Just returned from Ireland! Sharing my 10-day Itinerary!

Peggy,
We are traveling to Ireland for 2 weeks in early October. I'm torn about whether to book B&Bs ahead of time. It just seems like that is not peak tourist season and I just can't predict day to day where we will end up. Do you think it necessary to book rooms ahead of time or do you think availability will be enough to just wing it and find rooms where we end up? This has me stressed out so an answer would be most appreciated.

Thank you,
Naomi Stone

@nstone - I wasn't traveling during peak season by any stretch either, but all of the places I stayed at were well reviewed, popular, and when I arrived and asked the hosts, fully booked. So given that, I do feel that if you want to stay in specific places, it'll still be advisable to book ahead. If you're not picky, there were always loads of BnBs congregated in the same areas, so it would make it easy to hit up a couple once you arrive at your destination. All of the places I booked at had easy cancellation policies (although definitely more than just the usual 24-hour hotel cancellation), so I was never too worried. Hope that helps!

Hi Peggy-

I need your advice about the Book of Kells. Is it really necessary to buy the tickets in advance? I checked their website and the mark-up is pretty steep. Is the line to go in and the wait time really long? What did you do? I plan to be there on 05/22 which is a Sunday. Thanks.

Hi Peggy,

Thanks for sharing your itinerary! My family of six is traveling to Ireland in June for 8 days (4 in Edinburgh before Ireland) and seem to be planning a similar trip to yours. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions on points I have been a little worried about - mainly trying to cover too much distance in a day.

We will have a large vehicle I'm afraid as 6 of us, so we will just do our best on narrow roads! The tour buses make it, right? We are planning two nights in Dublin at the start and then getting our rental car and heading to Killarney. Sounds like you made good time even with a stop at Rock of Cashel? Just wondering what time you started the day. We are planning to pick up our rental car as early as 730 am. I've debated a stop at Glendalough instead of Rock of Cashel. I know this would add time though and make it a longer day.

We were planning to spend the next day in the park walking the Gap and whatever else we can fit in before heading to Dingle for two nights. Curious what the scenic route was you took to Dingle?

We are taking a private tour of the Peninsula and up Conor's pass to give my husband a break from driving on our full day in Dingle, so when we depart the next day we would not plan to go over the pass. I need to figure out best route over to Cliffs - I've read mixed reviews on whether or not to use the ferry. Currently, our plan is to stay in Doolin that night, but I've been debating traveling farther as ideally I would like to have more time in the Connemara area. Did you find the drive from Dingle to Galway a long day? Assume you just drove through the Burren and did not spend much time there? I've heard a couple hours at the Cliffs is fine.

I have reservation in Doolin, but also made one in Clifden for that night. I'm afraid that might be too ambitious, but we really want to spend more time in that area. We have the next night at the Ballynahinch castle in Recess so will want to spend time on the grounds there I'm sure. Our last day we could see more of Connemara, but stay in Ennis to fly out of Shannon the following morning.

Thanks for any advice you can share. I think I will look at the Robeen House. We are currently booked at the Lake Hotel, but it's more expensive and think I would prefer a B & B.

Jane

Hi Peggy!

Thank you so much for your post. We are heading to Ireland in September and are also staying at the Greenmount and Petra house so it is nice to know they were great! I do have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind.

Day 4) When you left Dingle via the Conor Pass did you allow 2 hours to reach the Ferry? I had heard that it was best to avoid the ferry due to the bad roads and having to time your arrival exactly. Also, did you drive straight up to Galway or did you spend time at the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren? We will be doing this in reverse but we are breaking it up by spending a night in Doolin. i.e. we will leave Galway, drive through the Burren, visit the Cliffs and spend the night in Doolin. Next morning we will leave Doolin and drive to Dingle taking in the Conor Pass. Right now we are planning on driving the main road through Limmerick BUT we may change our mind and do the coastal road. How was that road and the road to the ferry?

Who did you rent your car through? Was it worth the added expense of a diesel for the increased mileage?

@KathyYT - I honestly am unsure. We went and did the Trinity College history tour put on by the students (it was great!) which included the cost of the ticket and afterwards they deposited us at the Kells line, which took less than 5 minutes. We went in the morning on their first tour (10:15am) so perhaps that helped, and it was a Saturday. I can only guess if that is an accurate representation of what it will be like when you're there, but it was still the weekend after the 100th Anniversary Easter Uprising celebrations, so the TIs still made it sound like the city was pretty busy. Hope that helps!

@Will6

Haha well good luck with a bigger car! I was definitely happy I had a smaller one, but yes, tour buses make it. I will say I was also thankful that I was traveling in the down season so there were FAR fewer tour buses. Those small roads can be NARROW.

We left Dublin Airport around 9:30. The drive to Killarney is pretty much mostly main highways so it was easy. Including doing RoC, which really we finished in 1.5hrs (it was very empty), we arrived in Killarney around 3pm. To me that's a super easy amount of driving - I knock out the LA to SF 6 hr drive regularly.

Hope you don't plan on driving the Gap with a bigger car! On the advice of Bernice from Robeen house, we did probably the less travelled direction, so it felt like we were dodging more cars going the opposite direction and that is a very tight squeeze.

The scenic route to Dingle via Inch beach - I don't remember the details but it did involve taking us past the Aghadoe lookout point overlooking the lakes which was a very nice view.

Taking the Tarbert Ferry: we wanted to get the 10:30am ferry, so we left at 830am via Connors pass, and arrived with about 15 minutes to spare. I thought the ferry was great and simple, but after you arrive on the north side, again we took probably a more circular loop hugging the ocean to get to Cliffs of Moher. It was nice, but can be skipped if you'd like (it's not vastly different or better than the Dingle loop). Cliffs don't take more than 2.5hrs, Burren, we hit all the view points but it was all in all a pretty fast drive through (I don't feel like I missed anything though). We arrived in Galway probably by 6pm or so. To me that wasn't a horrible drive at all from Dingle to Galway (but I also did find driving on the wrong side in general a fun experience haha). Clifden.........that may stretch even my limits though.

And yes! I also looked into the Lake Hotel (if I'm thinking of the same one), and I'm very happy I chose Robeen instead. Also, it's more walkable into town for dinner etc.

Hope that helps!

@Kse - Yep! Scheduled for 2 hours, and I got there in 1hr45min, including a brief (freezing) photo stop at the top of Connor's Pass. Definitely I'd say 2 hrs. The road wasn't bad at all, very scenic but at many times I did go exactly or just below the speed limit because it was also raining on and off. Beautiful drive though! Stopped at both Cliffs and Burren.

We rented through Avis, but technically it was done via Travelocity, whom we also purchased the insurance through. All in all it was fine, although it did get frustrating picking up the car as the agent was claiming that to them (Avis), we were taking the car without any insurance (as we had not purchased it through them directly) and therefore made us put down a 3,000 euro safety deposit (which we got back). After he continued to push us for extra insurance through them, I finally accused him of fear-mongering, and he ended up giving us a diesel car for no additional cost. He had originally begun the conversation claiming he had only diesels available in larger (and more expensive) models, and lo and behold, 20 minutes later he produced the same sized car we had originally wanted. If i'm remember correctly, the entire trip I drove 1230km on about (from my guess calc) a total of less than 1.5 tanks. Diesel was on average about 20 cents cheaper/litre if I remember correctly.

Thank you for the info Peggy! You have me intrigued again.....i did not even consider buying the car insurance from someone other than who we rented from. May i ask why you do this? Cheaper? Better coverage? Also sounds like that car got great mileage!

I am 62 and my husband is 74 so we decided i would be doing the driving ( we have not confirmed it yet but we heard if you were over 70 the rental/insurance was more )and we also live in Southern California.
So give it to me straight...how bad are the roads. We will be sriving Slea Head Drive and Connor Pass but will probably skip the Ring of Kerry.....not sure I want to spend that much time to drive it....but...who knows.

@kse Actually, I wasn't in charge of the car rental so I'm not entirely sure, but I believe it was a matter of cost and from reading the insurance agreement (which we brought a copy of to show to Avis), we felt we were sufficiently covered. Having successfully driven without any incident, now I can easily say all went well and it was great! But I was very cautious while driving, haha.

I was very very impressed with the road conditions. My navigator (my mom - props to her) and I were commenting on how good they were (hell, I even feel like SoCal roads have wayyyy more potholes). You definitely need either an AMAZING navigator or GPS. We had downloaded google maps for using offline on our iPads, so we had the turn by turn instructions, but it definitely took close monitoring of the odometer to determine how much further we had before the next turn or whether we had missed a turn. To us, some "roads" felt more like alleyways haha, except then you have a truck barreling down the opposite way! But I wouldn't have traded the freedom of driving ourselves!

We skipped Ring of Kerry as well. I felt like I didn't miss anything, and the Dingle loop was enough for me. (also I may get lambasted for this, but coming from the CA coast and having Big Sur, albeit still different....this wasn't different enough?? For us, the stand out, epic sights were more like Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher.)

LOL Peggy, I will not blast you for that statement because, well....I have thought the same thing on occasion. I know the scenery will be lovely but I don't want to feel like I have to take in every scenic drive there is, especially if it will be all day on narrow, winding roads. I was a bit surprised that Slea Head drive took you 6.5 hours, since it is only something like 30 miles? But, I am sure there are lots of things to pull off and see and maybe even some hiking involved.

We plan on adding GPS to the car, having our IPad with downloaded routes and also buying the Map that Rick Steves recommended. Plus my husband will be our navigator. I think that will cover all the bases except for the occasion when I decide to "take a look and see what is down a road we had not planned on." Nice to hear the roads are in good shape!

Thank you again!

Hi Peggy,

Your review is most helpful. We have a similar itinerary planned for next September. We have booked Greenmount House in Dingle and are so glad to hear you liked it. We had tried two other places in Dingle that were all ready booked! Thanks again for your input!

Thanks again for your advice! We are planning to walk the Gap as we like to hike - no chance we would make it through in our VW Caravelle!

KSE, I have traveled to Ireland a number of times in the heart of the summer crush, and rarely have we had a hard time finding rooms the night we arrive in a city. Each town of any size has the best thing a tourist can discover, the Irish Tourist Boards. Walk in, tell them where and when you want the rooms, Hotel or B&B or whatever, how much you want to spend and voila! they find the perfect place for you. It's a fabulous set-up. You can even book for cities ahead on your travels. The only thing you have to watch for is a large event (ex.Galway Race festival). Then it's harder to find a room. We have depended on the ITB every trip and it has always taken care of us. Look for the brown sign when you drive into town. I wouldn't bother with booking rooms outside of the biggest cities and first and last nights of your trip, when you don't want to have anything else to worry about. Every country should follows Ireland's lead with this.

peggy
can you share the airport hotel where you stayed in Dublin. I have a very early flight out and want to be close by.

ckf

Naomi -

The short answer to your question is: Nope. You don't need to - and you probably wouldn't want to anyway - book every night in advance. It's just plain unnecessary. Even in the high season. Doing so would certainly stifle any spirit of serendipity and the opportunity to take the proverbial "fork in the road" once you find it. And you will. Explore the country with an open mind - and an open itinerary - and you'll see the Ireland you want to see, rather than what you maybe had to see. There are, after all, over 2,000 B&Bs in a country the size of West Virginia. And in October, you'll be one of the few tourists around. Calling the day of or a day ahead is sufficient. Or, as we often did - just show up and knock on the door.

In nine summertime trips all over Ireland (most of three weeks' duration), we had difficulty securing a B&B only once. And that was on a Saturday night in a popular commercial town - Westport. It took about twenty phone calls, but we ended up with a great room less than an hour after arriving in town. And we were bicycling on every trip. Talk about not knowing where you might end up at day's end.

I'd suggest that you only book your first and last nights in-country, so you don't have to scramble or wonder where you might be sleeping at those critical junctures. And you can take care of that well before departure.

KathyYT, what I did for Book of Kells was just get there before they open in the morning. They might be a short line, but once they open it moves quickly.

@carole - We just stayed at the Dublin Airport Holiday Inn (which is also next door to a Courtyard Marriott). The two share a bus that runs on a regular schedule picking you up and dropping you off at the airport. Very easy and quick! It's about a 15 minute walk from a series of basic shops/fast food restaurants, and provided breakfast.

Peggy - Sounds like a magnificent trip! Thanks for sharing. I'm heading in a few weeks and have 2 nights (but just 1 full day) in Galway. We'll arrive mid-afternoon on Friday and plan to take in the city center and pubs that afternoon/evening. Saturday is slated for a day tour. If we could only do one, would you recommend Aran Islands or a Connemara tour? I'm really struggling, as I would love to see both. My travel partner is leery about getting sea sick on the ferry to Aran. And I think Connemara would be the better option for a rainy day. But my gut is telling me that Aran Islands can't be missed, although ideally we could have fit in an overnight. Sunday morning we rent a car and depart for Dingle, taking in the Cliffs of Moher on the way. Would love your thoughts on which tour your would have picked if you only had one day. Thanks!

@jjordan Hi!! This is of course just a personal opinion, but I really enjoyed the Aran Islands!! Yep, I got really lucky and had a beautiful day there, so that may have helped, but also to me, the environment was very different from anything I had seen before. Definitely though, your partner should bring some sea-sickness meds because that was a bumpy boat ride over. Also, for me personally, I felt that just the day (no overnight) was enough on Inis Mor. So coming back to Galway that evening after the day out still gave us plenty of time to enjoy the city center and pubs. Hope that helps and have an amazing trip!