Itinerary in Ireland: two weeks no car

Hi, Laura. That's a big topic. If you don't yet have Rick Steves' Ireland guidebook, then start with some of his free info at http://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ireland. Plan your preferred stops first, and the transport connections after. Trains serve some routes to/from Dublin and buses serve many more towns that may be in your plan.
Laura

Day 1: Arrive in Dublin in the morning and take a train to Galway. Relax and walk around.

Day 2 - 4: Stay in Galway, enjoy the town and take excursions (or travel by bus) to Connemara and Burren National Park. Ideally, I would like to take a 2-3 day excursion which starts in Galway, covers sights between Galway and Dingle, and deposits us in Dingle, otherwise

Day 5. take a train to Tralee and a bus to Dingle.

Day 6-7 rent bikes and ride the Dingle Loop (is it very much up-and-down or more or less flat?) and enjoy Dingle and Tralee

Day 8 take a train to Cork and a bus to Kinsale (or stay in Cork and take a day trip to Kinsale?)

Day 10 take a train to Dublin

Day 10-14 Dublin and environs

Day 15 leave in the morning

The route can be reversed, of course, but we do want to spend last several days in Dublin.

Opinions?

I haven't been to Dingle or Cork, but I will say that we, too, refuse to drive in UK/Ireland. Neither of us will volunteer to drive on the left side of the road. We just got back from doing Belfast and Dublin (which is easily connected by train/bus), but when we went in 2009, we did Dublin, then Galway, then Portstewart, then Belfast. ALL by bus/train. I wanted to do Dingle but going by public transportation seemed daunting... But if you can figure out the public transport, I, for one, fully support you! ;) We have friends from Dublin, and they carted us around a lot, and I must say, I was watching them drive, and I was lost. The rotaries, the whole left side of the road, narrow roadways, knowing which roads are one way, etc. No thank you. I don't know how Americans are able to go there after driving on the right their whole life and do it safely. We were in the UK for a week and I STILL couldn't figure out what some of the markings on the road were until I finally asked my husband. I'd love to hear if your itinerary works out and how you got to each place! Cork and Dingle are on my wish list for our next trip to Ireland, so your info will be useful to us!

Here is the itinerary I created:

Day 1: Fly into Dublin in the morning and take a bus to Cork at the airport. Stop at Cahir, drop the bags at the castle ticket office, and visit the castle and the Swiss Cottage. Embark on the bus and go to Cork.

Day 2-Day 3. Cork and a short train travel (30 min) to Cobh.

Day 4: Paddy Wagon day tour Cork - Dingle.

Day 5-6 Take a local bus to Kinsale and stay there

Day 7-8 take a train to Dublin (via Cork) and stay there.

Day 9- take Galway Tours Express to Galway and Connemara tour

Day 10-11 Galway.

Day 12 Take Galway Tours Cliffs of Maher/ Barren tour and return to Dublin on their Express bus.

Day 13-14 Dublin. Maybe a day tour to South coast (Powerscourt, Glendalough, Bray, etc). There are several companies that provide tours that cover pretty much the same route.

We break our stay in Dublin in two because we need to be there on a certain day in the middle of the trip, and do not want to risk returning from Galway the day we fly back.

This is more organized tours that we normally take in a year, so a new experience for us.

Hi Laura- Throwing in my 2 cents, on our first trip to Ireland (in 2011) we biked from Galway to Rossaveal, took a ferry to Inishmore and back to the mainland, then biked to Dingle. Hugging the left side of the road was a little nerve-wracking on busy roads, and we dealt with the almost daily rainstorms, but that was a fabulous (slow) way to see the country, and didn't involve driving! The Dingle loop described in Rick's book was great, but did involve some hills, and a massive climb on the clockwise return from the Blasket Island Center, with an exhilarating descent into town. Dingle is deservedly one of Rick's "back doors" and I highly recommend staying there for a while on your second visit to Ireland - the Bus Eireann bus (with an Irish Setter on the side instead of a greyhound!) gets you to and from Dingle easily.

At the Cliffs of Moher, you can get a decent walk (including some up and down) inside the safe, walled pedestrian section, without ever having to venture past the "Danger - Do Not Go Past This Sign" signs. Have a great trip!