We will be traveling Ireland in May 6th - 21st. The last week of the trip will be spent as a family trip renting a castle in Co. Limerick the 14th - 21st. We arrive in Dublin, planning on spending 2 nights there. We are going to rent a car for our touring and will be flying out of Shannon the late afternoon on the 21st to London for the night. After two nights in Dublin, we are trying to decide what is the best to see / do in the time preceding meeting up with the family on May 14th. Have considered Northern Ireland and around the west coast and Aran Islands maybe staying a night. We don't want to plan too much and be rushing around trying to see everything. The castle we are renting, Springfield Castle, is south of Limerick and 12 miles west of (N20)Charleville in Dromcollogher. It is 1 1/2 to 2 hours of Dingle. Many comments talk of spending 2 nights in Dingle. Should we do Dingle in the time before the castle rather than a day trip from the castle? Is Northern Ireland too much to include on this trip? (Though I don't know when I will make it back to Ireland.) Areas around the castle will be day trips if within an hour and a half or so. Please give me some thoughts so that we don't try to cram too much in our vacation. Thanks. Scott
Posted by
Gig Harbor, Washington, USA
1863 posts
I think your pre-castle week is long enough for a couple of nights in the Donegal/Sligo area and a couple of nights in the Connemara/Galway/ Aran Islands area, assuming you are OK with changing locations every other night. Although the roads in Ireland are much slower, you also have to keep in mind that the entire country isn't much bigger than Iowa. Use theaa.com to check road distances-we also find their driving times to be pretty accurate.