I am planning my late July trip and need some practical advice. After spending time in Dublin, I will be picking up a rental car and heading towards Killarney. I have 2 nights to spend after Dublin before our scheduled nights in dingle. My plan is to stay in portmagee area on the 2nd night in hope of traveling to the skelligs in the morning and making or way to dingle afterwards. So that leaves me with 1 night between dublin and portmagee. We would like to see the rock of cashel and the national park sites such as the muckross house, torc waterfall, ladies view along the way. We are just not sure if we can do all that in the same day we pick up the car and sleep in the kenmare area to enjoy a slow ROK drive the following day. Or would it be more practical to see the rock of cashel, spend the night in Killarney and see all those sites and start the ring later in the afternoon to finish in portmagee that night? I'm afraid of hitting summer tour buses coming the opposite way being that I'm not an experienced Left sided driver. Thanks for any advice!
Posted by
Fairfax, Virginia
348 posts
You can figure on needing 2 hours to get to Cashel. Killarney is probably 2.5 hours from Cashel. So it's possible. How much to do in a vacation day is perrsonal preference. I'd suggest trying it, and being flexible and willing to drop stuff if time gets short.
But I'm confused about driving the ROK and then staying in Portmagee. Portmagee is off of the ROK, so if you do the full ROK on the day you are staying in Portmagee, you'd have to back-track. It might make more sense to stay in Kenmare the day you leave Dublin. Then do the stuff around Killarney in the morning of the second day and drive half of the ROK to Portmagee in the afternoon after the rush passes. You can then hit the other half of the ROK enroute to Dingle. But give it some thought planing, you don't want to be going in the other direction when hordes on the ROK are coming (I say the "other way" as I forget which direction the busus do the ROK)
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks for the reply and sorry for the confusion. When I say do the ROK, I meant only half way essentially and stopping at Portmagee. There would be no backtracking, and I would see the rest of the loop on my way to dingle the following day anyways. I think I will take your advice and just try to be flexible. If we get to explore as much of killarney as we like on the 1st day, great. If not, we will just explore in the morning and get a later start towards portmagee. Lets just hope that if I encounter any tours buses, that they take it easy on me!
Posted by
Orange County, CA, USA
9 posts
Here's the short answer: There is so much to see and do in Ireland, you're never going to cover even half of what you hope for, unless you are one who likes to race around. I recommend taking your time to enjoy the places you do make it to. If you leave early enough for Cashel, you can be to Kenmare same day and still have some time left to do some exploring. Kenmare alone is a wonderful little town to hang out in with tons to do in and around the area. You could easily spend your entire holiday there. Keep in mind it is only 30-35 min. from Killarney town. I personally would not set aside any time at all for Killarney town but the National Park area is definitely worth spending some time in. All 3 peninsulas, Iveragh (Ring of Kerry), Beara, and Dingle are fantastic. Good luck making it to the Skelligs - it is a spectacular never-to-be-forgotten experience! (You should book your boat in advance, by the way.)
Posted by
3 posts
We recently drove a similar route from the Dublin airport to the Dingle, spending the night in Kilkenney. We picked up the car at 9:00, went to see Newgrange and arrived in Kilkenney in the afternoon (we by-passed the Wicklow moutains altogether). The next day we drove to Cashel, then to the Muckross House (consider skipping the buggy ride to the dingy waterfall) and on to Dingle (we arrived in Dingle around 6:30). I think you won't have any troubles, considering Portmagee is closer than Dingle - even with the added ROK traffic. Note that driving on the LHS is not that hard. I only encountered occasional problems when I we stopped for lunch and I momentarily forgot to go across traffic when making a right. But my wife was quick to point those instances as soon as they occurred! In any event, you'll be driving slow enough to be able to avoid any major issues as mishaps occur.