Itinerary Help (10 Days in England & Ireland)

The next step to take should be to make a final decision on where you want to fly From in Britain and To in Ireland, and then go ahead and make the reservations. The longer you wait, the higher the price. Ryan Air usually gives the most options at the cheapest price, but some of the schedules are Very early or Very late. Gatwick has mid-day flights to both Cork & Shannon, so if Killarney is your choice (would be mine) then the Cork flight fits. Save Edinburgh for another trip, otherwise you wouldn't have enough time left to enjoy the Irish countryside. Suggested England day trip - Stratford.

Dublin doesn't feel like a big city at all--you might want to add another day/night there, or two; it's a very pleasant place to stay, and there are some fun pub crawls you can go on (the literary and musical ones are both good; the history walking tours led by Trinity College graduate students are great also).

Alternatively, you could use a day based in Dublin to get out of the city and take a day trip to Glendalough or up to Newgrange--both wonderful places to visit. You can arrange these trips with public transportation or tours from the Tourist Information Center in Dublin.

I just returned two days ago from my first trip to Ireland and stayed for two weeks. If you don't mind renting a car and driving on the left with narrow roads, you will see more of the countryside (but rent a GPS). The driving wasn't as bad as it might sound--seemed to have polite drivers and didn't see any car accidents/incidents.

Doolin is a great location for Cliffs of Moher (which everyone recommended to me and I concur). If you want to see them by boat, you can also incorporate one of the Aran Islands.

You can easily do day trips out of Dublin to both Newgrange (the surrounding Boyne Valley is nice and they have a heritage tour map) and the Wicklow Mountains (which I found to have more color than some other areas of the country).

Many people stay in Ennis (which we found to be a nice town) rather than Shannon but I don't know if it will meet your transportation needs. IMHO--Killarney will be overrun by tour groups so you may want to allow for that and we found the weekend night to be filled with loud, drunk people and not very good,loud music.

Jennifer, You might want to consider spending 5-6 nights in London. There's so much to do there and it's easy to take day trips. If you want to stay somewhere else in England, consider Bath. The best choice will depend in part on where you catch your flight to Cork.

In Ireland, you might want to consider spending just one night in Cork, then drive to Dingle (my favorite place in Ireland) and spend two nights there. The next day you could drive up the west coast stopping at the Cliffs of Moher, and visiting the Burren. You could stay in Doolin or possibly Galway. I would not stay in Shannon.

Another option is to stay two nights in Cork, then head to Doolin or Galway for two nights and take a ferry over to Inishmore for the day. Or take your time exploring the Burren.

I agree with your decision to spend just one night in Dublin. I love the library at Trinity, but Dublin seemed like a fairly ordinary big city to me. The charm of Ireland is in the small towns.

Whatever you end up doing, I hope you have a great time.

Thank you everyone for the helpful advice. I think I came to a similar conclusion as the latest poster, and I will stay 4-5 nights in London and will incorporate a few day trips instead of trying to stay in a few different places.. I'll then fly to Cork and travel south and west Ireland, and will eventually make my way to Dublin and spend 1-2 nights there. I'm very interested in Dingle and Doolin, so I'll have to work out where and for how long I'd like to stay. It sounds like most people recommend renting a car in Ireland, although I have to admit that I'm nervous about it. Maybe if I made my way from Dublin to Cork by train, I could pick up a car in Cork and may feel more comfortable. As I'm under 25 I realize that I'll have additional fees for rental cars, but I don't think it'll be a deterrant.

It's so hard to cut places out of my trip because I want to see everything, but I need to remember that I'll be able to come back. If only I had more vacation time! I know wherever I end up going, I'll have an amazing time.

I thought Jennifer was mentioning trains, etc., because she and her companion are too young to rent a car. Some companies have a 23-year-old minimum, though, if it fits into your budget.

If it hadn't occured to you to rent a car, Jennifer, and you can, it really is the best way to see Ireland. Just don't drive in Dublin :-). For two travelers, it might be fairly cost effective, too, although rental rates are high in Ireland because you have to buy the extra insurance--credit cards will not provide supplemental insurance for cars rented in Ireland.

Lexey -

I mentioned trains because I'm nervous to drive, but if it would be more efficient to drive then I'm willing to do so. I think I'm able to rent a car at my age, just with extra fees as in the States. It's too bad we're both just months short of 25! It does seem like most folks recommend renting cars, so il definitely look into that more seriously.

I traveled to New Zealand a while back and did drive there, but for some reason I'm more scared of the narrow Irish roads. I guess I need to get over it!

Hi, Jennifer--
I did a little search, and Enterprise and Dan Dooley both show 23 as the minimum age for rental, so you might not have to pay an extra charge for your age.

I think you won't find it too bad to drive. However, I can't really drive a manual well, so I had to pay more to rent an automatic. I wouldn't want to try to both drive a manual and on the left! I actually enjoyed driving on the left and didn't find it that difficult to adjust.

And I didn't think the roads were too bad. If you've already driven on the left, you might rent a car and just take it easy. You'll find there's not that much traffic outside of cities, and there are many new (wider) roads you can stick to if you don't like the narrower ones. I guess it didn't seem any scarier to me than driving on the freeway at rush hour in Dallas :-).

Buy an Ordinance Survey map book (about 12-13 euro) at a gas station--very helpful. Then decide which of you is the more nervous driver, and have that person navigate :-).

I wouldn't normally recommend a car for just two people elsewhere in Europe, but a car is by far the best way to see Ireland if you are not spending all your time in big cities (which you obviously are not). And it's really the only way to visit the Dingle Peninsula or the Ring of Kerry. You can also drive through the Wicklow Mountains and visit Glendalough (lovely walk to the lakes from the main visitor center) on your way back to Dublin. Or if you have to return the car at the airport, you can drive north of Dublin, stay overnight, visit Newgrange and the hill of Tara, and drop the car at the airport. Plenty of public transportation into the city from there.

I loved visiting Ireland--have a wonderful trip! I would be envious, if I weren't spending a couple of weeks in Orkney and Scotland this summer :-).

Jennifer,

My first thought upon reading your itinerary was that it was too much traveling, not enough visiting. I know it's tempting to try to squeeze every place in but I'd really recommend focusing on your absolute must sees. As much as I love Ireland, I'd even suggest staying in England on this trip and leaving Ireland for another time.

London is endless -- you can never exhuast its opportunities. And if it's countryside you seek, there's plenty of England as well (maybe the Cotswolds?).

Another option would be to see London and Dublin and leave the countryside out. Your itinerary doesn't include any of the peninsulas in SW Ireland such as Dingle or the Ring of Kerry, which have some of Ireland's best scenery. It may be best to leave rural Ireland for a time when you can see it in a leisurely manner and really soak up its charm.

Whatever you decide, enjoy your trip!

Lexey - thanks so much for the info on rental cars. Ill have to look into those companies. I have driven manuals but would probably get an automatic just to be safe!

Michael - thanks for your input as well. Since the flights are already booked, I am flying out of Dublin and I'm going to incorporate Ireland into my trip. I think I'll do ~4 nights in London, and will spend the rest of the trip traveling through western Ireland. I agree that we are packing a lot into this trip, but I think it will work out OK for us. If we plan only one flight from London to Cork, I think the rest of our trip in Ireland will be manageable. Luckily we have a little more time to plan, so we'll see what our re search reveals.

I look forward to the trip even though I know I'm going to miss so much...I'll just have to plan another trip very soon!