Ireland & Scotland Honeymoon

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage! With 7 days in Ireland, I wouldn't try to travel all over. I think that the area around Dingle would be a perfect honeymoon area hikes to take, quiet places with no one around, beautiful scenery, and a pub on every corner. Can you fly into Shannon Airport? If so, that is a perfect place to rent a car because it is out in the country and driving from there is easy. Unless you are very comfortable driving a stick, you may want to try to rent an automatic. Driving on the left comes pretty naturally when sitting on the right, so I wouldn't worry about that. Just read some about roundabouts as they are everywhere. You give way to anyone already in the roundabout, and pay attention to which lane you need to be in to enter. You can't necessarily just go round and round. It's pretty easy though. Another area that we really enjoyed that would be fair game for a honeymoon was the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland. A tour in Belfast is really eyeopening too, and the new Titanic exhibit is open. (that's where it was built). You can fly on Flybe Airlines nonstop from Belfast City airport to Inverness Scotland. Driving out from that airport is simple too out in the country. I'd stick with the Highlands in Scotland. You can't miss. Skye is wonderful, and even more so, take the ferry from Skye to the Isle of Harris, which is actually the same island as Lewis. Those areas are our favorites because I like remoteness. Edinborough is wonderful too.
I actually think that you are going to be looking more at each other than what you are "seeing" anyway. :) Have a wonderful trip.

2 full days in Edinburgh will give you the most important highlights. If you have an extra day - you can take a one-day Rabbie's small group tour to Stirling and Loch Lommond in the same day. Edinburgh is mostly - Castle, Holyrood Palace, St. Gile's Church, and Britannia. I have never been to Isle of Skye - but, I hear it is beautiful. I like the Western Isles very much - saw a few of them from Oban. Give yourself a few days in Skye area. You can probably fly into Edinburgh from Ireland. Wait a few days to rent a car. Use public buses. Do what you want in Edinburgh. Then, rent your car and head off to Stirling and Skye area. Inverness is very nice and relaxing with good restaurants. But for sightseeing, I would focus more on Edinburgh and Skye. In my opinion, Loch Ness is pleasant - but not a must see. With only one week in Scotland - you need to do some judicious pruning.

Thank you both so much for your input...it helps and I will definitely use your advice when planning!! -Shannon

I want to echo Thomas on the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland. If you haven't been there, then it may be nice to discover a new place together than just leading him back to your old favorites. And Northern Ireland has the same charms as the Republic...pubs, friendly locals, trad music, :-)

You could skip Blarney Castle. I would say 3 nights in Dublin, 2 in Doolin Area and 2 in Galway.

Definitely fly from Dublin to Edinburgh. And indeed, two days is a good orientation to Edinburgh and Scotland. Then you need to head north. ; ) Unless, of course, you have some family reason to check out the borders. The borders can be wonderful place to visit with the Abbeys and the dramatic castles and the history. But the North has the spectacular scenery that you are no doubt looking for. I would recommend a trip to Stirling to see its castle. The geography is spectacular and will help you understand the importance of the battles such as the one in Braveheart. You have four days and so many choices. One thing to bear in mind is that the westSkye and the islandshas the poorer weather. You have to be prepared for rain in Scotland no matter what, but you are more likely to run into rain in the west. Do you want to see castles or are you more interested in the scenery? Inverness is a great place to base yourself. You can decide day to day depending on the weather which direction you head. PAm

If you want to go to Blarney Castle, go to Blarney Castle. There is a lot more to it than just the castle itself - beautiful grounds, a dolmen and a cave. There is also great shopping right across the street from the grounds, and good restaurants.

Hi Shannon, I agree that you should see Blarney Castle if you want to. I was highly skeptical of the whole thing, but once we arrived I was blown away by the beauty of the grounds. To me it was much more than the castle, as a previous poster mentioned. I also agree you should fly into Shannon, day trip up to the Cliffs, perhaps stay in Adare, then over to Dingle, then to Blarney/Cobh/Kinsale and end up in Dublin. I would recommend a stop in Killarney to visit Muckross House, the grounds against the lake and mountains are breathtaking. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding and good for you for starting your honeymoon planning early! Happy travels. Jessica

I am so grateful for all of the input. To Pamela, I agree that 2 days in Edinburgh is perfect - from there I actually have a friend who owns a hotel in Drumnadrochit so we planned on basing there and taking day trips from there and I know that is only about 20 min from Inverness. Can we visit Stirling on the way to Drum? Also, we thought about spending just one night in Perth on the way to Drum, do you think that is a nice enough town to explore or should we just pass through? As far as our Ireland itinerary, we would really like to spend a couple nights in Dingle and just make Doolin a place to visit (to explore the town and see the Cliffs). If we are flying into Shannon, does anyone have any suggestions as far as where to drive first - Dingle and then drive to Doolin from there or Doolin first just for the day? I'm not sure how far Dingle is from Doolin or how far Shannon is from either. Thanks everyone!

My suggestion is see the Cliffs and then go to Doolin. Not much of a town to explore but would give you a chance to rest up if you are just arriving from states. Then next day head to Dingle. I think I read somewhere that there is a ferry towards Dingle that would cut down driving time but we never did that. Anyway, Doolin is about hour drive from Shannon, Dingle is about 3 hours. If you go to Dingle first, then you are really backtracking to go back up to Doolin and then on to Blarney. What I suggest is Doolin, Dingle, then down towards Kinsale, Cobh and eventually up to Dublin. We started our trip in Shannon, then Dingle, Kinsale and eventually Dublin and back to Doolin and Shannon. Enjoy.