Ireland 2017

Have you consulted the RS guidebook or some other reliable guidebook? That will help you decide what's important to you and how much time you want to spend in Ireland vs. splitting it with Scotland. What are your interests; what motivated you to want to visit Ireland?

I will say I've found Ireland planning a bit frustrating because there's a lot of hype (Oh, you must see this, you must see that, no trip to Ireland is complete without...). Ireland doesn't seem to have much differentiation from one region to another, except that the west tends to be more rural and blessed with more breathtaking scenery (but it also gets more rain).

Two weeks is not too long for just Ireland. For an overview, see https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ireland/itinerary, which will be fleshed out in the guidebook. Although Rick's guided tour is 2 weeks, the self-drive plan is laid out for 3 weeks.

We did 2 weeks in July/August and stuck to the Republic and found it to be a good amount of time.

I completely disagree with a pp who said that there is not much differentiation between areas... we found that every region had its own very distinct look and feel.

In terms of must sees... what do you like to do and see?

@Sharon, can you summarize "every region had its own very distinct look and feel"? I've not traveled around Ireland, have only been to Dublin.

My comment is just reflecting what I've seen in guidebooks as well as a AA live presentation we attended. It all makes it sound like everything and every place is wonderful, without any characteristics that differentiate one region of Ireland from another. I'd love to know your impressions of what makes different regions distinct.

I'd opt for September over October--both of our trips to Ireland occurred in September and the weather was actually quite good.

Two weeks is really not enough time to include Scotland in your itinerary. With two weeks in Ireland you can cover most, but not all, of the so called "must sees", especially if you confine yourself to the Republic. Including Northern Ireland in your travels will make things a bit more hectic, but depending on your travel style, could definitely be worth it. On our first trip four years ago we spent 15 days circumnavigating the entire island and we had such a wonderful time we chose to go back for another three weeks last year so we could more fully explore the south and west. On the first trip the highlights for us were: Dublin (Trinity College historical walking tour, the National Museum of Archaeology, Killmainham Gaol and strolling through St. Stephen's Green on a sunny day; also enjoyable but a little less memorable were viewing the Book of Kells, the Guinness Storehouse, Temple Bar and the musical pub tour); Bru na Boinne (a major must see for us); the Titanic Museum in Belfast; Giant's Causeway; driving through Derry and County Donegal (wish we had had more time to visit Derry); music at Matt Malloy's Pub in Westport (actually, we didn't enjoy it so much on that first trip because of an overflow of tour buses but on our second trip we were treated to two nights of wonderful trad sessions); Croagh Patrick; driving through the Doo Lough Valley (very moving story); hiking in Connamarra National Park; Galway; Cliffs of Mohr; the Burren; music in Doolin; Dingle (our favorite town--and we got to do the Slea Head Drive on a beautiful sunny day--definitely the highlight of the trip); Skibbereen (the Abbeystrewry graveyard there was another particularly meaningful site); Kinsale (we really enjoyed Charles Fort); Cobh; Rock of Cashel; and the Famine Ship in New Ross. On our second trip we were able to visit Muckross House and Killarney National Park, the Aran Islands (another highlight), Cong, Carrowmore and the Ring of Kerry (also pretty spectacular), all of which we had wanted to do but didn't have time for on that first trip. I would have loved to visit Skellig Michael too, but it was closed because of Star Wars filming. If you have a chance to see it, it looks very impressive.

I've gone on a bit long here but I just wanted to show how much there is to do and see--and there are so many other places and things I haven't mentioned. Two weeks won't even begin to cover them all. If I were you I would start planning now so you can figure out what your "must sees" are, based on what you are most interested in. Besides the Rick Steves guide we found the Eyewitness Back Roads Ireland to be very helpful.

I envy you your adventure--you're going to have a wonderful time!!