My wife and I were just reminiscing about our trip to Ireland and trying to recount our itinerary yesterday, so this is all fresh on my mind (well as fresh on my mind as it can be for 12 years ago). We loved everything, and it was one of our all-time favorite trips.
This was our itinerary, roughly.
Day 1: Dublin. Hop-on/Hop-off bus, Guiness factory (this was our landing/jet lag day so we took it easy)
Day 2: Dublin. Took a class on how to play Gaelic football, and got to play a game at the end. It's a really fun game!
Day 3: Drive from Dublin to Galway. Stop at Clonmacnoise along the way, but otherwise not super eventful, just taking it easy
Day 4: Clifden. Renting bikes and pedaled Sky Road
Day 5: Clifden. Booked a Coasteering trip. Not sure if this would still work in my now more advanced age but it was awesome. It's basically hiking with a guide along the edge of the rocky water and you have to climb over rocks, jump off some medium sized cliffs, swim some parts, etc.
Day 6: Clifden. Connemara Loop drive. This is a super underrated area. Surprisingly pretty mountains, some cool buildings (Kylemore Abbey), and some surprisingly impressive fjords that I didn't even know Ireland had.
Day 7: Drive from Clifden to Dingle. Stopped at Cliffs of Moher and drove over the Conner pass on the way (very impressive/steep mountain pass). Between those two stops that made the drive a whole day event.
Day 8: Dingle. Drive the Dingle Peninsula loop. Some of the most impressive scenery I've ever seen here. We were fortunate to have amazing weather, but this felt more like an indonesian archipelago than Ireland. The beaches were amazing. We also got lucky in that the local Dingle Gaelic football team had a match this evening, so we went to that (and knew all the rules thanks to our class in Dublin!) and had an amazing time cheering them on with the locals.
Day 9: Dingle. Day trip to Killarney National Park. You get to do a fun "cheat" hike here where
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/85xv...ok-2.jpg?rlkey=1tdhcbuo0yzb0qpfcc38w9cf4&dl=0they take you up the gap of Dunloe in a horse-drawn carriage as far as you want and drop you off, and then you hike back with views.
Day 10: Fly home
We've been lucky to visit some incredible places in our life, but we always come back to this one as possibly our favorite. To be fair we got EXTREMELY lucky with the weather, with it being bright and sunny the whole time (obviously pretty rare for Ireland). The countryside and water are a completely different place with the sun out. We nicknamed the place "Hawaiireland" while we were there because it felt like Hawaii as much as Ireland.
We stayed in Clifden because we wanted a smaller town with more local flare. We loved it, but no idea if it still has that feel now a decade later with so many more people traveling. Dingle was already touristy even then but still really cool.
As far as things missed in those areas we didn't do the Ring of Kerry since it's similar to Dingle Peninsula, but it sounds cool too and gets you access to Skellig Michael if you're a star wars fan.
I was a dork back then (now I'm the coolest guy to ever spend half his day on a fantasy football message board) so I actually started blogging about our trip. But I only got through the first couple days. But if you want to read through for more info and it also has some pics as well, and directions.
Two Days in Dublin
Cycling Sky Road (Clifden)
Driving the Connemara Loop (Clifden)
Quick photos
Irish beach on Dingle Peninsula in sunlight
Coasteering
Coasteering jump
Coasteering cave
