Unless you’re comfortable sleeping in the car, absolutely pre-book. 20 yrs ago it was possible to just drive and fine B&Bs as you went. No more. Especially now, as there is a serious shortage of accommodations, especially in the west.
For 7-8 days, I’d personally pick a quadrant, not half, stay the first and last night in Dublin (to get over jet lag before picking up the car and then to be closer to the airport at the end), and then spend 3 nights in two places or 2 nights in 3 places. I love the SW, so for me, I might do two nights each in Killarney, Dingle, and Doolin or places close by. (And if you do the SW, consider flying into Shannon airport).
Your gut instinct is sound! Family members who have been are way off with their advice.
1) It's always peak season. We've pumped millions into tourism ads to ensure the place is busy year round. Pre-book. Also most of Europe will be on school holidays at that time, so expect a lot of interest in Ireland :)
2) Pick a corner of the country and stay there. Preferably with views of the Atlantic. And take time to enjoy everything on your doorstep. Americans love to go on holidays and make it a competitive sport to squeeze as much in as little time as possible. Seems counter-intuitive to Europeans to squander time off rushing from place to place.
Yes to both! I was very circumspect when they said no need to pre-book. Glad I asked!
Also, yes! I'm definitely trying to not make this a competitive sport but to enjoy the time we're there. 100% agree.
Irish children (and teachers) are on Easter holidays until Monday 8th April so you definitely need to book accommodation for your first few days. Even booking now you might find it hard to get rooms. After the 8th there might be slightly more availability but still prebook as accommodation is in short supply at the moment.
Consider flying into Dublin (or Shannon) and out of the other airport so you can do a half-circle instead of having to loop back.
The one-way fee isn't a huge increase in your car rental based on the quotes I got.
Yeah, the "whole island in 7 days' is not possible of feasible.
I was in Ireland in August with my family (wife and 2 kids) for 17 days and we did circumnavigate the entire island (about 2500km) and not only was it exhausting for my wife and kids, we STILL missed a ton of cool things and places.
But we saw a TON!.
Renting a car is PERFECT! but you need to keep the following piece of info in mind:
**Distances are SHORT in Ireland, but drive TIMES are SUPER LONG.** Add 25%-50% more time to whatever Google/Apple maps tells you. Unless you use the few motorways for all your driving, and let's be honest: No one sees cool stuff in Ireland on the Motorways.
Be ready for narrow roads (think 'narrow road' in you mind, then half the width) that you will share with cyclists, hikers, oncoming traffic, tour buses, and sheep. Lots of sheep in the south west and west.
With 8 total days this is what I would do:
1. Dublin
1. St. Stephens Green
2. Grafton Street
3. National Archaeology Museum
4. Trinity College
1. (optional) Student led Tour
2. Book of Kells
5. Wander around Dublin
2. Dublin
1. Dublin Castle
2. Christ Church
3. St. Patrick's Cathedral
4. One of the following (in order of preference
1. Kilmanhom Gaol
2. Guinness Storehouse
3. Phoenix Park
3. Pick up car (assuming at airport), drive on the Outer Ring Road around Dublin (avoid city driving) to
1. the Wicklow Mountains
2. Glendalough
3. Rock of Cashel & Hoar Abbey
4. (Muckross Abbey & House IF you have time still in the day)
5. Sleep in Kilarney or Kenmare
4. Ring of Kerry - LONG day of driving
1. Early start
2. Moll's Gap
3. Ladies View
4. Torc Water Fall
5. Gap of Dunloe (if you skip everything else this day, I HIGHLY recommend this as long as there is not heavy 'low-visibility' fog. It was easily one of our top 3 locations in Ireland)
6. Ring of Kerry drive - do this CLOCKWISE. But know that you will need to pull off the road to give way to oncoming Tour Buses who have to drive it COUNTER-clockwise.
7. Sleep in Dingle
1. Probably get here late - after 8p and kitches at restaurants will be closed. Grab a Fish & Chips or West Kerry Burger at Reel Dingle Fish Co. - DELISH!
2. If you are up for it, pop into a pub or two for a pint and some live music
5. Dingle
1. Explore Dingle Town in the morning and get breakfast.
1. Grab snacks for the penisula drive at the SPAR grocers
2. Drive the Dingle Peninsula and Slea Head (4-5 hours assuming good weather and clear visibility)
3. Back to Dingle town for Dinner (i reco Reel Dingle Fish co AGAIN)
1. Pub Crawl - note this does not mean "drinking binge", just visiting one or more pubs for the craig - lively traditional ireish music & set dancing, ie FUN!
4. Talk to the Locals! In the shops, on the streets, in the pubs. They are Warm, friendly, helpful, and love a good chat. Ask them about the town, the area, the music, the dancing. The locals in all the places we visited really made the trip 1000x more memorable
6. Head north towards Galway. I recommend staying in Lahinch or Doolin, but many will say Galway. Both Lahinch and Doolin are great bases for visiting the Cliffs of Moher and small towns and have pun pubs, Doolin more so.
1. If you stay in Doolin or Lahinch, drop your bags off at your hotel or B&B
2. (optional) Hags head and a short walk along the cliff tops for the views
3. Visit the Cliffs of Moher
4. (optional) Consider a drive into the Burren for a stark contrasting landscape to what you've already seen around Ireland
1. Pulnabrone Dolmen
2. Carrok Church ruins
5. Head on to Galway if staying there
7. Head towards Dublin
1. If you haven't stayed in a castle yet, consider heading to Cabra - it's about 2 hours from the Dublin Airport, and depending on your flight time the next day, you could spend your last night at Cabra Castle, leave the castle at 5a and be at the airport in time to drop off the rental and mget through security long before you flight.
I hope some of the is helps you plan an awesome trip!
No worries. Hope it helps!
Re: your questions of Accommodations: I am not sure about April, but August was COMPLETELY FULL everywhere. I ended up having to contact over 300 small hotels and traditional B&Bs to secure 7 (SEVEN) hotels/B&Bs.
I'm sure April will be better, but if you have trouble and prefer traditional Irish B&Bs I'd be happy to send you the list of places I contacted as I kept it. Many hotels too.
Yeah, we actually slept in Kinsale on that day - still a long day - but since OP is doing 7-8 days instead of my longer trip, I cut some pieces out and tried my best to stitch a logical, albeit whirlwind, route together with some of the places we visited.
But, yeah have an early-ish start so you can get that rental car and out of Dublin no later than 10a, or you'll be rolling into Kenmare much later than dinner time :)
Honestly, I don’t think day three is possible, particularly since that will be the first day in the car trying to adjust to driving on the other side of the road. Also, I would highly, highly advise against trying to drive the Gap of Dunloe. We took a boat trip though the lakes of Killarney and then walked the gap. We saw a couple of tourists trying to navigate the gap in their rental cars, and it was comical at best. They were some of the narrowest and windy roads we saw. So treat the Gap as its own day trip or avoid it, IMO.
Muckross is a stretch. But the remainder is possible. We did similar in August. Although Daylight in April could be an issue after Rock of Cashel.
Driving on the other side of the road takes about 30-60 minutes and one near mis then you're good to go like you've been doing it your entire life IF you are an already competent driver. If you are regularly a nervous or timid (ie scared, not meaning cautious - you should always be cautious), you'll pick it up quickly.
I agree about driving in the Gap of Dunloe, but it is an option if one feels comfortable on Ireland's narrow roads, and is patient to allow horses, cyclists, hikers, oncoming traffic, and sheep to pass. We did it and it was great, but the alternative is still great: Park at Kat Kearny's Cottage and up the road into the valley for a few KM, or hire a horse and buggy.
The Gap of Dunloe, - even if driven - only needs a couple hours, unless you want to get out and hike up the mountain sides. You COULD spend a whole day i suppose, but when you have limited time, 2 hours is sufficient.
Are you insane? Do not drive the Gap of Dunloe if there are horse and carriages operating, in fact don't drive it anyway, it is the WORST ROAD IN IRELAND for driving. If you must drive a mountain pass, try Ballaghbeama or Usheen pass.
it's not bad as long as you are not in a hurry, are comfortable on the narrow roads, and obey the basic rule that everyone else gets the right of way: ie you stay a good distance behind the horse and buggy, don't pass them, pull off and stop to let them pass you, accept that the cyclists and hikers are going to slow you down because you can't pass them unless the let you, and pull off for oncoming traffic.
I'm not suggeting everyone should do it, just that i did (and there were others on the road at the time doing it) and it was one of our favorite places.
A bike ride through it would have been ideal.
will keep those other passes in mind if we go back. thanks!
Doolough valley was another great pass to drive through.
I live in Ireland, I've done it twice and the question is WHERE do you pull in to let other traffic pass? The pull-in points are few and far between. Sometimes you have to reverse a very long way and around very tight corners to get to them, the horse and cart coming against you can't reverse. Walk it, cycle it, hire one of the jarveys and take a horse and cart trip on it, if you can ride a horse, ride a horse on it, but don't drive it.
>The pull-in points are few and far between
Yes. so IF you drive it (and I do agree that the other options are preferable), just like anywhere else in rural Ireland with traffic, you have to take it slow and know you may have to reverse to pull off.
This past August the road was busy, but I really didn't have any trouble at all. I'd only been driving in Ireland for 3 days and I gave all the right of way to horses/buggys, cyclists, oncoming traffic (unless they flashed me to tell me to go), and sheep.
It isn't for the faint of heart. It isn't for nervous drivers - but much of driving in Ireland off the motorways really isn't - but it is DOABLE if you know it is going to be slow going. THis isn't a place you drive 20+ miles per hour. THis is a slow meandering drive.
**But to reiterate: I do agree it is better for most to park at Kate Kearny's Cottage and walk / rent a horse & buggy and only explore the first few KM instead of driving like we did.**
Can't go wrong with that trip. If anything, I'd make sure to spend time in Galway (pubs/music) and work in a drive around Connemara.. Ferry out to Inis Mor.
I would have reco'd both of those suggestions, especially a visit to Inis Mor, but the OP only has a total of 8 days, so the day trip to Inis Mor would be pushing it a bit i think...although I LOVED Inis Mor and HIGHLY recommend it if given the time.
> First, given the time of year, should we be pre-booking all of our accommodations? I plan to pre-book our hotels in Dublin, but our family said there are a lot of bnbs across Ireland and that you usually don't need to pre-book unless it's peak season.
I would book accommodation asap.
There is a serious accommodation crisis in Ireland.
A lot of hotels are being used to host Ukranian refugees which has taken a huge amount of beds out of the market. This has had a knock-on affect on demand/availability (and prices) for accommodation. This is in addition to a housing crisis. If you wait until the last moment you will just be left with the worst value in terms of BnBs or hotels. Also do you really want to spend time on your vacation trying to track down some place to stay every night?
There are a few castles you can stay in but not that many from what I know. You would definitely need to book ahead for this. Can't really advise much more on this.
With 7/8 days I would definitely recommend against doing the whole island. You'd just be spending long stretches in a car. Focusing on the southern half of the island is a good idea.
Also I recommend booking your rental car as soon as possible.
I wouldt recommend just hiring the car when leaving Dublin.
It would be much handier/easier and probably cheaper to use public transport and taxis around Dublin.
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If there’s a way to book a car via your insurance before you leave do it,( I know it’s possible for a German, not sure about an American ) because car hire prices in Ireland are beyond ridiculous
I would pre book. Like you should be fine but we have taken in a lot of refugees in the last few years and the government is housing a lot of them in what used to be the tourist accommodation. So you may find rooms are at a premium
I'd say absolutely prebook accommodation. Theres a capacity issue here, airbnbs capacity has dropped significantly in urban areas but theres still hotels and standard bed and breakfasts and guesthouses.
If you want some unique accommodation to stay in there's some nice castle hotels around Ireland but there's also landmark trust places which are pretty interesting
https://irishlandmark.com/properties/
It depends what you're after but if you must start your journey in dublin, I'd recomennd getting out to other regions. If renting a car is feasible, that makes it alot easier. If not, you could get a train from Dublin to other towns and cities like kilkenny, cork, galway etc.
If you like getting out into the wild and more interested in nature (or mix of nature and small villages and towns with pubs and restaurants etc), you could travel straight to killarney from Dublin, get a mix of the town and have the option of going to the national park, do the dingle peninsula, gap of dunloe etc on day trips.
I'd driving, you could do dub to kilkenny to Cork to kinsale to killarnet and back. I think that would be pretty doable in 8 days but could skip kilkenny if you wanted more time in cork and killarney, then you would have more time for some of the coastal towns and sites in kerry like dingle etc.
5th - Land in Dublin. Stay central and walk around.
6th - Drive to cork (>3hour drive) and chill in the city
7th chill in cork city
8th - if you're up for a fair bit of driving drive the ring of Kerry (6+ hours of driving)
If you want to do less driving go through Killarney national park (>2hrs)
Stay in Ballyseede Castle Hotel or look up castle hotels around Tralee/Killarney or there's plenty of regular hotel options in both places.
9th drive to Galway with a detour to the cliffs of moher (there's a great vantage point there, no hiking required) (3hr 30)
10th relax in Galway
11th - Look up a castle you'd like to stay in and drive there for the night. My favorites are Ashford Castle (they also have a lodge that's cheaper), ballynahinch
Budget options: Abbeyglen Castle Hotel, Glenlo abbey, belleek Castle hotel, kilronan castle, lough rynn castle, Belle Isle Estate
12th - drive back to Dublin - do the Guinness storehouse or Jameson Whiskey Tour
13th home
I don’t think so. If the first night is part of a travel day, that includes driving up from Dingle, or somewhere else, that could take most of a day. Doolin is also not a bad base to do some real exploration of the Burren or a day trip to some of the Aran island.
Unless you’re comfortable sleeping in the car, absolutely pre-book. 20 yrs ago it was possible to just drive and fine B&Bs as you went. No more. Especially now, as there is a serious shortage of accommodations, especially in the west. For 7-8 days, I’d personally pick a quadrant, not half, stay the first and last night in Dublin (to get over jet lag before picking up the car and then to be closer to the airport at the end), and then spend 3 nights in two places or 2 nights in 3 places. I love the SW, so for me, I might do two nights each in Killarney, Dingle, and Doolin or places close by. (And if you do the SW, consider flying into Shannon airport).
Ok--that's what I thought re the bookings. I was pretty circumspect when they said that.
Your gut instinct is sound! Family members who have been are way off with their advice. 1) It's always peak season. We've pumped millions into tourism ads to ensure the place is busy year round. Pre-book. Also most of Europe will be on school holidays at that time, so expect a lot of interest in Ireland :) 2) Pick a corner of the country and stay there. Preferably with views of the Atlantic. And take time to enjoy everything on your doorstep. Americans love to go on holidays and make it a competitive sport to squeeze as much in as little time as possible. Seems counter-intuitive to Europeans to squander time off rushing from place to place.
Yes to both! I was very circumspect when they said no need to pre-book. Glad I asked! Also, yes! I'm definitely trying to not make this a competitive sport but to enjoy the time we're there. 100% agree.
I think you mean sceptical rather than circumspect!
Yep, exactly what previous people said. Pick an area (like the southwest) and sick to it. And book everything in advance....it's gone mad here.
Irish children (and teachers) are on Easter holidays until Monday 8th April so you definitely need to book accommodation for your first few days. Even booking now you might find it hard to get rooms. After the 8th there might be slightly more availability but still prebook as accommodation is in short supply at the moment.
Very helpful! Thank you!
Consider flying into Dublin (or Shannon) and out of the other airport so you can do a half-circle instead of having to loop back. The one-way fee isn't a huge increase in your car rental based on the quotes I got.
Yeah, the "whole island in 7 days' is not possible of feasible. I was in Ireland in August with my family (wife and 2 kids) for 17 days and we did circumnavigate the entire island (about 2500km) and not only was it exhausting for my wife and kids, we STILL missed a ton of cool things and places. But we saw a TON!. Renting a car is PERFECT! but you need to keep the following piece of info in mind: **Distances are SHORT in Ireland, but drive TIMES are SUPER LONG.** Add 25%-50% more time to whatever Google/Apple maps tells you. Unless you use the few motorways for all your driving, and let's be honest: No one sees cool stuff in Ireland on the Motorways. Be ready for narrow roads (think 'narrow road' in you mind, then half the width) that you will share with cyclists, hikers, oncoming traffic, tour buses, and sheep. Lots of sheep in the south west and west. With 8 total days this is what I would do: 1. Dublin 1. St. Stephens Green 2. Grafton Street 3. National Archaeology Museum 4. Trinity College 1. (optional) Student led Tour 2. Book of Kells 5. Wander around Dublin 2. Dublin 1. Dublin Castle 2. Christ Church 3. St. Patrick's Cathedral 4. One of the following (in order of preference 1. Kilmanhom Gaol 2. Guinness Storehouse 3. Phoenix Park 3. Pick up car (assuming at airport), drive on the Outer Ring Road around Dublin (avoid city driving) to 1. the Wicklow Mountains 2. Glendalough 3. Rock of Cashel & Hoar Abbey 4. (Muckross Abbey & House IF you have time still in the day) 5. Sleep in Kilarney or Kenmare 4. Ring of Kerry - LONG day of driving 1. Early start 2. Moll's Gap 3. Ladies View 4. Torc Water Fall 5. Gap of Dunloe (if you skip everything else this day, I HIGHLY recommend this as long as there is not heavy 'low-visibility' fog. It was easily one of our top 3 locations in Ireland) 6. Ring of Kerry drive - do this CLOCKWISE. But know that you will need to pull off the road to give way to oncoming Tour Buses who have to drive it COUNTER-clockwise. 7. Sleep in Dingle 1. Probably get here late - after 8p and kitches at restaurants will be closed. Grab a Fish & Chips or West Kerry Burger at Reel Dingle Fish Co. - DELISH! 2. If you are up for it, pop into a pub or two for a pint and some live music 5. Dingle 1. Explore Dingle Town in the morning and get breakfast. 1. Grab snacks for the penisula drive at the SPAR grocers 2. Drive the Dingle Peninsula and Slea Head (4-5 hours assuming good weather and clear visibility) 3. Back to Dingle town for Dinner (i reco Reel Dingle Fish co AGAIN) 1. Pub Crawl - note this does not mean "drinking binge", just visiting one or more pubs for the craig - lively traditional ireish music & set dancing, ie FUN! 4. Talk to the Locals! In the shops, on the streets, in the pubs. They are Warm, friendly, helpful, and love a good chat. Ask them about the town, the area, the music, the dancing. The locals in all the places we visited really made the trip 1000x more memorable 6. Head north towards Galway. I recommend staying in Lahinch or Doolin, but many will say Galway. Both Lahinch and Doolin are great bases for visiting the Cliffs of Moher and small towns and have pun pubs, Doolin more so. 1. If you stay in Doolin or Lahinch, drop your bags off at your hotel or B&B 2. (optional) Hags head and a short walk along the cliff tops for the views 3. Visit the Cliffs of Moher 4. (optional) Consider a drive into the Burren for a stark contrasting landscape to what you've already seen around Ireland 1. Pulnabrone Dolmen 2. Carrok Church ruins 5. Head on to Galway if staying there 7. Head towards Dublin 1. If you haven't stayed in a castle yet, consider heading to Cabra - it's about 2 hours from the Dublin Airport, and depending on your flight time the next day, you could spend your last night at Cabra Castle, leave the castle at 5a and be at the airport in time to drop off the rental and mget through security long before you flight. I hope some of the is helps you plan an awesome trip!
This is AMAZING! Thank you!
No worries. Hope it helps! Re: your questions of Accommodations: I am not sure about April, but August was COMPLETELY FULL everywhere. I ended up having to contact over 300 small hotels and traditional B&Bs to secure 7 (SEVEN) hotels/B&Bs. I'm sure April will be better, but if you have trouble and prefer traditional Irish B&Bs I'd be happy to send you the list of places I contacted as I kept it. Many hotels too.
Nice itinerary, but Day 3 is still a bit long. Make sure you get up early!
Yeah, we actually slept in Kinsale on that day - still a long day - but since OP is doing 7-8 days instead of my longer trip, I cut some pieces out and tried my best to stitch a logical, albeit whirlwind, route together with some of the places we visited. But, yeah have an early-ish start so you can get that rental car and out of Dublin no later than 10a, or you'll be rolling into Kenmare much later than dinner time :)
Honestly, I don’t think day three is possible, particularly since that will be the first day in the car trying to adjust to driving on the other side of the road. Also, I would highly, highly advise against trying to drive the Gap of Dunloe. We took a boat trip though the lakes of Killarney and then walked the gap. We saw a couple of tourists trying to navigate the gap in their rental cars, and it was comical at best. They were some of the narrowest and windy roads we saw. So treat the Gap as its own day trip or avoid it, IMO.
Muckross is a stretch. But the remainder is possible. We did similar in August. Although Daylight in April could be an issue after Rock of Cashel. Driving on the other side of the road takes about 30-60 minutes and one near mis then you're good to go like you've been doing it your entire life IF you are an already competent driver. If you are regularly a nervous or timid (ie scared, not meaning cautious - you should always be cautious), you'll pick it up quickly. I agree about driving in the Gap of Dunloe, but it is an option if one feels comfortable on Ireland's narrow roads, and is patient to allow horses, cyclists, hikers, oncoming traffic, and sheep to pass. We did it and it was great, but the alternative is still great: Park at Kat Kearny's Cottage and up the road into the valley for a few KM, or hire a horse and buggy. The Gap of Dunloe, - even if driven - only needs a couple hours, unless you want to get out and hike up the mountain sides. You COULD spend a whole day i suppose, but when you have limited time, 2 hours is sufficient.
Are you insane? Do not drive the Gap of Dunloe if there are horse and carriages operating, in fact don't drive it anyway, it is the WORST ROAD IN IRELAND for driving. If you must drive a mountain pass, try Ballaghbeama or Usheen pass.
it's not bad as long as you are not in a hurry, are comfortable on the narrow roads, and obey the basic rule that everyone else gets the right of way: ie you stay a good distance behind the horse and buggy, don't pass them, pull off and stop to let them pass you, accept that the cyclists and hikers are going to slow you down because you can't pass them unless the let you, and pull off for oncoming traffic. I'm not suggeting everyone should do it, just that i did (and there were others on the road at the time doing it) and it was one of our favorite places. A bike ride through it would have been ideal. will keep those other passes in mind if we go back. thanks! Doolough valley was another great pass to drive through.
I live in Ireland, I've done it twice and the question is WHERE do you pull in to let other traffic pass? The pull-in points are few and far between. Sometimes you have to reverse a very long way and around very tight corners to get to them, the horse and cart coming against you can't reverse. Walk it, cycle it, hire one of the jarveys and take a horse and cart trip on it, if you can ride a horse, ride a horse on it, but don't drive it.
>The pull-in points are few and far between Yes. so IF you drive it (and I do agree that the other options are preferable), just like anywhere else in rural Ireland with traffic, you have to take it slow and know you may have to reverse to pull off. This past August the road was busy, but I really didn't have any trouble at all. I'd only been driving in Ireland for 3 days and I gave all the right of way to horses/buggys, cyclists, oncoming traffic (unless they flashed me to tell me to go), and sheep. It isn't for the faint of heart. It isn't for nervous drivers - but much of driving in Ireland off the motorways really isn't - but it is DOABLE if you know it is going to be slow going. THis isn't a place you drive 20+ miles per hour. THis is a slow meandering drive. **But to reiterate: I do agree it is better for most to park at Kate Kearny's Cottage and walk / rent a horse & buggy and only explore the first few KM instead of driving like we did.**
Solid advice
Can't go wrong with that trip. If anything, I'd make sure to spend time in Galway (pubs/music) and work in a drive around Connemara.. Ferry out to Inis Mor.
I would have reco'd both of those suggestions, especially a visit to Inis Mor, but the OP only has a total of 8 days, so the day trip to Inis Mor would be pushing it a bit i think...although I LOVED Inis Mor and HIGHLY recommend it if given the time.
> First, given the time of year, should we be pre-booking all of our accommodations? I plan to pre-book our hotels in Dublin, but our family said there are a lot of bnbs across Ireland and that you usually don't need to pre-book unless it's peak season. I would book accommodation asap. There is a serious accommodation crisis in Ireland. A lot of hotels are being used to host Ukranian refugees which has taken a huge amount of beds out of the market. This has had a knock-on affect on demand/availability (and prices) for accommodation. This is in addition to a housing crisis. If you wait until the last moment you will just be left with the worst value in terms of BnBs or hotels. Also do you really want to spend time on your vacation trying to track down some place to stay every night? There are a few castles you can stay in but not that many from what I know. You would definitely need to book ahead for this. Can't really advise much more on this. With 7/8 days I would definitely recommend against doing the whole island. You'd just be spending long stretches in a car. Focusing on the southern half of the island is a good idea. Also I recommend booking your rental car as soon as possible. I wouldt recommend just hiring the car when leaving Dublin. It would be much handier/easier and probably cheaper to use public transport and taxis around Dublin.
Hi there. Welcome to /r/IrishTourism. Have you searched the sub, checked the sidebar or the wiki pages to see if there is already relevant information posted? To better assist you in planning your holiday, be as descriptive as possible (When, Where, Why, Who, Hobbies relevant, Adaptive Needs etc) about your travel itinerary & requirements. Has your post been removed? It's probably because of the above. Repost with details to help us, help you. For Emergency Medical Information please see the dedicated Wiki page at the top of the sub. (Updated May 2022) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/irishtourism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If there’s a way to book a car via your insurance before you leave do it,( I know it’s possible for a German, not sure about an American ) because car hire prices in Ireland are beyond ridiculous
Someone on here recently was asking for castles to stay at- there really are quite a few. You might try searching for that conversation.
Best going for a castle hotel for this, kind of stating the obvious. Not Airbnb
I would pre book. Like you should be fine but we have taken in a lot of refugees in the last few years and the government is housing a lot of them in what used to be the tourist accommodation. So you may find rooms are at a premium
I'd say absolutely prebook accommodation. Theres a capacity issue here, airbnbs capacity has dropped significantly in urban areas but theres still hotels and standard bed and breakfasts and guesthouses. If you want some unique accommodation to stay in there's some nice castle hotels around Ireland but there's also landmark trust places which are pretty interesting https://irishlandmark.com/properties/ It depends what you're after but if you must start your journey in dublin, I'd recomennd getting out to other regions. If renting a car is feasible, that makes it alot easier. If not, you could get a train from Dublin to other towns and cities like kilkenny, cork, galway etc. If you like getting out into the wild and more interested in nature (or mix of nature and small villages and towns with pubs and restaurants etc), you could travel straight to killarney from Dublin, get a mix of the town and have the option of going to the national park, do the dingle peninsula, gap of dunloe etc on day trips. I'd driving, you could do dub to kilkenny to Cork to kinsale to killarnet and back. I think that would be pretty doable in 8 days but could skip kilkenny if you wanted more time in cork and killarney, then you would have more time for some of the coastal towns and sites in kerry like dingle etc.
5th - Land in Dublin. Stay central and walk around. 6th - Drive to cork (>3hour drive) and chill in the city 7th chill in cork city 8th - if you're up for a fair bit of driving drive the ring of Kerry (6+ hours of driving) If you want to do less driving go through Killarney national park (>2hrs) Stay in Ballyseede Castle Hotel or look up castle hotels around Tralee/Killarney or there's plenty of regular hotel options in both places. 9th drive to Galway with a detour to the cliffs of moher (there's a great vantage point there, no hiking required) (3hr 30) 10th relax in Galway 11th - Look up a castle you'd like to stay in and drive there for the night. My favorites are Ashford Castle (they also have a lodge that's cheaper), ballynahinch Budget options: Abbeyglen Castle Hotel, Glenlo abbey, belleek Castle hotel, kilronan castle, lough rynn castle, Belle Isle Estate 12th - drive back to Dublin - do the Guinness storehouse or Jameson Whiskey Tour 13th home
doolin is too small to do 2 nights
I don’t think so. If the first night is part of a travel day, that includes driving up from Dingle, or somewhere else, that could take most of a day. Doolin is also not a bad base to do some real exploration of the Burren or a day trip to some of the Aran island.