Itinerary feedback please

You will be busy! My only suggestion - because it was my favorite stop when we were in Ireland last month - is to stay in Dingle/along the peninsula. It's a wonderful place to visit, relax and take in amazing views. And if you like music, you won't be disappointed with the music scene in Dingle.

Thank you for your kind input. I do agree that we will be busy. I'm having difficulty finding a happy medium between seeing everything we want to see and enjoying what we do see. If given the choice, would you forgo Killarney and the Gap of Dunloe to just head straight to Dingle from Kilkenny? I'm sure we could still visit the Rock of Cashel between Kilkenny and Dingle. Kilkenny is a must-see for us as my son is interested in hurling. I did want to spend more time in Dingle than we allowed in the original plan. God willing, we will return to visit- but in case we don't, I want to see as much as possible!

I agree with the other poster that you might want to consider spending more time in Dingle. You have a lot planned for your time in Ireland. I prefer to spend 2 nights in a town as I see you are doing at some locations. If it were me, I would skip Kilkenny on this trip especially if you want to head north, but you are stopping because you want to have a Hurling Tour. So that's a must do for you or you can look for something similar in another place. The Killarney area offers many lovely places to view and visit however if it is raining or misty you might not be able to see the vistas. (this happened to us on our last visit in August so we saw very little of the area due to rain and fog) The same is true for the Slea Head drive on the Dingle Peninsula. However, of the two I think your family would enjoy Dingle more.

PS If you really wanted to see the Gap of Dunloe and area you could drive from Dingle to Killarney for the day after making sure the weather is good.

Would strongly urge you to stay longer in Dingle. Not only is there much to see but the time to linger and absorb the area is so worth it. We found cramming sights in was exhausting, wonderful but ultimately a more shallow experience. Once we stayed in a spot for a few days and talked w the locals and discovered more of the real Ireland the more it stayed with us and meant to us. Have a wonderful time !!!!!

I'll definitely be reworking plans to stay longer in Dingle. Thank you!

I also would suggest more time in Dingle. Unfortunately there is very little hurling out Dingle way, they are about Gaelic Football out there. We always try to take in a local sporting event on our vacations and did so in Dingle. We totally lucked out as the young adult Gaelic Football league championship was being played in Dingle on one of the days we were there. We had a blast sitting in the stands with the locals watching the match, Dingle vs Killarney for the senior league title!!! I had no idea about the rules but as the Irish are such great folks we were sitting next to a young guy, 20ish, that explained the rules and enjoyed telling us what was happening, it was an awesome way to spend a couple of hours getting local flavor. The teams were made up of guys in the twenties, maybe late teens and it ws a rough and tumble match, great fun. I would have loved to have seen some hurling too but getting the seasons right and locations is tough. I sent emails to a few of the leagues and did not get much of a response in advance but then just happened upon the championship replay a day while in Dingle, great fun.

You’re driving from Sligo to Donegal to spend the night, then to Derry the next day. If you don’t have a strong interest in anything in Donegal, you could drive directly from Sligo to Derry depending on what time your tour starts. That would free up an extra day for Dingle. I started from Sligo in late morning and made several stops along the way to tour, and still made it to Derry before dinner, so an early start with no long stops would give you most of the day there.

I’ll definitely be reworking things taking into account your advice, but we will need to spend time (at least a night) in Donegal and Derry as my family ancestors hail from that area.

Thank you,
Christine

A revised itinerary and another question: Do you think this itinerary would be better in reverse? Would going to Belfast first make more sense? Would it even matter? I know this is a break neck pace! Hopefully, it's a little better than my original plan! Thank you for any tips and/or suggestions!

June 29 fly to Dublin from Newark, NJ
June 30 arrive early Dublin/Trinity/Book of Kells/whatever we can do with jet lag-overnight Dublin
July 1 /Kilmainham (will purchase tickets ahead)/Guinness/Brazen Head
storytelling dinner-overnight Dublin
July 2 rent car and drive to Kilkenny/Kilkenny Castle/Kilkenny Way Hurling Tour- overnight in Kilkenny
July 3 Drive to Rock of Cashel/drive to Dingle(I know this will be our longest day driving)-overnight in Dingle
July 4 Dingle peninsula tour-overnight in Dingle
July 5 Dingle-spend most of the morning and afternoon /Drive to Adare- overnight at Adare Manor
July 6 Adare Manor falconry and archery/drive to Sligo- overnight in Sligo
July 7 Knocknarea (Queen Maeve's cairn- my daughter's name is Maeve, so this has a special significance)/Lake Isle of Innisfree boat tour/Yeats sights- overnight in Sligo
July 8 Donegal- Donegal Town/Slieve League/ overnight Donegal (my family is from Donegal and Derry)
July 9 Donegal- Inishowen- overnight Donegal
July 10 Derry- Free Derry museum and walking tour- overnight in Bushmills
July 11 Antrim Coast on way to Belfast- whatever if anything we can do in Belfast in the late afternoon/evening-overnight in Belfast
July 12 Belfast-Black Cab Tours/spend all day here with a late night arrival at airport hotel-overnight at Dublin airport
July 13 fly home

Hi, it looks like our family will proceed you by about a week. So far we've opted to do it in reverse, head north first and end up in Dublin since we need to swap out the van rental for my parents who are staying longer. At this point we're looking at staying longer in the Limerick area for our southern portion, like 5 nights, and take day trips out from there. But we've got two little ones (6 & 3) so this fits better for our family. Our general outline is to arrive in Dublin and head out to Trim, then Belfast, Giant's Causeway/Dunluce/etc on the way to Derry, Donegal or Ballyshannon, Cleggan, and finally LImerick.