Dingle and Ring of Kerry by public transit/tours?

I can answer about Dingle. I walked the Dingle Way -- a 100-mile-long trail -- in 2010. I also visited Dingle on an earlier trip

In 2010, Irish Bus had a route between Dingle Town and Tralee, which is on the "mainland". That bus also stopped in towns between the two, such as Camp, Annascaul and others. It's almost a certainty that that route is still available.

Check with Irish Bus to see if it has other routes on Dingle. Few Americans see the north coast because Dingle Town is on the south coast. An Clochan, a beautiful small town in the north coast next to the easy-to-climb Mt. Brandon, might be the best small town I've seen in 5 trips to Ireland.

Unfortunately, I've never been on the Ring of Kerry, but Irish Bus certainly serves parts of it.

Paddywagon Tours offers day tours to Ring of Kerry (including Killarney National Park) and Dingle Peninsula from Cork. I did the Ring of Kerry tour in April and loved it, Comfortable bus,
excellent driver/guide, and great stops on the way.

You can take the train from Dublin to Killarney and then base yourself there to take advantage of any number of daytrip and tour providers to see the surrounding area.
There are also 2 flights per day between Dublin and the Kerry Airport near Killarney if you prefer.

It appears you can visit the Dingle Peninsula from Dingle using public transportation: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Dingle.

Picking up on Bill's post, you don't need to start from Cork - you can also do a Paddywagon tour of the Ring of Kerry from Killarney. Paddiwagon also do a tour of the Dingle Peninsula from Killarney The website advises advance booking particularly for Ring of Kerry which is very popular.

The Ring of Kerry and Wild Kerry Day Tours also offer similar tours. (I've no persobnal experience of either company.)

It appears you can visit the Dingle Peninsula from Dingle using public transportation: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Dingle.

This is the website for the Dingle Local Link services- https://www.locallinkkerry.ie/dingle/

And this is the Bus Eireann Timetable 275 from Dingle to Tralee referred to- https://buseireann.ie/inner.php?id=406&form-view-timetables-from=Cork+%28Bus+Station+-+Parnell+Place%29&form-view-timetables-to=Dublin+Airport+%28Terminal+Two%29&form-view-timetables-route=275&form-view-timetables-submit=1

We will be doing Dingle in August on public transport. We are taking a train from Killarney to Tralee and then a bus from Tralee to Dingle. We have booked a half day tour of the peninsula so I know it is possible. However, we booked with no recommendations so don't know the quality.

RS covers independent travel for those areas in his Ireland guidebook, and may suggest other options than big bus tours.. He tries to steer people clear of Killarney in favor of Kenmare.

What Rick actually says is to use Kenmare if you have a car, but Killarney is better if on public transport.

In the RS Ireland guidebook [my older edition], Killarney is relegated to two paragraphs under the section heading "Near Kenmare" - there are no lodging or restaurant listings for Killarney. The book states "If you're traveling in the region without a car, you'll have to stop here." What's listed are bus connections to/from Kenmare, Tralee and Dingle. The subtext is that RS doesn't recommend that anyone actually stay in Killarney.

The guidebook has good coverage of both Kenmare and Dingle Town, including public transportation connections and local tour operators.

As it happens Bus Eireann have just hugely improved the Kenmare to Killarney bus service from 3 per day to an hourly service and on an extended route- but still only on a Monday to Friday- https://buseireann.ie/timetable/3216.pdf

The fact that such a major change has only just happened (it could have been the other way, a reduction from hourly to 3 a day) shows that you should never rely on guidebooks alone.

Any guidebook will always be subjective in it's opinions. Sometimes convenience comes over subjectivity. I happen to think that Wasley's advice was good, and the new bus service will help you to consider Kenmare now as there is even now a late evening connection.

Much as I prefer Kenmare to Killarny, I think if I was wanting to do these two trips by public transport, I would pick Killarney.

Also remember any guide book can often be out of date as soon as it is published...

isc31- Thank you! I had resigned myself to taking a taxi from Kenmare to Killarney in order to catch the right train to Cork. Very excited to see there are more bus option.

I took the train from Dublin to Killarney and spent four nights there doing guided day trips to the Dingle Peninsula, and the national park and Gap of Dunloe.. Rick Steve’s does not like Killarney due to it being a tourist hub, but it really is a very practical, well located place to stay, especially if you don’t have a car. I originally tried to find a reasonable way to get to Dingle by bus, but it was going to take up far too much of my time, and I would have had to remove a couple of other places from my list. Killarney is not a bad place, I actually quite enjoyed it, but the town does cater to tourists, which makes it a busy place.

There are Tour operators in Killarney doing the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula.
We did both on our several trips to the southwest of Ireland.

We choose Dero Tours in Killarney for group tours
https://derostours.com/

and Kerry Experience Tours and Walkwithme.ie for Private Tours
https://kerryexperiencetours.ie/
https://walkwithme.ie/

Group tours are less expensive.

We also rented a car during our trips and it we get used to drive on the other side of the road ;o))

So dont be afraid

Thank you so much, everyone! So many good suggestions! I can't waitI need to start mapping out several itineraries, so I can jump on those last minute air fares. I'm a bit apprehensive about renting a car, since I'll be alone ( unless a college friend comes along) and the automatic transmission cars are a good bit more expensive. I can't wait to get back to Ireland.