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Help for visiting Sligo & Donegal area.

Does this itinerary make any sense or how would you make it better? Coming from Europe so no jet lag.

Day 1 Arrive to Dublin airport, rent a car and drive to Galway area, 1 night

Day 2 Explore Connemara and drive to Westport, 1 night

Day 3 Westport via Achill island to Sligo, 1 night

Day 4 Drive to Donegal, 3 nights

Day 5 Visit Donegal area

Day 6 Visit Donegal area

Day 7 Donegal to Dublin, 1 night

Day 8 Fly home

My concerns are:

-quite many 1 night stays, how would you make our plans better?

-too much driving in some days?

We have been to Ireland many times but not on this area. We being this time a family with 2 adults and a 14 yr old daughter.

And time for this trip would be this July, somewhere between 7th and 21st. Dates would depend on accommodation availability. I like to plan our holidays for at least six months in advance so this is really a short notice for me!

Thanks so much for any advice

Posted by
2824 posts

I'm not usually a fan of one night stays but your daily drives from Galway to Westport to Sligo and on to Donegal are short enough to permit plenty of meandering so I think it'll work.
About the only surgery I might suggest would be to steal a day from Donegal and add it to Galway, if only to permit a day trip via the ferry over to Inis Mor. Other than that it looks quite doable without running yourselves ragged in the process.

Posted by
771 posts

Since you are spending your time in the West, you could consider flying into Shannon or Knock and save on driving time the first day. If you've been to Dublin before, you could see if flying out of Shannon, rather than Dublin would save you time, also.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you both!
I am trying to arrange a few extra days/nights but doesn't look like that will happen. We have had one night stops in Ireland and Scotland so we are used to them, not just this many in a row. I think we will be fine!

I was looking at the airports on the west but it would take so many connecting flights it probably is better just to start from Dublin.