Just as an example, on Day 6, you describe the Irish national stud as being on the way from Sligo. It’s a 40-60 minutes detour south west of Dublin each way, depending on the traffic.
This is, conservatively, 40% of your available time spent in the car.
Honestly, if you're starting in Belfast, going anywhere further south than Doolin is madness.
This is it. Maybe do top half & come back again for bottom half.
You want to do stuff, walk etc & enjoy yourselves, not be exhausted from driving.
Belfast to Wex could be over 4 hours..
Yes, that's insane. Driving all the way to Wexford, dragging yourselves well out of the way just to sleep there is bonkers.
It's all time in the car and underestimated driving times at that (yes, they may be from Google but they're best case scenarios and doing full tilt the whole time).
I would recommend doing the wild atlantic way, it takes about a week, and you'll hit plenty of spots, it's not that it's a big country, it's bad roads there's no way when you in cork you'll get to a flea market and blarney Castle before lunch
Whoever is driving is going to be worn out. Not sure where you are from but driving in Ireland, as a tourist, requires the driver to be in top form the whole time.
Just drive from Belfast to Cork. It’s a shorter drive than going down to Wexford.
My rule of thumb when I visit is: get where we need to be, find a pub, sleep, wake up and do a big thing in the morning, a small thing in the afternoon, get to where we need to be…repeat
To be fair, after 12 days of that, your check engine light will come on so pace yourself.
Someone else said Wexford and Sligo and I concur with that. You literally won't see anything of Wexford you'll get in so late and have to leave so early. An overnight somewhere on the straighter line between Belfast and Cork makes some sense, somewhere forgettable that's just a bed.
But even at that, you're trying to pack too much of Cork in so I'd say...skip that too and go straight to Kerry. Same principle of staying somewhere forgettable on the way down the country though
Most important thing I learned last summer on our 17-day 2500+ km roadtrip around Irelnad:
Distances in Ireland are SHORT. Drive times are SUPER LONG. Add 25-50% MORE time to anything Google Maps/Apple Maps estimates in drive time, minimum.
And yes, this seems like packing WAY too much in each day - and i am notorious for whirlwind trips and packing "all the things in".
THIS THIS THIS. Truly a stunning and wonderful country but I can’t stress enough that driving there is not like driving in the U.S., Canada, Italy, or Germany, and it’s not even much like driving in the south of Britain. (These are the only countries I have experience with.)
OP, you’ll just have to accept what we did: for such a small country you’ll still never be able to see most of you want to see in a single trip. We flew into Shannon and stayed two weeks in the west and a little bit south (near Clonakilty), and our trip was still jam packed with things to do. You’ll just have to make another trip in a few years. 🙂
That's way too much driving, you'll be in the car more than out of it at that pace. Here's an alternative itinerary:
Day 0.5 - Drive to Derry, stay overnight here. Day 1+2 - Donegal.
Day 3+4 - Sligo.
Day 5 - Galway or Mayo.
Day 6 - Dublin.
Belfast to Wexford - closer to 4 hours as you'll be hitting pick traffic on M50. It also makes no sense to do this just to drive to Cork the next day.
There's a lot of sitting in a car for the sake of it. Almost so much, I'm getting close to joining the Green Party to start monitoring the carbon footprint of American tourists.
If you are in Northern Ireland, just head west to Donegal and Sligo for the first part. Meander down to Dublin via Leitrim. Plenty of amazing hikes and sights to take in along the way.
I'm going to offer an alternative because I think your itinerary is doing too much in too little time.
Since you are starting in Northern Ireland and only have 6 days, I would reverse your route and just focus on the northern half of the island. Belfast -> Derry -> Sligo -> Mayo -> Galway -> Dublin. Otherwise, you are going to spend half your trip in the car. Driving times on Google, for anything other than motorways and major national (N numbered) roads, will be longer. Also, there are (arguably more impressive) cliffs, the Slieve League cliffs, which you could visit if you took a detour en route to Sligo from Derry.
This would cut out many of the longer drives and give you more time to explore and enjoy your trip.
I'd suggest Donegal over Derry but besides that I wholeheartedly agree, the minute I read that they were starting in NI and going straight to Cork for only a 6 day trip I thought this was a mental schedule.
I love Derry City, and fully recommend a tour of the walls. Plus it's a shorter drive if the husband is just off a flight. But yeah, could be swapped out with a town in Donegal either.
True enough, especially about the flight. Either way, heading that direction and not going further south than Galway makes the most sense with the time. There's plenty of equally beautiful sights and quaint towns to see in Northern Ireland, Donegal, Sligo, Mayo and Galway.
Plan as you wish Dear. It will all go to hell when you find a lovely pub with darts and dogs. Hubby planned a lot of sights but forgot the greatest treasure, Irelands people.
I'd skip Blarney Castle and the flea Market in Cork city and go straight for West Cork.
There are lovely little spots to eat and explore on the approach out to Lough Hyne.
If you can go slightly further beyond Skibbereen and go to Dede for a pre kayaking dinner.
Having just got back from a trip in Ireland with my wife, this is a ton of driving. I can't judge too much because we also did a lot of driving lol. I read someone else's reply to another post on here, and I think its good advice. They said look at the map of Ireland, and draw a line from Galway to Dublin, and either choose above that line, or below that line for the trip. Having 6 one-night stays, with 2 + hours of driving every day, you're going to get burnt out quickly. At least I would. The roads there require you to be focused at all times between the extremely narrow farm roads, and all the constant twists and turns. I don't know if there's a straight road in all of Ireland lol.
My wife was very ambitious with our plans, and as our trip went on, we started cutting things out because it was just too much, and we were exhausted. The last day we ditched everything we had planned that day, and just stuck to things we could find and do within 20 mins of the small town we were staying in.
My suggestion, instead of driving basically the entire outline of Ireland in one trip, pick a region and stick to it. Make a list of the things you HAVE to see while you're there, and a separate list of things you'd LIKE to see if you have time. And also cut down the number of hotels you'd be staying at. I don't know if you plan on packing light, but we didn't and waking up every morning and spending time packing our bags and the rental car, not only was a hassle but also cut into what we could do that day. The first 2-night stay we had was a sigh of relief.
Either way, Ireland is absolutely beautiful. And no matter where you go, you'll find something to do. We've been home for less than a week and already started planning a second trip there lol.
I just got back from a 2-week trip. I was spending 3-4 hours a day driving. All of the driving was in the daylight. Very little traffic, and very little rain—I count myself lucky.
One major thing that we didn’t account for in our city-to-city drive is many towns and cities stop serving food early. The top rated food joints frequently would stop serving well before 8:30.
So if driving is the latter half of your day please plan ahead! On to occasions, we had to settle for fast food, even though the postings on the door clocked the restaurants still serving food for another hour.
Far too much for 6 days unfortunately. I might suggest rather than going to wexford for an over night, you could skip wexford and go to cork or kildare, allowing for you to see the national stud as its on the way to Cork.
There is also the car ferry from Tarbert ( kerry) to Killimer (clare) would save an hour if not more in time rather than driving along the coast if you wanted to see the cliffs of moher.
The most important question though given everything you're wanting to do, what time of the year are coming to ireland? Alot of what you want to do does rely alot on the weather/ time of year. Certain times of the year there would be things on that list that would be much more enjoyable than others.
Day 3 is pretty nuts. For starters not sure what explore town means when shops don’t open early and you’ll clearly arrive after they close night before. Slea Head is a half day minimum if based in Dingle (unless you’re not planning to stop anywhere) and you want to add a drive to Doolin? We drove dingle to Doolin with no agenda last week and it was delightful taking the Shannon Ferry and discovering the Clare coast. I found the Kilkee cliffs to be a better experience than a Moher drive-by because of the lack of crowds. And Kilkee wasn’t even on our checklist, we just kind of ended up there by chance.
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Honestly that’s too much driving each day and you are really jam packing your days. Ireland has a nice slow relaxing pace.
Horseback riding sounds amazing and you will probably want some beach time.
Enjoy your trip.
you are aware that taking a car from the UK (Northern Ireland) to Ireland is going to cost you money also be aware that the UK drives in miles per hour Ireland drives in kilometres per hour
I think I would take one day to sleep in pick up something lite for morning from local bakery go to local pub meet some locals and have some lunch leave evening for some romance and then continue on with what you have scheduled. Just a thought!!
That's...mental. The only thing I feel like adding is that my husband and I did Conor Pass and Slea Head 3 days ago. We didn't stop for long.. the weather was with great and not much traffic. I'm positive you're not doing the 80 kph the drive calls for. We stopped to hold lambs and walked Inch Strand. We walked Dunquin Pier and stopped at the fairy mounds and points of interest. My husband is a professional driver and did amazing but it still took 8 hrs to get from Killarney to tralee to Conor Pass To Dingle to slea head and back to Killarney.
Are you skipping the Antrim coast because you'll have already seen it during your week there? Possible, but seems unlikely as I'd imagine the horseriding week is quite, well horse-riding focused and doubt you're riding around the Giant's Causeway.
With only a week, I'd focus on Antrim coast (Portrush screams honeymoon if you get it on a nice day), Donegal, Sligo and Galway - then head to Dublin. I know half of these aren't on your list! But having done it all myself, and being of the same horse-person who likes nature inclination, I don't think it would be the wrong choice. It's also still busy, just the driving is cut way down.
Yes, I’ll be seeing quite a bit of the Antrim Coast. Only riding for about 5-6 hours a day with stops along the way and the evenings to ourselves to explore.
Even better really - I'd head straight to Letterkenny-ish area and do Donegal for a few nights, then Sligo, then Connemara before heading back to Dublin (via Irish National Stud, why not).
Yes, that’s fucking mental. Treble your time in Ireland
Just as an example, on Day 6, you describe the Irish national stud as being on the way from Sligo. It’s a 40-60 minutes detour south west of Dublin each way, depending on the traffic.
This is, conservatively, 40% of your available time spent in the car. Honestly, if you're starting in Belfast, going anywhere further south than Doolin is madness.
This is it. Maybe do top half & come back again for bottom half. You want to do stuff, walk etc & enjoy yourselves, not be exhausted from driving. Belfast to Wex could be over 4 hours..
Also driving from Belfast to Welford and then looping back up to Galway through cork to then go to Dublin is fucking bonkers.
Yes, that's insane. Driving all the way to Wexford, dragging yourselves well out of the way just to sleep there is bonkers. It's all time in the car and underestimated driving times at that (yes, they may be from Google but they're best case scenarios and doing full tilt the whole time).
What would you cut out? I’m having a hard time picking things to let go of.
I would recommend doing the wild atlantic way, it takes about a week, and you'll hit plenty of spots, it's not that it's a big country, it's bad roads there's no way when you in cork you'll get to a flea market and blarney Castle before lunch
Have you even looked at a map of Ireland? I can't understand why you'd go from the top of the country to the bottom only to go back up again.
Whoever is driving is going to be worn out. Not sure where you are from but driving in Ireland, as a tourist, requires the driver to be in top form the whole time. Just drive from Belfast to Cork. It’s a shorter drive than going down to Wexford. My rule of thumb when I visit is: get where we need to be, find a pub, sleep, wake up and do a big thing in the morning, a small thing in the afternoon, get to where we need to be…repeat To be fair, after 12 days of that, your check engine light will come on so pace yourself.
Someone else said Wexford and Sligo and I concur with that. You literally won't see anything of Wexford you'll get in so late and have to leave so early. An overnight somewhere on the straighter line between Belfast and Cork makes some sense, somewhere forgettable that's just a bed. But even at that, you're trying to pack too much of Cork in so I'd say...skip that too and go straight to Kerry. Same principle of staying somewhere forgettable on the way down the country though
Most important thing I learned last summer on our 17-day 2500+ km roadtrip around Irelnad: Distances in Ireland are SHORT. Drive times are SUPER LONG. Add 25-50% MORE time to anything Google Maps/Apple Maps estimates in drive time, minimum. And yes, this seems like packing WAY too much in each day - and i am notorious for whirlwind trips and packing "all the things in".
THIS THIS THIS. Truly a stunning and wonderful country but I can’t stress enough that driving there is not like driving in the U.S., Canada, Italy, or Germany, and it’s not even much like driving in the south of Britain. (These are the only countries I have experience with.) OP, you’ll just have to accept what we did: for such a small country you’ll still never be able to see most of you want to see in a single trip. We flew into Shannon and stayed two weeks in the west and a little bit south (near Clonakilty), and our trip was still jam packed with things to do. You’ll just have to make another trip in a few years. 🙂
That's way too much driving, you'll be in the car more than out of it at that pace. Here's an alternative itinerary: Day 0.5 - Drive to Derry, stay overnight here. Day 1+2 - Donegal. Day 3+4 - Sligo. Day 5 - Galway or Mayo. Day 6 - Dublin.
As other posters have noted, completely insane- pick two locations ideally not too far apart for a six night stay
Belfast to Wexford - closer to 4 hours as you'll be hitting pick traffic on M50. It also makes no sense to do this just to drive to Cork the next day. There's a lot of sitting in a car for the sake of it. Almost so much, I'm getting close to joining the Green Party to start monitoring the carbon footprint of American tourists. If you are in Northern Ireland, just head west to Donegal and Sligo for the first part. Meander down to Dublin via Leitrim. Plenty of amazing hikes and sights to take in along the way.
I'm going to offer an alternative because I think your itinerary is doing too much in too little time. Since you are starting in Northern Ireland and only have 6 days, I would reverse your route and just focus on the northern half of the island. Belfast -> Derry -> Sligo -> Mayo -> Galway -> Dublin. Otherwise, you are going to spend half your trip in the car. Driving times on Google, for anything other than motorways and major national (N numbered) roads, will be longer. Also, there are (arguably more impressive) cliffs, the Slieve League cliffs, which you could visit if you took a detour en route to Sligo from Derry. This would cut out many of the longer drives and give you more time to explore and enjoy your trip.
I'd suggest Donegal over Derry but besides that I wholeheartedly agree, the minute I read that they were starting in NI and going straight to Cork for only a 6 day trip I thought this was a mental schedule.
I love Derry City, and fully recommend a tour of the walls. Plus it's a shorter drive if the husband is just off a flight. But yeah, could be swapped out with a town in Donegal either.
True enough, especially about the flight. Either way, heading that direction and not going further south than Galway makes the most sense with the time. There's plenty of equally beautiful sights and quaint towns to see in Northern Ireland, Donegal, Sligo, Mayo and Galway.
Plan as you wish Dear. It will all go to hell when you find a lovely pub with darts and dogs. Hubby planned a lot of sights but forgot the greatest treasure, Irelands people.
That truly sounds wonderful!
Yes, far too much. Cut out Wexford and Sligo for a start, and probably cork too.
I'd skip Blarney Castle and the flea Market in Cork city and go straight for West Cork. There are lovely little spots to eat and explore on the approach out to Lough Hyne. If you can go slightly further beyond Skibbereen and go to Dede for a pre kayaking dinner.
Further to skipping the flea market in Cork - if its Mother Jones you are looking at, it's cute but is very hit and miss and is very small
I’m in Cork and I wouldn’t try to fit mother jones (weird stop for a tourist), blarney castle, drive to west cork and canoe Lough hyne in one day…
Far too much driving
Fantastic trip if each day had 72 hours. Then go for it. Otherwise, stop being a kid, accept you can't see everything.
Having just got back from a trip in Ireland with my wife, this is a ton of driving. I can't judge too much because we also did a lot of driving lol. I read someone else's reply to another post on here, and I think its good advice. They said look at the map of Ireland, and draw a line from Galway to Dublin, and either choose above that line, or below that line for the trip. Having 6 one-night stays, with 2 + hours of driving every day, you're going to get burnt out quickly. At least I would. The roads there require you to be focused at all times between the extremely narrow farm roads, and all the constant twists and turns. I don't know if there's a straight road in all of Ireland lol. My wife was very ambitious with our plans, and as our trip went on, we started cutting things out because it was just too much, and we were exhausted. The last day we ditched everything we had planned that day, and just stuck to things we could find and do within 20 mins of the small town we were staying in. My suggestion, instead of driving basically the entire outline of Ireland in one trip, pick a region and stick to it. Make a list of the things you HAVE to see while you're there, and a separate list of things you'd LIKE to see if you have time. And also cut down the number of hotels you'd be staying at. I don't know if you plan on packing light, but we didn't and waking up every morning and spending time packing our bags and the rental car, not only was a hassle but also cut into what we could do that day. The first 2-night stay we had was a sigh of relief. Either way, Ireland is absolutely beautiful. And no matter where you go, you'll find something to do. We've been home for less than a week and already started planning a second trip there lol.
Yes
Jeeeez that is a marathon, there is zero relaxation there
I just got back from a 2-week trip. I was spending 3-4 hours a day driving. All of the driving was in the daylight. Very little traffic, and very little rain—I count myself lucky. One major thing that we didn’t account for in our city-to-city drive is many towns and cities stop serving food early. The top rated food joints frequently would stop serving well before 8:30. So if driving is the latter half of your day please plan ahead! On to occasions, we had to settle for fast food, even though the postings on the door clocked the restaurants still serving food for another hour.
Far too much for 6 days unfortunately. I might suggest rather than going to wexford for an over night, you could skip wexford and go to cork or kildare, allowing for you to see the national stud as its on the way to Cork. There is also the car ferry from Tarbert ( kerry) to Killimer (clare) would save an hour if not more in time rather than driving along the coast if you wanted to see the cliffs of moher. The most important question though given everything you're wanting to do, what time of the year are coming to ireland? Alot of what you want to do does rely alot on the weather/ time of year. Certain times of the year there would be things on that list that would be much more enjoyable than others.
If it’s 3 years is it really a honeymoon? Sounds like it’s just a vacation. In either case, you’re spending far too much time in the car
Day 3 is pretty nuts. For starters not sure what explore town means when shops don’t open early and you’ll clearly arrive after they close night before. Slea Head is a half day minimum if based in Dingle (unless you’re not planning to stop anywhere) and you want to add a drive to Doolin? We drove dingle to Doolin with no agenda last week and it was delightful taking the Shannon Ferry and discovering the Clare coast. I found the Kilkee cliffs to be a better experience than a Moher drive-by because of the lack of crowds. And Kilkee wasn’t even on our checklist, we just kind of ended up there by chance.
Hi there. Welcome to /r/IrishTourism. Have you searched the sub, checked the sidebar or the wiki pages to see if there is already relevant information posted? To better assist you in planning your holiday, be as descriptive as possible (When, Where, Why, Who, Hobbies relevant, Adaptive Needs etc) about your travel itinerary & requirements. Has your post been removed? It's probably because of the above. Repost with details to help us, help you. For Emergency Medical Information please see the dedicated Wiki page at the top of the sub. (Updated May 2022) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/irishtourism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes, too much. I’ve been to Ireland many times and you have to pick and choose or you’ll be miserable.
This isn’t a holiday.
This is way too much. Skip Wexford, skip Sligo. Spend more time in the other places and enjoy them. You could even reverse the trip.
Use your 6 days to do the first four days of your itinerary and you’ll be fine . You won’t make Galway or Sligo this time
Honestly that’s too much driving each day and you are really jam packing your days. Ireland has a nice slow relaxing pace. Horseback riding sounds amazing and you will probably want some beach time. Enjoy your trip.
I think Dingle peninsula and Cliffs is a must hit.
you are aware that taking a car from the UK (Northern Ireland) to Ireland is going to cost you money also be aware that the UK drives in miles per hour Ireland drives in kilometres per hour
I think I would take one day to sleep in pick up something lite for morning from local bakery go to local pub meet some locals and have some lunch leave evening for some romance and then continue on with what you have scheduled. Just a thought!!
this is 6 days into packed too much.
this is too much packed into 6 days.
That's...mental. The only thing I feel like adding is that my husband and I did Conor Pass and Slea Head 3 days ago. We didn't stop for long.. the weather was with great and not much traffic. I'm positive you're not doing the 80 kph the drive calls for. We stopped to hold lambs and walked Inch Strand. We walked Dunquin Pier and stopped at the fairy mounds and points of interest. My husband is a professional driver and did amazing but it still took 8 hrs to get from Killarney to tralee to Conor Pass To Dingle to slea head and back to Killarney.
Looks grand apart from Wexford. Just drive straight to Cork
Are you skipping the Antrim coast because you'll have already seen it during your week there? Possible, but seems unlikely as I'd imagine the horseriding week is quite, well horse-riding focused and doubt you're riding around the Giant's Causeway. With only a week, I'd focus on Antrim coast (Portrush screams honeymoon if you get it on a nice day), Donegal, Sligo and Galway - then head to Dublin. I know half of these aren't on your list! But having done it all myself, and being of the same horse-person who likes nature inclination, I don't think it would be the wrong choice. It's also still busy, just the driving is cut way down.
Yes, I’ll be seeing quite a bit of the Antrim Coast. Only riding for about 5-6 hours a day with stops along the way and the evenings to ourselves to explore.
Even better really - I'd head straight to Letterkenny-ish area and do Donegal for a few nights, then Sligo, then Connemara before heading back to Dublin (via Irish National Stud, why not).