First Time to Ireland

Greetings from Ireland, and Dingle!

Good to hear you are bringing your clan to Ireland for the first time. February is a great month to travel, pretty much everything will be open, except maybe for the odd restaurant or two, but February is quite busy actually.

Getting to Dingle is a good idea, just be careful with the jet-lag and fatigue while you're driving there, once you get beyond limerick the roads are narrow and bumpy here and there. Americans often look at a map and underestimate how long it can take to drive from place to place in Ireland.

Going to the Ring of Kerry from Dingle is certainly doable, although my professional opinion would be there is no point because the Dingle peninsula is identical scenery, equally spectacular.

That being said, the Ring of Kerry is famous and you may want to be able to say you've driven it, and if you do you'll love it. It is quite a long drive though. It would be an all-day affair. But a good day out.

Galway is very enjoyable and Dublin really deserves those 2 nights in my opinion.

Enjoy, and if you have any further questions just send me a message.

le meas/with respect
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland Tour-Guide
Dingle & Derry

You'll need to sort out the logistics of moving your group of 5, with luggage, from place to place. A vehicle large enough to handle everything will restrict you to the larger roads , ie the motorways and the "N" roads for the most part. You probably wouldn't want to drive on some of the narrow rural roads unless you're very familiar with driving in Ireland...and even then...
If you didn't want to deal with driving immediately upon arrival you could catch the train from Dublin to Galway - less than 3 hours as I recall. Could settle in there for a few days and either rent a car or just rely on local tours to see Connemara and the surrounding area.
It's a full day's drive from Galway to Dingle (or the reverse), although depending on the weather there are some interesting stops along the way to break up the drive.
The ROK is doable from Dingle, though as previously stated it too would make for a long day.
For a first time visit, and during that time of year, you might be better off going to either Galway or Dingle but not both. Would be a lot of ground to cover in only 8 days. Might make for a more relaxing journey for everyone involved if you slowed your pace a little. There's plenty to keep you occupied in Dublin, and day trips from there to Glendalough, Powerscourt, Newgrange, etc. would be easy. Could even hop on the train up to Belfast for a day (2 hours). Fascinating city, and the Titanic Museum there is really world class.
Safe travels.

Our most recent trip, we rented an SUV as this trip there were five of us as well as will be your case. Had no problems whatsoever driving on all the roads. There was plenty of room in the vehicle for us and the luggage. One trip we did drive to parts of the Ring of Kerry from Dingle but we all felt it was not worth it as we really like Dingle better. We went to Sneem and through the Ladies View on the Ring and then back to Dingle. Depends on how you do with jet lag as to whether or not to drive to Dingle on arrival. We have done it both ways. Whatever you do, it is a wonderful country.

"Had no problems whatsoever driving on all the roads."
Careful there. The rural roads I refer to are the ones that are only one to one and a half lanes wide, requiring that one of the opposing drivers give way to the other by using one of the designated pullouts...there physically isn't room enough to pass side by side...even for small vehicles. Many visiting Yanks try to do so every year resulting in either sideswiping an impediment (usually an old rock wall) on the passengers side, or (even more exciting) a lost mirror on the driver's side.
Point being that there are some unique rules of the road in Ireland that require some getting used to. Do use a lot of caution until you've gained some experience.
The street view feature on Google maps can be quite helpful in planning your routes. Some of the detail is really amazing, plus it just helps to have seen the road (signage, turnoffs, roundabouts, etc) before you have to negotiate them in earnest.

Thank you so much for all the advice. This forum is awesome! As I dig into the maps, guide book, and fine tune my itinerary I will be back with more questions.