Request for Feedback: 8 day Ireland itinerary

You are spending all your time in the west - is there any chance of flying into Shannon rather than Dublin as you aren’t planning to spend any time sightseeing in Dublin?

Blasket Islands and Skellig Michael. I’m assuming you aren’t wanting to do both in the same day and it is an either or? You do realise these are weather dependent and you have to prebook a sailing as they are very popular. If it is at all windy with rough seas, the ferry won’t sail... You need to factor this into your planning

Rather than heading to Galway for a day trip to the Aran Islands , have you thought about stopping in Doolin and getting a ferry from there instead? You could combine this with seeing Cliffs of Moher from the sea too., They are much more impressive than seeing them from the top. The Burren area is wonderful and the limestone scenery is very different to the rest of Ireland.

Getting from Dingle to Cliffs of Moher. The usual route is via Limerick. This is about 225km and will take 3.5 ish hours to drive. There is a ferry crossing from Tarbert across the Shannon to Killimer. This cuts about 75km off the drive. The crossing takes about 20 minutes. It may not save much time compared with driving round by Limerick, depending on how long you have to wait at Tarbert. (If you haven’t prebooked you have to purchase a ticket 30 minutes prior to boarding...)

You're trying to cover an awful lot of ground in a very short amount of time, and are thus setting yourselves up for a lot of time behind the wheel just trying to get where you really want to go in the west of Ireland.
It might ease your logistics somewhat if you considered the afternoon RyanAir flight from Dublin to the Kerry airport near Killarney - located about an hour's drive from Kenmare. You could rent a car there for a one-way trip up the coast, eventually returning the car at Dublin airport the afternoon or evening before your flight home. The afternoon flight departs at 3:15 PM and so would allow you to decompress a little before departure ... and then having to deal with what may your first experience driving on the left upon arrival at Kerry.
The flight itself takes less than an hour and is pretty cheap, even after allowing for all of the various fees that discount airlines hit you with these days.
The Tarbert ferry is my suggestion too, followed by a meandering scenic drive up the N67 - one of the prettiest drives in Ireland on a sunny day. The seaside village of Kilkee is one of our particular favorites. There's a very pretty cliff walk there that you'll have virtulally all to yourselves - nice place to stretch your legs and maybe grab lunch.
A possible alternative to the ferry over to the Aran Islands is to fly via Aer Arann. Would be a lot quicker and would save yourselves what can be a rough crossing by ferry from Rossaveel. Plus you'll add a scenic flight into the mix.
A pleasant stop between Galway and Dublin is the monastic site at Clonmacnoise.

Two things to consider.

If you are arriving from the U.S. (and I might have misunderstood), please consider not driving as soon as you arrive. You will be tired, sleepy, jet lagged, driving on unfamilar roads, and driving on the left side of the road. You might be able to handle it, but many (if not most) people are not in any mental shape to drive after a flight from the U.S. Even a minor fender bender at the start of a trip can spoil the whole trip.

Even if you wait until you are acclimated, driving times in Ireland almost always take longer than aticipated. You might be in for a lot of stress if you try to stick to the original plan.

Don't mean to rain on your parade, Ireland is a beautiful place to see, just offering food for thought.

I have some questions about 8/15 and 8/16. How much of the Ring of Kerry are you planning on driving/seeing, and in which direction - clockwise or counterclockwise? Maybe a bit in each direction from Kenmare, but to reach Dingle, at some point you’ll likely be branching off northwest.

As for Blasket Islands and Skellig Michael, do you plan to simply view them from the Dingle Peninsula shore, or take a boat trip, or actually set foot on either? The Blaskets are easily reachable from the tip of the Dingle Peninsula, but Skellig Michael is just a bump on the horizon. There are “Eco Tour” boats that circle the Skelligs, but don’t actually land at Skellig Michael. Climbing the steps and reaching the ancient beehive huts on Skellig Michael requires a different boat tour, which should be booked several months in advance, and which departs from the Iveragh Peninsula, the peninsula south of Dingle’s. It would be possible to stay in Dingle and catch a boat to land on Skellig Michael, but it will involve getting up extra early in the morning and doing the drive.

If a boat to land on Skellig Michael is part of the plan, and maybe even if an Eco Tour boat is what’s desired, sleeping in Cahersiveen or Portmagee might be better on 8/15. After your Skellig visit on 8/16, continue on to Dingle. Landing at Skellig Michael is dependent on sufficiently calm seas, so a boat trip booked months in advance could still be cancelled that morning, if the water is deemed too rough. Maybe pick Skellig Michael or Great Blasket, but not both?

Speaking of rough seas affecting plans, both times that we visited Inishmore (once in June, and also in September), the biggest of the Aran Islands, ferries got postponed/cancelled by rough seas. On our second visit, 5 years ago, we flew on the compact plane with Aer Arann, and therefore weren’t deterred by the blustery weather. You’ve got to get to the small airport west of Galway, though, so the port south of Doolin isn’t an option, if you fly. Rough waves can suddenly alter your plans, if you’re relying on a ferry.

Hello-thank you everyone for your feedback and suggestions. I just love this forum! Given your input, we’ve made the following changes. Flights were already booked from MSP to Dublin thru Delta using my FF miles.
-Scrapped Skellig Michael due to logistical challenges and time constraints given our planned itinerary.
-Love the idea of grabbing ferry to Aran Islands (weather permitting) and combining this with CLiffs of Moher views from the sea (thank you for including the link!). We think it would be a spectacular view! Otherwise, great option to fly to Islands from Galway if needed (thank you for the link) which would be a wonderful experience also.
-Now looking to cut out driving to Kilkenny after we land and instead search for flight on RyanAir to Kerry. Would maximize our time much better-and safer.
-Appreciate the Tarbert ferry info and sightseeing suggestion up N67 and Kilkee. Certainly worth a look as photos of the village look beautiful!!.
-Sounds like to preferred direction/route when driving the Ring of Kerry is clockwise to offset tour bus routes.
——>Is there a preferred source that you’d recommend using when reserving a car in Ireland? Did you use an online travel site such as Expedia, etc or did you go directly to sites of car rental company’s? Thank you again!

Most here (us included) rely on AutoEurope for car rentals in Ireland. They offer competitive rates and the various insurance options are clearly presented ... a major consideration in Ireland since most credit cards don't provide coverage, and the premium cards that do tend to make filing a claim a convoluted and generally painful process. I always cross-check the individual company websites but even with Gold status at Hertz I've never seen it cheaper there.
Haven't had occasion to use the feature myself but others here have reported that the AutoEurope help line is pretty responsive if any issues arise.
Edited to add: another AutoEurope feature that we like is their liberal cancellation policy - can make a booking early and then keep checking back to see if rates go down, in which case you can cancel the original booking without penalty znd re-book at the better rate.

Highly recommend an automatic. To me it was far easier than shift I rented my first time there. Never had problem with Auto Europe. Enjoy.

thank you Robert and Gail for the auto info. So grateful for your insights. Will certainly go with an automatic for our rental. Perhaps are there a certain car rental company’s that you prefer? Hertz, Dollar? Just curious if some are better than others. Also, does the rental price at time of booking include ALL charges/fees (beyond taxes, etc) or should I be prepared to be flooded with additional, hidden charges beyond what I see for final price when booking the rental car. I see I can choose additional insurance when on their site-which we will probably do. Appreciate any additional input you may have. Thanks again!

One of the many advantages of booking thru AutoEurope is that the price you book is the final price you'll pay, ie no surprises.. About the only possible added charge you may encounter is the toll for the M-50 motorway, which you can investigate via a Google search.
I've always preferred to book with Hertz but as you'll see there are a number of other providers to choose from.
I prefer to lock in the insurance cover when I make the initial booking - it's one less thing to worry about upon arrival, plus I've found their rates to be quite reasonable, especially for the zero deductible cover that I prefer (and that I recommend).

The last two times we were in Ireland we rented directly from Conn's Ireland, https://connsirelandcarrental.com/, a Hertz franchise. We rented there for precisely the reason you mentioned: transparent pricing. There were no additional fees or up-selling. I have never rented from Auto Europe although many here recommend them and I will probably try them at some point. But with the driving on the left and the narrow 1-1/2 lane roads I didn't want to take a chance on surprise charges. Also, they have a U.S. phone number. When I called to confirm various details my call rolled over to voice mail. But someone returned the call within 15-20 minutes. Looking at their website I see that you can rent at the Kerry Airport and return to the Dublin airport. It's unclear to me whether there is a one-way drop fee.

For our trip this past spring, I contacted AutoEurope, but wound up renting through Dollar. They had a better price, and it seemed that AutoEurope didn’t offer Dollar as one of their available companies. It could pay to shop around, and book directly through the rental company. The trip before that, we rented through Enterprise. I don’t believe there have ever been “surprise” charges inflicted at the rental desk.

Another reason I've settled on AutoEurope is their clear presentation of the various insurance options.
Trying to dig down into the fine print on most of the individual company websites to sort out the insurance options can be confusing, and can make it difficult to arrive at a true "all in" quote that includes the insurance cover ... to facilitate shopping around when a true apples-to-apples comparison is desirable.