Wifeo and I are heading off to Ireland for two weeks mid Sept.
From those who have been there, live there, want to go there please offer your humble opinion on our itinerary. Its more of a broad stroke for hitting the areas we think are key. Once we get to those locations we will figure a more precise itinerary and feel free to comment if there are “must see” at those locations
briefly.
Arrive Dublin and stay for two days.
Third day rent a car and of to
Cork for two days.
Leave Cork arrive Killarney for three days
Depart Killarney and arrive
Limerick for two days.
Depart Limerick arrive
Galway for three days.
Depart Galway arrive
Dublin, return car, overnight and depart for home.
What do you plan to do in Limerick for two days? There’s really not a whole lot to do there, at least not anything different then you’d see in Cork. I did a semester there, and while I loved it, there really isn’t a whole lot to do. The Treaty Stone is there, along with King John’s Castle, but other then that not really a whole lot.
I’d either skip Limerick altogether and do Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, between Limerick and Galway. You might also want to leave those two days for Sligo or something further north of Galway.
I’d also plan to see Newgrange, which is about an hour north of Dublin so you could do it on the way back to Dublin and dropping off the car.
Between Dublin and Cork you might want to drive through the Wicklow Mountains as well.
Thanks for the response, we were contemplating Limerick as our rest and relax location. We will be hitting it with only a few days left so a good spot to catch our breath and relax some?
Cliffs of Mohr we scheduled for on of our three days in Killarney, doable ya think?
The Cliffs are north of Limerick, and Google says more then two hours, I wouldn’t even think about doing it from Killarney. Besides there’s a TON of things to see in and around Killarney, the Dingle peninsula and the Ring of Kerry come to mind.
You can do the Cliffs of Moher in a couple of hours with ease, that and the Burren are close and can be done at the same time, could do them between Limerick and Galway.
I mistakenly was thinking Ring of Kerry held the Cliffs of Mohr.
You don’t have time for R & R with only 2 weeks.
Ditch the fixed schedule and just stop when you want to. B & Bs everywhere and should be able to get one no problem in September as it’s getting cold.
There are a few places to stay just north of the Cliffs of Moher. I stayed there a few days as a base and drove in different directions every day.
If you like castles, you’ll enjoy- they are everywhere.
I enjoyed the J F Kennedy gardens.
I can’t recommend any particular area as I liked everywhere, but I did especially like Cong, where The Quiet Man ( John Wayne ) was made. I stayed there for 3 days.
Take the bus tour for Ring of Kerry- the road is terrible.
DO NOT kiss the Blarney Stone!
They may have been taking the piss, but my (locally born) friends swore that they had sneaked out there at night and pissed on it. According to them, it was a tradition handed down from one group of teens to the next.
Sounds like BS to me. The stone is at the top of a wall on a well known castle that will be locked up when no one is about, and there is a man that holds you when you kiss it, plus they’d have to pay to get in if they went when it was open. Do they claim to be able to fly? IMO they are engaging in the age old Irish tradition of taking the piss.
BTW, the only way anyone could piss on it would be if they could piss up while dangling under the stone, as it’s UNDER the parapet.
More to the point is that it doesn’t work now,as it’s too dangerous to let tourists dangle on the outside of the wall a long distance up, so they made a hole in the parapet, put wire under it and have a man hold your legs while you go under. Totally wimpy.
Keep in mind that this was the mid-nineties, so my friends’ ‘teenage years’ would have been mid-to-late eighties. The 90s (no, not at all coincident with the Celtic Tiger. Why do you ask?) saw a lot of new emphasis on cultural preservation, tourist safeguards, and preservation standards.
I know that I wandered around 1500-year-old ring forts and 800-year-old towers without a guide, even in 97.
I don’t doubt that my now forty-year-old friends pissed on the Blarney Stone. I also don’t doubt that it’s been impossible to do so for the last 20 years. I guess it becomes a question of ‘how long is long enough?’
I’m calling BS on this one as well. I was there in 93 for a semester. I dated a woman that lived in Blarney. She never told me anyone did that, and even if she knew it was going on do you really think she would kiss me after I kissed the stone? So I call blarney on the whole pissing on the Blarney stone.
I highly recommend taking one of your Galway days for a day trip out to the Aran Islands. They’re amazing.
I just got back from a two week stay in Ireland. My thoughts:
[ul]
[li]Like others said, skip Killarney and spend the time elsewhere.[/li][li]I wasn’t impressed with the Cliffs of Moher. This may be because I’ve seen other, more impressive, cliffs.[/li][li]Likewise the Aran Islands were underwhelming. At one point they were an example of more traditional Irish life but IMO they have grown more similar to the main island and not worth the effort. However, if you love rock walls then Inishmore will be heaven to you.[/li][li]We drove through the Burren and I wish we had spent more time there. It’s basically a lot of rocks, though, and some people might not find it interesting.[/li][li]My favorite part of the tour was in Northern Ireland. I enjoyed the Giant’s Causeway, [London]derry, and Belfast. The rope bridge near the Giant’s Causeway is a pure tourist trap but it was still fun.[/li][li]Ring of Kerry was great. Driving may be harrowing if you go in the opposite direction of the buses.[/li][/ul]
I think the Cliffs Of Moher are a bit meh too and with the weather the way it is sometimes you don’t get to see anything other than a fog bank. The rest of Co. Clare though is fantastic, the Burren is beautiful, the towns are for the most part really nice, great food and drink to be had, and if you like Irish traditional music there are a plethora of venues. Co. Clare would be a much better option than Limerick.
Seconding Deeg, there’s tonnes of great stuff in Northern Ireland, Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge, Old Bushmill’s Distillery, Derry City, its walls and museum and murals, Giant’s Causeway, the Glens Of Antrim, Mourne Mountains, Newcastle Co. Down, Dunluce Castle, Belfast has murals galore, the Ulster Museum, the Titanic Museum (which currently has a Game Of Thrones exhibition which may be of interest) and some fantastic restaurants and bars. It’s also cheaper on average than the Republic.
Funny, the few times I’ve been to the Cliffs I really liked it and the once I’ve been to Giants Causeway I thought it pretty meh. Then again I’ve seen Devils Tower and Devils Postpile which are the same types of formations and are much bigger.
I wasn’t totally blown away by the Giant’s Causeway but it is part of a cluster of sights on the north coast (the Glens, Dunluce, Carrickarede, Bushmills etc.) that is hard to beat anywhere else on the island other than perhaps down Kerry way or parts of Connemara.
That has been our dilemma from the start, Go North or go South and West. Our mode of travel is to saturate ourselves with the chosen area, live it, feel it, get to know it and when done be done/ We are thinking we can always go back to visit the North and not feel like the southwest is calling us back for unfinished business
The locals call Limerick stab city.
Dingle peninsula, and Dingle itself are wonderful. Take the connor pass road if you can, extremely scenic.
Old town in Galway is a good stop.
If you go out for beers in any of the larger towns or cities, you MUST find an Abracababra for some drunken taco fries. The north side of Galway bay is also very scenic, with mountains towards Clifden and less congestion. Brush up on your gaelic, some of the old timers don’t speak much English.
Wherever you are, make time for sitting in bars after dark, listening to music. Traditional (“trad”) music is fantastic, available everywhere, and typically free as long as you’re drinking or eating. Galway and Dingle are great places to do that.
I suppose instead of Limerick City the OP might like Adare for a couple of days R&R. It’s only 10 miles from the city.