Hi,
We are flying in and out of Shannon, so we are planning on skipping Dublin this trip. Day 1 - not sure where to spend the night. Day 2/3 - Dingle, Day 4 - Kinsal,e and Day 5 - Rock of Cashel/spend night near Shannon. Does this sound doable? My friend and I are both a little nervous about driving in Ireland, so we don't want to push it too much. But it is the first trip to Ireland for both of us, so we would like to see as much as possible.
Posted by
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
2715 posts
I think your plan is doable, Susan, though it will involve a fair amount of driving. The distances aren't far, but driving in Ireland is quite slow.
The first night you might want to stay somewhere on the west coast near the Cliffs of Moher. That way you won't have much driving after the plane trip, and you'll get to see the Cliffs, which are beautiful. The next day you could drive down to Dingle via the Kilmer-Tarbert ferry. Dingle is my favorite place in Ireland.
I would suggest you look on Michelin or some other site to get the driving distances from Dingle to Kinsale and Kinsale to Shannon via the Rock of Cashel to make sure it's not more driving than you want to do. Kinsale is a great little town, and the Rock of Cashel makes a great stop; just make sure you'll have time to enjoy them.
Posted by
Peoria, IL, USA
41 posts
Brooke- Your trip is identical to the western leg of our trip to Ireland. It is fast paced, but not too much. Carroll is right the drives are long, but they are so scenic that we actually found them to be one of the best parts of the trip.
For your first overnight by the airport, I might suggest Ennis. It is centrally located to the Cliffs of Moher (40 min.) and Shannon Airport (28 min.). It also puts you close to N69, the highway that you will take to Dingle (2 hrs. 49 min.). We really liked the Grey Gables B&B there (in Rick’s book). Here is their Trip Advisor review.
Between Dingle and Kinsale you might want to take the slightly longer route (adds just under an hour to your drive time) through Kenmare. This would allow you to see some of the great views of the Ring of Kerry (i.e. Ladies View) without driving the whole route.
As for driving, the only part we found a little hair-raising was the road out to the Cliffs of Moher. The tour buses can make it a pretty tight squeeze. You might be able to avoid this by going a bit later. The crowds and traffic seemed to thin considerably in the afternoon. Big buses or not, I would still make the trip again in a heartbeat. The cliffs are breathtaking and were by far our favorite part of the trip.