Help! Best of Ireland in 5 days!

Are you flying both into and out of Dublin? Or are you flying into Dublin and out of Shannon? What does "touristy stuff" mean to you? For example, do you consider museums to be touristy? Is beautiful scenery on your must-see list?

You won't want to stay in Dublin for a whole week, for sure. You might consider day trips to Newgrange or Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains. Of course, as Tim says, we have to know what "touristy stuff" not to recommend before we can really assist you.

Dublin for a day only. Through sally gap to Glendlough, down to Kilkenny for a day and a half - nice pub crawl, out to Dingle for some music and pubs.

Our favorite place in Ireland was the Dingle Peninsula. The Slea Head drive was amazing with breathtaking views around every turn. Outside of that we also loved Galway.

I would leave Dublin until last and take a train to Galway. Check the website: http://www.eurocean2004.com/pdf/dub.pdf
It will tell you costs and schedule.
In Galway you can rent a car and travel short distances to The Burren, Cliffs of Moher, and if time permits,(and it should) 129 mi to Tralee and the Dingle Peninsula. Then back to Dublin on the train and spend what you have left seeing Dublin.

While a lot of people on the board are suggesting you head to Western Ireland to spend part of your 5 days, I have to say that while I love Western Ireland, you have extremely limited time. Therefore, I don't believe spending a total of 6 hours (3 hours each way) on a train between Dublin & Galway is the best use of your time & it's even more time if you decide you want to head towards Dingle.

Definitely enough going on to spend 1-2 days in Dublin itself, take a day trip out to the countryside immediately surrounding Dublin and then consider taking the train between Dublin and Belfast to explore a little bit of Northern Ireland.

If a city experience in Belfast is not what you are looking for, you can easily connect through Belfast and be out along the Antrim Coast/Giant's Causeway in just under an hour via commuter rail. Belfast can be done as a long day trip from Dublin, but I think it deserves at least an overnight stay so you can really explore.

We were just in Ireland last week. Dingle is definitely a must see. The town of Dingle itself was one of my favorite things. Other options would be the Beara peninsula, Cliffs of Moher/Burren and Conemara.

I would probably skip Killarney. It was one of my least favorite spots, mostly because of the tons of tourists there (even in late April). However, we did have fun in the pubs and Ross Castle was one of our favorite places.

You'd be better off going from Dublin to Galway or Dublin to Tralee and spending time there.

I just got back from Ireland, and I found Galway to be amazing, and also within short distance of the Cliffs of Moher which were stunning. Actually, I'll go out on a limb here and give you my blog address because I wrote all about Ireland and you can see some pictures. http://poppinsko.blogspot.com/2008/04/ireland.html

If you want a pub crawl, I thought Galway was the best place for that. Nice, quaint, colorful pubs. Good live music, and lots of fun! Blarney castle was great to see too, even if you aren't a fan of the touristy stuff like kissing the stone, the gardens and scenery were stunning.

I just got back from Ireland, and I found Galway to be amazing, and also within short distance of the Cliffs of Moher which were stunning. Actually, I'll go out on a limb here and give you my blog address because I wrote all about Ireland and you can see some pictures. http://poppinsko.blogspot.com/2008/04/ireland.html
and
http://poppinsko.blogspot.com/2008/04/so-far.html

If you want a pub crawl, I thought Galway was the best place for that. Nice, quaint, colorful pubs. Good live music, and lots of fun! Blarney castle was great to see too, even if you aren't a fan of the touristy stuff like kissing the stone, the gardens and scenery were stunning.