Can only get away for a week in June. Flying into Shannon and renting a car. For those that have been, what are some of your 'must sees'?

Where do you plan on driving?

If you only plan on staying on the west coast:

• Cliffs of Moher
• Ring of Kerry
• If you like hiking, Mount Brandon (Dingle peninsula) or Carrauntoohil (inside the Ring of Kerry)
• Connemara
• Galway

We went to Dublin, toured Jameson distillery and Guinness. Went on an Irish pub crawl.
Saw Powerscourt, a beautiful garden south of Dublin.
Rode the train to Mallow,
Watched a Horse race in Mallow...they race clockwise, not counterclockwise as in the states.
Kissed the Blarney Stone
Went to cork and Cobh, Drank lots of beer had an awesome time

A week is tight, from Shanon you will have to choose north or south. North are the Cliffs of Moher, Galway, connemara, donegal. South is the Dingle Peninsula, Ring of Kerry, Killarney, Cork. Both directions are great and it would be hard for me to choose.

We really liked Connemara region, Clifden, roundstone, Cong, Galway then up to Donegal. The cliffs in the Donegal region were amazing. The Killarney region to the south was breath taking as well, but a little more touristy. Hit the ring of Kerry early to beat the huge tour busses. The Dingle Peninsula, was a little less traveled, and just as scenic. We went out to Skellig Michael before they filmed Star Wars there, I can't imagine how over run it is now.

We can't wait to get back, the west coast is far better than Dublin and the east side as far as scenery and soaking in the local culture.

Stay west. Dont bother going to Dublin.

Galway, Doolin (Cliffs of Moher), etc is a great area to explore for a week.

anywhere here

https://www.wildatlanticway.com/explore-the-route


or West CorK are good places to visit.

When you are in Dublin don't forget to visit Dun Laoghaire, Baily Lighthouse walk, Howth, Malahide

Ring of Beara is also beautiful (roughly mirror image on the map of Ring of Kerry with like 1/10th of the traffic).

We are going to go to Galway for the first day, spend the night there, then drive up the coast to Donegal and spend two nights there. We are then going to trek back east towards Dublin and stay in a castle on the way, then make our way south and back west to fly home. Hopefully we are not over doing it.

Cool. I don't know the North at all, but every place I have been in Ireland was beautiful.

Newgrange is an interesting stone age monument (5200 years old - older than Stonehenge, older than the Great Pyramid @ Giza). Perfectly oriented for sunrise on the solstice. Crazy that people were studying the sky and moving giant rocks around instead of just scratching out an existence back then.

Newgrange

Alan Pavio said:

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We are going to go to Galway for the first day, spend the night there, then drive up the coast to Donegal and spend two nights there. We are then going to trek back east towards Dublin and stay in a castle on the way, then make our way south and back west to fly home. Hopefully we are not over doing it.

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Great plan! Which castle? We have stayed in several.

We went with Cabra. Not sure how authentic it is after several remodels, but i read mostly good reviews, and it was a better deal compared to some of the others we looked at.

Nice, we looked at that one, but it was a bit off our itinerary so we stayed at another closer to Dublin.

That looks like a great itinerary, just remember when you are off the major roads, it takes forever to get somewhere. Also watch out of traffic cameras, they were more prevalent in the south. I got an 80euro ticket mailed to me for going 3 kph over the posted limit.

Lastly, we rented from Hertz. I upgraded cars at the airport and had what I thought was "walk away" insurance on the car. Ireland is one of the few countries where your credit card and personal insurance, if you have a foreign car rider, do not apply. Knowing this before we went, and keeping in mind that we were driving on the wrong side I opted for the top tier insurance. On the 4th day of our trip my wife was driving on a secondary highway, we met a lorrie and she bumped a wall on the passenger side that took a chunk out of the tire and scraped the wheel. I didn't think twice about it cause we had walk away insurance. When we checked the car in the guy went straight to that side first, shook his head and sent me into the office. It was then pointed out to me that the insurance covered everything but that tire and wheel. I had to pay $200 for a tire, then they later charged me $750 for a wheel. I complained constantly for 3 weeks and they refunded me the insurance premium I paid ~$550, and that was only because I finally got someone here in OKC that would listen to reason. They now require people to initial on that part of the insurance agreement.

Long story short, get a good gps, don't speed, go head on with a truck instead of swerving, it's a lot cheaper.

You should make a few stops through Sligo If the weather is nice on the way to Donegal. Quick hike up Knocknarea outside Sligo town near Sttandhill beach. Mullaghmore is a nice little peninsula and sea village. Glencar waterfall is a nice stop. Slieve league cliffs in Donegal are impressive.

Update - we are two days in and I'm finding the driving scene here to be really enjoyable.

We made a mistake on day one by not going to the Cliffs of Moher before going to our first Air BnB in Athenry. This resulted in us having to back track yesterday, leading to a five hour drive from the Cliffs to northern Donegal. That was the most enjoyable 5 hour drive of my life - the beauty of the Irish countryside is indescribable.

Take a bus if you do the Ring of Kerry. The traffic is too much!

Absolutely loved our time in Ireland (swinging from Cork to Dingle, then across to Dublin) and had a wonderful time driving. Felt like the whole country was ours and we were the only car on the round until mid-day. If you're willing to spend some time in the Ring of Kerry/Dingle area, I would definitely recommend staying in Dingle (and hit up the Dingle Distillery). However, if I had to pick one thing in Ireland that is an absolute must do/see, it is Skellig Michael (almost requires staying in the Ring of Kerry area for a night).

Go on a literary pub crawl when you make it back to Dublin. Fantastic.

How recently did you go out to the Skelligs?

Unfortunately we won't be able to make it down south on this trip. A week is just not long enough to fit everything in, but we will definitely be back.

I will say, the north - County Donegal - provided the most incredible scenery we have seen driving across the country so far. The drive from our Air BnB out to Slieve League, and then from there to Glenveagh National Park seems unreal at times. Not mention Slieve League itself.

Agree on the part about feeling like the whole country is yours. There were a couple of times up north where GPS had us go down a road that wasn't wide enough for two cars, for long periods of time, but we never encountered anyone else. It felt like we were cruising in a go cart.

Yesterday was the 3 year mark actually. Pre-Star Wars, but they told us part of TFA was filmed there.

Nice. Last time I went was prior to Star Wars as well, but I can imagine it is a massive pain to get bookings now thanks to those movies

Newgrange is worth checking out!

Ireland! Land of the what only it is

Thought I would post a few details about my trip to Ireland. I was there for 10 days in early July.

We drove for 10 days across mainly south Ireland:

Day 1: Dublin
Day 2: Kilkenny
Day 3: Rock of Cashel, Cork
Day 4: Cork, Cobh, Midleton, Blarney (Blarney Castle, Jameson Whiskey Distillery)
Day 5: Killarney, Killarney National Park (Muckross Manor, Ross Castle, Torc Waterfal)
Day 6: Ring of Kerry, Sneem (Border Collie, Ring of Kerry)
Day 7: Sneem, Skellig Islands
Day 8: Adare, Limerick
Day 9: Doolin, Cliffs of Moher
Day 10: Shannon

I would recommend driving. The driving on the left hand side is not a problem. You get used to it after a few minutes. The hardest thing is driving in the narrow streets. There seems to be only a few inches of space between your side view mirrors and oncoming traffic on the right and walls on the left. But its not bad. And as long as you have someone navigating for you for the first few days, you can focus just on the driving. I would recommend renting a GPS or using your phone. The driving is great because you can do things on your own timeline. When driving from city to city, with the route we did, things were probably an hour and a half away from each other. Its a good opportunity to see the country side.

As far as recommended must-see, I would say:

• Skelling Michael Island: This is by far the coolest place I have ever been. There are a lot of steps, but honestly I don't think its that challenging. Its probably looks more complex than it is. The main thing is the sudden drop offs near the steps. If your not good with heights, you might be white knuckling things.
• Cliffs of Moher: Massive cliffs that you have seen in movies. Probably a must see for everyone.
• Rock of Cashel: This is just a really cool castle. Its a ruined castle, but very impressive.
• Blarney Castle: This is where you get to kiss the blarney stone. There is a good tour of the castle here.
• Ring of Kerry drive: This is basically a loop you drive around Kerry county. The west side is along the ocean, the east side is more in the country. I enjoyed the west side much more.
• Killarney National Park

One thing to note... and I'm still meaning to research this because I'm not sure I believe it, but apparently there are fire restrictions which only allow 2 persons to a hotel room. Not sure I believe it, but in most places we went, we had to get two rooms.

Day 1: Dublin
We flew in around 8am and then used the rest of the day to tour the city. We saw the Guinness Storehouse, Saint Patrick's Cathedral and various other things. We did one of the hop on-off tour buses. Overall I wasn't impressed with Dublin and really only enjoyed Guinness. If I knew then what I know now, I probably just would have seen Guinness and then left the city right after that.

Day 2: Kilkenny
We left Dublin in the morning and drove to Kilkenny. The main thing to see here is Kilkenny Castle and St Canices Cathedral. But the town itself is on the smaller side and nice to walk around. If you go to St Canices, make sure you walk up the tower. Its a tight fit towards the top, but was a lot of fun.

Day 3: Rock of Cashel, Cork
We left Kilkenny in the morning and drove to the Rock of Cashel. I think it was about an hour drive. The Rock of Cashel is a large castle on a hill. We really enjoyed this. Since we drove, we took our time and really enjoyed this. We ended up staying for several hours and just enjoyed the site around the castle. There was a small ruined castle down the hill from the Rock that we walked to and hung out there for probably an hour.
After this, we drove to Cork which was probably an hour and a half. We booked a hotel with adjoining rooms at a nicer hotel, but they kept messing things up during check in, so they just gave us a 6 room apartment at no cost. It was a bit much for us, but had a washer and stuff. And we were here for 2 nights, so it worked out well. I think we just walked around the city that night.

Day 4: Cork, Cobh, Midleton, Blarney (Blarney Castle, Jameson Whiskey Distillery)
The next day we went on a tour which takes you to Blarney Castle, the Titanic Museum and the Jameson Whisky Distillery.
Blarney Castle is where you get to kiss the blarney stone. Its a nice castle to see and the grounds are nice. You need to get there first thing in the morning or else you can end up in a line from what it looked like. I think we were there by 10 and didn't wait in a line.
Titanic Museum is in Cobh. This is where the Titanic left from. They built a museum in the old WhiteStar offices right at the pier where the tenders left from. The pier is still there, but not usable. The museum doesn't have much on artifacts though. I believe those are mostly in the Titanic Museum in Belfast (northern Ireland). This was neat, but not a must see. There is also a memorial here to the Lusitania. That had wrecked off the coast of Cobh and a lot of the injured were taken here and the dead buried here. I had previously read the book 'Dead Wake' which was about the wreck, so this was interesting.
Jameson Whiskey Distillery is in Middleton and this was really neat. I really enjoyed this tour. Very cool. I think I'm an Irish Whiskey guy now.

Day 5: Killarney, Killarney National Park (Muckross Manor, Ross Castle, Torc Waterfal)
We left Cork and went to Killarney. We visited Killarney National Park, Ross Castle, Muckross Manor and Torc Waterfall. This is a really nice area. We ended up driving back through this area, so we saw a lot of it.

Day 6: Ring of Kerry, Sneem
From Killarney, we went on a tour bus that drove around the Ring of Kerry. This is a tour around Kerry county that does a loop where the west side takes you along the coast and the east side takes you through the country side. The tour bus made stops along the way. The kids really enjoyed stopping at a border collie exhibition where you got to watch them herd sheep. Actually, I enjoyed it to. Pretty interesting to see how they use the dogs. We also stopped near Scariff for lunch, which put us in view of Skellig Island.
After the tour, we drove to Sneem. Its a pretty small town. Not a lot going on there, but it put us in a good location to go to Skellig the next morning.

Day 7: Sneem, Skellig Islands
We woke up in the morning and drove back to the Scariff area we had visited on the Ring of Kerry tour the previous day. From here, we got on a boat and went to Skellig Michael Island. Skellig Island is an island 8 miles off the coast which was used as a monastery. This is Luke Skywalkers island in The Last Jedi. As far as the actual island, the monks basically built a platform on top of the pointed mountain and built several rock huts that looked like igloos. They placed rock steps going from the ocean to the huts at the top. This is a world heritage site, so they only allow a certain amount of people on it each day. There are only a few boat captains that are allowed to take people there. Apparently, the tours end up getting cancelled a lot because the sea is too rough to allow the boats to dock. Its primitive here with no electricity, no toilets, nothing. Very beautiful, but can be pretty dangerous. Its an amazing place though and we were really lucky we got to do it. The boat ride out and back is about 1.5 hours each way. I think our boat was slow though. I think the other boats were doing it in 45 minutes.
After this, we drove back to Sneem and stayed the night here. Now that I know, I wish we had gone ahead and driven and stayed in another town that night just to see something else.

Day 8: Adare, Limerick
We woke up and drove to Limerick. We really didn't have any plans this day, so we drove to Limerick and just checked out things along the way. We stopped in Adare and hung out there for a while. Once we got to Limerick, we walked around a lot and visited King Johns Castle. This was a big castle, but just reminded me of something setup at Disney. I didn't really enjoy this. And I didn't really enjoy the city of Limerick either. I don't think I would recommend this city.

Day 9: Doolin, Cliffs of Moher
We woke up and drove to the Cliffs of Moher. In the morning, we did a boat tour that let you view the cliffs from the ocean side. I would recommend doing this. After the tour, we went into Doolin and had lunch. We then went to the the Cliffs of Moher where they have a visitors center. We walked all along the cliffs at the top. I recommend doing both the boat tour and the cliff top walking tour. Seeing from both angles was a great opportunity. After this, we drove back to Limerick.

Day 10: Shannon
We left for Shannon where we flew back to the US.