Hi all,
Last August, I sought some advice from this forum on a driving itinerary for Ireland and wanted to report back how it worked out. We had to make some changes from what was suggested here and others might find these changes useful.
Original post about itinerary: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/ireland/may-driving-itinerary
Here's what we actually did:
Saturday, Day 1 - Fly into Dublin, take train to Galway which is our first "base." This worked great, we got to Galway around 5pm and we are able to walk around town and have a nice dinner in the evening.
Sunday, Day 2 - Picked up our rental car at the rental office in Galways at 9:30am. Drove to Clifden via the Wild Atlantic Way. Drove Sky Drive and then continued on coast to Westport and then turned back to Galways. Longest driving day by far but our energy was quite high and the weather was gorgeous. Dinner in Galway.
Monday, Day 3 - Drove an interior path in the Connemara, around Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. Lunch at Cong in the middle.
Tuesday, Day 4 - Left Galways and took a winding coastal path to Cliffs of Moher. Then had a pleasant overnight at Dromoland Castle.
Wednesday, Day 5 - Left Dromoland and took a winding coastal path to Tralee. We had originally planned to stay in Kenmare to make both the ROK and Ring of Beara doable, but unfortunately a big bike race on the Ring of Beara ate up most of the hotel/AirBnb options in Kenmare and promised to make driving a bit scary with all the cyclists. Tralee was a compromise to avoid Killarney and make Dingle and ROK accessible by drive.
Thursday, Day 6 - Rings of Kerry and Skellig. Our only day of rain, unbelievably. We went anti-clockwise and left early, so we encountered no problems with tour busses until the very end of the day when we didn't care too much anymore. Took an off-ring trip to two Ringforts - Cahergall and Leacanabuaile Stone Forts. This is near Cahirsiveen. HIGHLY recommend, they were a really fun visit for both of us. Ate lunch in Portmagee.
Friday, Day 7 - Dingle Peninsula. We stopped in Dingle twice, one for coffee mid-morning and then for a late lunch in the afternoon. We drove Slea's Head loop in between. We drove Conor Pass on the way home. We had skipped Caherconree Pass in the morning because of low mist - we had seen some troubles with narrow roads and mist on ROK the day before.
Saturday, Day 8 - Long drive via Cahir and Rock of Cashel to the Dublin Airport. We overnighted at an airport hotel and caught an early flight the next morning. My husband had caught a cold by this time so our visits to these two interesting locations was somewhat cursory. However, I had designed this day with just that in mind (one of us usually comes down with something by this time!) so we could speed through or slow down, regardless.
Tralee for Killarney and Kenmare substitution was the big change from the time I originally wrote my thread of questions. It worked really well for us because the two places we wanted to visit in this part of the country were easily accessible. However, Tralee is definitely a municipal town and does not have much infrastructure for tourists. Shops closed down early, there weren't many restaurants to choose from (although Quinlan Fish is the best fish and chips I have ever had in my life) and it was generally a bit sleepy. However, our hotel was lovely (Ashe) and we were able to do the sightseeing activities we wanted to. If I did it again and Kenmare wasn't available I might actually pick Killarney for more evening options. But it worked well and we loved our whole trip.
I hope this helps someone else,
Sarah