter, but we were in Ireland for 2 weeks in Sept., and Dublin was fairly crowded then, so I'd suspect a holiday weekend would be even more so. My favorite place was Dingle town, and the peninsula. O'Neill's B&B there was wonderful - excellent location, reasonable rates, friendly host, great breakfast, super clean, easy parking. We also followed RS' driving tour for both Dingle and ROK. For the latter, we stayed in Kenmare. The Kerry Cliffs were the highlight for that area, though driving there is not for the faint-hearted! Wonderful pubs in Dingle with superb trad sessions and concerts. In Dublin we stayed at Harding Hotel and later at Skylon Hotel, between the airport and the city. Both were excellent.
A marvelous country with so much to see, and wonderful people to meet. Just don't pack too much in, so you can savor it all.