Ireland - 11 Nights

I don't think you need to spend two nights in Ennis in order to see the Cliffs of Moher. You could drive to the cliffs from the airport and stay locally (Doolin or Lahinch, maybe) before heading toward Dingle. With a car, you needn't subject yourselves to Kenmare (I felt it was Disney-fied). Try Sneem or, frankly, anywhere on the Ring). Finally, considering dropping the car in Cork and taking the train back to Dublin.

Thank you for the information. One question on dropping the car in Cork. We had planned on driving and visiting both Rock of Cashel and Killkenny on our way to Dublin. We currently will drop car rental at an office south of Dublin city, and not have to return the vehicle to the airport and avoid alot of the Dublin traffic.

I was trying to find you more time to spend in Dingle, Kerry, Kinsale and Cork itself (which could include a side trip to Cobh), all of which are more interesting (to me, anyway) than Cashel, Kilkenny or more time in the car. You do you.

We were there in Sept - Dublin, Dingle, Kenmare. Loved Dingle the most, stayed at O'Neill's B&B on the edge of town and it was great. Quiet, clean, convenient, delightful host. We then stayed outside of Kenmare at Foley's Orchard Cottage, a small but lovely place adjacent to a sheep farm. Beautiful, quiet. Kenmare is ok, better than Killarney. If you're up for the driving, spend as much time as you can in that area - include the Beara Peninsula if possible. Years ago we saw the Cliffs of Moher. I think the Kerry Cliffs are more impressive. Driving there is not for the faint of heart, but definitely doable.

As you can see everyone has their own idea on what they like. I really like Kilkenny when we were there on RS tour in Aug. wish we had more than one day.
Where in Dublin? The nice thing about Dublin if you are in city center you can walk most places.
If you are far out that is not the case. We did not find it loud where we stayed.
Liked Ennis & also loved Dingle.
So many choices.

GerryCee makes a good point about Kenmare - especially if you are only staying there as an access point to the Ring of Kerry. And I'm also a fan of Sneem. I am not a fan of Dingle, but that's only because my first visit there was 35 years ago and it hadn't been discovered yet. I'm not sure how far south of Dublin City Center you are staying. If Ballsbridge, you are still pretty close, about a mile from St. Stephens Green and there is public transit. But with the exception of the Temple Bar area, Dublin is generally quiet. I would stay more centrally and simply walk every where. Cashel town isn't anything to write home about but the Rock of Cashel and nearby Hoar Abbey are definitely worth a visit. So I would stick with the plan to keep the car until you get to Dublin. Dropping it somewhere along the South Circular Road should be convenient. Regarding dropping the car at the airport. To do so does not require driving in Dublin. You would take the M50 ring road that takes you around Dublin and to the airport. So that could still be an option.

Are you coming off a transatlantic flight? If so, you will need those two nights in Ennis to recover from jet lag.

Not only are one nights hard work but it also means you only have a few hours to actually see the place. 2 nights in Kerry is NOT a lot and in fact could be tight if you want to see both Ring of Kerry and Dingle including Slea Head (well worth doing and very different to ROK) .

You are right there's no way you can include Galway or Belfast. In fact you coukld do with adding extra nights to Kerry, Kinsale/cork and Cashel/Kilkenny! Think serioulsy about removing one overnight from your itinerary. Cork/Kinsale woukld be the obvious choice as you can do Cashel?Kilkenny from Kerry. What attracts you to those? Is it Kinsale or the big city experience of Cork? Kinslae appears on many itineraries. Yes it is very pretty but then so many places are in Ireland. The other alternative would be to take a night out of Dublin....

You will be spending a lot of time in the car seeing ireland through the car windscreen. Driving in Ireland can be slow - very slow at times. The usual advice is to add 25% to driving times on Google maps. The driver may be concentrasting dso hard on the road they may not have chance to take in much of the scenery so build in time to stop and stare! Don't try and do EVERYTHING!