Ireland Itinerary Notes

Here is what James and my actual Ireland itinerary looked like:

Day 1: Travel- fly from California to Philadelphia to Shannon, Ireland

Day 2: Arrive in Shannon, drive to Dingle Peninsula 

Day 3: Dingle 

Day 4: Lisdoonvarna 

Day 5: Lisdoonvarna; Cliffs of Moher & The Burren

Day 6: Galway City

Day 7: Galway City

Day 8: Dublin

Day 9: Dublin

Day 10: Dublin

Day 11: Travel to Spain

We pretty much followed the Rick Steve's guidelines for how many days to spend in each city because we weren't really sure where to begin or what exactly we wanted to see. With now having travelled through Ireland here are some changes and realizations we would make if we were to do it again. In no way are these regrets just reflections and opinions.

First, we've realized that much prefer vacationing in small, rural, country towns over big cities. So, this fact influences e changed we would make.

We should have given more time to Dingle. The town is cute but the scenery is stunning. There Re beautiful hikes everywhere! Give Dingle two full days, without jet lag.

Lisdoonvarna is a tiny town, only stay there for one night. Then choose another one of the nearby coastal towns to stay in: Doolin or maybe go across to the Aren Islands and stay there.

Rick Steve's guide says the Cliffs of Moher only need one hour! We highly disagree, bring a picnic and stay for a few hours, especially if the wheather is nice!

The Burren was kinda boring to us. It was really more of a scenic drive with a rocky landscape.

Galway City could be done in one full day and one night. Though if you actually go out and party like the people there do, you might be too hungover the next day to get to your next location!

We didn't get a chance but we heard the region of Connemara is beautiful. Take the day off of Galway and spend one day and night in Connemara.

Dublin is a BIG city! Do not plan to drive here. There are hardly any noticeable street signs, many one ways and driving on the wrong side gets very confusing and frustrating even when you've already been driving for a week! Dublin is also VERY touristy. There are so many great things to do but all are also very expensive. We hadn't looked into the costs of all of the "tourist" type things until getting here and were sadly disappointed. We definitely did our fair share of activities, they were just pricey! More to come on those details in another post.

On another note here is a short list of a few things we felt we missed while staying in hostels:

Ice

Toilet Seat Covers

Showers that don't have a max 45 seconds button

Any bed that isn't a twin bunk bed

Our Dublin Hostel- so tiny, so hot, so stuffy, so glad to be done with hostels!

And now we're off to Spain and will probably be off the grid until the 9th! 

Adios,

Robin (& James)