I began planning our trip to Ireland about a year before the trip. Going to Ireland had been on our list for quite some time and we really wanted to do this trip right. After doing our research, we discovered that staying in Ireland was relatively inexpensive – so we decided to give ourselves 2 weeks to explore the country. And just like Hawaii, we included two travel days to bookend the trip.
Flying to Ireland is relatively easy 6 hour flight. Depending on the time of year (Ireland doesn’t do daylight savings like the U.S.) your time difference is either 5 or 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. When flying to Ireland, or Europe in general, flights typically depart the east coast in the evening so that you arrive across the pond in the morning of the following day. Knowing this, (and having our pretty rough jet lag experience from Hawaii) we decided to “get on Ireland’s time zone” a week before our trip.
Our thinking was that if we acclimated ourselves to their schedule ahead of time, we could hit the ground running on day 1 with little exhaustion. To adjust, we pulled a 24 hour day the week before the trip. Then we went to bed by 6PM and set our alarms to get up at 2AM each day. This put us on a 11PM-7AM schedule on Ireland’s time. This was the best idea and it really worked! Our jet lag once in Ireland was minimal.
Our flight departed at 10PM from Philadelphia (direct flights were cheaper out of Philadelphia in comparison to Baltimore) and we arrive in Dublin at 5AM. We flew on Aer Lingus and had a great experience. When we go back to Ireland, we will definitely use their airline again. Once we arrived, we picked up our rental car and headed out to explore.
Tip #1: Consider renting a car when visiting Ireland and drive yourself around over taking a tour bus. Driving on the opposite side of the road does take some getting used to, but it’s not difficult. Rental cars are very inexpensive in Ireland; however, the insurance on the rentals is rather high. This is one place where you HAVE to get the insurance. Roads in Ireland are VERY narrow and damage to rental cars is pretty common.
Pay for the insurance. You won’t regret it.
Day 1: Dublin to Portmagee
Our first day was a full day but there was a lot to see! Since we arrived in Ireland very early, we had plenty of time to drive to our first destination and see as much as we could along the way. We planned to stay in Portmagee for the first leg of the trip, which is a 5 hour drive from Dublin Airport. Along the way – we stopped at Cashel, Cork, Kenmare, and took the south loop of the Ring of Kerry.
Rock of Cashel
We arrived in Cashel by 9AM and were able to get into the Rock of Cashel just as they were opening. If you plan to visit any castle in Ireland – it is worth getting there before they open. As we were leaving (about an hour later) bus loads of tour groups were pouring in! We were lucky to have a good hour to enjoy the grounds with minimal crowds. We didn’t take the tour here, just wandered about the grounds. There is a minimal fee to enter, a bit more if you decide to take the tour. The grounds are spectacular and worth the admission fee!
More photos of Cashel can be viewed on my Flickr, here.
Cork
Sadly, because it was a Sunday, the market that we really wanted to visit in Cork was closed. In fact – there really wasn’t much going on in Cork. We visited their park to see the remnants of the Medieval City Wall and had lunch. We took a drive out to Cobh, a little seaside town just outside of Cork, but it began to rain so we couldn’t explore too much. When we return to Ireland, this area is on our list to visit in greater lenghth!
Kenmare
Our trip brought us to Kenmare about dinner time. We had planned to visit Killarney National Park, but a little rain (and a bit of exhaustion) prompted us to save that excursion for another visit to Ireland. We loved Kenmare. The town is exactly what you think of when you think of small Irish towns. We had researched places to eat and selected O Donnabhain’s, which is also a bed-n-breakfast for those wishing to stay in the area. We had a delicious meal – our first real Irish meal – Guinness and Guinness Beef Stew! We also discovered that Kenmare was the home of an ancient stone circle so we walked out to check it out! The drive from Kenmare to Portmagee was amazing. We took the south loop of the Ring of Kerry which trailed the coastline.
More photos from our drive along the Ring of Kerry can be viewed on my Flickr, here.
Portmagee
Our full day concluded with our arrival in Portmagee where we rented a small stone cabin on the small island of Valencia for three nights. This was a lovely one-bedroom cottage with a small fireplace and picture windows looking out over the town of Portmagee and the Skellig Islands. We had the most amazing sunsets and it was very quiet. Internet was down (which happens often in Ireland) so we truly enjoyed a quiet “un-plugged” few days.
Tip #2: Summer days are LONG in Ireland. The sun sets close to 10PM during the early summer months and it’s up by 5AM! Schedule your trip to Ireland in June to make the most of these long summer days! This will allow for longer-than-usual day trips!
Day 2: Dingle and Slea Head Drive
After such a long first day, I purposely scheduled a “low-key” second day. We took our time getting up in the morning and had a flexible schedule. Dingle is only a 2 hour drive from Portmagee and along the northern stretch of the Ring of Kerry. We arrived in Dingle in time for lunch and ate at John Benny’s Pub – another great meal! Awhile back, we watched a great documentary on Pubs of Ireland and one of the pubs featured in the documentary was located in Dingle: J. Curran’s Pub. We chatted with the owner who told us some great stories about the pub and the history of the “snug”. We ended our little visit in town with some ice cream from Murphy’s. Following our visit to Dingle, we took a ride on the Slea Head Drive – another beautiful coastal drive! We stopped at Coumeenoole Beach along the way – a very small beach among cliffs and rocks.
More photos of the Slea Head drive can be viewed on my Flickr, here.
Day 3: Skellig Michael
I wrote an entire blog post about this excellent experience! It was a highlight of my trip to Ireland and a highly recommended a visit to the Skellig islands. Read more about this adventure on our trip to Ireland here. Below are just a few photos from that amazing day!
Day 4: Limerick to Galway
We really didn’t plan to spend much time in Limerick – mainly to stop and have lunch since it was on the way to our second destination – Galway. It was a bit rainy and we were pretty tired from our 600 step climb up Skellig Michael the day before, so we didn’t do much. While in Limerick; however, we made a special trip to visit the gravesites of one of my favorite musicians, Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries.
We stayed two nights just outside of Galway and were able to visit town briefly. We enjoyed amazing pizza at Pizza Dozzina – pizzas are cooked in a stone oven from Naples, Italy. We also visited the Spanish Arch. The arch was built in the late 16th century and an extension of the original city wall. They were built to protect the merchant ships from looting. Galway is a unique town with a great art and music scene. We didn’t have much time to explore Galway, but plan to spend more time here when we return to Ireland.
Tip #3: Remember that rental car insurance I mentioned at the beginning of the blog? It’s a good thing we had it, because we blew a tire on a sharp curve in Galway. This put a snag in our plans because we had to have the car towed and tire replaced (which cost us a half day) but, it was all covered by the insurance and they had us back on the road super fast! Watch out for sneaky curbs – there is no shoulder on roadsides and corners can gut out making them easy to hit!
Day 5: Doolin and Cliffs of Moher
The Cliffs of Moher are a short drive from Galway and I recommend taking the route along the coast – The Wild Atlantic Highway. On the drive to Cliffs of Moher, you drive through some of the Burrens which are a unique limestone rocky landscape. You also pass by Dungaire Castle along the water. We took a few pictures but decided to skip a tour of this particular castle. Doolin is a small town just north of the Cliffs of Moher. From there, we took a boat ride out into the ocean to see the Cliffs of Moher from the sea. That was a fun trip and I definitely recommend seeing the the cliffs from this perspective.
After the boat ride, we hiked up to the top of the cliffs to get another view. The walkways at The Cliffs of Moher are paved with railings and are quite safe. It is also fairly crowded with tourists. We went in the evening towards sunset and it was nice. While The Cliffs of Moher are nice to see, we visited some more amazing cliffs later in our trip that we felt were impressive. (More on that later in the blog post)
See more photos of our drive to Doolin, here. See more of our view of Cliffs of Moher by sea, here.
Day 6: Connemara National Park
We departed Galway early to head up to Connemara National Park for some hiking. There were two routes to the park. One that went along the outside of the park towards the west and one that came up from behind the park towards the east. We took the interior route (east) and drove through the most peaceful landscape I had ever seen. The mountains were so pretty and it was incredibly quiet, aside from the sheep that wandered about the roads and countryside.
The park itself it very nice. There are several trails that range from very easy to moderate. We took the most challenging trail, the Diamond Hill Trail, which led to the top of the small mountain (rather large hill) within the park. The views at the top were really amazing and the climb was not too strenuous. The trail is mostly gravel. Plank boards take you over a bog field and towards the top, there is a small bit of rock scrambling that is easy to navigate. There is so much to do in the park. In addition to the hiking and walking trails, you can tour Kylemore Abbey or explore the two lakes, Pollacappul Lough or Kylemore Lough.
We stayed at a lovely bed-n-breakfast, The Seabreeze B&B, in the nearby town of Renvyle. The house was amazing and we enjoyed a lovely room that overlooked the sea. There was a little trail right from the back of the house that led out to a small beach. The owners made us a lovely Irish breakfast in the morning before we headed north the next day. When we return to Ireland, we plan to stay here more than just one night and explore more of Connemara National Park.
Day 7: Yeat’s Grave, Slieve League and Donegal
As we ventured into our second week in Ireland, we headed north to Donegal. On the way north, we stopped by Drumcliff Cemetery just outside of Sligo, Ireland to visit Yeat’s gravesite. The church is beautiful and there is a tea house on the grounds that you can visit as well!
After our quick stop in Sligo, we headed to Donegal for lunch. We visited the town briefly and had lunch at The Olde Castle Bar. Following lunch, we took a drive out to the coast to see some cliffs. When doing our research on Cliffs of Moher, we read that Slieve League was well worth the visit. These cliffs were majestic and unlike Cliffs of Moher, there was not a lot of tourists. In addition, you could walk right to the edge of the dropoff, which could be dangerous, but also delivered amazing views! The cliffs at Slieve League are twice the height that Cliffs of Moher are – the sheer drop from the top is 2,000 feet. In the photos, you can see a boat that looks microscopic in comparison to the massive cliffs! This spot is a bit far, but well worth the visit!
See more photos of Slieve League, here.
Day 8 – Glenveagh National Park
Our next stop along our Ireland adventure was in north Donegal. We stayed at a lovely cottage in Falcarragh which is just outside of Glenveagh National Park. We visited Falcarragh Beach and the Glenveagh Castle. Mount Errigal is also located in this area and on our next trip, we would like to hike this one! Donegal is a very quiet part of Ireland, it was a very peaceful part along our trip.
See more photos of Glenveagh National Park, here.
Day 9: Malin Head and Northern Ireland
After departing Falcarragh, we headed up to the northern tip of Ireland, Malin Head. It was a cloudy day with very calm seas, but the hike along the rocks and cliffs was fun. We had wanted to get here early enough to see the sunrise, but at this point in our trip – we wanted to sleep in! From Mailin Head, we drove to Greencastle to take the ferry over into Northern Ireland.
The ferry ride from Ireland to Northern Ireland was about 20 minutes and a nice boat ride. Once we arrived in Northern Ireland, we made our way to Bushmills. We stopped at Mussenden Temple and Dunluce Castle. Mussenden Temple wasn’t too exciting, but we loved Dunluce Castle. I would recommend skipping Mussenden Temple and spending more time at Dunluce Castle if you are planning a trip to Ireland. These landmarks are often part of the planned tours that depart from Belfast, but since we drove ourselves, we had plenty of time to spend at each location.
See more photos of Dunluce Castle, here.
We stayed one night at The Causeway Hotel, located right next to the Giant’s Causeway. We enjoyed the inn a lot. They had a nice restaurant and it was within walking distance to the Giant’s Causeway. We visited this attraction twice – the first time it was quite crowded and someone mentioned to us that it’s better towards sunset because the tour trips are gone by then. So, we had dinner, checked out The Dark Hedges, then came back for a sunset visit of Giant’s Causeway.
The Dark Hedges are an avenue of Beech Trees that are featured in Game of Thrones. The trees are pretty amazing; although many have fallen over the years. We heard that the best time to visit this little road is either very early in the morning or late in the evening. We went just after dinner, before sunset. We had the entire road to ourselves and took several photos.
See more photos of The Giant’s Causeway, here
Day 10 – Game of Thrones Adventure
On our way out of Northern Ireland, we visited Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. This is an advertised “must see” attraction in Northern Ireland; however, we found this to be a bit of a let down. Sure, the bridge is pretty neat – but it’s quite a walk from the parking lot to the actual bridge, you have to wait in line to cross, and it wasn’t overly impressive (especially in comparison to some of the other amazing things we saw so far on the trip).
Just before leaving Northern Ireland, we made our way to Downpatrick and visited Winterfell Tours for an afternoon tour of the Game of Thrones, Season 1 filming locations. We rented bikes to tour the grounds, dressed up in “Night’s Watch” garb and tossed some axes, and even got to visit with the Dire Wolves. It was a pretty fun adventure, especially if you are a Game of Thrones nerd!
Tip #4: Although Northern Ireland attractions are well advertised and are on everyone’s “must see stops” when visiting Ireland, in comparison to the other amazing sights we saw, Northern Ireland was our least favorite spot. The attractions were pretty crowded, it was all very geared to tourists, and not as impressive as other locations in Ireland. Keep this in mind when planning your trip to Ireland. We only stayed one night and two days in Northern Ireland and felt that was plenty!
Day 11: Carlingford and Skerries
To round out our two week stay in Ireland, we found a delightful home in Skerries, Ireland – just north of Dublin. This town along the Irish Sea is just perfection! The home we stayed in had amazing views of the sea and sunset. We ate at the best little restaurant, the Blue Bar, which was within walking distance from our Airbnb. We loved everything about our stay here and will definitely visit again when we return to Ireland!
Not far from Skerries, is a little town called Carlingford. This town still maintains its medieval character. You can visit several ruins in the town including King John’s Castle and the Tholsel (entrance to town) and Town Wall. Here is a link to a nice write-up about Carlingford. We only visited this town for a few hours but it is on our list of places to stay when we return to Ireland! There’s a lot to see and explore in Carlingford.
On our way back to Skerries, we made a quick stop in Dundalk, Ireland to visit the train station!
You can see more photos of Carlingford, here.
Day 12: Ancient Ireland
We have friends who live in County Meath – and we spent the day visiting the remains of ancient Ireland with them! It was such a great day. We visited Newgrange, Hill of Tara, and Loughcrew. All three of these sites feature stone circles and remnants of megalithic tombs that date back to the fourth millennium B.C. It is very humbling to stand among ruins that are 5,000 years old. Make seeing these ruins a priority when visiting Ireland. County Meath is just a short drive west of Dublin!
We also visited Fore Abbey and Bective Abbey nearby. Trim Castle is also worth visiting. We didn’t include Trim on this visit, but I have visited Trim Castle on a previous trip to Ireland. Trim is worth a full days visit and is a great place to see the sunset! I included a few photos of Trim from my earlier visit to Ireland!
You can see more photos from Ancient Ireland, here. You can see more photos from Fore and Bective Abbey, here.
Day 13 and 14: Dublin
Before flying home, we spent one night in Dublin to visit the city and pubs. For the entire trip in Ireland, we stayed in Airbnb homes except for this one night. We stayed at the Hilton near Dublin Airport to make it easy for catching our flight out of Ireland. This was a perfect location because we were able to return our rental car a day early and then used the bus to visit downtown Dublin. The bus is super easy and runs to and from Dublin Airport for a flat rate.
Our first stop in Dublin was Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. I highly recommend doing this as soon as they open so that you can have a few minutes in the majestic library without crowds. Photos are prohibited in the Book of Kells exhibit, but you can take photos anywhere else in the library.
We walked the streets of Dublin and visited the Temple Bar District, which was all done up for PRIDE Month! We also stopped into the National Library and Archeology Museums to catch the Yeats Exhibit and explore Viking History in Ireland. We closed out our trip to Ireland with a tour of the Guinness Storehouse on St. John’s Gate. Our tour included a special small group tasting in one of their private bars! If you plan to visit the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, I highly recommend purchasing this experience!
Visiting Dublin was the perfect way to spend our last little bit of time in this amazing country!
Our trip to Ireland was planned perfectly. In the two weeks time, we were able to see much of the country. We ended up modifying some of our plans once we were there, just because of time or even just because we needed some rest time – but overall we did everything we planned.
Everyone of the places we stayed was top notch and the hosts were very hospitable! The western coast of Ireland is spectacular and should be the main focus of any trip to Ireland! I highly recommend renting a car while visiting rather than tour bus trips. It’s easy enough to drive in Ireland and this way you can make stops at your own pace!
Take advantage of the great hiking opportunities such as Skellig Michael and Connemara National Park and for cliffs, make it out to see Slieve League in Donegal!
Feel free to download a copy of our itinerary with links from my google drive by clicking, here!
