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2+ Weeks In Ireland

artnbarb

1000+ Posts
We're using Rick Steves' itinerary as a basis for our 2+ weeks in Ireland next summer. I've just taken a look at the Shannon information site and am already thinking I need to add another day in this area (Galway), and I think this may be the case for other areas as well! Yikes! Here's our rough draft. I'm more than open to adding days in any given spot, or to adding stops along the way.

This breaks down to a 4 night stay in Dublin, 1 night in Kilkenny, 2 nights in Waterford, 2 nights in Kinsale, 1 night in Kenmare, 3 nights in Dingle, 2 nights in Galway and one night in Westport.

Days 1-4 Arrive Dublin
Sleep in Dublin

Day 5 Pick up car at Dublin airport. Drive to Glendalough
Sleep in Kilkenny

Day 6 Cashel
Sleep in Waterford
Day 7 Waterford
Sleep in Waterford

Day 8 Explore County Wexford
Sleep in Kinsale
Day 9 Charles Fort and Cobh
Sleep in Kinsale

Day 10 Muckross House and Farms
Sleep in Kenmare

Day 11 Ring of Kerry
Sleep in Dingle
Day 12 Dingle Peninsula Loop
Sleep in Dingle
Day 13 Blasket Island, Dingle town (rest day, laundry)
Sleep in Dingle

Day 14 Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Dunguaire Castle Banquet
Sleep in Galway
Day 15 Aran Islands
Sleep in Galway

Day 16 Explore Connemara
Sleep in Westport

Day 17 Drive to Dublin for mid-day flight to England

Thinking of adding one more night in Dingle, and one more night in Galway. but again, I need more information.

Trying to distract myself from the hurricane coverage, humor me.
 
I’ve never used Rick Steves, so don’t know how good he is. People either seem to rave about him or loathe him... I think I may fall into the later category. I’m not a great one for one night stops either - they are hard work.

In Dublin, make sure you allow a day to visit Newgrange, possibly one of the best Neolithic monuments in the world. It does get busy and entry is by guided tour only and numbers are limited. Make sure you are there for opening time to book your place on a tour. If time allows, also try and visit Knowth as well. It is different to Newgrange and both are worth seeing. There is lots of information here.

If you need something else to fill the day, there is either Trim Castle or Hill of Tara.


DAY 5
Glendalough is wonderful. Make sure you allow plenty of time to explore the site as the different remains are spread out.Have a look here.
Allow time to get as far as the upper lake. I can’t remember if you are planning to walk but if so, there’s plenty of scope here.

DAY 5/6

The itinerary doesn’t allow much time to enjoy Kilkenny, which is an attractive town and popular with tourists. The castle is a must. There is also Black Abbey which gets good reports on - dare I say it - Trip Advisor. Just south of Kilkenny is the ruined Kells Priory... On a nice day there are walks along the river.

Cashel to Waterford is quite a loop as Cashel is taking you the wrong way. What are your intentions for Waterford? Is this a ‘must’? If not. I’d be inclined to suggest you skip this and possibly spend the day in and around Kilkenny. In this case, visit Cashel on the way to Kinsale.

DAY 8
Again what are your expectations here and what are you planning to do/see. I have to admit I’m not familiar with the area so don’t know what it has to offer.... Can these be combined with Kilkenny to Kinsale?

DAY 10
Muckross House gardens are lovely and we really enjoyed the farms. Try and allow your self some time to explore Killarney National Park and walk to the Meeting of the Waters. The Gap of Dunloe is wonderful. You can walk this or take a ride along it in a jaunting car. Otherwise drive it in the evening when all the jaunting cars have gone home for the night. Driving during the day is not a good idea.

DAY 11
Kenmare, Ring of Kerry to Dingle is a long day - especially if you are wanting to stop on the way and visit some of the stone forts along the Ring of Kerry. To do the ring justice, you really do need to allow a full day. Personally I’d use the day allocated to Waterford and add it in here... Stague Stone Fort is off the main road and set high in the hills and definitely atmospheric on a misty morning. Further round are Cahergal and Leacanabuaile stone forts, different and both worth finding.

DAY 14
Use the ferry between Tarbert and Killimer to cut down on driving distance. Head to Spanish Point for the views. I have to admit I was terribly disappointed by the Cliffs of Moher which were very very busy. The guide books say that you can avoid the crowds by walking a short distance - you can’t. The best way to see them is from below on a boat, but I’m not sure if there is enough time to do this along with the Medieval Banquet... The Burren coast, particularly north of Doolin is wonderful. If time allows, do try and get as far north as Black Head. The whole area is riddled with green roads which call out to be walked. You could easily fill a day just pottering around the Burren.

DAY 14 & 15

Depending on weather you may need to be flexible about visiting the Aran Islands... I’m not sure what the advantage is of spending the second night at Westport, and would suggest you spend three nights in Galway instead. Do Westport as a circular trip from Galway.

I think you need to build in an extra day here. Spend one day driving round the coast to Roundstone (delightful small village with marvellous views of the Twelve Bens). Then head to Clifden for the Sky Drive. On a clear day this is one of the best short drives in the world. Do it clockwise.Head back to galway along the main road.

Another day head head to Westport via Maam to Leenaun (think about a short cruise on Killarey Fjord) and drive round the coast to Westport. Take the N59 back to Leeaun and then at Maam take the R345 and R334 which swings you round to the west of Loch Corrib back to Galway. Have a stop in Cong, where John Wayne’s “The Quiet Man” was filmed and visit the ruined abbey with its fishing station.

There are details for the Sky Drive as well as other drives here.

DAY 17
Galway is probably quicker to Dublin Airport than Westport. I don’t know if you will have time to do this with a mid day flight, between Galway and Dublin is Clonmacnoise early Christian Site. June - August it opens at 9am. The rest of the year at 10am.
 
Thank you @Eleanor for your detailed and thoughtful suggestions. As I study the areas and sites I now have some options.

Regarding RS, I'm not sure how you can say you don't know anything about him, then turn around and say you'd probably loathe him! Here's my take on RS: I've been using his books since 1989, when I first discovered his "Europe Thru The Back Door", which was a departure from the standard travel guides. He urged people to explore the smaller cities, the places less visited, and, over the years, his 'back door' sites became as popular as the more famous sites. We were lucky enough to have discovered many of these places before they became over-run. Now sadly, too much of a good thing has caused sleepy little villages to become destinations in their own right. New accommodations and facilities have caused many of these places to lose most, if not all, of the charm they once had. But - do we shoot the messenger?

I think too many people failed to follow RS message, and instead simply followed his route, step for step. I think what he was trying to do was to encourage people to get off the tourist trail and to go exploring on their own, and for that I applaud him. For a while, before we all had smartphones and digital content, it was very common to see other traveler's with their RS book in hand, simply following his path rather than making their own.

For this trip I choose to use RS itinerary as a starting point, nothing more. It's our first trip to Ireland, so I know that I'll want to hit the standard tourist spots, but I'm hoping that my friends here at SE will help me refine and adjust that itinerary. Our time will still be limited, but I hope to combine slow travel, tourist hot spots and off-the-beaten-path sites into one very special trip. Thanks again, and I'm hoping others will add their thoughts as well.
 
I think too many people failed to follow RS message, and instead simply followed his route, step for step. I think what he was trying to do was to encourage people to get off the tourist trail and to go exploring on their own, and for that I applaud him.

I get the distinct impression this is the reality. The guide a victim of its own success, but once successful, which author/publisher would turn down to revenue? The irony is what was somewhat off the beaten track (or in Italy at least the Rome-Venice-Florence + half day trip to Pisa 'beaten track') is now very much the well-worn tourist trail.

Guide books can be useful (as can us reprobates;)), but it is always crucial for the person going to work out what appeals to them, and what they want out of the holiday. There are no 'must sees' in my book, anywhere. There are always places of interest, where some may appeal and others might not.

I'm always a fan of 'base + explore', as it offers us great flexibility on the mood of the day, and the constant packing/unpacking gets to be a real chore. However with a car, if you pack smartly, the suitcase stays in the car, and the only small day packs need to be packed & unpacked. You're not so tied by check-in / check out times, as you're not lugging heavy bags around. As long as you enjoy the drive as part of the journey, it can work fine. Might be worth marking some days as optional, e.g. if the weather forecast prompts you to change the planned washing days. Also have a good understanding between you of what you have your heart set on, and what if one or both were tired, could be dropped if necessary. FWIW I tend to plan more detail, but have a much looser schedule, so the day trips become options to select from (the evening before), and with opt-out on the following morning if one of us doesn't feel up to it.
 
I probably need to clarify my remarks about Rick Steves... In the past I frequented Fodors and there were so many people who followed RS slavishly like a Bible. If it didn’t feature in RS, they didn’t do it. This rather put me off RS.

I’ve always been an independent (bloody minded if you like) person and although I do use guide books, I have been lucky to have the time to research and devise my own itineraries relying on a good map and then google rather than a guide book. I tend to start first with the map and work from there. There are so many places to discover.
 
I'm not trying to follow RS blindly, but for this trip his itinerary gave me a good starting point for the most popular stops. Some of those stops might not make MY list, and I'm open to adding places he didn't include, and including time for some nice walks.

Right off the top I'm wondering if I might be better off staying 3 (if not 4) nights in Galway, rather than moving for one night to Westport.

For the rest of the suggestions I'll have to sit down with @Eleanor 's suggestions alongside a guide book and see how I can best arrange our time based on our interests.
 
artnbarb: thanks for this thread and the benefit of your research. We may well wind up doing much the same as you next fall since we're thinking of going to Ireland (maybe including Northern Ireland) for 2-3 weeks. As are you, my wife and I are very used to going to Western Europe, renting cars as needed and independently traveling around after doing lots of research &, for us (usually) overthinking everything. We've rented apartments in Provence & Florence for month long trips, have explored much of Northern Italy and lots of Southern France on our own & are familiar with major cities like Paris, Rome, Milan... We get to choose everything ourselves, revise our itinerary as we go if we wish, eat as we like and stay in the type of places we want. All has always been good (with some retrospective fun stories of not so good). Yesterday we returned from a 3 week visit to Sicily, where we'd never been. As a lark (& a gamble), we had added ourselves on to a private group of 5, only one of whom we knew (actually only my wife knew her & only from playing tennis), arranged by one of the group's friend, who runs a small tour company specializing in Sicily (she wasn't with us during the time there, but was available by e-mail and text as needed - which sometimes it was). Miracle of miracles, we had a great time. The places to stay were arranged (hotels, an agritourismo, a winery/resort), the drivers picked us up everywhere, took us from city to city, got us to our meeting of local guides in both major and out of the way places -- all pre-arranged and all worked out on schedule. The guides were great and we never would have been able to immerse ourselves in places the way we did with them. And we'd never have been able to find (or even know to look for) some of them. So, of course, we're hoping to repeat our experience next year (Sept or early Oct) and would add on days for just us on both ends. As with you, we also really respect RS's general approach to travel and have read his "back door" book. But, while in Sicily, we wound up in the same hotel as one of his groups and, although in speaking with the guide I thought the itinerary was good, the group size (28) was way too large for us to consider using him &, truthfully, the hotel we wound up sharing with his group was the least loved place for us and sounded like the usual place (or better) for his group (I spoke to some of them). It just wasn't for us, but I'm not sure that independent travel (& driving) in Ireland is best for us either. So... have any of you considered or done small private put together groups and/or do any of you know of an agent or company who puts together groups of under ten people for Ireland tours?

Meanwhile, I'm going to follow your posts on this trip & the comments you generate from others to see if I can construct something that would work for us if we got a small group willing to go and someone to make our interests come alive. Again, thanks for this thread. Sorry if this was a digression.
 
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Thanks for your post, @Steve R. ! Nice to know I'm not the only one who tends to over-think! I have a friend who looked at me like I was crazy when I started describing this trip and all my thoughts, doubts and possibilities. She told me she never really plans things, but IMO, when traveling in July - high season - to a country that's not only very popular, but also rather expensive, careful planning is the only way to ensure that A) We'll get to see and do every thing that's on OUR list, and B) we'll know where we're staying each night. We'll know that the location as well as the price point suit our needs, rather than having to scramble to find last-minute lodgings that aren't exactly where we want to be, and/or are over-priced or not up to our standards.

For this reason I want to make ensure - as much as possible - that we know where we want to spend 2 nights, or 3 nights. It would be wonderful to enjoy an area so much and be able to say hey, let's stay an extra night, but I just don't think that's practical during July.

Right now we're super busy trying to cram as much in to our last few weeks in Italy, but I'm hoping to use some of those long sea days on our transatlantic cruise home to make a final decision about how many nights we stay in each location. I'm thinking of dropping one night in either Kilkenny or Kinsale and adding to to the Galway portion. I've started another thread with my first, but definitely not final - revision HERE.

I welcome any and all input!
 
I can't believe I'm already on line writing these posts considering that we returned from Rome yesterday, but I guess that's just who I am. I saw the other thread and posted some questions (if you feel like answering, it would be appreciated). At any rate, I'll keep following along and seeing how it develops. Maybe I should wait to find some time after the holidays, when we're in Florida for the winter, to actually finalize an itinerary. Probably not... I'm too obsessive to wait. Thanks.
 
I can't remember whether I've said this or not - I found the best guide book for Ireland was DK Eyewitness Ireland. A new edition was brought out in September.and it is available on Amazon. It covers many of the smaller, out of the way, hidden places ignored by the other guides. It also has reasonable maps. They also do a Back Roads Guide, which I haven't seen or used, but this is 2013, so you would need to check on opening times etc.

I used the guide along with a road atlas and google to plan our holiday and we found some cracking places. (I'd do a google image search for place names,) Also talking to the locals often produces more off the beaten track places to visit.

There are several companies advertising 'small' group tours but these seem to be between 14-18 in a group. Some of them also seem quite expensive for what they are.
 

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