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Central Location ("Hub") for 4 1/2 Day Experience

After having been in Belfast and Dublin for a week this summer, we'll have 4 1/2 days remaining to experience Ireland. If possible, we'd like to stay in 1 location (bed and breakfast inn or small house) as the "hub" of our travels for those days. We'd prefer to leave from and return to the same location each evening if there's a location that has 4-days' worth of interesting things to do surrounding it.

I know it's a very broad question, but does anyone have suggestions of locations to serve as a good central point for traveling out and back every day? We do particularly enjoy "local" experiences, interacting with the Irish and enjoying their culture, but we also have a wide variety of interests and are pretty flexible and luckily are mobile. We will already have several days in Dublin and several days in Belfast. For this portion of the trip, we'll be leaving from and returning to Dublin.

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions!

Posted by
509 posts

Kenmare, for Ring of Kerry and the adjacent Beara Peninsula.

Posted by
9 posts

Thanks much, rca. Will look at that.
If anyone has good lodging suggestions for those 4 days, please let us know.

Posted by
34 posts

We spent four days in Westport this summer. It is a really charming "tidy town" with great restaurants, pubs, and traditional music. From there, we went to Connemara National Park, the nearby "greenway" biking and hiking area, and a spectacular Achill Island drive.
There is also a beautifully restored Georgian Manor called Westport House that is open for tours, with great grounds and hiking. This was one of our favorite "hubs" during our month in Ireland.

Posted by
9 posts

Steve G,
Thanks so much for the helpful reply! Given the time available, I think we will choose the Westport and Galway areas. Do you or anyone else happen to have a suggestion about lodging in the area?

Posted by
444 posts

We're currently in Ireland , winding down a 3.5 week trip. We used several locations for bases. Kinsale for 4 nights ( Charles and James Fort, Cobh, Cork, Kinsale Old Head), Kenmare for 5 nights ( Ring of Kerry, Skellig Ring, Blasket Islands, Killarney National Park, Beara Peninsula, Gap of Dunloe), Dingle for 3 nights ( Dingle Peninsula, Dingle Aquarium), and Lahinch for 4 nights ( Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Arran Islands, Loop Head, Kilkee cliff walk). There's a number of things we could have continued to do -- hiking, cliff walking, beach strolling at high tide on the many sandy beach stretches. Once you get to a location you learn about many things you didn't know about. Have fun where ever you go!

Edit- oops, I meant low tide.

Posted by
34 posts

In Westport, we stayed in a great B and B called Augusta Lodge, just a 10 minute walk (or 2 minute drive) from downtown Westport. The hosts were great, the breakfasts were superb, and price very reasonable, location perfect. Have a great trip.