Hi!
In about 3 weeks we (4 persons around 30) arrive to Ireland, rent a car and want to make an Ireland round-trip. Our priorities are to see northern and western Ireland (area of Burren). It means we have to drive a lot. As it is not the first time to have 1-2 weeks trip so that we are in a hotel just for sleeping and we are in a new place every night, we hope to manage. As we are not city persons and our main aim is to get a piece of everything, the draft of our itinerary is the following:
1st day (evening) - arrival to Dublin -> (Hill of Tara) -> Navan (accommodation; as we want to see Newgrange and its closed when we arrive, Navan and on the way Hill of Tara seemed to be ok option for evening)
2nd day - Newgrange, Old Mellifont Abbey, Monasterboice, The dark hedges, Carrick-A-rede Rope Bridge, accommodation in Ballintoy
3rd day - Giant's Causeway (if we manage, we can have it on 2nd day, but probably not), Dunluce castle (should we go inside?), Londonderry (if we manage to have Giant's last evening or first part of a day goes faster than expected or we skip smth from the later), Assaranca Waterfall, Maghera Caves, Benbuldin (probably just looking from far away to have a small break), Galway (accommodation)
4th day - Galway -> Dunguaire Castle (if there is time - possibility for a short break), The Burren, Cliffs of Mother, Dingle (accommodation)
5th day - Dingle -> Dingle Peninsula Loop? -> Killarney (accommodation) (horse riding in Dingle/Killarney)
6th day - Killarney, Rock of Cashel, Dublin
7th day - Dublin
8th day - departure from Dublin
Hopefully you can give some recommendations regarding our timetable - especially about the fact that we also visit the northern Ireland and come down through the Donegal, Burren, etc, is it worth to go to Dingle or not (we have read and seen the pictures that it is beautiful there, but how different it is from the other areas we visit?)? Is it worth to go to Dingle without doing the Dingle Loop? Considering our earlier timetables in other places in the world, we should manage with mentioned timetable (around 12-14hrs per day sightseeing and driving on first days) but maybe it's reasonable to skip e.g Dingle and have a bit more time while coming down from the north (where should we stay then instead of Dingle and what should we do?).
Only accommodation in Dublin is not changeable.
Thank you for your recommendations! We promise to leave our comments after the trip:)