r/irishtourism

Hello all,

I’m a 23M from the United States and will be in Ireland for 4 days from September 8-11. I will be traveling solo.

My current itinerary in Ireland is as follows. I fly into Dublin on Tuesday and will likely do a Guinness factory tour and a trinity college tour. The next morning, I would like to drive south to the Powerscourt Waterfall and Wicklow Mountains National Park before driving over to Dingle and staying the night there. I have a sea safari booked for Thursday morning and then want to drive up the coast and stay the night around Connemara National Park, where I’ll hike around on Friday before driving back to Dublin and leaving the country in the evening.

How reasonable does that sound and is there anything else that you would suggest I check out? It will be my first time in Ireland and I am looking to make the most of it!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hello! I am hiring a car and have 5 full days (pick up on a Thursday, return on a Tuesday)
Is this doable?
Extra context: I like driving (not in bad traffic obvs)
I’m Australian and used to long drives (record was 1000km in a day but admittedly it wasn’t fun)
I have already seen Dublin.

(Edit: this is for next week )

I’ve tried to cut it back from my original itinerary, but I’m worried it’s still a bit too packed and I don’t have a huge amount of time for Galway city itself. I could cut Killarney National Park reluctantly? Since I am going to Connemara national Park? Or ditch Connemara and the Lost Valley tour. Please give me your strong opinions.

Thurs - 1pm pick up car in Dublin, drive to Killarney NP, see Ross Castle at sunset, stay overnight.
Fri - KNP (gap of Dunloe, ladies view, moll gap, muck Ross estate, torc falls) stay overnight.
sat - KNP bits I missed on Friday, then drive to Galway 3hrs. Stay Galway.
Sun - morning in 2pm lost valley tour in louisburgh (2 hrs from Galway) stay Galway.
Mon - roundstone village (closer alternative to dingle) and Connemara national park (diamond hill hike). Stay Galway.
Tues - drive back to Dublin 4hrs, drop car off by 1pm

Hi everyone! My wife and I are visiting her family for Christmas in Limerick this year. It's our first time in Ireland.

We arrive on December 15th and head down to Limerick on the 22nd. That leaves us with around 7 days in Dublin and 6 days in Limerick, but we're stuck on what to do from the 28th to the 31st before heading home. Any recommendations?

Also, it’s my first time experiencing traditional Irish Christmas food, so I’d love to know what to expect!

Hi everyone!

My girlfriend and I (both 24) are visiting Ireland for the first time and we'd love some advice from locals on how to plan our trip.

Our dates:

26 Aug: arrive at Dublin Airport at 18:00, pick up rental car

29 & 30 Aug: accommodation already booked in Dublin

30 Aug: Bon Jovi at Croke Park at 17:00

31 Aug: flight home from Dublin at 20:20 (we'd like to be at the airport around 18:00)

We'd like to see as much of the beautiful Irish scenery, coastline, cliffs, small towns and villages as possible. Cliffs of Moher are a must, and we'd also like to experience some good pubs/traditional music and traditional ireland.

We originally thought about driving west immediately after landing and spending the first few nights around the west coast. However, we also saw this road-trip route online and really liked the idea:

Dublin → Kilkenny → Waterford → Cork → Killarney → Dingle → Cliffs of Moher → Burren → Galway → Dublin

We realise this is probably way too much for the time we have, so we're wondering if locals could help us create a realistic shorter version.

If you were us, what would you do?

Would you focus mainly on the west, mainly on the south, or combine parts of both? Which places from the route above would you keep and which would you skip?

We'd also really appreciate suggestions for where to stay on the 26th, 27th and 28th, and whether it makes sense to return the rental car at Dublin Airport around the 29th and use public transport in Dublin.

For Dublin, we'd like to see the main things (Temple Bar, whiskey experience, Guinness, Trinity, etc.), but we'd love to know what is actually worth doing from a local's perspective.

We're not trying to see all of Ireland — we'd rather have a great few days with beautiful scenery and experiences than spend the whole trip driving.

Thanks! Any suggestions are very welcome 🙏

Hi friends!! I’m back with more information. My partner and I will be visiting Ireland on Sept 17th to the 23rd. We are in our late 20s. We will have a rental car for transportation. I love castles, history, reading novels in gorgeous places and bars! I would love to prioritize castles, cliffs, landscaping & pubs. Some quieter, whimsical spots at times would be awesome. I’m looking for your recommendations on castles, beautiful scenery, places near my draft itinerary. EDIT: I've updated the itinerary to have less drive time. It seems I was cramming too much in my trip!! I'm afraid I'm missing out with a shortened itinerary. I would like to know if these places align with our interests or there are better options for our travels. We land in Dublin and fly out of Dublin but I would like to only spend 1 evening there. I've listed options not necessarily all the places we'll get to in a day. I'm also open to skipping and adding anything!

Sept 17 – Kilkenny

• Dublin drive to Kilkenny
• Kilkenny Castle
• Kells Priory

Sleep in Kilkenny

Sept 18 – West Cork/Bantry

• Cahir Castle
• Beara Peninsula
• Eyeries
• Dunboy Castle ruins
• Rock of Cashel

Sleep in Bantry

Sept 19 - West Cork/Bantry

• Garnish Island
• Mizen Head
• Three Castle Head
• Crookhaven

Sleep in Bantry

Sept 20 - Dingle

• Dingle Peninsula

Sleep in Dingle

Sept 21 – Dingle

• Slea Head Drive
• Gallarus Oratory
• Dunquin Pier
• Conor Pass

Sleep in Dingle

Sept 22 - On the drive to Dublin

• Ross Castle
• Muckross Abbey
• Torc Waterfall
• Ladies View

Sept 22 Evening

• Walk around Dublin

Sept 23 Morning

• Airport

Hi,

Me and my Family will visit Ireland in September. I think our plan is doable but I am looking for some opinions if we should cut corners or not. Our focus is in seeing the countryside and being outdoors.

Day 1: Early morning flight to Dublin, Car rental and travel to Cobh, maybe stop at Rock of Cashel. Night in Cobh.

Day 2: From Cobh to Killarney via Mizen head. Night in Killarney

Day 3: Day trip to Killarney National Park or Ring of Kerry. Night in Killarney

Day 4: From Killarney to Galway via Cliffs of Moher. Night in Galway

Day 5: Day in Galway or visit to Connemara national Park. Night in Galway

Day 6: Return to Dublin in the evening via Clonmacnoise and/or stop in Athlone

Day 7: Day in Dublin, the traditional tourist attractions.

Day 8: Early flight back home.

I see that especially day 2 and 4 are heavy from the driving point of view. Mizen head adds lots of additional travel time for the day 2 and we cannot decide if we should skip Mizen head completely and travel directly from Cobh to Killarney. That way we could do little hike in the National park on Day 2 and then Ring of Kerry on day 3. It would mean that we would see the coast little less, but have moore loose in the schedule.

On day 4 there is also lot of driving, and taking route via Tarbert ferry between Killarney and Galway might slow us down a bit, but I think we would enjoy it more than faster travel through Limerick. We have not booked the Killarney accommodation yet, so it could be possible to sleep night 3 more North, but does that really make a difference? There is a benefit to stay two night in the same place.

Hi All,

My husband and I are heading to Ireland for the first time, flying into Dublin and out of Cork, mid-September 2027. No mobility issues on our end, we're comfortable with full driving days and multi-hour hikes, so feel free to suggest anything ambitious.

We haven't booked accommodations yet, so this is still adaptable. We’re getting a rental car for the whole Ireland leg. Our priority is nature and hiking over checklist sightseeing. We would rather have a couple of good wandering days than cram in five towns we barely see. We also want real downtime built in for pub culture, not just driving from trailhead to trailhead.

Here's what we've got so far:

Day 1: Arrive Dublin from the U.S.

Day 2: Stay in Dublin, no real plans, just recovering from the flight and walking around.

Day 3: Drive to Dingle, roughly 5-6 hours.

Day 4: Slea Head Drive, full day. Chill time at night.

Day 5: Either Blasket Island or a Dingle sea safari, and possibly the hike up to Lough Doon via Conor Pass if we have the energy.

Day 6: Drive to the Beara Peninsula, about 4 hours, with a stop in Listowel to see St. Mary's Church, where an ancestor of mine was baptized.

Day 7: Exploring West Cork and Beara. Still deciding between the Beara Wildlife Sanctuary in Allihies, Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve, the waterfall in Gleninchaquin Park, and the Tragumna tidal rock pool. We don't think we can do all four.

Day 8: Drive to Cork and fly out to Portugal.

A few specific things I'm hoping people can weigh in on:

• Is the Day 3 and Day 6 driving: are those realistic in terms of the timing I have listed or it is longer?
• Of the four options on Day 7, is there a clear standout?
• Are two nights in Dingle and two in Beara enough, or does this itinerary read as rushed to people who've driven this route?

Thanks in advance for any input!

I'm travelling down from the North to Cork tomorrow. I was thinking about breaking up the journey by stopping in Dublin for a couple of hours, since I have to change trains there anyway.

Any recommendations? I'll have a heavy bag, sadly. Or should I just transfer and prioritise getting to Cork?

Thanks a million.

Edit: Gonna follow your advice and head on to Cork, thanks so much everyone!

hello all, I have a trip coming up where I have a 6 hour layover in Dublin en route to the us. How realistic is it to go to the guinness storehouse during this time. I’ve been to dublin before but my wife hasn’t and the view from the top was excellent when I went. Id prolly take a cab there and back

Hope so, cause it's too late to do anything about it!

Heading to Ireland for a wedding - some solo time & family time as well. Haven't really booked any activities yet, but hoping for some advice on the following.

-Driving solo from Dublin to Dingle
-Sept 3 (starting the day in Cork, heading to Kilkenny) is my moms birthday. Anything very special to see/do along the way, unique ways to celebrate, recommended restaurants/experiences for Kilkenny evening

Aug 25 – Toronto/Dublin – Solo
Aug 26 – Dublin/Dingle – Solo
Aug 27 – Dingle – Solo
Aug 28 – Dingle/Kenmare – Wedding
Aug 29 – Kenmare – Wedding
Aug 30 – Kenmare – Wedding
Aug 31 – Kenmare/Kinsale – Solo
Sept 1 – Kinsale/Cork – Solo/Fam
Sept 2 – Cork – Fam
Sept 3 – Cork/Kilkenny – Fam
Sept 4 – Kilkenny/Dublin – Fam
Sept 5 – Dublin – Fam
Sept 6 – Dublin/Toronto – Fam

Would appreciate any thoughts. I'm pumped, love ya!

I’m planning a surprise trip around Ireland for my husbands 30th. We’re from the UK so the idea of driving on the left is perfect for us! This is the plan I have come up with so far.
We are planning to go in January so not sure if this would affect the plans (ie is the cliffs of moher worth it in January due to fog etc).
We’ve both visited Dublin in the past and so we do not want this as part of our plan, but recommendations would be welcomed!
I’ve also tried to find hotels with parking.

Day 1 -Fly to Shannon. Drive to limerick, stay in limerick just as a little rest point.

Day 2- drive from limerick to Galway (1hr 20). Explore Galway for the evening.

Day 3- Husbands 30th! Have a fun day in Galway lots of food/drink. Family might fly out for the day to celebrate with us!

Day 4- slow morning, drive to Doolin (1hr30) nice coastal drive before arriving. Explore the pubs in the evening hopefully see trad bands.

Day 5- Cliffs of moher in the morning. Leisurely drive to dingle (3hrs via ferry) hopefully stop along the drive to break it up- recommendations are welcome!

Day 6 - explore dingle, (was hoping to do sea safari but don’t think available in January). Possibly doing to Dunquin Pier.

Day 7- drive to Killarney (1hr). Hire bikes in national park. Cycle round, visit waterfall.

Day 8- Breakfast and slow morning in Killarney before drive and fly home from either cork or Kerry.

I’m hoping this route would be good and wouldn’t feel like too much driving overtaking the whole trip! Any good food spots would be great to hear especially for the night of his 30th if family meet us.

So! I'm planning on surprising my mom with a trip to Ireland for her birthday next year (It'll be July). Neither one of us has ever been out of the country or taken a vacation to this level before, so I was hoping that some experts on the matter could tell me if my itinerary is realistic or if we should cut some things out. The exact dates and activites are still up in the air, but it's ideally going to be a 7-8 day trip.

The itinerary is also still pretty loose, but I know the basics so far:

Day 1 - Fly into Dublin, check into our hotel, and spend the day exploring within Dublin

Day 2 - Another day of exploring Dublin

Day 3 - Travel to Belfast and explore there (there's also a Game of Thrones studio tour I really want to see in Banbridge that I was told was only about 30 minutes from Belfast, so I'm banking on that for the same day)

Day 4 - Check out of our hotel in Dublin and travel over to Galway to check into a new hotel and spend the day exploring Galway

Day 5 - Travel down to Doolin and explore there

Day 6 - Check out of our hotel in Galway and check into a hotel in Dingle and spend the day exploring Dingle

Day 7 - Check out of our hotel in Dingle and travel back up to Dublin and check into a hotel in Dublin for our last night and sort of rest and get ourselves sorted for our flight the next day

Day 8 - Fly home out of Dublin

Hey y'all,

I'm an American who would like to travel to Ireland for a week in late October. I've previously visited England+Scotland a long time ago. Please give me all the ideas and advice! Is a week too short, or too much time? Where should I focus my time?

Hello! Myself and BFF are planning on going to Ireland in early May 2027 for aprox 8 days, to celebrate turning 60. Would prefer not to drive as we are from the US. Tentative itinerary:

Day 1-Arrive in Dublin 9 am ish.

Day 2-Dublin

Day 3-Train to Tralee, then bus to Dingle. Sleep in Dingle

Day 4-Dingle-bus tour of Slea Head. Sleep in Dingle

Day 5- Bus to Kinsale (probably need to change at Cork)

Day 6-Kinsale, Cobh area

Day 7-Bus back to Cork, then train to Dublin

Day 8-fly out of Dublin, or possibly one more day there and fly out day 9

If we decided to be brave and rent a car, would we be able to find one in Tralee/Dingle or Kinsale area? Would also LOVE to go to a sheep farm like Kissane and see sheep dogs herding-I imagine that's only possible with a car.

We want to see castles, museums, hear great music, see the ocean from the cliffs, small Irish towns. Definitely not skipping Dublin but wondering if we are trying to do too much and should split it into two areas instead of three.

EDIT: Thank you for all the info and recs, very helpful in planning our trip!

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice on our itinerary.

We’ll be in Ireland from Monday 7 December to Friday 11 December. We’re a group of 2–5 people (not clear yet) aged 20–25, with no mobility issues. Our flight home leaves Dublin at 6am on Friday, so we’ll need to be back in Dublin on Thursday evening.

We’re flying from Spain, and our current idea is:

Mon 7 – Arrive in Dublin around 11pm and stay overnight.

Tue 8 – Dublin: spend the day exploring the city centre, Christmas atmosphere/markets and the main sights.

Wed 9 – Dublin → Galway: travel by train/bus in the morning, spend the afternoon and evening in Galway. We have a friend who lives there, so we’ll have someone local showing us around.

Thu 10 – Galway → Dublin: we’re considering either spending the morning in Galway and returning to Dublin in the afternoon, or doing a day trip from Galway if there’s something particularly worthwhile in December. We’ll stay near Dublin Airport that night for our early flight.

We’re interested in Christmas markets/atmosphere, scenery, interesting towns, local places that are genuinely worth visiting. We’re not particularly interested in nightlife.

We’re also trying to keep costs reasonable (around €300–€450 per person excluding flights), so we’d rather avoid expensive tourist attractions unless they’re genuinely worth the price.

A few specific questions:
Does this Dublin → Galway → Dublin plan make sense for 4 days, or would you change the split?

Is the Cliffs of Moher worth doing in early December, considering the travel time and weather?

Are there any Christmas markets or events running in Dublin or Galway on 7–10 December 2026 that are particularly worth visiting?

Are there any places along the Dublin–Galway route that would be worth stopping at without making the journey too complicated?

From your experience, which paid attractions in Dublin/Galway are genuinely worth the money, and which would you skip?

I’ve tried to keep the itinerary realistic for December rather than trying to see the whole country in four days. Any feedback on these specific choices would be really appreciated!

My husband and I are heading to Ireland in October for 9 days and would love some feedback on our itinerary. We don’t love bouncing around hotels much, so our plan is to stick to two hotel bases and do day trips from each. We enjoy road trips/driving, but I’ve also tried to build in a couple of no/low-driving days so we don’t burn ourselves out.

We’re pretty outdoorsy and are much more interested in scenery, wildlife, small towns, good food and fun experiences than checking off every major tourist attraction. Everything below is open to feedback, but I put ❓ next to the things I’m especially unsure about.

We’re staying in Cong the first half because we have a Chase hotel credit to use and the rate was surprisingly reasonable. For the second half I’m leaning toward staying in Dingle and basing our activities in Dingle, but would love opinions on whether somewhere else in Kerry would make a better base.

Here’s what I have so far:

Day 1:
- Land 930am at Dublin, pick up car
- Drive to Cong, check in to hotel

Day 2:
- Chill day around hotel area, ideas:
- Falconry
- Afternoon tea

Day 3: Day trip to Sligo
- Benhulben, Gleniff Horseshoe, Sligo Town, Mullaghmore Head
❓Could use recs for anything we shouldn’t miss or can skip

Day 4: Connemara area
- Kylemore Abbey, Killary Fjord, Clifden, Doolough Valley, Sheepdog Demo if the demo is worth it ❓

Day 5: Achill/Westford
- Morning/Afternoon: Achill island & seaweed baths
- Dinner in Westport

Day 6: Travel day to Dingle / Kerry
- stop at Cliffs of Moher

Day 7: Whale watching tour from Dingle
- Spend day in Dingle town / no driving

Day 8: Around dingle
- Drive around Dingle peninsula and visit archeological sites
- Also open to joining a tour to avoid us driving

Day 9: Gap of Dunloe / Departure
- Gap of dunloe in morning
❓Is a Jaunting car worth it
- Fly out of Cork at 630pm
- OR we would drive to Dublin this day and fly out next morning. We wouldn’t see much of Dublin anyway so not sure if it’s worth it.

Many thanks!

My mom and I are doing a 10 day 9 night trip in a couple weeks and I’m looking for a sense if we’re in for more than we anticipated.

My mom has some first cousins there and we’ve both been there before. We’re renting a car and hoping to do all our driving early each day. I’ll be doing most all of the driving and haven’t driven on the left side before, and though I’m a good driver I’m getting a sense from this sub that it might be difficult or exhausting.

Our agenda:
Fly into Dublin, stay with family for 2 nights.
Drive to Cork, visit family and stay in lodging.
Drive to dingle, 1 night.
Drive to see cliffs of Moher, stay in Doolan.
Drive to Westport, bike ride on rail trail.
Drive to Galway, 2 nights.
Drive to Limerick, 1 night.
Fly out of Shannon

Anything we should consider or be prepared for? Thanks in advance!

Edit: also meant to say FWIW that one of the main ways we’re planning to spend time in locations is finding live music. I’m a musician and am hoping to dip into that scene as much as possible

I’m traveling with my family and we’re staying in Dublin as a home base for 9 days. Our plan was to spend three days in Dublin City and the rest of the time traveling. We did not rent a car so it’s primarily guided trips and DART train. We are partially through the week have quickly realized that we are loving these little trips outside of Dublin. We spent two days in Dublin and think we are done with the city itself. Our hotel is in Ballsbridge. I’d love some recommendations of places to visit that are a quick day trip from Dublin. So far we plan to visit or we have visited (and loved): Howth, Malahide Castle and Village, Kilkenny, Wicklow Mountains, Glendalaugh, Dun Loghaie, Dalkey, Sandycove, Galway, Cliffs of Mohr, Belfast/Giants Causeway.

Would love suggestions of day trips we can add to our trip in lieu of an extra day in Dublin.

I’m planning a trip to Ireland in late April where my mom (60), brother (33), boyfriend and I (30) will drive the Ring of Kerry + Skellig Ring over 2 days/nights.

My question is: should we go back to Killarney for a night after Skellig Ring or do a night in Dingle? I keep hearing how beautiful Dingle is, so I’m wondering if it’s feasible to squeeze it in or if it’ll be too tight/too far away with traffic.

I outlined our itinerary at a high-level below:

Day 1: Dublin

Day 2: Dublin

Day 3: Killarney

Day 4: Ring of Kerry
- spending the night in Ballinskelligs

Day 5: Skellig Ring
- should we spend the night back in Killarney or swing for a night in Dingle?

Day 6: Return to Dublin

Day 7: Dublin

I'm staying in Galway for few days in august, and I would like to dedicate a day to visit Cliffs of Moher and Burren. I don't have a car, so I need to move by public bus.

Ideally I would like to walk for an hour into the Burren to enjoy the landscapes and I think a couple hours could be sufficient to explore the area of the Cliffs. I'm having trouble to figure which is the best place/trail/walk in the Burren to meet my idea and the best match between bus from Galway and Burren & Cliffs Explorer Shuttle Bus which is available in summer.

I could also evaluate one day organized tours, but they all seem to offer just a quick stop in the Burren area to make some photos.

Does anyone have suggestion to get the perfect itinerary?