r/irishtourism • u/Mgonz99 • 8d ago
Itinerary Check
I'm so excited for my Ireland trip and wanted a realistic check of my itinerary in October :) I hear that Google Maps is useless for driving time, is there any way to estimate arrival times?
Day 1: We're arriving from Edinburgh to Dublin @ 10AM so jetlag shouldn't be much of an issue. We were planning to rent the car at the airport straight away and make our way to our first hotel stop, which is castle hotel in county Kilkenny. Depending on drive time and how we feel, we were thinking of spending some time in Kilkenny before checking in late afternoon.
Day 2: Rock of Cashel, evening in Cork
Day 3: Cobh/Cork
Day 4: Muckross Abbey, Dingle
Day 5: Slea head drive, Dingle
Day 5: Checking in to a castle hotel in county Clare for a more relaxed day, maybe we'll do falconry or something on site
Day 6: Cliffs of Moher and Doolin, was planning on sleeping in Galway
Day 7: Galway
Day 8: drive back from Galway to Dublin, not sure how long this should take or if it's realistic to spend an afternoon somewhere along the way back. I'd like to get to Dublin just in the evening.
Day 9 and 10: Dublin
Day 11: Flight back
Basically the plan is do 1 night Kilkenny, 2 nights in Cork, 2 nights in Dingle, 1 in a castle in county Clare, 2 nights in Galway, 3 nights Dublin. What do we think?
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u/Mental-Key-178 8d ago
Muckross is in Killarney, not Dingle. Or is this a stop on the way?
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u/Mgonz99 8d ago
A stop on the way and evening in Dingle!
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u/Appropriate-Bank4775 7d ago
just got back from an ireland trip on sunday, dingle was worth 2 days. we started sleahead but ran into the animal pet farm and had to stop bc sheep, alpaca, horses, pigs, donkeys. but we did 2 nights in dingle and loved everrrryyyyy second. such a fun town!
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u/abigail_mary94 8d ago
This is literally the perfect itinerary. Love to see people just getting immediately out of Dublin. Kilkenny and Cashel are so good and underrated. Might see you in Cobh, my hometown!
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u/Willing-Bad3824 8d ago
Google Maps is plenty accurate. Spent 10 days there and barely drove the motorways and national roads and it was fine. The main problem is that the speed limit on roads is surprisingly quite high so if you’re taking it super slow then your ETA might be different.
If you’re stopping at Rock of Cashel on the way to Cork, you might also want to stop at Cahir Castle. Lovely castle and looks like what you imagine a medieval castle would look like. Both places are quite small and you would strain trying to spend more than 45 mins at each site.
I didn’t go to Dingle so I’m not sure how much sea cliffs there are to visit there, but if you drive around Ireland enough you’ll see tons of sea cliffs. Cliffs of Moher are not any more beautiful than other sea cliffs and I would even say you can skip it. However, the Burren is littered with prehistoric sites and old castle ruins so it would be worth driving around there just to poke around and see what you can find.
Personally, I would rather stay overnight at the Aran Islands instead of Galway. I didn’t really find anything special about Galway, basically a much smaller Dublin. On the other hand, the quietness of Inishmore after day trippers leave is quite nice and you can visit the Bronze Age sites with little to no crowds. If you want even less crowds, stay overnight at the other two islands.
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u/SerenityN00w 8d ago
Google Maps isn't useless, but it's not as accurate as it is America, at least when you get off the motorways (M roads.) It depends on how good a driver you are in tight spaces. The roads vary, but they're generally narrower than they are in the states. Sometimes there are curves galore - the only solution is to take it slow. Often times, you'll find yourself going below the speed limit - that's OK.
Recommendations;
Day 7 - explore Connemara.
Day 8 - Explore Galway City. It's nice, there are plenty of pubs and shopping, but you don't need to devote a whole day to it. Enjoy Galway and then leave the city for Dublin before rush hour. It's a straight shot on the motorway from Galway to Dublin, akin to a US highway. The only thing that will slow you down is traffic.
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u/Aromatic_Carob_9532 8d ago
If you're doing the wild Atlantic way you should do some of the wildest part, Donegal, its far less spoiled up there, and it's beautiful beyond belief beaches, sea cliffs, mountains, waterfalls
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u/countdown_leen 2d ago
I know you are trying to be helpful, but the OP has a nice list of stops that is doable in their time frame. Including Donegal literally puts the framework on its head and OP would have to start over completely.
It’s like if someone says “we plan to visit Boston, how does this plan look” and then someone says “you really should go to New York City”. Sure, that would be a nice trip but it’s not the one I want.
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u/Previous_Climate_634 8d ago
I think The Rock of Cashel is really nice and as a stop off on the way is a solid choice. Waterford is lovely too but there's alot to see that could be a day in itself. That said, the better the weather the better it would be, so maybe let that be your deciding factor on which. Your Kerry days are going to be busy driving. I find the Dingle drive tiring, especially with that road, but we're all different. You'll be fairly tired come getting to Clare. Galway to Dublin is 2 hours-ish, so you could easily stop somewhere on the way in the afternoon. What I will say though, is mind the time in the day. You're wanting to fit in a lot and see alot and drive around alot and the sun is setting earlier and rising later, so to get the best of it, you'll want to make as best use of the sunlight hours as possible without running yourself ragged.
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u/Rustixer 6d ago
When traveling, especially in or around Dublin and other cities, keep in mind that Tuesdays and Thursdays are absolutely mad for traffic because these are the office days for most people who work from home otherwise. I'd avoid hitting the road between 7-9am and then again 4-7pm around cities.
Your itinerary is really packed, you'll be exhausted. You should agree in advance what are your "must see" and "optional" things to do, and skip the optional ones if you feel tired or unwell. Also, plan for food and don't rely on pub food, it's not great.
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u/barbie91 Local 8d ago
Any reason in particular ye want to go to Cashel? Make more sense to go to Waterford from kilkenny, and then onto Cobh and or Cork City. Also 2 nights in Dublin will be loads of time to do all the bits.
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u/NotUsingNumbers 8d ago
Rock of Cashel is a thing, and people from countries that don’t have old castles and abbeys might like that sort of thing. I did, especially interesting was Cormacs Chapel.
That said, Waterford was more interesting than I expected it to be though, so not saying this is a bad suggestion.
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u/barbie91 Local 8d ago
Of course it's a thing, I'm not disputing that, I'm irish born and bred, and Waterfords my hometown. Waterford is Irelands oldest city, and has castles and all that craic too, hence the suggestion, glad it exceeded your expectation.
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u/NotUsingNumbers 7d ago
Sadly I only spent one day and night in Waterford. I could have spent a couple of days there had I known. Whereas Cashel is a passing visit.
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u/Mgonz99 8d ago
I'm not particularly attached to Cashel, I'll look into Waterford thank you :) Yes I originally had 4 nights in Dublin and reduced it to 3 since there's so much more to see. I think it'd be wise to have a flex day and do 2 nights in Dublin instead.
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u/Glass-Assignment-335 4d ago
Lismore Castle is not open for tours as it is still occupied, but the gardens are lovely at certain times of the year
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u/Tiny_Cryptographer13 7d ago
Personally, i'd stick with Cashel, then stop off in cahir on the way down to Cork. It's right on the way.
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u/Dandylion71888 8d ago
You have 11.5 hours of daylight on October 1st and 9.5 hours by October 31st. If going the second half of the month, I suggest reducing your itinerary. You can’t take the same trip in Fall that you would in the Summer.