Celebrating the New Year in Ireland

Marilyn,

Your schedule isn't impossible, but it's quite daunting. You'll spend much of your time in the car, and you'll likely be exhausted for all of it.

Driving in Ireland takes much longer than it does here. Add at least 25% on to normal driving times.

Galway is a good 3 hour drive from Dublin, and so it's not the ideal trip for jetlagged travelers to make right off the plane. Can you fly into Shannon instead? You could rent a car, spend your time in the west, then drive to Dublin and fly home from there. I certainly wouldn't try to visit Galway and then drive further south that same day.

If you do spend your first two days in Galway, then you could drive to Dingle on the 29th. It's a delightful small town. The Slea Head peninsula drive is the highlight. Exploring the town itself is also great fun.

Driving from Dingle to Dublin in time to rest up and enjoy the new year's nightlife is quite a challenge. Cork (on the southern coast) is definitely too far out of your way on that trip. You could stop in a town like Cashel or Kilkenny for lunch. If you get out early enough and make good time, you could fit in a quick visit to a site like the Rock of Cashel, which is a magnificent old Christian church.

You won't need a car in Dublin, so you'd want to drop it off when you get there. There are lots of good B&B options in Dublin. Gardiner St. north of the Liffey is lined with them, or you can do as I did and stay in quiet suburb of Dun Laoghaire, which is a short 15 minute train ride into Dublin.

Newgrange is a fantastic site if you like old religious/archaeological sites. I took the Mary Gibbons Tour there and enjoyed it.

I agree that you can't fit in the relatives unless you cut back on the sightseeing. For example, you could cut out your west coast sites and visit Mayo for a few days before returning to Dublin for New Year's. But short of a drastic change, I don't think it would fit.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip!

Travel is much slower in Ireland because the roads are narrow, the speed limit lower, the roads go through every village where there is more congestion.

Besides the confusion of driving on the WRONG side and negotiating the intersection turns and round-abouts.

Get a good highway map of the country and note the mileage between your stops. Some drivers estimate going only 20 miles an hour on average.

You can see that you will spend more time in your car than you may desire.

Carl, it's not the WRONG side, it's just the OTHER side. I've driven in Ireland several times and have never had to go 20 mph anywhere, except once when I was stuck in traffic in Dublin (and I won't take a car into Dublin again). Speed limits are comparable to here, and there is an expanding network of very good highways. It's true that in some places the roads are narrow. I've found it pretty easy to adjust to sitting on the other side of the car. As for roundabouts, we don't have them where I live, so learning those was easy, too, and they make much more sense than our interstate exits, where you have to go miles out of your way to get back to the right place if you miss your exit. If you go wrong, all you have to do is turn around and try it again.

Marilyn, to answer a couple of your questions, I think your itinerary is totally doable. You really should see the Cliffs of Moher (their visitor center is closed only on Christmas Day), even though it will probably be very cold and windy. While you are in the Dublin area, I would agree with getting rid of the car -- you won't need or want it in the city. Winter is a good time to visit Newgrange since there will be no crowds. Knowth is closed in the winter (at least it was when I was last there, which was in a February). I suggest you visit Glendalough and Avoca on your way to Dublin, while you still have the car.

I don't remember all the particulars, but we did find that it took a lot longer to drive places in Ireland than we anticipated. This does not mean that they haven't improved their roads. The reality was: it took longer, allow extra time. (however, it usually is a very pretty drive.)