Five night itinerary for mid-August

I think you're stressing for no reason. The drive from Dublin to Cobh via Cashel is only about three hours. A stop at the Rock of Cashel should take maybe an hour or 90 minutes at the most. If you leave Dublin at eight or nine in the morning, you should have plenty of time to visit the museum in Cobh.

As far as poo-pooing Cobh, there's quite a bit to see in the area. Since your guests want to see Titanic-related sights, you may also want to check out the cemetery at the Old Church, five minutes away. It's the location of three mass graves from when the Cunard liner LUSITANIA was torpedoed on May 7, 1915. Your friend might also be interested in having a meal or drink (or two) at the Commodore Hotel. The restaurant/bar there is chock full of steamship-related memorabilia. Additionally, the Cobh cathedral is absolutely jaw-dropping, and is definitely worth seeing (even if you're not religious).

As for driving the ROK or taking a bus tour.....I personally am not a fan of bus tours; especially on the ROK. They all follow the same basic route, and nearly all of them skip the best sights. My first trip to Ireland was on a bus tour, and I came back thinking the ROK was no big deal. The next trip was a driving trip, and we saw some spectacular sights. If you decide to drive the ROK, I can suggest the Geokaun Mountain and Fogher Cliffs, the Kerry Cliffs, The Ballaghisheen Pass, the Ballaghbeama Gap, and of course Molls Gap and the Gap of Dunloe.

One other thing. If you're going to visit the Kilkee Cliffs (which are incrediible), do yourself a favor and drive about 15-20 minutes more and visit the Bridges of Ross and Loop Head. Absolutely spectacular.

You're trying to see a heck of a lot in a five night period, which means you're going to be on the go the entire time. If that's how you like to travel (I do), no problem, it can be done...especially since you're flying out of Shannon. I do suggest that you take the ferry across the Shannon from Tarbert to Killimer (instead of going all the way around through Limerick)...it saves a lot of time, and the scenery is great. It also makes it easier to visit Kilkee.

Hope this helps.

-Russ

Hi Russ,
Yes, we're planning to take the Tarbert Ferry, and definitely want to see the Loop Head lighthouse (hey, we're Star Wars fans, but not fit enough to climb Skellig Michael). Kilkee is the home of one of our guest's ancestors so that's its main draw, but the cliffs are a definite plus, too.

I agree there's a lot of driving. I wanted to do this over 8 days and nights, but that's not in the cards for a number of reasons; not the least of which is 5 nights before this in a high-end Dublin hotel for a conference.

I'm torn on the idea of bus tours. I've never taken them (except for a city "red bus" tour in Vienna, which was OK). In St. Petersburg I wish I'd had a guided tour with accredited guides and bus transportation. Guide books and my own sense of exploration only go so far. Local guides are entertaining, far more knowledgeable than any of us and it gives me a break from driving. But on the other hand, as you say, you're on their schedule and you see only what they deem important, and because they cater to large groups of often older tourists (with perhaps greater medical restrictions than our own), they could take longer and visit fewer spectacular points along the way.

The problem is timing. If we do a bus tour we either have to stay in Killarney the night before, or race there from Cobh to make a 10am departure. Self-driving would afford us a bit more leeway, for sure, then allow us to make it to Dingle that night, without rushing, but at the expense of maybe not getting the most from the RoK.

As for the Dublin-Cobh segment, I'm not sure we can get going on the road by 9am, to be honest. Breakfast, last items packed, check out, go to the car rental agency, pick up and thoroughly inspect the car, then fight Dublin AM rush hour traffic is not a good formula for four 50-somethings coming off a long convention. I'm thinking we're probably goint hit the road around 11 at the earliest.

It's good that you're being realistic about the amount of time it will take you to get going in your rental car.

Sounds like you yourself are really, really not keen on all the things that some other members of your party want to do, especially in Cobh. Is there any possibility of your splitting up so that they get to see Cobh at their leisure, and you & your significant other just go on to the Ring of Kerry, and then you all meet up later?

Not really. We're kind of all in this together. My wife and I are the only drivers, and even she's only comfortable driving on Motorways, not or N- or R-roads. One of our guests doesn't have a driving license, and the other would absolutely not be comfortable driving on the left with a right-drive vehicle (and she doesn't drive stick at all).

It's not that I'm not interested in Cobh, it's more a logistical thing, and what I'm trying to get a sense of is whether or not it's really worth seeing and dedicating a significant portion of our time. And if it is, then great, and how long should we budget to see the important sights. And if it isn't that's OK too.

My other thought was to do the trip in reverse (start in Galway, finish in Cobh, then drive Cobh to SNN on the morning of departure).

Most of what there is to see in Cobh can be seen in about half a day. You have the Titanic connection, the promenade along the waterfront, the cathedral, the Cobh Museum and, if you're into it, the Lusitania connection. As an ocean liner fanatic, I loved all the steamship-related sights. That said, now that I've seen them I really have no burning desire to return, and I wouldn't put any of them on a 'must-see' list.

Since you won't be leaving Dublin until about 11 in the morning, and you plan on stopping at the Rock of Cashel, you probably won't arrive in Cobh until late afternoon, which could damper your plans to visit the sights that day. You might have to hit the sights in Cobh early the next day.

I'll be brutally honest here: If I had only five days to explore Ireland, I wouldn't use one of those days visiting Cobh. I understand you're sort of between a rock and hard place, so you just might be stuck.

Yeah, we're on exactly the same page here. We're meeting with them on Sunday and I'll see what we can do. Since they're paying half the expenses they're certainly entitled to see what they want, so long as we get equal time where we want--for me, it's Dingle, and the far west coast.

I'm doing a shorter trip into Galway and Connemara in a few weeks on my own (3 nights out west, one near Dublin airport), so I think that's where I'm going to see the wild, rugged scenery that I crave. If it were up to me I'd skip Cobh and spend an extra night in Dingle. But it's not just me.

I kind of feel like since the other couple are not doing any of the driving, the argument that they're paying half the expenses doesn't completely wash. If all else was equal, then yes, "50-50 pay" would mean "50-50 say" on where you go and how you spend your limited time. But the fact that you, pjdougherty, are the driver -- basically the unpaid tour guide -- would tend to indicate that your preferences take precedence.

That's how I see it, anyway. (Aren't you glad I'm not in your party, LOL?)

They are wonderful folks, and good friends of ours so I'm good with going out of my way for them. But at the same time, I'm trying to plan this out so we each get some serious time in the places that are important to us. Planning for these two segments (Cobh-to-RoK-to-Dingle) is the only part that is giving me logistical fits. If I don't to the trip "in reverse" then I'll likely end up driving the RoK. I'm not going to race out of Cobh at 7am for a 10am bus in Killarney.