Suggestions for Ireland/England Trip

We toured some of Western Ireland by bicycle in June 2011 over 2 weeks, and a car would get you around faster, but in 2-3 days you'll just make some quickie visits. Big highpoints from our 2 weeks were: Cliffs of Moher on the coast, Inishmore in the Aran Islands off of the coast, Dingle and the Dingle peninsula on the coast further south. If you haven't locked in your Dublin flight reservations, the airport at Shannon might offer an alternative for flying to or from Ireland, without backtracking all the way to Dublin.

If you haven't purchased your thansatlantic tickets yet, look into flying to London directly and then back via Dublin. If you do have your tickets already, I would fly Dublin/London. You don't want to waste time on such a short trip. If you plan to visit other destinations in England, you have a number of airport choices (you have choices for London as well). Keep in mind costs to get to/from airport when comparing flight costs.

I think you will probably want a car for western Ireland.

My husband and I flew from London to Shannon. We did a two week TAUCK bus tour and then flew from Dublin back to London and London home to LAX. I agree it would be a waste of time to fly in/out of Dublin. The south of Ireland is so beautiful. We particularly liked the Mont Juliet Hotel and The Ashford Castle (originally the summer home of the Guinness Beer Family). Our son flew home from Dublin today. He was in Paris last week and flew out of Paris on Wednesday. It is just so tragic what happened.