First Trip to Ireland - In Search of Itinerary Suggestions!

Kudos for planning a schedule so that you’re spending more than one night in each place.

As you’ve noted, this will involve a lot of driving, especially for 8 nights only. Six of the eight nights are in larger cities when much of Ireland’s charm is found in smaller cities/towns and the countryside. You may prefer the cities, and if that is the case, then that’s fine.

However, regarding the driving, from Dublin to Belfast takes you a good distance away from the other areas you plan to visit. Belfast is only a 2 – 2 ½ hours drive from Dublin, but it’s a 4 -5 hours drive from there to Galway. You’ll have another 3 – 4 hour drive to Dingle; then at least 5 hours back to Dublin.

The actual driving times are always much longer than the suggested times on Google Maps (except for very short distances). Slowly driving through the countryside and stopping to enjoy a view or a small village or a pub are a great part of enjoying a trip to Ireland. Having to rush to cover long distances every other day is not so enjoyable.

To eliminate some of the long range driving, you might consider skipping Belfast and driving from Dublin to Galway instead. You could do a day trip to the Aran Islands from there in addition to your other plans. If so, you could spend one more night in Galway or spend a night in Doolin or Ennis when you visit the Cliffs of Moher. Then you could enjoy a shorter drive to Dingle than the one from Galway.

Or you could drive from Dublin toward Dingle, perhaps making a brief side trip to Kilkenny for the first night, then head to Dingle the next day.

Here’s a link to Rick Steve’s suggested 8 day itinerary.

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ireland/itinerary

All the best,

Raymond

If you read the RS Ireland travel guide he recommends renting a car ( at least outside of Dublin). That is a fair amount of driving you have planned and it may at times be slower than expected. The day our tour group was at Cliffs of Moyer it was a gorgeous sunny weekend and the traffic was so bad the bus driver took an alternative route to our next stop. Also lots of narrow country roads.

As an alternative to driving or public transport, you could base yourself in Dublin then take trips from there. If you look at Viator for Dublin day trips you'll find that pretty much the entire island can be seen that way.

As far as stops, the Titanic Museum is excellent and if you're a GofT fan it's across the street from where a lot of the filming occurred. Northern Ireland is really playing up the tourist angle on that.

In Dublin i much preferred the Chester Beatty Library to the Book of Kells. It's free, has no long line to wait in and much more to see. For dining if you like casual we had a great meal at Gallaghers Boxty House - they have a website.

Way too much driving to me, but everyone is different. We spent 7 nights in Ireland last summer and just did County Kerry! Dingle & Killarney. I would concentrate on the North (Galway and Belfast) or the South (Dingle, Gap of Dunloe) not try to do both.

You will definitely need a car, no question about it. You could do Dublin to Belfast without one, but then you will need one to get to Galway. You will need to check about renting a car in one jurisdiction and driving it into another. Not sure what the situation is with that.
I think you're doing too much to be honest, and I second other posters who suggested dropping a destination. But don't base yourself in Dublin and do day trips to Galway, Kerry etc. Is it doable? Yes. Is it enjoyable? No. Galway and Kerry are just far away from Dublin to be day trips, and there's so much to see in those places they deserve more than a day trip.

I'll be blunt, this is far too much ground to cover for the number of days you have. You would definitely need a car to even attempt this as trying to get from Galway down to Dingle is an all day affair by bus. For so few days I would suggest just picking two locations and split your time between them. The two easiest would be Dublin and Galway as the train connection is easy and frequent. If you did this you would not need to rent a car as there are numerous guided day trips from each town that you could make use of. From Dublin you could also take the train to Belfast for the day. If you really want to get down south you could take the train to Killarney, but it is over four hours whereas Galway is just over two. Day trips from Galway could include Connemara/Kylemore Abbey, Burren/Cliffs of Moher, ferry out to Inishmore. Day trips from Dublin could include Newgrange/Tara/Monasterboice, Glendalough, train to Belfast or Kilkenny, plus some time in the city to see things such as the Book of Kells, Killmainham Jail and several museums and other sights to pick from. You will probably see a lot more doing it this way than renting a car and rushing around from place to place.

We've had 2 trips to Ireland so far, both for 3 weeks. The first one, in 2011, was by bicycle and bus; if we'd had a car, we might've gone a bit faster, but would've still needed more than 8 days. We landed in Dublin, took a bus immediately to Galway, and toured south from there, heading to Dingle and finishing in Limerick with a bus back to The Shannon Airport. That's the beauty of having an airport at Shannon - it's possible to fly in to Dublin in the east, and out of Shannon in the west.

Our second trip, last September, started and ended in Dublin, but we again took a bus to Galway upon arrival, then after a couple days in Galway we rented a car and went north and clockwise, around thru Clifden, Sligo, Dunfanaghy, Londonderry, Bushmills, Belfast, and on to Dublin.

We haven't even touched the southeast and southern parts of the isle, but we needed to stick to one section on each trip.

Without a car and with a commitment to fly in and out of Dublin, here's a thought: head to Belfast for the City and the British Open, then back to Dublin to catch a bus to Dingle. Then go up to Galway from there. Hire a driving guide or take a tour in Dingle to see the sights, bus up to Cliffs of Moher/Galway, then bus to Dublin. You could do the same with a car. Or, turn in your car at Shannon (or take the bus to Shannon Airport) and fly to Dublin for a couple hundred dollars per person. That might or might not save you time, but could save you more driving.

Thanks all! I so appreciate your feedback.

Given that we want to do a mix of small town + big city, I still like the idea of Galway, but we're wondering if anyone else has any other (closer) beach-type towns near Galway that might be a better use of time as opposed to going all the way down to Dingle?

We're locked into flying in and out of Dublin and we're locked into the first two nights in Belfast. Otherwise we're open ;)

Salthill, a kind-of suburb of Galway just to the west, has a beach with a long promenade, that locals stroll in the evening. Its Blackrock Beach has sand, despite the "rock" in the name.

Dingle is one of Rick Steves' top "Back Doors," but if you don't make it that far south, you could still venture a bit south of Galway to visit the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren lands.

And north and west of Galway, in Connemara, there are strips of beach south of Clifden town, although you'd need a car or driver.

We were in Ireland last June for 12 nights. We spent 3 nights in Dublin (I would cut it to 2), 2 nights in Kinsale - loved it!, 3 nights in Dingle (I would cut to 2), 1 night in Doolin, 2 nights in Clifden, and the last night at an airport hotel in Dublin for an early morning flight. We stopped at many other small towns and sites along the way. We originally wanted the itinerary to include Northern Ireland, but realized it would have been too much driving. We decided Northern Ireland would have to be another trip someday.

I don't think you should include Dingle in your trip. Yes, it was lovely; however, you're going to be spending far too much time driving. The driving does take longer than what you would expect, and as the driver I can state that, for the most part, it was very stressful.

I know you said you're locked in to Northern Ireland. Consider sticking in the top half of the island on this trip (Dublin - Galway and up). Everyone raves about the cliffs on the Western coast of Northern Ireland (supposedly better than the Cliffs of Moher). Plus, you never know what the weather will be on any given day. You may plan your whole trip around one location and have lousy weather. For us, our Dingle days were drenched with sheets of rain, as was our Cliffs of Moher day. We still went out and enjoyed ourselves, but it required us to change some of what we had planned. Also, we had one specific day set aside for Killarney National Park. When we got there, the national park was closed because Prince Charles was there. All of my planning, and I missed that.

Whatever you decide, have a wonderful trip!

To add to what Kristen said, the Giant’s Causeway and the 5 mile hike we did along the path atop the 300+ foot cliffs at the northern tip of the isle truly were spectacular. The super-strong winds along part of the hike made for a bit of a scare, but we were careful and it all turned out fine. The Slieve League cliffs are supposedly higher than the Cliffs of Mohee, and while very scenic with some interacting rock formations, if you only see one set of cliffs in Ireland, the 800 foot walls at the Cliffs of Moher are the ones to not miss. We stayed at a B&B just outside Bushmills for that north coast part of last fall’s trip. And along the coast, north of Belfast, we did The Gobbins guided walk, a re-opened walk along the cliffs on man-made supports and structures - truly a one of a kind experience, being followed by a friendly seal the whole way! If you can follow pro golfers as part of the gallery, you can do The Gobbins.

I have been to Ireland several times. If you want to go to Belfast, then I would go north and west. You could easily do Belfast, Giants Causeway and Northern Ireland. Then start driving West and South along the WAW. There are some cool places in counties Sligo and Mayo in western Ireland that don’t get any attention. There is a mini cliffs - Downpatrick Head. Never crowded and really cool. Then you could check out Achill Island and the beaches on your way to Galway. Maybe a stay in Westport. It may be less driving than going from Belfast to Dingle.

We didn't go to Galway, but spent several nights in the Connemara area, which is beautiful. We really enjoyed the Hawk Walk at Ashford castle.

And if you do the Hawk experience, go for the deluxe, extended version, which includes time with their Eagle Owl, in addition to your own personal hawk.

The Ring of Kerry on the Iveragh Peninsula. is my favourite. I would second the Gap of Dunloe the whole drive through The Black Valley is amazing.

Belfast is my favorite city on the whole planet! I love it there! My favorite place to eat is at McHughs Pub. The boxty is delicious! It's super easy to find... when you see the Big Ben like clock, it's right across the street.

Also, the Cliffs of Moher are awesome!!!! Could be foggy and windy so have a plan b. But I wouldn't miss it.

You will love Ireland. Be prepared, if you ask for directions they'll love to help you and tell you a 5 minute story! I love the Irish!

Have fun