Family vacation in Co. Kerry

Our families favorite spot in Ireland. We love renting a home (cottage) for our stays. It is cheaper, far more convenient, settled and relaxing after a day of exploring. There are many companies facilitating that.....we use Shamrock Cottages .....and have had nothing but first class service. You can look through County Kerry (though I'm sure not all their availability dates are in quite yet). There are pictures, descriptions and the interactive Google maps where you can "walk" the area near your home. It's so liberating just being able to live in your own Irish home for the stay.
For us we like the Skellig Ring, real remote wild Ireland with tons to do from Skellig Michael, Balkinskellig Beach, Valentia Island, being part of the UN dark sky preserve cloudless nights offer INSANE star gazing, Portmagee to great historic sights everywhere is perfect for us and you are away from the more tourist clogged Ring of Kerry. But you might prefer the much more touristy but centrally located Killarney area with great access to the ROK, Dingle, more restaurants and shopping. Or a happy medium might be near Sneem or Kenmare on the south side of the ROK......incredible scenery, wonderful small towns and very convenient locations. Really depends on what your family wants.
So our two cents are - a home is the affordable best option. If you want quiet, relaxed wild Ireland away from the tourist hoards the Skelkig Ring is awesome....you still have access to restaurants, pubs and TONS of great fun family activities but it isn't as conveniently located (but still very doable). If you want great scenery a bit more in the way of restaurants, pubs, shopping and better access Sneem or Kenmare areas are great. And if you want great access and enjoy much more developed, busy and tourist filled (but still wonderful) Killarney is a tremendous spot. My vote - Skellig Ring ! :)
Hope you have a great time !!!

My first suggestion as you look it to use the phrase "holiday home" in your search. In america we say vacation home, and if you seek out one here, not many show up, because the owners don't know that phrase. A site here, similar to craigslist in america, is DoneDeal.ie. You can buy a used bike or rent a holiday home for a week! I know two of my neighbors use that to list their properties in Waterville.

To give you an idea on VERY general pricing, one place in Waterville that is very posh is about $1,400 for the week; another that is quite nice as well charges $400 for the week. They each seem to charge what they want to get out of it re: their mortgage, etc, and less about what they think someone might pay!

Also - most holiday homes charge for electricity and fuel. If you see it on a listing, you may feel aprehensive, but everyone I know that does this has the electrical meter right there, so when you check in they write down the numbers, and when you leave you send them the numbers. It's not shady, at all! I had two friends rent a place near me for a week (I don't have a guest room!) and they totally cranked up the heat.... even with that it wasn't a terrible add on for their fuel!

I don't know if Rick Steves moderators will allow this comment (I'm not affiliated!) but there's a new group of holiday homes in Waterville called Lough Currane Lodges. They have 22 holiday homes together, have bicycles, is walking distance to the lake (near the GAA field) and the village. I know I've meet a few families that have rented them so they can have two houses next to each other. Everyone that I know personally wouldn't rent one home to 11 people.....that's a big group for one house!

Good luck and enjoy Kerry! (the best county in Ireland!!)

Susan

Susan is so totally right. Forgot to mention Waterville which we LOVED ! A wonderful location with great access to everything Kerry offers and the nicest most genuine folks ! Honestly in the five total weeks we have spent in Kerry we have never met anyone who isn't among the nicest people we have ever met ..... Not sure why but they are flat out AWESOME and Waterville is a center for that.

Glad you liked Waterville and Kerry and I love your name EweWoolKnit!!!!

Susan