Favorite towns to stay in?

Assuming that you are coming from North America and will be tired and jet lagged, I would not drive on Day 1. I would stay in Dublin night 1 and then drive to Kilkenny for night 2.

Thank you.
And do you have favorite towns to have as your base for seeing sites?

Dingle was my favorite of these, you can easily find music, food, natural beauty, great drives, art, and hikes. We also took in a Gaelic football game playoff while there, what a blast with the locals!!! We stayed with Camilla at www.brownesdingle.com. Just a short walk west of town (1 mile), not far from the harbor. We also loved Doolin and Daly's was an awesome B&B. www.dalys-doolin.com Susan was a great host and is very well organized in helping you plan any travels in the area, she was great. Have Susan book you an evening at the Doolin Music House. Kenmare was also a good spot, we had to work a bit harder to find music every night but it is available and the restaurants are really good. Great access to the Ring of Kerry and the lesser known Beara Peninsula, just south. We had a great large room at www.ashfieldkenmare.com and the hosts were top notch and helpful. We hired Paul Brown for a private tour of the RofK and it was an awesome day. www.kenmaretaxitours.com Do yourself a favor and take a day off from driving and let Paul show you the RofK! I'm jealous my trip is in the rearview mirror and yours is out the front windshield!!

What a great reply and details! Thank you!
Did you spend any time in Dublin or Galway?

Really depends on what you want out of it. There are fantastic small towns with a couple pubs but are wonderful laid back "real" Ireland and there are larger towns that offer far more in the way of restaurants and pubs but are a bit more busy and touristy. More personal preference.

For my wife and I - here's our take. Dingle - great location and a pretty town. During season very tourist crowded and congested. Good pubs and restaurants but for us a bit too much congestion. Great as a base but left us a bit harried.

Kenmare - super location for the ROK - excellent shopping options - excellent pubs restaurants and music - though trad music wasn't always available. Great option and convenient but a bit busy and larger than we like.

Sneem - awesome small town- especially after 4 when the day trippers leave. Awesome ROK location. Fantastic views - excellent pub grub and restaurants- loved Kelly's for lunch - food SO good. Great feel - close to the wonderful Staigue Ring Fort. Excellent location and if you want a small medium size town - it's great.

Waterville - really nice - great ocean front. Pubs, restaurants all top notch. Perfect location for ROK and Skellig Ring. Fun vibe there - gorgeous lake just inland Lough Currane. Really really nice people. Generally low key. It's on the end - west side of the Peninsula but for exploring the area hard to beat. Close to INSANE scenery !!!

Portmagee - awesome jumping off point for Skellig Michael, Valencia Island, Skellig Ring and the ROK. Very small but a couple good pubs and restaurant options. Really friendly folks .....Cliffs of Kerry right outside town - one of the best spots in Ireland. A fun place - but small if youre looking for active night life and has very little shopping to speak of. But you get quiet real Ireland in a GREAT location for exploring the area.

Dingle area is gorgeous but can be reasonably explored in a day or two... The ROK has far more diversity to offer and things to do.. 3-4 days for it are WELL worth it. Both good options they offer a lot with different time needs for exploration.

Our favorite larger town. Kenmare. Our favorite medium size town Waterville by a nose over Sneem. Favorite small town Portmagee. Favorite spot to stay - small village - the Glen and Ballinskellig.

Would urge you to skip Kinsale. It's great but a lot of driving for you all. I'd also pick either Dingle or the ROK on limited time and really explore either. Trying to do both you basically end up missing both. If you are going to Doolin for the Cliffs of Moher you can see better cliffs on the Skellig Ring outside of Portmagee at the Cliffs of Kerry and save tons of driving time.

All towns listed are good options and perfect for tailoring to your wants. Just give yourselves as much down time as possible to wander, linger and explore and interact w the warm, funny, gently sarcastic and welcoming Irish people. That's when the trip magic happens!

Have a great trip !

S we spent two nights in Dublin prior to our flight out. We visited the jail, the archel. museum, took an open bus tour around town. We also one night did a traditional music pub crawl that was pretty cool. You have to get tix in advance either over the net or by visiting the pub a day early or if your lucky you can show up and they have an opening. We meet at Gogartys Pub in the Temple Bar area and walked to three or four other locations to experience the different pubs, the musicians walked with us and played at each pub, it was really fun and they played traditional irish music and spoke about Ireland, I would recommend it. Give Gogartys a look if interested I think they may have a link for the musical pub crawl on their website, www.gogartys.ie We stayed in the Temple Bar area and it was pretty rowdy but fun. We did the hop on hop off bus to get to the jail and to tour around a bit. As you have no doubt seen the prices for rooms in Dublin are more pricey than the rest of Ireland, we stayed at the https://www.themerchanthouse.eu/, as you will see, pricey but located in the middle of Temple Bar. We had no trouble with the noise but some folks have said it was a problem. If you think you might stay there hit me up on private message for some additional info. I enjoyed Dublin, the street performers were awesome, but I would not trade a day in west Ireland for a day in Dublin.

I like to plan by how many nights I will be in each place to determine how many days I'm there. We only had 7 nights in Ireland. Arriving from California we drove to Kilkenny and spent one night. I would not want to drive further than that on an arrival day. We spent one night there. The next day we drove to Dingle, stopping at the Rock of Cashel on the way. We spent 2 nights in Dingle, which was my favorite place. The one full day we had was spent exploring Slea Head Drive. The pubs and music there are fun. We stayed at the Milestone House, and I highly recommend it. I wish we had more time for Dingle and look forward to returning some day. From there we spent one night in Galway and 3 nights in Dublin. I'm not a fan of one night stays, but with a short trip there is sometimes no choice. I haven't been to the other locations you mention, so can't compare them.

Yes Dingle is a great town, although busy and touristy.
So is Doolin and Kinsale, therefore, might I suggest you do some less busy, less touristy places.
Kenmare would fit that bill.........but also on the west coast Lisdoonvarna, Westport, Clifden, Ennistymon. These are all on the west coast and give you good access to the attractions there.
I just realized you did not mention when this trip is taking place. Obviously, the month you go has a lot to do with how busy some of these places get.

Thank you all for these great replies!
I will get to researching all these smaller towns I had not heard of. You all are a great resource.
We are traveling mid April so I have hopes it wont be too too touristy.
jarrardd--Your final line is very telling and I will keep that in mind.

I want to save a day for Rock of Cashel and Kilkenny but I don't know if everyone might think they also are not worth giving up a day on the West Coast.

We loved Kilkenny - it was one of our favorite cities on our trip last October. There was a lot to do with Kilkenny Castle (beautiful to see all lit up at night), shopping, Smithwicks and Matt the Miller's Pub. Both the Rock of Cashel and nearby Cahir Castle are both worth visiting, too. I thought seeing the Rock of Cashel up on the hillside was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in Ireland. Very windy up on the hill but we really enjoyed walking around. Have a great time!

thank you Joyce!

If your heading east to Cashel/Kilkenny consider an hour away from Cashel is Glendalough.....the ruins of a monastic settlement in an incredible setting. It peaceful, moving, beautiful and if have time simple, gorgeous walks by lakes that are amazing. One of our favorite spots in Ireland. If you do have time it's worth the trip.

Thanks ewewoolknit!