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Ireland summer 2019 - realistic itinerary help

We will be traveling to Ireland for the first time next summer. There are four of us: two adults, 18 yo ds, 16 yo dd. This is a bucket list trip for me as my grandparents are from Ireland. Unfortunately we have limited time and can only see so much. We are looking at 15 nights. Possibly flying in to Dublin or Cork then flying home from the other (one way route.)

What I'd like to know first, if this list of what we'd like to see is possible (actually, realistic with out wearing ourselves out) in our time frame. Secondly, I'd like to know how you would group these sites so that we are staying at least three nights in one location. We plan to have a car (we are seasoned 'opposite side' drivers.) And finally, are we missing something important from this list (or is there something on the list that really isn't worth the time)?
1) Blarney Castle (corny, I know but we'd like to see it.)
2) Ring of Kerry
3) Dingle
4) The Burren
5) Tipperary (I heard there are some cool castles here?? But not sure if this is worthy of our time this trip.)
6) Cliffs of Moher
7) Aran islands
8)Connemara Nat. Park
9) Mullingar (this is where my family is and we will stay there a night or two only)
10) Dublin
Thank you in advance for your kind suggestions and insight!

Posted by
119 posts

You might want to look into Shannon as your other possible airport.
Also, my vote is YES for Tipperary. Rock of Cashel is there and Kilkenny Castle is nearby...both are great to see. Since it's a somewhat central region, you might make it an easy stop as you drive from East Coast to West Coast, or vice versa.
I recommend that you place the sights in location order so that you're not backtracking, this will help you to keep forward momentum. Some sights are close together while others are farther apart. For example, we drove from Dublin to Cashel last summer and, if I'm not mistaken, it took us about 3 hours.
Have a great trip!