itinerary/suggestions for 10 day trip and hubs in May

Happy Anniversary! What do you like to do?

If you give us readers an indication (hiking, eating, photographing, surfing......)(B&B, hotels, guesthouses; posh or budget) then we might all better suggest things to see/timing at specific places! Do let us know, as I have some great recommendations in Connemara where I spent a week in August, but it depends on what you're into!

Thanks,

Susan
Expat living in Waterville.

We want to sight see but also experience the culture and hit some off the beaten path gems as well as great pubs. My husband would like to stay in a thatched roof inn, home, bnb as well as take a whiskey tour. Maybe rent bikes for an afternoon or horseback riding. We ideally want to pick some hubs so we can get a small sense of the community we are staying in when not touring around. Any suggestions on direction to start after leaving Dublin and itinerary would be appreciated.
Best,

Here is what we are thinking
Dublin 2 nights
visit Trinity College, Guinness and Jameson tour
Kilkenny 1 night
visit Rock of Cashel on way to Killarney
Killarney 2 nights
visit Ring of Kerry, Gap of Dunloe
Galway 2 nights
visit Cliffs of Moher , Burren
Ashford Castle 1 night
drive back to Dublin for last night

Thoughts on this itinerary appreciated...First time...so many choices!!!!!! Also any suggestions on places to stay, think quaint:)

In Killarney, we stayed at the Lake Hotel which is tight next to the National park. It was gorgeous! We had great service and the breakfast was yummy. Highly recommend.

Hi Elaine, Congrats on your anniversary. I took the RS 8 day Ireland tour last May (so you can see we went to about half the places on your list) but flew into Dublin 2 days before to do some sight seeing. Some of my thoughts:
1. I don't know if you are in Dublin 1 or 2 days with your two nights, but you might want to look into the Dublin Pass if you like enough of the activities. I was there 1 day and did both Guinness and Jameson (I don't recommend both places on the same day if you can help it, but it sure made the 1-day Pass pay for itself if you do both). :) Consider the music or literary pub crawl for the evening. I did the music one and it was a lot of fun.
2. Ennis was kinda dead on Sat/Sun when we were there, so was a total dud in my opinion.
3. At the risk of sounding like RS promotional material, Dingle was AWESOME. The music, scenery, Fungie the dolphin and the walkability of the town...I would go back again.

I think staying on the Aran island might be nice. There are rooms listed on airbnb. I looked as I didn't get to go there, so maybe next time. Have a great time!

Thank you Wendy for your suggestions:)

Elaine,

You mention whisky tours is on the list - Dingle Distillery has tours and it's right near Milltown House (a fantastic spot to stay in Dingle, and the owner is a RS tour guide!!). There is also a whisky experience in Killarney that is sort of new - I think it opened last spring. I've eaten there, but never been able to coordinate the tour when I've been there (designated driving and all!). There's MANY more whisky and gin distillers than there was just a few short years ago. Why not keep an eye out for a smaller distiller tour, rather than the big Jameson tour?

Susan
Expat in Waterville

We just booked a RS 8 day trip to Ireland. Wondering if we should add time to the beginning or end of the tour. I’m excited to explore Ireland.

Thank you Susan. I see you reply often to questions. You are great to give so much of your time to this! Much appreciated! Happy Holidays!

Hi Elaine,

I think you should go with your gut and see as much as you can ‘off the beaten track’. Instead of visiting West Clare and West Galway first, why not visit the east of those counties on the way down - even for a day. The area around Lough Derg is really beautiful and isn’t over-run with tourists. The journey down from Portumna to Ballina/Killaloe is lovely and there’s a great new ‘Blueway’ route of places to visit. There are loads of places to go biking there (Planet-tri, De Burgo Bikes, etc)

As per other forums here, there’s walking trails like the East Clare Way and Lough Derg Way and historical sites like Portumna Castle and the Irish Workhouse Centre. It would also be cheaper, I imagine, to stop off in a nice B&B or small hotel there rather than heading straight for the Cliffs and Connemara. You could then travel through Clare, to Ennis (very under-rated town, IMHO the other comment was harsh), out to the Cliffs, and then up to Galway on the new north-section of motorway (opened recently).

If you are going to Ashford castle, perhaps also take in Clonbur for a drive or even stay there for a couple of nights. It's a quaint little village with such a lovely warm feel to it. Cong (Ashford Castle) is alongside, on the Galway-Mayo border, and honestly you could spend days driving round looking at the most beautiful scenery – weather permitting. I hope the above helped... I imagine your challenge will be to fit as much in without stressing yourself on Irish roads!

Hope you have a lovely holiday. :-)

Thomas.

Thank you Thomas for your suggestions and your time!

We ended up in Ennis after a change of plans (the weather). We drove from our hotel in Shannon and arrived not really knowing what to do. I knew there were shops, but not being much of a shopper. As soon as we parked our car, I noticed a young man waiting by a statue with a brochure in his hand. When we stopped and spoke with him, he said he was giving walking tours of Ennis. Well, hey, thats perfect. So we were the only two people on his tour and we had a great time. He was just a kid really, his name was Ollie and he was 21. He gave us a great tour of Ennis and even showed us how to play hurling, which I had never heard of, but apparently its the most popular sport in Ireland.
I am usually a very detailed planner, but this day was not planned and it turned out great!
Love the irish people!

Thanks, Elaine!

I love helping people find new things and love their trip!

I really like the idea of the walking tour in Ennis mentioned above. So you know - Trip Advisor won't allow people to add their tours to TA if they don't have an office/physical place of business. So ALL of the small independent walking tours are not on TripAdvisor! For example,there's one in Cahersiveen, which I've taken twice with friends. Fantastic. I couldn't review it, so I sent T.A. an email and they said "sorry it doesn't fit our perimeters!" So do keep people like that, standing on a corner, sign that they do tours, anything like that - and jump at it!! You won't regret it!

Susan
Expat in Waterville