Include northwest Ireland in 2 week itinerary?

If you do a search you will find it's been discussed many times. It is most practical if you have a car but there are tours out of Galway. It's definitey worth the time; but like everything else, spending several days there are several days you can't be somewhere else.

We will be renting a car. We currently have in our plans: Kilkenny, Kinsale, Kenmare, Ring of Kerry, Dingle and Dingle Peninsula, Doolin, the Burren, Cliffs of Moher, Aran Islands, Galway City, Connemara. We also wanted to go to Westport, Achill Island, Donegal for Slieve League and Glenveagh National Park, so am wondering if all this is too much for 2 weeks?

It is much too much. Stick with the first part of your plan - the southwest. You will enjoy it and then you can return to do more. We enjoyed April but you can expect lots of wind and rainy days.

Yes, that is too much for two weeks, unless you delete some of your other stops. I have been to Ireland four times now and have not yet made it to Donegal (it's on my list for the next visit). You will find that driving distances may not be great, but the time it takes is much more than you can anticipate. Not a lot of traffic, but what there is can be a problem (slow-moving farm vehicles that can't be passed, sheep in the road, winding roads where you can't get up much speed, etc.). Save the northwest for another trip or cut some of your other places. On my April trip, it was windy and cold one day, misty rain with fog two days ("soft weather"), and t-shirt weather the rest of the time. You just never know. Also, weather and wind can impact whether ferries sail to the Aran Islands on any given day, so have alternate plans.

I didn't see Dublin in your itenerary. It's definitely worth a few days. Newgrange and Knowth are also worth visiting on a first visit. Work out your schedule and estimate your driving times on the Michelin site. To be safe add about 30% to whatevr they give. Don't turn a visit to Ireland into a wild car ride trying to see everything.

Thanks so much for everyone's feedback! I think we will have to eliminate the northwest on this trip. We are staying in Dublin 2 days, forgot to mention that. We had not planned on Newgrange but may include that now.

I agree with everyone else's advice. I'd recommend skipping Galway & Connemara as well on this trip. Then on your next trip (you'll definitely want to go back), you could start in Shannon or Galway and proceed to Connemara, Westport, and on up to County Donegal - and then over to Northern Ireland, the Antrim Coast, and down along the coast to Belfast. Makes a great trip. Ireland's northern coast, both in County Donegal and in Northern Ireland, is spectacular. I also think you'll add a lot to your fun if you stay in B&B's on both trips. More advice than you asked for!

I second what Nancy mentioned about the Aran Islands. Looking at your itinerary of planned stops, it seems like you'll try to get a boat out of Doolin which is notorious for canceling their crossings to/from the Aran Islands. It's not just rain, they'll cancel boats if the wind picks up at any point in the day (very likely in April) and makes the sea too choppy. It's often easier to get to the Islands from ports further north like Rossaveal. So do have an alternate plan on what to do if you can't get over, and be flexible about returning - you could find yourself stuck out on the Islands for a night or two if the seas start to churn up. The Islands are a great place to be stuck, but you have a seriously jam-packed itinerary with many stops and no room for an unexpected wrench thrown into your current plan to get to all those places in 2 weeks.

Thanks for all your replies! I'm now curious to find out from you experienced Ireland travelers, what do you think the ideal 2 week itinerary is? We want to mix with the locals in the villages, and hear plenty of trad music, in addition to seeing some ancient historical sites and the beautiful coastline and countryside.

Tom's 3-step fully-tested guide to mixing with locals in Ireland: 1. Stay at B&B's. 2. Ask B&B owners what local pub the old-timers prefer. 3. Go to pub named in step 2.

Laurie, County Donegal is well worth the trip, though you'll need to travel either by car, bus, foot or bike, as there is no train service there. Sligo Town has the nearest train station. The village of Glencolumbkille on the far western tip (due west of Dongeal Town) is a scenic delight, and Biddy's pub there features trad music. It has several B&Bs from which to choose. Farther afield, spectacular Glengesh Pass - not far out of Glencolumbkille - and the conical-shaped Mt. Errigal in the far northwest make the trek time well invested. Westport - the commercial capital of County Mayo - is a lovely, lively, bustling, easy to walk town - with lots of pedestrian traffic and opportunities for striking up a spontaneous sidewalk chat. Matt Molloy's Pub (he of the Chieftians) is the place to go to hear "trad" music. Just north of Westport, you'll find two sites well worth seeing: Croagh Patrick (it's a two-hour+ trek by foot up and back) and the National Famine Memorial. They're located across the road from each other just outside Murrisk.

Love Tom's advice and heartily second it. Do your homework here and on TA and pick out some highly rated B&Bs and have fun. Enjoy!!