Ireland Honeymoon Advice

It's a small island. You can drive across it from Galway to Dublin in 4 hours. Tell us a bit more about what you'd enjoy seeing (museums, castles, pubs, theatre, archaeological sites, desolate islands, etc). It's as green as you believe it is, people are personable, food is good, many narrow roads, loads of sheep, great music and the pubs always inviting. I found it magical. B and B's are every where. Give us a bit more insight as to what you and your new husband would like to see in 10 days. Getting a copy of Rick's Ireland book might help you decide as well. Slainte.

When you say 10 days, does that mean 10 full days in Ireland, or are you including travel days to/from Texas (then you are really talking about 8 full days). Plan to book an open jaw flight (ie, fly into Shannon and out of Dublin). You waste sightseeing time by backtracking to original entrance. Are you renting a car? If not, train or bus to get between cities or larger towns, base yourself for a few nights and either hire a private guide/driver or join one of the many bus tours you can get to the major sights outside of the cities (ie, Cliffs of Moher, Aran Islands, Bru na Boinne, etc). Since it is your honeymoon, maybe a couple nights staying in a castle (ie, Ashford Castle in Cong) or 1 swanky boutique hotel (ie, The G in Galway) would make for a romantic splurge. If you don't want to move around all the time, have just 8 full days and this is your 1st trip to Ireland, my suggestion would be fly into Shannon, get a rental car (or bus) to Galway. Base out of Galway for 4 nights and tour Galway City, Connemara, The Burren, Cliffs of Moher and Aran Islands (consider a 1 night stay on one of the Aran Islands, weather permitting). Drive (or train) to Dublin to spend remaining time based there. You'll see the highlights of Dublin in about 2 full days and then you can look into other day trips, or possibly consider training up to Belfast or Derry in Northern Ireland for a long day trip or stay overnight and see both the city and a bit of the Antrim Coast (Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle, etc).

Our plan is to stay 8 days with 2 days for travel but we are currently trying to squeeze out few more vacation days so we can stay 10 days with 2 days of travel.
We are planning on renting a car once we get to Ireland so we have to ability to travel at our own time and pace instead of being in a group with a set schedule. I know for me at least i would enjoy taking some time to visit some local pubs as well as the Guinness and Jameson factories. Living in Texas doesn't allowing me to find a good pint of Guinness or good beers. I do know we both want to be out in the countryside and to enjoy the view. This is one of the main reasons we both are attracted to Ireland. I picked up a copy of Rick's book about Ireland as well as his book covering Scotland. I haven't had time to dedicate towards reading these books but i thought while i had the time i could ask other experienced travelers about their opinions of where to go, eat or sleep in Ireland.

In my opinion, the Guinness brewery isn't worth the high price of admission. You see nothing of the brewing process, just a lot of advertising and buying opportunities for the same souvenirs you can buy all over Ireland. The Jameson distillery in Dublin is no longer a working operation. The only working Jameson distillery is in Midleton, near Cork. You can find good Guinness all over Ireland - but do try Bulmer's cider as well!

Ditto what Nancy said about the Guiness Storehouse in Dublin. The only remotely worthwhile part of the tour is the view on a clear day from The Gravity Bar. Nearly every pub in Ireland can pull a decent pint of Guiness for you. Besides the hard ciders and whisky, some of the smaller locally produced microbrews are very good. Galway Hooker is a nice Irish Pale Ale that you can only get in select Galway, Dublin, Cork & Roscommon pubs, although they are now starting to bottle it to expand their market presence.

Third agreement about Guiness brewery. I think you can go into the lobby and see the 9000 lease and see it and then go on out. Not worth price of admission in my opinion, especially if a rainy day you can't see much from the top. Spend money other places. How about 4 or 5 days in Dublin and several day trips. Also, can you fly into Dublin and out of Shannon or other way around.

The last paragraph of Ceidleh's response is almost exactly what we did. Our Ireland trip was 10 days and included the Antrim Coast. We spent 3 nights in Dublin, took a train to Galway (non-stop) and spent 3 nights, took a bus/train to Portstewart and spent 3 nights, one night in Belfast. If you PM me your email address, I'd be happy to email you our calendar. We did not drive at all on our trip...