Deciding places in Ireland for home based.

I always have those ambitions when I start planning, but when I get down to the fine detail, I always end up doing one or two night stays for several reasons. 1) If you like food, self-catering isn't that great. 2) After driving an hour or two, it's always easier to stay where you are than return to where you were. 3) Checking in/out is simple in B&Bs, so it doesn't slow you down if you travel light. 4) If you like music (and Guinness) then it's nice to walk home rather than drive all the way back to base. 5) We live a rural life, so relaxing isn't that big a draw. #4 is probably the biggest factor.

There's enough to see in and around Dublin, Skye, Orkney, Shetland and a few others for a maybe three days each, but other places run out of things nearby pretty quickly. If you expect to climb Ben Nevis or go to Staffa, that adds Glencoe/Ft. William and Oban.

Our June 23 trip is a 2+3+2+1+2+2+1, so my best intentions were stronger than usual. Probably because it's a fourth trip and we've seen an awful lot of our bucket list already and this one picks up those areas we've missed or really enjoyed.

Just my two cents...

If driving in Northern Ireland I’m not certain a base would work that well without having to do a lot of backtracking. When we drove the Antrim coast we started the day at the Old Inn in Crawfordsburn (great hotel), then visited the castle at Carrickfergus, Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge, Giant’s Causeway, and took a tour of the Bushmills distillery and spent the night in Portrush. The rest of the trip we did one night stays. Trim might be a place you could use as a base for a couple nights as well as someplace over by Dingle; perhaps Tralee. As an aside, if you ever watched the UK tv show Ballykissangel, it was filmed primarily in Avoca. There are plenty of outdoors activities in the Glendalough area. We also spent nights in Kinsale and Kilkenny, both were nice and either might work depending on what what decide to see and visit.

Since you’re going to Ireland, I have no idea why jjgurley mentioned so many places in Scotland.

I used a similar strategy for our 28 day trip in 2019. We used the following as our bases (longer trip so more bases):
1. Kilkenny—Jerpoint Abbey, Rock of Cashel, Kilkenny town, Waterford
2. Killorglin—base for Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula. We also daytripped to Kinsale from there.
3. Lahinch—the Burren, Cliffs of Moher, Loop Head, Ennis, Doolin
4. Clifden—Connemara National Park, Inishbofin, Kylemore Abbey, Doo Lough Valley, Killary Fjord
5. Donegal—Slieve league, Glenveagh Park, Glencolmcille, Derry
6. Portrush—Antrim Coast, Giants Causeway, Bushmill’s Distillery, day trip to Belfast

We stayed in Airbnb or VRBO places in all but Lahinch where I booked a lovely B&B.

In 2018 we spent 6 nights in Ireland basing for 3 in Doolin and 3 in Dublin. We had a car and made several stops along our journey. Dublin would be great for 4 nights with day trips. Doolin is small. Galway is in the same general area and larger and although we haven't visited there I'm guessing it would be a better west coast base for 4 nights.

Katheryne's strategy pretty much describes the way we organize our trips as well - ie basing ourselves in a central hub, unpacking once for several days, and exploring by car every day from there.
Her suggestion to consider Killorglin as a base for exploring both Dingle and the ROK is a good one. From there it's an easy drive to the Gap of Dunloe, the beautiful Skellig Ring Road, and the Kerry Cliffs, and is handy for a quick trip into Killarney to explore the National Park without actually having to stay in the congested and charmless little town.
Likewise using Clifden as a base for Connemara is good for the reasons she states, as well as being close to the ferry landing at Rossaveal for a trip out to the Aran Islands. Consider too the short drive over to the village of Cleggan for the short ferry out to Inishbofin - one of Ireland's better kept little secrets.
If this is to be your first time driving in Ireland know that drive time estimates shown on Google maps are understated by about 30%, so it'll take a lot longer than you expect if using the rural "N" and "R" roads. The exception is the modern motorway system where you can zip along at high speed if you just want to "get there".
With so little time at your disposal I'd suggest resisting the urge to circle the island and instead proceed at a more leisurely pace. I think you'll find it a much more pleasant experience if you do. And if possible try to include time in Northern Ireland. Derry, the Antrim Coast, and Belfast are all worth your time.

1. Dublin (day trips to Boyne Valley and Trim). Don’t need a car, can sign up for a tour at the TI office.
2. From Dublin drive to Kilkenny (1h 45m) and tour the town before moving on to Cashel (1h) and sleep there. The following day tour the Rock of Cashel. The day after that take a day trip to Kinsale (2h). On your third day go to Cobh (1h 45m).
3. Drive from Cashel to Dingle (3h) and listen to Gaelic music that evening while enjoying a pint of Guinness. The following day drive around the peninsula it won’t take long.
4. Drive from Dingle to the Cliffs of Moher (3h 45m). Afterwards drive to Galway (1h 45m) and sleep there. Spend one day on Inishmore (Aran Island), another day drive to Doolin (1h 30m) and then on to Ennis (45-minutes) then back to Galway (1h 15m). I would also dedicate another full day to exploring Connemara and stopping in Westport (1h 30m) for the day.

These have been all fantastic suggestions. I will do some research and start making reservations. Thank you. Charles

My bad on the Scotland mentions. I'm planning two trips at the same time, and watch both forums. I meant to address Ireland, and my days were correct. Just ignore the second paragraph! Doh!

It should have been:

There's enough to see in and around Dublin, Belfast, and maybe Galway if you're going to InishMor, but most other bases lead to lots of backtracking.

Our first trip (I think it was 7 nights total?) included 1-2 night stays in each place: Ennis (proximity to airport; we flew into Shannon airport from London), Dingle, Kinsale, Kilkenny, Dublin. It was definitely too much to tackle in 7 nights (and too much driving).

For our second trip, we slowed down, did a longer trip, and focused on western Ireland: Galway (including a day trip to Aran Islands), Westport, Doolin, Dingle, and finished with a night in Ennis to be close to Shannon airport.

My favorite places: Dingle, Aran Islands, Galway, and Doolin.

On our 20 day 2015 trip we had 5 bases--4 Airbnb and one traditional B&B. Since it was our 2nd trip we focused only on the south and west part of the island. We stayed in: Baltimore for 3 nights ( a port village, popular with tourists and locals for water sports and for Lough Hyne, Ireland's first marine nature preserve); Cahersiveen for 4 nights at a really wonderful Airbnb--a good location for visiting Valentia Island, the Cliffs of Kerry and Skellig Michael (which sadly was closed due to Star Wars filming when we were there); Furbo for 3 nights (very close to Galway and an easy drive to Rosseveel to catch the ferry to Inishmore) and 4 nights in Westport, a great little town with some excellent music venues and a good base to visit Cong and the megalithic sites of Carrowkeel and Carrowmore. We also spent 3 nights in Dingle at our favorite B&B from our previous trip and did a partial repeat of the Slea Head drive because we enjoyed it so much the first time. We really liked doing a mix of self-catering and traditional B&B--we ate some meals out and did some of our own cooking. Grocery shopping was something we quite enjoyed--some things are very much the same as in the US and some things are very different.