My wife and I want to visit Ireland this summer with our 18 and 20 year old sons. We have a week so we have to keep our itinerary limited to enjoy the trip. We don't want to spend the whole trip in a car. I would appreciate some suggestions on a reasonable 1-week itinerary and sights that would be fun for us and our sons. Thanks.
Posted by
317 posts
Hi Sharrill
This will be a great trip! I have taken thousands of Americans around Ireland, from 18 to 88 year olds, and there is so much on offer. I can help you develop a more detailed itinerary should you like, but my overall advice would be to take in
- Dublin, all of you will love the history and energy of our proud capital city
- Galway, your two young lads will love the vibe there, consider the Arand islands day trip
- Dingle, the gem in Irelands crown, a must-see. I love it so much I moved there!
- Killarney/Cork/Kinsale, any of these 3 places will be enjoyable
- do try and make it North to Belfast and the Giants Causeway for a day and ideally and overnight. If you had time, go on over to my hometown of Derry, its a fascinating city and full of history, both recent and ancient.
Le meas/with respect
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland Tour-Guide
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks. I'm going to do a bit of research on all of these and I may have some questions later. Hopefully you will still be online then.
Regards,
Steve Harrill
Posted by
Downingtown, USA
2449 posts
Check to see if you can fly into Dublin, spend a couple of days there, then rent a car and head south and west perhaps through Kinsale, onwards to Dingle and home from Shannon. Would save you driving back to Dublin. Also, you say a week, how many days do you actually have? The first day for some people is tough with jet lag and for others it is not a problem. The last day really can't be counted as a real day in Ireland as most flights to US leave in AM and you need to allow time to turn rental car and still be at the airport three hours early as you go through immigration there instead of when you land in US.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15781 posts
Consider carefully before renting a car in Ireland - it's not easy to drive on the other side of the road and after watching our bus driver, I have great respect for anyone who can negotiate those narrow lanes without incident.
Do not start in Dublin. If you do, you may never see the rest of the country. So much fun, so much to see and do.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks, everyone. Great suggestions. Keep them coming!
Posted by
Lake Mary, FL
30 posts
well the drinking age in Ireland is 18, so I'd do a Guinness tour in Dublin. Though it's probably one of the most popular tourist destinations in Dublin, Guinness tastes so much better over there for some reason, and it's cool to check out. I highly recommend booking the tour online though--then you can just pick up your tickets at the print-off kiosk and go. The bar at the top with the 360 views of Dublin is awesome. Also, do some research on athletic events and see what might be going on during the weekends in whatever city you happen to be in. We stumbled upon a Gaelic football game (sort of like Rugby I guess) in Ennis that was absolutely awesome--we had a blast and the community's really support their sports!