Advice needed on self drive itinerary

To your last question, I always advise staying near the airport the night before flying home. You never know if there might be some transport disruption, and I like the peace of mind knowing the airport is right there. For an 8:30 AM flight, err on the side of getting to the airport plenty early, because Dublin is one of the foreign airports that requires US-bound passengers to clear passport control, immigration & customs on the ground in Dublin before you can go the boarding area for your flight. This can take an hour or more, depending how many people are in line ahead of you.

The Falconry experience at Ashford was the absolute highlight of our trip last summer so I would definitely make the time to do it.

On our way out of Kilkenny to Killarney, we also stopped at Blarney. I know many poo poo it but we absolutely loved the grounds.

We loved driving the ROK but also really enjoyed Dingle so that one if tough for me. I know you want to minimize the changing of hotels but if you are open to it, I would leaver Killarney, dive the ROK and then on to Dingle and spend the night in Dingle.

We left Ashford on our way back to Dublin for our flight.... we so loved Ashford that we stuck around as late as we could. There wasn't much on the way back to Dublin that we wanted to stop and see though.

Above all, enjoy your trip!

Thank you! I will book an airport hotel for sure and just plan on staying at Ashford and arriving in Dublin in the late afternoon or evening the night before we leave. I was on the fence about staying in Dingle and I think I may just do that. Maybe even for 2 nights to enjoy our time on the coast. Then we would just have a long drive day from Dingle to the cliffs and on to Ashford. Then it would look something like this:

Dublin 2 nights, Kilkenny 1 night, Killarney 2 nights, Dingle 2 nights, Ashford 2 nights and airport hotel 1 night.

Sounds wonderful to me :)

We recently returned from 2 week sin Ireland. Make sure you make reservations for the Falconry experience WELL IN ADVANCE. We were unable to get in when attempting to make reservations 4 days ahead. Live and Learn. Also Ashford Castle for us was a bummer. They charged us E10 each to get in the gates, and we could not enter the building unless we had reservations. I would skip Ashford if not reserved for the falconry experience. Cong Abbey and grounds are very close and beautiful and mysterious, right out of Middle Earth! Others may have had a different experience at Ashford, but that was ours.

We will be traveling in the Sept/Oct timeframe. We were originally going to stay in Trim our last night before the flight home. We have a 3:00 PM flight. Even though we have a later flight we decided to stay closer to the airport in Swords. There are chain hotels there but there are also B&Bs. We chose the Evergreen B&B just about 2 miles from the City Center (we still wanted to feel like we were in the country). I believe the B&B is 15 minutes to the airport. Depending on what you want to do you can catch a taxi or I believe there are also buses to take you into Dublin for one last look around or the town of Malhide (not sure that is spelled correctly) is very close by. Take a look on Trip Advisor and filter for either a hotel or a B&B. Usually people will comment on how close they were to the airport. Another option if you stay in Swords is to turn your car in the night before you leave and catch a taxi/shuttle back to Swords and then either taxi/Shuttle to the airport the next morning. Since your flight is early you won't have to spend the extra time returning the car and being shuttled back to the airport. Enjoy!