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Ireland Intinerary Advice

Posted by (WI) on

My wife and our 2 children (12 and 7) will be going to Ireland in late March or early April. We are thinking about the following itinerary:
Saturday - arrive early in Dublin; train to Galway
Sunday - Galway (pick up car) - Aran Islands
Monday - Galway to Dingle (Cliffs of Moher; Burren); sleep in Dingle
Tuesday - Dingle peninsula
Wednesday - Dingle to Tralee (drop the car in Tralee), train from Tralee to Dublin
Thursday - Dublin
Friday - Dublin
Saturday - fly home

We looked at flying into Shannon, but for our flights that will not work. I do not want to drive in Dublin so we won't have a car there.

My first instinct - this is rushed. Dingle seems hard to get to, and my thinking was it drop Dingle and just use Galway as a home base and see Connemara, the Burren, Cliffs of Moher/County Clare, Aran Islands and then finish up the trip in Dublin.

Thoughts?

Posted by
475 posts

This is very rushed in my opinion especially with two children. I would stay a night at least in Dublin before taking the train to Galway. Can you fly out of Shannon? We flew into Dublin and out of Shannon and it was great. We were able to spend more time on the west coast which was our favorite. Dingle is highly recommended but if you only have a week you may want to save it for another trip.

Posted by
3225 posts

With this itinerary, you will be doing a lot of driving. Not fun for little kiddos. I agree with Alexandria to save the west coast for another trip. There are lots of day trips out of Dublin that you can do, Newgrange, Wicklow and even up to N. Ireland. Stay on the east coast.

Posted by
1878 posts

It does seem a little rushed, I think Aran Islands are an advanced topic for such a short itinerary. If you had in mind using Galway as a base and not spend a lot of time seeing Galway, maybe choose Ennis as a base. Much easier to drive into and out of, a very pleasant and authentic town with good Irish music. Overall it does seem a little far flung and you might cut something on the south end or the north end. The bus network is good in Ireland and you could actually do a day trip to Galway from Ennis on the bus. The attraction of Dingle for me was not the town itself but the Slea Head Loop. Too bad about the flights because open jaw works great when traveling to Ireland.

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