Ireland in 4 days - Ideas and places to see...thoughts?

If you are only spending 1 night in each place, you are traveling every day. When are you actually seeing a place? I think you are underestimating how much time it takes to get places, especially in Ireland. I would stick close to Dublin. It’s over 3 hrs to drive to Cliffs of Moher, 4 hours from Dingle to Dublin. Stay in Dublin, maybe go to Glendalough. Or do a full day bus tour.

How much time are you spending in Scotland? It may be better to just focus on one country. Three nights really isn’t enough time to see all those places in Ireland. Maybe save it for another trip.

BTW, you’re arriving on St. Patrick’s day. Dublin will be crowded with festivities.

So you arrive on St Patrick’s Day? Was that intentional?

Waaaaay to much driving. You’ll spend too much of the time in your car.

Have researched what you’d like to see in Dublin?

West coast is the best of Ireland. Personally I’d spend 1 night in Dublin and early the next day head west to Dingle. Two nights Dingle. Hike the Gap of Dunloe, have pints at Foxy Johns. Enjoy the some seafood chowder.

The drive from Dingle back to Dublin is about 4.5 hours with stops.

More questions for you:
1) When you “did” Italy, where did you go, how much time did you spend there, and did you see and experience enough that you were satisfied with the results?

2) From where are you leaving for Edinburgh? Are you perhaps flying from Dublin, so do you need to be back at the Dublin airport on March 21, and at what time, to get through Security, and make your flight?

3) How are you thinking about getting from one place in Ireland to another? Rental car? Bus Eriann bus (Irish counterpart to Greyhound, except there’s an Irish Setter on the side of the bus)?

4) Any particular things you want to see/do in the places you’re considering? There may be similar sights and experiences in other places, which might be easier to reach in the 4 days you have available.

Some thoughts - On St. Patrick’s Day, avoid the raucous Temple Bar area in Dublin that night. In September (not St. Paddy’s), there were lots of drunks, and lots of them peeing on the sidewalks. I’d imagine it would be worse on March 17 - not a great start to your visit.

Also, Galway’s my favorite place in Ireland, and I recommend at least 2 nights there. I’d go there from Dublin by bus, but again, do you need to get back to Dublin for your departure to Edinburgh?

Another charming town, very close to the Cliffs of Moher, is Lisdoonvarna. Dingle is wonderful, but with your schedule, I’m not sure I’d even try to see it on this trip. Save it for your next time in Ireland. A fabulous town closer to Dublin is Trim. It has a big castle, a great Indian restaurant, and is convenient for seeing some major Neolithic sights.

Besides the questions Cyn asked, what was your trip to Italy like? Was it a bunch of one night stays? Are you more concerned with checking off boxes saying you've been there or actually spending time seeing things? It's two different types of travel.

Unless you are driving, getting around Ireland is a slow process. The train system isn't bad but it's not high speed rail. The buses are good but slow.

Sleep in Dublin all three nights and assume you’ll return and visit the west coast that has its own airport in county Clare. I worked with a woman who tried to see the whole country in eight days and what she remembers is being in a car trying to get from one place to the next.
In Jan buy the hard copy of Rick Steves Snapshop Dublin 7th edition. His maps are excellent and so is his self-guided walking tour of O’Connell Street. On arrival day settle into your hotel then head over to the visitor center and sign up for a half-day trip to Brú na Bóinne for Mar 19th. The drive there and back will show you how green the grass is in Ireland and the view never gets boring.
On Mar 18th visit the Book of Kells in the Trinity Old Library and in the afternoon take Rick’s self-guided O’Connell Street Stroll. With your remaining time in Ireland enjoy the pub scene and listen to Gaelic music.

That is a lot of ground to cover in just four days... and doesn't give much time for sightseeing. don't underestimate time needed to travel between places and swapping places everynight is also time consuming. Ireland is the kind of place you need to slow down and appreciate! Where are you flying in from? Will you be arriving jet lagged?

Have you thought about seeing if you could fly into Shannon rather than Dublin? That at least gets you closer to the sights in the west. Cliffs of Moher is only 75-90 minutres drive from the airport and could probably be done on your fist day. Spend the night somewhere in the area - Doolin is popular .

Then head to Dingle for the rest of the stay. You can do Killarney from there. Use the Killimer to Tarber ferry to cut down on distance and not driving back the way you came.

Can you also book Shannon to Dublin ?

Yes, I think your notional itinerary is way too ambitious for the limited time you have available.
I agree with the suggestion to just stay in Dubin and save yourselves the aggravation of trying to get to destinations on the west coast and then back to Dublin for your ongoing flight to Scotland. It's not worth running yourselves ragged trying to squeeze in your other proposed destinations (IMO).
There's plenty in and around the city to keep you occupied for your 4 days. As others have mentioned there are a number of sights in the city of Dublin that are worth exploring for a first time visitor. Thumbing thru any good guide book will give you plenty of ideas and options according to your particular interests.
There are short day trips from the city that would be easy to arrange either independently or as organized day trips with local tour providers. Kilkenny and Belfast are relatively short train rides away, and either would make for an enjoyable "day out" if you'd like to explore further afield. Organized day tours north to explore Newgrange and the Boyne Valley, or south into the Wicklow Mountains and the monastic site at Glendalough would also be well worth your time.

I am going to counter the suggestions about The Book of Kells and staying in Dublin the entire time simply because I found other sights/locations more interesting. My choice would be 2 night Dublin, 2 nights In Belfast. Both are easily accessible to/from Dublin airport by public transport.

Save the rest of Ireland for when you have enough time to actually visit it.

All of the places you mention are several hours drive from Dublin. To get to Dingle without a car you would have to take the train to Killarney first and that alone takes four hours. Then you would have to find a bus to Dingle. By the time you got there it would be dinner time. Dublin to Galway by train is about two and a half hours, but then you would have to find a way to get to the cliffs. There are day tours, but they would probably have left for the day before you arrive. As others mention, just use Dublin as your home base and maybe look at a guided day tour. You really only have three whole days on the ground, and there is enough in Dublin to keep yo busy, but if you want to get out of the city I would highly recommend a day trip to Newgrange as it will include some other stops as well. There are day trips to Cliffs of Moher, but it’s a very long day from Dublin. Glendalough is another one that is doable from Dublin via a day trip. Kilkenny is a quick train ride and is a quaint town with a castle where you could spend one day, as is Belfast. But if you want to see more of the countryside then the guided day trips from Dublin are your best bet.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. In Italy, we did 3 nights rome, 1 night venice, 3 nights florence, 3 nights positano, 1 night naples. We did train.

We are planning to rent a car in Ireland.

If you're absolutely committed to making your way to the west of Ireland, you may want to check out one of the two flights per day from Dublin to the Kerry Airport near Killarney on RyanAir. If either of those (one in the morning
and one in the afternoon) meshes with your scheduled arrival time you could conceivably skip Dublin completely and just continue on to Kerry. Pretty cheap, and takes about an hour. There are a few rental car outlets at the airport there which would be convenient to both Kerry and Dingle.
Would save you the half day making your way by car or train across the island.
Could then drop the car at either Kerry or Shannon and catch your ongoing flight to Scotland.

What is the rest of your itinerary? From what I have read, it looks to me like a lot of drive by, quick look and move to your next destination. With your full itinerary, you will get a lot of thoughts from the forum members.

If you are flying in on a trans-Atlantic flight and/or never driven on the left before I would strongly encourage you not to rent a car upon arrival and driving off. You particularly don’t want to drive in Dublin on a Friday on St. Patrick’s Day. If you really want to do the things you mentioned I would either take the flight to Kerry Airport or if that doesn’t work with your schedule, take the bus from Dublin airport to Galway. Spend the first night in Galway then rent the car, head to the Cliffs of Moher, Dingle and Killarney. Fly to Edinburgh or Glasgow from Cork or if that doesn’t work head to Shannon or Dublin if that is the only option. Just bear in mind that drive times will be 25% longer than whatever google maps tells you. You will be able to drive the posted speed limit on only the major roads.

Liz,

If you are flying in on a trans-Atlantic flight and/or never driven on the left before I would strongly encourage you NOT to rent a car upon arrival...

If there's one take-away from all the comments on your post this is it. After being awake all night I once forgot my pin number when withdrawing foreign currency on the day of arrival. You are aware that driving is on the complete opposite side of the road and so is the steering wheel? It's easy to forget because that happened when I was in Ireland and my friend who was driving also forgot and turned onto the right side of the road. This happened after a good night's sleep.

I like Trotter's idea of the bus from DUB straight to Galway, then the car, if you want to spend your very limited time on the west coast. Galway is a good base for the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and Connemara. (Also for the Aran Islands but that would take longer.)

Alternatively, I suggest a Dublin-centered visit, with day trips if you want to places like Newgrange, Glendalough, Kilkenny, or Trim. Dublin has plenty to keep you busy over your long weekend in Ireland.

Another option might be two nights in Dublin and two in Belfast, easily reached by bus. You could fly from Belfast to Edinburgh if you haven't already committed to a flight from DUB to Edinburgh.

I agree with others that Dublin-Killarney-Dingle-Galway is a whirlwind of highways and parking hassles, with little time to enjoy where you've flown across the ocean to see. But if one night in Venice was enough for you, maybe this plan will work. Still, I'd urge you not to drive after an overnight flight, especially on the left side.