Itinerary Planning advice for our 21 day trip to Ireland

I would cut out Kilkenny for one night. That is a long ways to drive for one night and then you are heading to Kinsale. I don't think its worth it to drive that far for Kilkenny one night. Just my two cents.
Otherwise, I think it is a lot of driving, but maybe you don't mind.

In Bunratty there is a castle but it does not offer overnight accommodations. There is a Bunratty Castle Hotel, but it is not a Castle. There are also many lovely bed and breakfasts.

The scenery around the Dingle Peninsula is wonderful but Dingle is a small town. I think you could take a night from here (or even two) and add it to Galway or NI.

As for the car, I believe you will get socked for dropping it off in Belfast, as it is in another country. If you can add a day, it might make more sense to fly home from Dublin. (You mentioned leaving on the 5th or 6th of June, so I am guessing you have a little flexibility here?)

You are lucky to have such a long time to be in and enjoy Ireland!

Excellent overall ! I to would drop Kilkenny unless there is an overriding reason for going. There will be some long drives but since you aren't rat racing from one spot to another those drives can be loads of fun to.....and give a great sense of modern Ireland.

I might tweak some things ....a little less Dingle....more ROK and the Skellig Ring. A lot depends on what you like. Do you prefer a city...than if so yes Galway and its surrounds.......or a large town that offers everything and provides more chance of immersing yourself in calm relaxing time interacting with Ireland and its people then Kenmare and Dingle........or a wonderful small village where you can experience wild Ireland and really get to know Ireland, then Ballyferriter, Portmagee, Ballinskellig, Derrynane or Waterville would be great spots.

My wife and I prefer using weekly rental bases to explore and really delve into an area (it's also far less expense and much calmer)....and so nice staying in a great Irish home, with spectacular views, by ourselves.. So on our three weeks upcoming we are spending a week in Castlemaine, a week in Caherdaniel and a week in Tinahely. From these spots we can really cover the southwest and southeast without any rush. We sure won't exhaust the areas in the least but should have plenty of time for everything we enjoy.

But if you enjoy more moving around your itinerary looks great ! You avoid the pitfalls of 1-2 night stays and are ambitious at what you want to see without overdoing it. Less is definitely more !!!!! Great job.....have a great time and avoid the car drop off in Belfast ....I've heard the charges are high as stated above. Have fun !

Haven't yet been, but are knee-deep in planning a similar trip in May. Based on hours combing the Forum, we have planned 5 nights in Kenmare and only 2 in Dingle. Further, as we start to build the to-do list, I'm not sure 5 days/nights is enough in Kerry! Posts by "Ewewoolknit" and others have been very helpful, so I'd consider those carefully. We'll be watching this to see what the other experts have to say.
Be sure to post your final itinerary -- it looks like we may cross paths.

Thank you everyone for your input, these comments have really made me think about tweeking our plan a bit.

@ewewoolknit ... thank you for the Castlemaine info! That location looks like an area we would really enjoy and is in close proximity to both Dingle and the ROK areas. Maybe a great home base, for 5 days or so. Looks this area is a bit removed from the high tourist areas of the ROK and Dingle. So we can explore those areas and then retreat to a much calmer area...as it looks to me anyway. Do you have any suggestions for a quaint place to stay within a short drive from Shannon Airport, just because I'm sure we won't want to drive too far that first day due to potential jet lag and a new experience of driving in Ireland. We are not really interested in staying in large cities, we like the idea of small "Irish" villages or towns, with close proximity to those beautiful and touristy areas. I'm really trying not to overload us

I have rethought the Belfast departure also, due to the car expense. Looking at flying home via Dublin.

Still working on the plan...this info has really helped.
Thanks again! kajbennett1