Our trip is planned for late June -July (16 nights in total)
Day 1: drive from Dublin north to Carrickfergus for a two night stay. Is driving the coastline doable or should we just stick with the motorway and visit places like Drogheda, and Hill of Tara instead?
Day 2: trip in to Belfast via train for Titanic museum and Black Cab Taxi Tour. (2nd night in Carrickfergus)
Day 3: leave Carrickfergus and drive through Cushendall and Cushendun on the way to Carrick -a-rede Rope Bridge ( is this worth doing?), Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle and sleep in Derry for one night (or push on to Donegal)?
Day 4: Walk the walls of Derry - sleep in Donegal
Day 5: Discover Donegal or hike or drive the coast to Slieve League, and then head to Gallway for a three night stay (1st night in Gallway)
Day 6: Depending on weather visit the largest Aran Island, Drive up to Westport, discover Connemara (2nd night in Gallway) is a visit to Clonmacnoise (Monastic Ruins) a must see or not to bother?
Day 7: Drive to Burren and Cliffs of Moher (3rd night in Gallway)
Day 8: Leave Gallway and drive to Dingle Peninsula (two night stay) visit Adare along the way (1st night stay)
Day 9: Discover the Dingle Peninsula (2nd night)
Day 10: Leave Dingle and drive the Ring of Kerry (sleep in Bantry for one night)
Day 11: , Rock of Cashel, Kilkenny National Forest for cycling or walking. (sleep in Kilkenny one night)
Day 12: Drive to Wicklow visit the Lakes, Glens and Hills, Sleep in Wicklow (one night) is this a good idea??
Day 13: discover Wicklow tour of the Gaol (Jail) is this worth a visit or is the one in Dublin a better choice? Sleep in Dublin for 4 nights.
Day 14: Dublin (Days will be full here with all of the sites to see including a hike in Howth (by train) that has been recommended.
Day 15: Dublin
Day 16: Dublin
Day 17: Fly home
We are planning to rent a car and drive this route. Your opinions will be appreciated. If we are spending to much time in a spot or not enough time or should chop something off please advise.
Thanks,
Selina
Posted by
Seattle
255 posts
Since everyone has their own ideas about what is "too much" or "too fast", I will simply say that we did less in our 18 days spent outside Dublin than you are doing in your 13 days outside Dublin. We enjoyed our pace and did not feel it was too slow. If anything we felt a little bit rushed to get everything done on occasion. But maybe you will get up a lot earlier and will drive a lot faster than we did. I offer the following specific opinions. The Hill of Tara is underwhelming, it's just a small grassy hill with a flat top and a small chapel on the side. Some may want to see it for the historical significance, but physically it really is not much different from many other Irish hills. I'd longed to see Giant's Causeway my whole life. I came away thinking that the most significant thing about it is the enormous visitor's center and huge number of people visiting. If you want to see this kind of geologic formation (columnar basalt), there are many better examples around the US, Canada and elsewhere in the world that are much, much less crowded and much more impressive in size. Well known example - Devil's Tower in Wyoming is way more dramatic. Lastly, IMO you can't go wrong by starting with the RS Ireland guide "best 3 week trip by car" and modifying it for your actual time. Don't stress out about whether you have optimized your "must-see" list or not. Whatever you do will be an adventure. Have a grand time.
Posted by
Chicago
8164 posts
Its not too much because you will not do all that you have detailed.
Posted by
RIchmond, BC,Canada
933 posts
Everybody travels at a different speed, but as another poster said I don't think you will accomplish all that's on your list. You will get sidetracked by something, or stay longer than you intended at a location that really interests you. You need to set your priority sight for the day, then once you have accomplished that see what else will fit in. Clonmacnoise is worth a visit, but probably not the way you are trying to fit it in on day six. I spent about an hour and a half at the sight, and that's because I take a lot of photos. If you are going to visit Clonmacnoise then have other places to see to make a day of it. Hill of Tara really is just a hill, if you are like me and like to stand on top of historical hills then go, but I did it as part of a day tour from Dublin, and the guide on the trip was fabulous, and told us a lot of the history of the place while we were there. Just stopping by on your own it might be underwhelming. Your day 11 is going to be a long day, also. If you go to the park you will have limited time (half a day?) if you still want to drive to Kilkenny with a stop at Cashel on the way. Remember that although you have a car, and this will make getting around quicker, you still have to allow time to get to the location, park the car, pay admission, maybe wait to be let in or stand in line for a while. If you're anything like me you will also get lost on occasion (even when the route does look straight forward). So, be prepared to remove places from your list. Killmainham Jail in Dublin is a very good choice, but I did not do the Wicklow Jail. You won't need the car in Dublin, and this might be the time to do a guided day tour that will cover Howth, or Newgrange as these day tours will also cover other sights such as the Hill of Tara, Monasterboice and others you may have missed. Might be a more efficient way to see some things you missed. The hop on hop off bus in Dublin is great, and sometimes it's best to just do a complete round trip of the route before getting off at any location. It will help you get orientated, and decide where to start. You don't have to go to every sight. You won't have time. Check out some web sites for companies that do day tours and see what they cover in a day. This will give you a good idea of what you should be able to accomplish.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you so much for the advice and tips. It looks like I need to trim and that will be a challenge as I want to do it all. I will have another stab at this and see how to best organize.
Please feel free to send other tips or recommendations. It will all be appreciated.
Best,
Selina