Activities in Dingle

The trip out to the Blaskets might well be overkill, but that's really your call. A more interesting day trip for all of you might be to drive over to the Skellig Center on Valencia Island and take a trip out to Skellig Michael. Your teen sons might enjoy tramping up the steps to see if they can find Luke Skywalker. Believe there's filming going on there this summer so you'll want to check on accessibility to the old monastic site, and know too that it's highly weather dependent - especially for landing on the island.

Greetings from Dingle

As a father of teenage daughters, my opinion is your teenagers would have little interest in the Blasket Island visit, especially if you are going to the Aran Islands later.
Also, taking them to Skellig Michael is way out of your way and would take hours of driving to get there. Though it is very awe-inspiring (as are the Blaskets)

Thankfully Dingle has a ton of things to do for teenagers, more than any other small town in Ireland.
Heres my top 5, if you need more, send me a message.

1. Dingle sea-safari, head out into the bay dolphin-watching on an exhilarating high-speed rib
2. Stand up paddle boarding in the harbour
3. Sea kayaking tour, explore sea caves with qualified instructors
4. Dingle musical pub tour, tour the famous pubs with local musicians, tour departs each Wednesday at 6.45
5. Dingle aquarium, one of the best in a small town anywhere. Seeing tiger sharks usually never gets boring for teenagers

If that doesnt work, they can call by my B&B and take Seamus my 200+ pound Irish wolfhound for a walk up the mountains, that'll tire them all out :)

Is mise le meas/from me with respect
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland tour-guide
Dingle and Derry

Thank you all. I'll look into the kayak - we do that here in NYS. Glad to hear Dingle is a bit more happening for the young folk. We are going to miss our Brittany, Bosco, so a walk in the hills would be a delight for all. I might take you up in that!

Regards,
Marie

My family did the sunset kayaking with Irish Adventures during our visit to Dingle in June. Everyone enjoyed it - Our four kids are 15,16,18,21 (2 boys, 2 girls). We saw Fungi the local Dolphin and "backed in" a cave briefly. Not too much cave exploration for us, but I'm sure it is dependent on time of day, tide, etc. They offer a day tour too. I would probably do that instead as when we finished the evening tour it was after 10 pm and not enough time to dry off and enjoy some time in the pubs.

We enjoyed a great dinner at Ashe's. Probably our most expensive meal during our 12 day trip, but food was excellent - mussels, crab legs, lamb, steak. We enjoyed music by the Blow-Ins at Paudie's Bar after dinner that night. Great duo - think they play there quite often.

We did not make it to the Aran Islands or Skelling Michael. I know my kids would have liked to take the trip to Skelling and make the climb. Just too much to tackle in one trip! Think the Star Wars filming is over. They actually recreated the setting on a mountain in Dingle I believe and just finished filming the week before we were there. I think filming at Skelling became too difficult perhaps.

Other trip highlights:

Hiking the Gap of Dunloe - I would consider this a must do if you are in Killarney. Just beautiful! If you don't like to hike, you can take a jaunting car ride.

Hired a driver to take us on tour of Dingle Peninsula and Conor's pass. Gave my husband a nice break from driving.

Hawk Walk at Ashford Castle - we didn't splurge to stay here, but stopped on our way to the Connemara area to do the hawk walk. Kids love it.

Enjoy Ireland! I'm ready to return and have only been home two weeks!

My daughter did a day hike recommended by our hosts, Marian and Aidan at the Dunlavin House. Great B&B - beautiful place to stay and Marian and Aidan were so much fun and had great suggestions of things to do. We were there in August of 2016.
Kathy and Jerry

We went to Great Blasket Island with my son when he was a teenager and he loved it. He loves to hike, the hillier the better, and he loved the remoteness of it. So did we. It's stunningly beautiful, and haunting with the old homes of the Islanders. Its still my favorite European experience.

On a later trip without any kids, we did Great Blasket again as well as Inishmor. I found them to be very different experiences. Inishmor is still inhabited and has more things to see including the fort whose name escapes me. It was magical, like traveling back in time.

I would say do both if you can, but you'll have to decide what makes sense for your family. As you may know, they are both weather dependent and the boats safe not able to go every day.

The sea kayaking trip is a fun option. Also, if you drive along Slea Head Drive, there are some excellent short hikes at several of the stops. These provide better views and would burn off some teenage energy. While in Dingle, a stop at Murphy's Ice Cream is fun.