Advice Needed on Road Scholar "Best of Ireland" Pre-Tour Destination Choice

I’d first map out what you would like to do in Dublin and then decide if you have enough time to do those things at the end of your trip. For what it is worth, other things I enjoyed in Dublin included the historical walking tour, the EPIC Irish Immigration Museum, and 14 Henrietta St.

I think your idea to stop in Cork could be a good one and I suspect that there would be enough things to do in Cork itself for the day and a half that you are actually there. You really only have one full day to sightsee if you stay in Cork. I traveled by taxi (used Uber app which is linked to official taxies) between Kinsale and Cork on my Rick Steves tour last year (unfortunately had to visit an urgent care clinic in Cork). I don’t remember the cost but it was more than 50 EUR each way. There is also bus service between Cork and Kinsale.

Assuming you want to avoid a car, Cork is a good choice. We skipped it for several visits, thinking it was just a slightly smaller Dublin, but we found it much more interesting than expected. A day trip to Cobh via train is very easy, and trains from Dublin and to Killarney are also convenient.

In Cobh, we did the Titanic Experience, Queenstown Story, and a Titanic Walk walking tour.

Cork has several walks created by the tourist office, but the signage is all missing, so don't get too concerned about the exact routes. Of course the English Market is a biggie. Our favorite "to do" was the Butter Museum (it's on one of the walks). Our favorite part of Cork was 6:30pm trad music at Sin é - get there early and don't sit in the corner booth! Check with http://www.theleesessions.com/index.php in case it relocates.

Laura & jjgurley, thanks-your suggestions makes sense, but it also gets me wondering if we need to take the tour at all. On the one hand, I like the smaller (and longer) number of overnight stops and the free time the tour has in the itinerary since it gives us more flexibility to do and see what we want. On the other hand, there is a lot more free time to plan than I expected, which is is feeling more like the DIY trips I typically plan, ie, me having to plan out each day's activity, along with the logistics of making those day plans happen.

The tour stops at these destinations: Killarney (4 nights), Galway (3 nights), Stranorlar, County Donegal (3 nights), Dublin (4 nights). Of those stops, there is about half of the days that are either free the entire day or free for half the day, so I am already working on what we do with ourselves for that time. The main reason I signed us up for this tour was that, on the face of it, it offered to free me from the daily planning task, as well as planning the logistics of our transfers between the stops on the trip. I am already finding out that I will do much of what I usually do for the daily planning, and except for the transfers between Galway-Stranorlar-Dublin, the logistics are simpler than I anticipated. This is not an inexpensive tour (about the same cost as the Rick Steves Best of Ireland tour), but if I will end up doing much of what I would have done had I began with a DIY trip itinerary, I'm not sure it is money well spent, or that it would save me all that much work on planning and logistics.

To that end, if I did my own plan, I would likely do something like this:

Fly Dublin, train Dublin-Cork (3 nights)
Train Cork-Killarney (4 nights)
Drive Killarney-Galway (3 nights)
Drive Galway-Westport (2 nights)
Return Car, drive Westport-Dublin (4 nights)

Total overnight stops 5 (so an average of 3 nights per stop)

This itinerary includes a car for the west coast but trains for the remainder of the trip-looking at the train network map, most rail routes are east-west except for Dublin to Cork (or Waterford), so driving from Killarney to Westport seems the most logical. I would drop Donegal because of time constraints as well as the difficulty of reaching that area, and since this plan has 16 nights (vs 15), I would have to rebook our flights to add another night. I am not opposed to driving, just to the hassle of having a rental car (parking, cost of zero deductible CDWs, etc)-I've driven a week's worth of single track roads in the west Highlands, and I would expect the rural parts of Ireland would be similar, ie numerous one lane roads, no berms, other road challenges.

I guess if I had to rank the destinations in order of importance, it would be: Dingle Peninsula/Ring of Kerry/Killarney, Dublin, Galway/Aran Islands/Connamara, Cork/Cobh/Kinsale. So there could be an argument for just hitting the top three and spending more time in each of those-from what I have read to date and the feedback provided here, there is certainly enough in each to fill up 4-5 days for each overnight stop, which would further simplify the itinerary. Ireland looks small, but as I am discovering, it is a bit like Switzerland for a trip plan-yes, one can butter spread themselves across the country and hit a lot of places, but it may be more meaningful and enjoyable to concentrate on a small number of destinations and "immerse" oneself in those, while at the same time enjoying the reduced time required for transfers and changing accommodations.

I'm retired, so your priorities may be different, but the detailed planning is the best part of the entire experience for me. By the time I've curated the details, I'm more of a guide for my wife and friends than a fellow traveler. Our next trip in May is the result of several hundred evolving spreadsheets, each detailed to the nearest 15 minutes. We tend to consider two nights a long stay, so advice from me is anathema for most folks. In five trips to date, we've only stayed three nights twice - Dublin and Cork.

I will chime in and say that I did a three week solo trip of Ireland entirely by train and bus. It took a lot of careful planning in order to see the places I wanted to see, and in the end I had to drop things that were too difficult without a car. Having said that, you could easily get to most of the places the tour is going to take you by making use of guided day trips. The problem with a trip like this is that you are entirely at the mercy of public transit, and you will spend valuable time waiting to catch a train or bus to your next location. Dublin, Killarney and Galway all have many options for day trips, so you could easily spend a few nights in each location and have time to see each town and also do day trips to see the sights. This is what I did. But, getting from Killarney to Galway by train was going to be a long train ride back up to Dublin and across so I made a couple of short stops in Kinsale and Kilkenny to break up the journey. The advantage to taking a tour is that you don’t have to deal with working out the logistics yourself, and having the tour bus take you directly to places if far more time efficient. The other thing the tour provides is the extensive knowledge of the tour guide. I have been pretty impressed by some of the RS tour guides (haven’t done a Road Scholar tour). Some of the guides on the day trips I have done have been outstanding, but others just driven to a location and let us out to have a look around. It was still one of my favourite trips, though.

Like Anita, I did something similar by public transportation and day tours (that trip I had fewer days to work with but went many of the same places). I found what worked for me was:
Arrive Dublin and take the bus directly to Galway;
Bus Galway to Cork (no changes);
Train Cork to Killarney (one easy change - and there’s also a bus if you prefer);
Train Killarney to Dublin (one easy change).

Galway provides easy access to Cliffs of Moher & Connemara by day tours - and the Arran Islands by ferry. Alternatively, it’s easy to rent a car for a day/a few days if you want to spend more time in Connemara and can’t find a bus route.

I spent time in Dingle by car on a different trip, so can’t speak to busses. Others from the forum have done a day trip with a guide, I think.

And yes, Cork provides good access to Blarney Castle, Rock of Cashel, Cobh, & Kinsale by bus or train. The trick is that you have to do them on the transportation schedule, which might require a bit more time.

So it’s entirely doable, especially since you seem to have the time. I would agree that not having to find lodging and having a guide provides value. But whether it is worth the expense involved is a different question.

Thanks everyone-your informative feedback is what I love most about this forum!

jjgurley, I too am retired and also enjoy the research and planning part of a trip (to the point where Mrs W insists on periodic moratoriums on discussing the subject, especially right after we finish a trip or tour!), and I also plan a schedule of each day's activities (I use the Calendar app on my Mac and iPhone) to make sure we have a daily plan that includes everything and will actually work (tickets, transportation, lunch, etc). What I am noticing though, is that as I age, my "success oriented" schedules have steadily become more tiring and difficult to execute, so I am scaling back our daily objective to fit mine and Mrs W's stamina. An example: on our very international first trip, to England in 2008, we had one memorable day in London where we planned (and did) the following (we stayed in a rental flat on the border between Chelsea and Belgravia):

• early AM visit to the Tower of London
• late AM visit to the British Library
• lunch in a pub
• early PM visit to the British Museum
• late PM visit to the Imperial War Museum
• TripAdvisor "pub meet" in Chelsea
• dinner at the 606 Jazz Club, also in Chelsea

We saw a ton of things that day, but we were so tired the next day that we barely had energy for one sight, let alone 4! So we learned a valuable lesson that day-a plan that is technically "doable" on paper is not necessarily one that is also enjoyable! Now we will plan at most two activities per day, and sometimes one, and the transfer time is now also part of my daily schedule (back then we just "magically" transported between sights, I suppose with a Star Trek transporter!). Anyway, I even did a daily plan for this tour, which is what prompted me to consider doing a DIY approach.

We prefer fewer and longer stays to shorter and more frequent ones, which we now plan into all of our DIY trips. The Road Scholar tour is very similar to what I typically plan for a trip, ie, primarily 3-4 night stops with shorter stops only when it is necessary. This is probably the biggest difference I see between Rick Steves and Road Scholar tours, and the longer stops were a major factor in our decision to book it (the other being that the Rick Steves Ireland tour was waitlisted).

As Anita points out, a tour has several major benefits, including creating the overall itinerary as well as the daily plans, handling all the logistical bits and pieces for those daily plans, and providing the point-to-point transportation for the daily plans (as well as for the overall trip). Having just taken a Rick Steves tour this past fall (eastern France, which was wonderful by the way!), I was glad to be able to store our luggage and day packs on the tour bus while we visited enroute sights, something that is possible only with careful planning on a DIY trip.

I have several days before the final payment deadline, so I plan to take my best shot at a DIY itinerary and lay it against the tour itinerary and see which "feels" the most compatible with my (and Mrs W's) trip objectives.

I've been thinking more about our 2023 trip to Scotland, which was a combination of city stays (Edinburgh and Glasgow) that were bookends for a drive through the Western Highlands (between the Isle of Mull and Inverness via the Isle of Skye). I still remember the amazing drive from Skye to Inverness-we took the long way and drove over the Bealach na Ba, then around the northwest rim of the Applecross peninsula to Torridon for a night (best hotel setting I've ever seen), after which we drove to Inverewe Garden in Poolewe before finishing in Inverness. The route was chock full of single track road segments, but the scenery blew me away, so it did not matter that we could not drive very fast! I would guess that the Wild Irish Way has scenic road segments equal to or better than what we drove in Scotland, so now I am wondering if we should try to replicate that experience in Ireland. With a car, we could still have a few "bases" to minimize the packing/unpacking thing. but the car would let us explore in a way we cannot do on a tour or limited to buses and trains. We live in the LA area, which I hate riving in, but the scenic rural parts of the UK and Europe are a different story-traffic is significantly less (except for pockets around the celebrity sights), and parking is similarly easier (except in the same places as the higher traffic), but at least for Scotland, we did not find that to be an impediment (even on Skye, probably the most tourism-impacted part of our road trip). It was a trip that reminded me of the best things about travel (domestic or international)-natural beauty, friendly people (locals and tourists), comfy accommodations and great food, beautiful artworks and centuries of interesting history. Maybe we can replicate that on our Ireland trip.....

Sorry for the 180 degree pivot in thinking-I realize that this latest option is about as opposite a hosted tour as one can get!

As older folks that spend days at home walking the dogs in the woods, puttering in the garage, gardening, volunteering, and doom-scrolling Youtube, we're firmly of the school that returning from a vacation, you should be exhausted and ready to come home. For us, that's right at 21 days. Staying up past our normal bedtime in order to breath in the music and craic is just a short term challenge. On the last day, we suddenly miss the dogs, seeing our wildflowers erupt at home, and our house sitter is ready to move back home. Those in our school of thought say "I'll relax in the grave". In my case, arriving home means getting serious about finalizing the next trip.

We travel very light, and relocate frequently because it shortens any daily driving, most things of interest are between stops (and I despise backtracking), and you get to see more. We also seem to enjoy many off-the-beaten path places that are not included on tours or are hard to get to without a car, although I can't say I've made much effort to research either alternative. Our next 21 day Ireland trip includes eight 2-night stays, which is snail-speed for us - we're slowing down in our old age.

You can absolutely duplicate in Ireland the kind of trip you describe in Scotland. It’s a beautiful country. I did not find driving in Ireland difficult at all, especially after having driven in Scotland. I am unlike jjgurley in that I do not aspire to come home tired, but you can do and see as much or as little as you want - when you want when you are calling the shots. I’ve been to Ireland 3 times, with a different kind of trip each time and loved the 3 week solo driving trip the most.

OK, we bailed on the Road Scholar tour, and I put together the following itinerary as a replacement. Feel free to comment!

Total Trip duration: 17 days/15 hotel nights (includes in flight, arrival & departure days and all transfer days)

Days 1-3: Fly to Dublin, take bus from airport to Cork (or taxi to Heuston station, then train to Cork), taxi to hotel
Cork Hotel: Hayfield Manor (2 nights)
Daily activities (one full day): TBD, but will likely include a visit to the Titanic Museum in Cobh

Days 4-7: Pick Up rental car, drive the SW coast of County Cork to Kenmare, multiple stops enroute
Kenmare Hotel: Brook Lane (3 nights)
Activities (2 full days): day 1-Beara Peninsula scenic drive, day 2-Killarney National Park

Days 7-10: Drive Kenmare-Dingle via Ring of Kerry (stop for selected sights enroute)
Dingle Accommodations: Heaton's Guesthouse (3 nights)
Activities (2 full days): Day 1-explore Dingle Peninsula; Day 2-Free day (reading, hiking, etc or more sightseeing if we get bored!)

Days 10-13: Drive Dingle-Galway via Tarbert Ferry, Kilkee, Doolin (ie, coastal route)
Galway hotel: Glenlo Abbey (3 nights)
Activities (2 full days): Day 1: Aran Islands/Cliffs of Moher from the sea/The Burren (Galway Tours); Day 2: Connemara Scenic Drive

Days 13-16: Return rental car, train Galway-Dublin Heuston, taxi to hotel
Dublin hotel: TBD (4 nights) (lots of nice possibilities, good selection since our dates are midweek)
Activities (3 full days): Day 1: Day tour of Wicklow Mtns/Powerscourt Estate/Glendalough; Day 2: Day tour (TBD, looking at Boyne Valley); Day 3: city walking tour and sightseeing (may drop Boyne and/or Wicklow in favor of more city sights as I learn more about Dublin)

Day 17: Taxi to airport, fly home

Some options still under consideration or review:
1: I may substitute Kinsale for Cork, which appears to be more laid back and might be better for the first couple days while we recover from our long arrival flight. This may require picking up our rental car our first day, which I don't usually consider, but that would save a return trip to Cork to pick up the rental car.

2-I dropped Doolin in favor of more time in a single hotel near Galway, so I plan to revisit that. My desire was to have two stops of 2 nights each: Doolin and Westport, but I decided to go with a single 3 night stay, partly so I had something firm. 2 of the 3 nights are on a weekend, which definitely complicates the booking since many hotels and B&Bs are already booked or don't accept partial weekend bookings. I have not cast the net very wide, so I plan to do that as well

3: I previously had a single night in Kilkenny before we arrived in Dublin so we could visit the Rock of Cashel, so I may revisit that too. If we did this, I could probably "borrow" a night from Dublin since we could easily visit Wicklow/Powerscourt/Glendalough as a stop before returning the rental car in Dublin.

During the planning, I kept wishing I just had a few more nights to sprinkle on the itinerary, especially the Ring of Kerry (would lover to break up that drive into two segments, with an overnight in the middle), County Clare (2 nights in Doolin would be great, looks like a cool little town) and County Mayo (2-3 nights in Westport or environs would allow for a drive to Achill and Ballycroy/Wild Nephin NP). But that also gives me the justification I need for a return trip!