Itinerary Advice Needed -1st trip to Ireland

If you go up to Cong and Ashford Castle I would suggest you spend a couple of hours doing the hawk walk there on the grounds, it is awesome. Pay for the long hawk walk, it's well worth it!!! http://www.falconry.ie/ We had a nice stay up there at the http://nymphsfieldhouse.com/ B&B, really close to the castle and the hawk walk. Seems to me you are doing too much every day.....for all the driving you are doing I would take a day off from the driving and let Paul Brown take you on a private tour of the Ring of Kerry, he is awesome. He'll pick you up at your B&B/hotel in Kenmare if you prefer. http://www.kenmaretaxitours.com/home.html We also really enjoyed our stay in Kenmare at the http://www.ashfieldkenmare.com/. I also suggest the Doolin Music House if you spend a night or two up there when they are hosting! My overall impression is you are doing way too much driving, just my feeling about your plans. " Drive to Killarney National Park and Muckross House and garden and drive the Ring of Kerry." I think that will be way too much and no time to savor things along the journey!! I do love all the spots you hope to see!

@jarrardd Thank you so much for your feedback! I agree, it is a lot of driving (and single nights at hotel, which is not the most enjoyable way to travel). I want to see quite a bit, since this will be the 1st time my dad has ever been outside of the country, and I'm not sure if he'll get a chance to visit ever again. I'm also not a big fan of spending a lot of money for extended group tours.

Do you think we should do the Ring of Kerry in addition to Ring of Dingle? From what I've read, it sounds like the Ring of Dingle is a must see!

Has anyone done the Titanic walking tour? Is that worthwhile?

Thanks again!

@kclyons Thank you for your feedback also. I received an email you posted feedback, but for some reason it's not showing up on the forum. Odd. I would like to keep the Waterford tour, since I'm from a small town in the US that has an international glassworks museum, so I think it will be really cool to see this in comparison. :)

You suggested doing Ring of Kerry or Ringle of Dingle. Do you have a preference between the 2? I will most likely do all the driving on the trip, since my dad's driving is slipping a bit (I'm ok with this though).

Some blogs I read said that Gallway is a beautiful city, so I'd like to see it, even if it's for 1/2 day. Do you agree?

Thank you! :)

@Bhol: sorry about that. I meant to click edit and hit delete instead. We did Dingle and RoK last year and were disappointed with Dingle. I think it was mostly because we had been to Dingle 30 years ago when it was much more rural and wild. We had never done the RoK so had no expectations. We particularly liked the south side of the RoK and the interior by the Black Valley, south of the Gap of Dunloe and north of Moll’s Gap.
Galway and Waterford are fine, although the tour of the Waterford factory was meh. It’s just that those places would be lower on my personal list of priorities.

I think your Day 7 plans are a bit much, and I agree with those above me who say the Ring of Kerry & the Dingle peninsula are a lot for one trip, with many similarities. I concur with everyone who choses Dingle over Kerry, which is not a diss of Kerry! Just save it for your 2nd trip :)

Since you're starting from Kenmare, you could do the N71 drive up through the lovely Killarney National Park, stop at Muckross House and maybe a few stops for scenic overlooks or even walks, as long as they're not too long. Then, keep heading north N71 -> N72 -> N70, then cut west towards Dingle town on the R561. I did this in reverse last August, and it was both lovely AND took longer than I expected-- a storm blew up that made driving difficult. We did not pull over, but we were slowed to a crawl, and not just us tourists but everyone on the road.
I'll defer to anyone else if they've accomplished it all in one day, but I think you wouldn't enjoy any of it as much if you try to jam it all in.

By the way, good on you for choosing to see KNP. It's a stunner. I want to get back for a full day hike.

IMO I would re-consider just doing a RS tour. Sure, you won't see all the sights you want but letting the bus driver (Caroline)
do the driving will make the experience much more enjoyable. The roads are very narrow in many places and the time driving may be longer than you planed. Much more enjoyable to stretch out on the tour bus and listen to Irish music of all genre and learn about Irish history from your guide. Plus the tours choice of restaurants was fantastic and the best suggestions for trad pub music. Maybe the best part is your RS travel companions. Great experience. Well worth the money.

This will not help you narrow your choices but I enjoyed the Ring of Kerry (including the Cliffs of Kerry) more so than the Dingle Penin. drive but I enjoyed Dingle town more than Kenmare. Our private tour of RofK ws the highlight of our two weeks in west Ireland IMO. If you have not driven much in Ireland or Scotland just know that things will go much slower than they go in the US even by frantic California highway standards! The drive from Killarney thru Avoca to Kenmare is awesome viewing but can be a stressful drive if you are not up for it (narrow/bus traffic/beautiful lol). We did a self drive of the Beara Peninsula (south of Kenmare and RofK) and it was really nice and had a slower more rural feel to it. You might also consider, if you have not done much driving on the left, picking up your car at the airport and then dropping it off at the airport rather than getting the car in Dublin city. We did the HOHO bus into Dublin and then took a taxi back to the airport to get our car. I would not have enjoyed in city driving in Dublin...the airport puts you on the outside of the city on the "interstate" type roadways, pretty easy driving by Ireland standards.

I agree with jarrardd - Unless you're already comfortable with driving on the left I really wouldn't recommend picking up your rental in central Dublin and then trying to negotiate the rabbit warren of city streets on your way out of town. Better (IMO) to collect your car from the airport in order ro make your first driving adventure on the modern motorway - a bit less confusing than city streets. The airport vendors typically have a larger selection of vehicles to choose from, with greater likelihood that you'll be able to book an automatic - which I highly recommend if it's your first time.
In addition, the airport rental car locations are open early, ie around 5 AM, whereas the downtown locations don't open until around 9 AM, so if you'd like to get an early start to make the most of your day then starting at the airport might be the way to go.
There are a couple of rental car locations located along the Ring Road that permit a reasonably direct shot out of town, but do check the address carefully if you choose to rent in the city.

@jarrardd and @Robert - Thank you for your feedback! I'll get the rental car from the airport instead of downtown Dublin!

I plan to remove a few sites from my itinerary so that I'm not completely exhausted.

Note that the car rental facility at the airport is not actually at the terminals, if you take a taxi from Dublin to get your car (as we did) make sure your driver takes you to the right place. Otherwise you will have to take a shuttle from the terminal to the car rental facility adding unnecessary time.

To advance the above discussion........Curious to the above advice, how does one manage your luggage if you arrive in Dublin early am, bus in to Dublin to see some of the city and then return to the airport to pick up car rental? I was assuming we would pick up car and park it somewhere so our luggage could be locked inside. Our 1st night's stay is in Kildare. TIA.