First ( of many drafts) Ireland spring 2027

Looks good to me. We liked Galway, very walkable pedestrian area with music.

With just one night, you won't see any of Dublin, though. And if your flight out is early, you may need to stay at the airport the night before. Dublin is a big city, unlike the wonderful small towns, but there are a whole lot of things to see there. If you found a few Dublin things to visit, you could do one night in Galway.

Depends on your interests, history, trad music, Guinness Storehouse. To get a feel for Dublin, we've taken the Red Hop on, Hop off bus and gotten a narrated overview that was very interesting. And the Jameson Distillery is in Dublin, maybe your husband would like that.

The Ring of Kerry tour was very nice, took most of a day. We stayed in Killarney and took that tour. But Dingle is really a neat place.

Good idea to leave NI for another trip. It is really beautiful, and has a whole lot to see. No sense rushing around Belfast for 8 hours. Your next trip will also be awesome.

Hi Pat. Looks like a great trip. If it were me I would get on a train straight to Kilkenny and have all your Dublin days together at the end. Either way, in Dublin our highlights were a cocktail making class at the Jameson factory and the EPIC museum. We missed the Book of Kells which we will do if we go again. We spent 3 nights in Dingle and that was perfect. We took a tour with Dingle Slea Head Tours of the Dingle peninsula in a 12 seater van. Great tour!! We spent one day and one night in Cork as we were flying out of Cork to London but we enjoyed our day there which included the Butter Museum, the English Market, St. Fin Barre's Cathedral and a wonderful meal at Paradiso. You mention a visit to Waterford. We spent 2 nights there and enjoyed the Viking history and a tour of the Crystal Factory plus a part of the Waterford Greenway.

I'm wondering why you abandoned your plan to end the trip with relaxation time in a small village. I disagree with the other comment about saving Dublin for the end. Dublin is a great city for walking, the best way to fight off jet lag.
Unless you hire a private driver, getting from Dingle to Galway will take the better part of a day and likely multiple transfers. I doubt you'll want to turn around and get on another bus for the 6-hour (or longer) day trip to the Cliffs of Moher.
I posted my suggested itinerary in the other thread, so I won't reiterate here.

Thanks everyone. Nothing is set in stone yet. I appreciate all your feedback and will review it closely.
Moving about does seem time consuming. Doesn't look like we will have time to add another relaxing village.
We are staying in Dublin at the beginning of the trip for 3-4 days. We will need to get to the airport, that's the reason for the last night in Dublin . I'm assuming that Dublin is the best alternative to get back to LHR for our flight over the pond?
I was hoping Dingle would be a relaxing village.
I'll keep working on this. Thanks again.

You can fly direct to LHR from Shannon or Cork on Aer Lingus. Also, from Knock, but that's not on your travel path.

G3rryCee, thanks, I forgot about Shannon, that would make life easier. And I'm not against a private driver for a day of difficult connections- sometimes it's just worth it, and I don't seem to miss the money afterwards.
Thanks again.

Katiecem, great ideas, thx !

If you're flying out of Shannon, you should look at Doolin instead of Galway. Good access to the Cliffs of Moher. It's a village you can put right at the end of your trip. Seaside, even. Dingle is a town, BTW. You'll still want a driver to get you there from Dingle, but you can get a direct bus to Shannon.

G3rryCee,
Ooh...... thx. I just looked at Doolin- seems pretty perfect.

So another question -
Do I take one night for Kilkenny from Dublin?
Dublin 4 nights or
Dublin 3 nights and 1 night Kilkenny?
You all are so great and helpful, thanks again !

In order to determine how many nights to spend in each place, you need to make a list of all the places and things you want to see and do in (or from) that place and figure out how much time each one takes. If you intend to visit Waterford as a day trip from Kilkenny, it seems like you'd be staying two nights in Kilkenny. Otherwise, just move on to Waterford and stay there.

Have you looked at the bus schedules for parts of your itinerary yet? The reason I stayed in Killarney instead of trying to get to Dingle by bus was how much time it was going to use up. You can get day trips to Dingle from Killarney. Then, trying to get to Galway from Dingle is, as someone else mentioned, going to take up most of a day. This is why I made my way straight to Killarney from Dublin, then made my way back to Galway, by train, with the short stops on the way. Timewise, it does make sense to leave all your time in Dublin for the end of your trip. The less times you have to pack up and move on, the more time you will have on the ground to see the sights. Without a car you have to be very efficient with your time. Take an early morning train or bus whenever possible so that when you get to your destination you still have time to see one of the sights on your list. Or, travel in the early evening so you arrive at your next destination with enough time for a late dinner, but you will have all of the following day for sight seeing. This can be tricky to do if train and bus service is limited. Look at the official websites for the bus and train, not sites like Rome2Rio. They aren’t always accurate.

Hi Pat,
I think your schedule looks overall very good and you should have no problem with public transportation. I will say that, while I love Dingle (it's one of my favorite areas), without a car you may want to either stay in Killarney and take a day trip to Dingle or stay just 2 nights in Dingle (and do not miss the Dingle Distillery--book ahead.) Also, Galway is such a cool town I wouldn't take any nights away from it, I might add one more. There is so much to do and see in Galway. The music scene is great, food scene is great. You have easy access to a variety of popular sites such as Cliffs of Moher, Aran Islands, Connemara, etc (lots of day tours from Galway.) Doolin is quaint and does have walking access to the Cliffs (though that path, I believe, is closed now) and ferry to Aran Islands but bus access isn't as plentiful and there's not much else to do. And, for your last night you might consider staying in (or visiting from your airport hotel, which is what we usually do) Malahide instead of Dublin. Malahide is right by the airport--about 10-15 mins away. It is a cute, seaside village with great restaurants and a beautiful castle.
Some last thoughts on transportation: use the official transportation sites.
https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie for railway tickets
https://www.buseireann.ie/ and/or https://www.expressway.ie/ for bus tickets.
We've used both the bus services quite a bit through Ireland. Check the routes between the companies as often one is shorter than the other.
We are in Ireland a few times a year and have been to all of these towns/cities (some multiple times) but, these are only my opinions and may not fit with how you'd like to experience this beautiful country.

Anita and Kimberly, thanks so much, and especially the info about the various bus services.
I have family coming in for the next week, so will resume my research the end of July . I have a three month old puppy here and my 2.5 yr old granddaughter is coming- chaos, for sure!