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Ireland itinerary. Need input, please

Hi , All. Planing trip to Ireland in June . Flying in and out of Dublin. I am going to have a car. Have 5 nights available to spare. Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

This is my approximate itinerary:

Day1: fly into Dublin , get the car , drive through Glandaluogh , Powerscourt gardens, Kilkenny and sleepover in Waterford.

Day 2: Roc of Cashel , Killarney National Park. Sleeping in Kenmare.

Day 3: ROK ( Ring of Kerry).

Sleeping in Dingle.

Day4:Ring of Dingle. Bunratty Castle. Arriving to Cliffs of Moher by the Sunset. Sleeping in Ennis.

Day 4: Cliffs of Moher ( if didn’t make there previous day), Burren, Ailwee caves. Drive to Dublin. Fly out to Edinburgh next morning.

Does it sounds to ambitious? Is it doable? If not what to eliminate?

Posted by
933 posts

This is much too ambitious right from the start. The day you land you will be jet lagged, and may not be up to driving at all, let alone on the other side of the road which will require a bit more concentration. Do you land before or after lunch? If you land in the morning you might get in Glendalough and then spend the night in Kilkenny. Your day two might be doable depending on where you start from, how long you stay at Cashel, and if you only want to see a small portion of the park. Otherwise you are trying to cover too much ground. I would suggest a whole day just for the park. Day three should be doable. Day four is too much. Just the Dingle Peninsula should be a day trip on its own. Your last day is crazy. I did a day trip from Galway that did all of this, and it was a long day without trying to get to Dublin, too. You are essentially trying to cover about two thirds of what I took three weeks to do. You will not enjoy this. With just five days on the ground, and not even five full days, you should really narrow your focus a lot, and try not to cover the whole island. I spent four days in each of Galway, and Killarney and it still wasn’t enough time. My suggestion would be to either head south from Dublin, but don’t go all the way to Killarney, or head west to The Galway area, but don’t try to get all the way down to Dingle. I know it’s tempting to look at the map and think its a small country, but you don’t want to see it as a green blur through a car window. You will actually see more if you cover less ground and have more time to be out of the car walking around.

Posted by
54 posts

Thank you, I am going to make it lighter. Flying to Dublin at 7 am. Have some experience driving on the other side. Do u think with that I can try to cover Glendalough and Kilkenny at least. Or only Glendalough and go straight to Waterford ( meeting friends there so it has to be the first stop). Day4 - Dingle, Day5 - only Cliffs and back to Dublin. Day 3 just to continue on Killarney Park and skip ROK for this time. Diesel it make more sense?