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Kilkenny, Cork, or Belfast

Posted by on

Hi folks,

My fiancee and I are doing our honeymoon in Ireland and London the first couple weeks of April. We have about 8 days allotted for Ireland. We plan on doing 2 days in Dublin, 2 days in Galway, and 2 days at Ballyfin Demesne. I'm wondering with our other couple days if we should do go South to either Kilkenny or Cork (or both if the travel time would allow for a day in both), or go North to Belfast. We're flying from London to Ireland, so we can start pretty much anywhere Ryanair goes. We will be taking public transit and we aren't necessarily tied down to specific days in specific places (the only hard set date right now is a Premiere League game on April 13th), so the route is fairly flexible as far as where we start and which direction we go from there. We're not big fans of touristy type places (ie. if we went to Cork, we would most likely skip Blarney Castle). We're both big foodies and enjoy good pubs.

Any ideas or advice on which cities would be more enjoyable as well as routes would be helpful. Also, any sites, restaurants, pubs, etc we should check out in any of these places would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Posted by
2001 posts

Just wondering, why 2 days in Galway? I was in Ireland in June and my 2 least favorite places were Galway and Belfast. I loved everywhere else, but my favorite area was the south: Dingle, Killarney National Park, Kinsale. You say you are taking public transit so I would suggest looking at bus and train schedules to see what is easily reachable from Dublin. 8 days isn't long and I know you don't want to spend all your time traveling from one place to another.

Posted by
119 posts

I would pick Kilkenny. If you spend two night there then you can spend a day in Kilkenny itself and then maybe spend the other day over at Cashel or the Wicklow Mountains (maybe with an extra drive over to Glendalough). Kilkenny is an easy drive from Cashel or the Wicklow Mountains.

We went to Kilkenny a few years ago and loved it. We enjoyed the town as well as the castle.

If you pick Cork, you might enjoy Kinsale. Lots of great restaurants there.

Posted by
933 posts

Galway was my favourite place. I spent four nights there, and got day tours to Inishmore, Cliffs of Moher/Burren, and Connemara. Its easy and fairly quick to get there by train. The same for Belfast, and I spent four nights there also, doing a day trip up to the causeway, toured the city and did some family research. Instead of changing locations so much it might be best to add those two days to a couple of places you are already going to. When travelling by public transit you are at the mercy of their schedule so it will take longer to get places. Keep in mind that if you want to do a guided day tour they often leave at 9am, and if your train doesn’t get to town until 10 am you will be spending your day in town. It might actually be best for you to just divide your time between Dublin and one other place. There are lots of day trips from Dublin that will allow you to see a fair number of places, and if you stay in Dublin for four nights you will avoid the hassle of packing up, catching a train, and then getting to your accommodation at the next town before getting out to see some sights. Personally, I would do Dublin and Galway as these two would give you a lot of variety of choice in what to see and do. Take a look at the day trips available from each place. That may help you make up your mind.

Posted by
418 posts

If you go to Belfast, be sure to go to Sawers. They have lovely food there.

Posted by
15784 posts

Remember that you don't really have 2 days in a place if you only spend 2 nights there. You'll use on average 1/2 day changing locations. For instance, Dublin to Galway is a 2.25-2.5 hour trip (train or bus) per rome2rio.com. But you have to pack, check out, and get to the station a few minutes before departure. Then you have to get from the station to your hotel and check in. And that looks like your shortest trip. And that isn't taking into account the bus/train schedules.

How are you getting from Galway to Ballyfin Demesne? And from there to anywhere else.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Laurie Beth, the 2 days in Galway are really a day in Galway and a day in Doolin/Cliffs of Moher,

Chani, We'd most likely go from Dublin to Ballyfin, rather than from Galway.

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