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How crazy are we? 5 night trip

First time Ireland visitor, and I'll be with my husband (both age 28) and three younger siblings (ages 22 and 19). We only have 5 nights. Planning on staying in airbnbs, hostels, and irish bed and breakfasts.

Day 1: fly in from London (will not be jet lagged, don't worry) to Dublin in the morning (flight not booked yet, hopefully around 8am), rent car, Guinness Museum (that's it for Dublin!), drive to Galway for the rest of the afternoon, explore pubs/city at night

Day 2: catch ferry to Aran Islands at 10:30am from Rossaveal, spend most of the day on Inish Mor, leave on ferry by 5pm to get to see Cliffs of Moher around 7pm, drive to Ennis to stay the night, very busy day. **is this too much? is there a better place to stay on our route to ROK the next day?

Day 3: drive from Ennis to Killorglin (2.5 hours) then do the Ring of Kerry (all day), stay the night in Killarney? or would Kenmore be better? This is the day I'm most worried about, I feel that it's too much.

Day 4: morning in Kenmare or Killarney, then drive through Cork and Cashel (castle) to get back to Dublin by the end of the day (4 hours straight driving minimum). There's a more direct route that skips Cork and Cashel, but I feel like these are important.

Day 5: fly back to US out of Dublin at 12pm.

Are we going to be too exhausted to function? anything y'all would leave out or put in?

Posted by
8880 posts

The Aran Island Ferries are passenger ferries. I’m a little confused about the 5 pm ferry, cliffs of Moher by 7pm and drive to Ennis for the night. This simply doesn’t seem possible ! Way, way too much for one day.

What time of year is your trip?

Posted by
7158 posts

If the only reason you're going to Dublin is for the Guinness museum, I'd skip it and fly into Shannon. I thought the museum was not worth the effort (and I'm a fan), except that they have a huge gift shop. Get your Guinness in a pub in Galway instead. Looks like you're more interested in the west of Ireland, can you get a flight home from Shannon instead of having to go to Dublin?

Posted by
219 posts

Definitely skip Dublin if all you're doing is visiting Guinness.

Posted by
3123 posts

In Dublin airport's large duty free shop, there's lots of Guinness merchandise available (beverage and memorabilia). I'm not sure if Shannon airport has the same, but I imagine it may.

Posted by
7 posts

Thank yall so much! I hadn't even considered flying into Shannon, but I feel like that's the best choice to see what we want to see. Yall are so helpful!

Posted by
7 posts

The reason I did the ferry out of Rossaveal was because from reading Rick Steves it sounded like the ferries from Doolin are much more weather dependent and take longer. Do most people go from Doolin then instead?

We are going in mid August so I saw that the sun won't set until around 9pm, that's why i thought Cliffs of Moher at 7pm would be possible.

Posted by
7 posts

Would yall recommend skipping Galway then? just to not have to double back as much?