Itinerary help/advise?

Too much moving around. Find a couple of centrally located cities and do day trips out of them.

Agree with David.

It’s a small island and from experience you can get from Belfast to Dingle in 4.5 hours ( I had my reasons) but why would you.

Eire is about its people and it’s beauty. Slow way down. Too many short night stays.

4 nights Dublin with a day spent in BELFAST. Easy 2 hour train ride. Go early, come back late. Get pounds from ATM when you arrive. See the Titanic Museum, take a cab tour of the Troubles, visit the Crumlin Road Gaol, lunch or dinner at Mournes, train back to Dublin.

Other Dublin days should include sojourns to Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains and heading North to Newgrange. Could also squeeze in a drive to Rock of Cashel.

3-4 nights Cork if you like urban settings or maybe a more peaceful Cobh. Can day trip from there to Killarney National Park, Gap of Dunloe, Portamghee and your Ring of Kerry meanderings.

Now you have 8 other nights to enjoy. Personally I wouldn’t miss Dingle but you must have your reasons. So from Cobh To Doolin. 3 nights minimum.
Buren, Ferry Trip.

Rest is up to you to plan so you can see Connemara
Et al.

You cant see all Ireland in the time allotted and if you try you can easily miss out on really experiencing it......so why try. Very counterproductive.

After rat racing around and having a hectic, tiring and disappointing first trip there we learned the hard way that less is WAY WAY more. As so well said above Ireland is about its people, beauty and history - it isn't an amusement park where you try to cram in all the rides into one visit. Even if this is the only visit give time to interact, linger and self explore. The people are incredible ....but you need real time to interact......and finding a local spot there is many times far better than racing to another "must see" spot. The goal should be to experience Ireland while seeing a lot of its beauty not ticking items off an itinerary.

Pick two to four places to stay. Use them as a base and give yourself loads of free time to explore or interact. Also combine. For example if you are doing the ROK and the Skellig Ring stop at the Cliffs of Kerry.......far better than the beautiful but tourist overrun and overdeveloped Cliffs of Moher. Save all that driving time and really enjoy the Skellig Ring of Southern ROK...which is well worthy of more than a drive by. We earlier this year spent a month in West Kerry and had plenty left to do.

For your own sake scale back the stops and scale up the enjoyment. Having the time to talk with a farmer, help feed his sheep and horses and be invited in for tea, scones and biscuits was better than any "top ten" listed sights. Have a great trip......but never worry about what you're "missing" because slowing down will give you a lifetime of memories and experiences that a race around Ireland wont.

I agree with the others, too much driving around. If you are landing in Dublin then spend your first few nights there. You can do a guided day trip to Newgrange, one to Glendalough, and then spend a day or two just seeing the city, and then get the car. By then you should be caught up on your sleep and have a handle on being on the left side of the road. From Dublin go to Galway and spend three or four nights there (or in the vicinity). From there you can do day trips to see Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Connemara, and then spend a couple nights on the Aran Islands (or just do it as a day trip). Then you can head south and spend the rest of your time in the south. I think there is enough to see and do there that you could base yourself in, or near, Killarney and you would also be a lot closer to Shannon for your flight home. The problem you can run in to when you schedule your trip so that you are moving on every day is that it doesn't leave room for problems that may creep up, and you may end up not seeing some things at all. For instance, if the weather is really bad the day you plan to go to the Cliffs of Moher there is a chance you won't even be able to see them. The same goes for the Aran Islands. If the seas are too rough, the ferry doesn't go. Leave yourself some room to reschedule things if needed.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply. I sincerely appreciate it! I was hoping this agenda would be a good variation and condensed version of RS three week itinerary. We certainly aren’t trying to see all of Ireland in our limited time. I’m going to take another stab at this and focus on longer stays and less moving around but still see our top priority areas. Thanks so much again!

We spent 8 days in Ireland this summer and, with the exception of 2 nights in Dublin at the end of the trip, we changed locations every night. We would wake up, head towards our next destination, stop at whatever interested us along the way, and arrive at our new Airbnb around dinner time. After we checked in we'd usually go out exploring the town, find a late dinner, and end up at a local pub listening to music until midnight or so. It was a little tiring, but we loved getting to see so many different places.

I know it goes against the popular advice of these forums, but it worked well for our little group (4 30-somethings). If you find there's nothing you want to cut out, I think you'd be just fine with your original plan.

Thanks Beth and again to the others who replied. We were incredibly fortunate enough to book a three night stay at the highly sought after Inis Meain suites so this has changed our itinerary. Taking the advise of planning longer stays but still getting to our top priority sites, here is the new agenda:

Day 1-2: Dublin (two nights Dublin)
Days 3-5: Drive to Galway, explore Cong, Ashford Hawk walk, Kylemore Abbey, Cliffs of Moher, Burren (three nights Galway)
Days 6-8: catch the ferry to Inis Meain; explore Aran Islands (three nights Inis Meain)
Days 9 - 10: leave Aran islands, explore Connemara, Clifden, Sky Road (two nights Connemara)
Days 11-13: drive to Killarney; Killarney national park and surrounding (three nights Killarney)
Days 14-15: drive to Wicklow area, Glendalough, Wicklow Mtns (1 night Wicklow area and drive to Dublin on our last night - stay near airport)
Day 16- home from Dublin

I realize we have a few days with long drives but we are totally fine with that and incredibly excited about the new itinerary. Thanks again everyone!!!

We did a lot of one night stays on our recent trip and it worked well for us. Ireland is very small (less than half the size of Florida) so the drives between stops were no big deal. Have a great trip!

Do what works for you! We went for 14 days and drove everyday---occasionally staying 2 nights---but the drives don't last long because of the stops you take along the way! The longest drive we had in one day was 3.5 hours---but we had 3 stops so it wasn't bad at all! We even had an 8 year old with us! The only regret is that we didn't spend more time in the north! Wish we could have done the Aran Islands---that sounds awesome too! Loved loved Ireland!

My husband & I got back from our 1st visit to Ireland a week ago. We went for a total of 14 nights (flew into Dublin, out of Shannon), usually spending 2 nights in one location, except for Dublin & Galway, where we spent 3 nights in each. I also used the RS guide in planning, but truthfully, I think it wore us down. We each contracted a virus towards the end of our trip that set us back a few days, and sadly, had to miss a few highlights. I learned as big lesson for our next trip, for us to go for 16 nights, and spend mostly 4 nights in one location, and take day trips out from each. You may want to think about that as an option as well.

For your itinerary & the places you want to visit, maybe stay 3 nights in Dublin (or its outskirts), 4 nights in Cobh or Kinsale, 4 nights in Killarney, 3 nights in Galway (I highly recommend Marless House B&B), 1 overnight on the Aran Islands, and your last night in Shannon (I highly recommend Moloney's B&B).

Driving around Ireland, especially the Wild Atlantic Way, was the core highlight of our trip! Congratulations & have a wonderful time on your honeymoon!!

Sorry, Birdie! I confused your post w/ another who's planning her honeymoon!!

Haha! No worries - maybe someday we will honeymoon there! I really appreciate your advise. Our updated itinerary is set - everything has been booked and we can’t wait!!