Doing a short trip to Ireland/Scotland. I figured I would do about 4 days in each, but I've left it kind of open ended in terms of time spent in each place. I know I won't have time to see/do everything, but wanted to hit some of the most notable places. Definitely going to do Guinness and Jameson. Beyond that, totally open. I planned on renting a car, so I can go wherever I want. Any suggestions? What are the must see places?

Four days each is tough. Are these four full days or are you counting the days you arrive and depart?

One day in Dublin on the way in or out is enough. Guinness, Temple Bar, Jameson, Teelings, hop on hop off bus.

If you can do more time in Ireland I would recommend the following:
Rent a car in Dublin and drive west to start the Wild Atlantic Way in Dingle Peninsula. Head north and hit up the following:

• Cliffs of Moher
• Galway
• Sligo
• Donegal
• Portrush
• Belfast
• back around to Dublin

Skip the more touristy areas along the south.

What do you like to do? Sight see, outdoor activities, explore pubs, nightlife?

Ya, after doing a little more research, I decided to save Scotland for next time. I think I'm gonna rent a car in a Dublin like you said, and head out. Was thinking of going west then North. Maybe do a day on one of the islands?

I'll put those places on my list. I like to do a little bit of everything. Hike, pubs, sightsee, good food, historical stuff, you name it.

Glad you focused on one. Besides the things that were mentioned in Dublin, we really enjoyed the west coast and if we ever go out will spend our time there.

Few practical tips. The speed cameras are active and you will get a ticket for even as low as 3 km over. These are mainly in the south, Dingle peninsula is where I got mine. Raincoats are a must. We were left at the cliffs of morher by our selves as a 20 minute rainstorm drove the hoards back to their busses. Connemara is a special place.

I appreciate the info. Ya, I got hit by one of those cameras in France, got the ticket in the mail and promptly threw it in the trash.

Slieve League is north of the Cliffs of Moher. Three times as high as the Cliffs. Its ridiculous. I just got back from my second trip to Ireland.

I'll add it to the list. Sounds awesome

Skip Loch Ness ! There is no monster !

BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Skip Loch Ness ! There is no monster !

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Correct, but only because Nessie is a kind and gentle creature, not a monster.

rebelag, when are you going?


My cousin does outdoor yoga, which may not be your thing, but they'll hike to tops of hills and mountains then do their yoga. This is in Sligo town area. https://www.yourwellbeingwarrior.com/eventscalendar/

Also have friends that run Northwest Adventure Tours. http://northwestadventuretours.ie/ They may have something that interests you.


Slieve League is definitely a place to stop. There are a couple neat towns to stop in. Killybegs is a neat fishing port that some times have the massive "factory" fishing ships in port. Ardara (Are-draw) is another nice sea side town.

Glenveagh park is cool. I haven't been in 20 years but it was always a neat place to go. The ferry from Rathmullen to Buncrana is something different to break up the driving and see the countryside from the water.

rebelag62 said:

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I appreciate the info. Ya, I got hit by one of those cameras in France, got the ticket in the mail and promptly threw it in the trash.

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I had a buddy that did that in The Netherlands. The next trip to Germany he had a hold on his Passport and had to pay the fine plus penalties to get in, over $400. I paid mine just in case.

Here was a review / itinerary of my trip to Ireland last year.

https://texags.com/forums/54/topics/2943447/replies/52227594

... went ahead and pasted it below....
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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.

Just returned from an 8 day trip. We did not rent a car but based in Dublin and took day trips out. Probably the favorite was N Ireland: Belfast w/black cab tour, Giants Causeway, Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. In Dublin: book a 5 or 9 hr pub tour with Rural Pub Tours, visit the Little Museum, Epic Emigration museum, Kilmainham Gaol, pubs Stags Head, Gravediggers, Brazen Head. Cliffs of Moher and Galway are awesome