3 different bases in Ireland for a 10-12 day trip

We are going to Ireland for the first time next week! We plan to stay 2 nights in Dublin on the onset, 4 nights in Killarney, 2 nights near Dublin at the end and 3 nights somewhere on the road-no reservations booked for those 3. We plan to do a lot of sightseeing in the surrounding area when we are at Killarney. We are staying at Old Killarney Village.It came highly recommended. Have fun planning and have a great trip! Cille

Christine, my wife and I are like you and prefer setting up a base and day-tripping. But, Ireland is not really conducive to that sort of travel since towns are far apart and there will be a LOT of driving as it is without having to backtrack. Since you'll have your own car, it's a lot easier to pack up and move on. No lugging around your bags from train to bus to hotel, you just drive from doorstep to doorstep. Just try to avoid one night stays (I despise those) and you'll have a fantastic time

We liked Kenmare for a base town. Also think that Galway or one of the smaller towns nearby is good for the Cliffs, Burren, and Inis Mor. Westport makes a good base for the Conemara, Kylemore Abbey, Croagh Patrick, and Achill Island. We likewise loved Donegal Town for that part of Ireland as a base. Hope this helps on the western front!

If you want to use "base camps" and do day trips, you can certainly do this in Ireland. Sometimes when you read travel posts, it sounds like Ireland is vast. While most of the roads are slow, please keep in mind that Ireland is a small island, especially compared to yours. For example, it is about 300 miles from Kenmare to Donegal town. In California, it is farther than that from San Franciso to Los Angeles! Base camp recommendations-somewhere in the Donegal/Sligo area (we haven't been to that area yet, so can't be specific), any small town west of Galway, and Kenmare (check out Tahila Cove for a base).

Thanks for the ideas friends. I'll go back to the maps and spend more fun time planning this trip which will include the rest of the British isles. I love planning trips and this helpline is fantastic.

if you fly into Shannon there is a small motel 5 miles from the Bunratty Castle, its about $60 a night very clean and very nice people there you can go out to places from there, when you go down to Cork you can stay at the Blarney Golf Hotel and hit all of cork and its a great base camp. from there we go all the way up to Bellina, if you take the road past Galway and Tuam (chume) and up to Foxford it is a 3 hour drive and there is a family that rents out cottages they are the Trainers it is around $300.00 for a week the # for Rose and Ray is 011353949258232 from there you can go all the way up or around into diffrent towns! if you go over to Northern Ireland there is a few Hostiels they are around $25-$45 a night and it is right next to the Castels and Giants, you can see scotland from there! it is a very nice place the pub on the corner is amazing!!! laughs and singing starts on Irish time! normally most places only take a few hours to get to but if you get lost you will have more fun, the People are soooo " lovely" and all food is great!

Christine, we used Doolin as a base camp for exploring the West last summer. We picked it since it was close to the Cliffs, the Burren, and ferries to the Aran Islands. And it was only an hour to Bunratty. We found the lodging there to be the best rates for County Clare (we booked a 3br cottage for the week) for self-catering. The downside of Doolin is that the town itself is rather small, a few shops and pubs, but the pubs are well known (or, at least, well liked by Rick Steves) for their music. I'd highly recommend the cottages we stayed in, but if it's just you and the hubby, it's a bit big.

Depending on the location, we usually try to stay more than one night too, but when we went to Ireland in May, we had 12 days, and stayed in Trim, Galway,Dingle, Cashel and Dublin. Ireland has such great country side and we saw such great things from city to city, you might want to consider a little more moving around.

Very grateful for everyone's friendly input. I feel a lot clearer about how to organise Ireland now and will probably use 2 night stays. this site is fabulous, helpful, civilised and friendly. Christine