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First trip to Ireland/England

Flying into London first for 5 days. Then flight to Dublin, but renting car and staying a little south, perhaps near Dun Laoghaire after renting a car at airport..

Plan is a couple of nights in Kilkenny, then two nights Kinsale, 2 nights Dingle, 2 nights Galway. Drive from Galway back to airport to drop off rental car. Take the bus/shuttle into Dublin and stay 2 nights in Dublin, before flying back late the 3rd day to Heathrow and staying at Heathrow hotel for the early morning flight the next morning to Seattle. (Had 'almost' free first class tickets to and from London and had to do the flights this way.)

Main questions are whether the Ireland itinerary makes sense, using these towns/cities as centerpoints for local exploration and daytrips without too much driving around.

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This is a doable itinerary.....especially for a first trip to Ireland.....however it involves A LOT of driving. Essentially you will lose days to driving. Kinsale to Dingle is about 4.5-5 hours without stops. Dingle to Galway is even longer. Driving in Ireland is fun, I love it, however it is challenging and requires maximum concentration so the driver and even the passenger/navigator are not going to be able to do US style sightseeing from the car.

So personally I would cut out at least one stop (would need to know your main areas of interest in order to recommend what to drop). You can't see everything in Ireland, no point in trying or in getting frustrated that you can't. The goal we find more rewarding instead of trying to stack up itinerary stops is to pause, linger and explore an area and really EXPERIENCE Ireland. So by trimming even one of your stops .....adding a day more to a couple other places you'll decrease driving and exponentially increase your enjoyment and feel for a given area.

Our best memories are never the big sights or racing around.....it's the small unexpected moments....and those Always flow from having the time for them to happen. I could give tons of examples just from our trip last month but one was stopping in a home based bakery near Dunquin on the Dingle peninsula. My wife complimented the bakers cake and talked about ingredients.....the wonderful woman who ran the bakery pulled my wife in the back and they spent a half hour to an hour going over recipes....teaching my wife some Irish (she is learning it) ......We left laden down with free samples and great hints about cool spots to visit nearby. Thank God we had the time to indulge.....no need for multi hour driving....or racing to the next must see. My wife now has another real friend and they write back and forth all the time.

So anyway, consider trimming some......especially the driving times and it actually will increase the enjoyment of Ireland.