Ireland trip is fast approaching and I need help!!!!

lulu · Newbie

Ireland trip is fast approaching and I need help!!!!

Michele Erdvig · Host

lulu,

Glad to hear you are enjoying my book. Don't forget that I gave you some good sightseeing to do from Adare previously: http://ireland.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=65127&p=3&topicID=35132228

I think that the AA Route Planner will come in handy for you. Just plug in your starting point (Adare) and where you want to go and it will tell you how many kilometers or miles for the route. I suggest you get miles and then divide by 35 to get approximate driving times. Remember that each sightseeing stop you make will add time to the day. It takes time to see and explore.

Sky Road; Connemara Natl'l Park, Connemara; Very full day with lots of driving. Start as early as possible. Try to avoid rush hour in Limerick or do it on a weekend.

Kilarney Nat'l Park; Lady View; Gap of Dunloe; Kenman I assume that Kenman is really Kenmare? If so, I have added it to this group since that is where it belongs. If you want to do the complete tour of the Gap of Dunloe starting at Kate Kearney's Cottage, hike or horses through the gap, boats on the lake back to Killarney - then that tour will take most of a day. See Dero's Tours for info. You could try to see the rest after the tour or you could do two separate days in this area.

The Burren; Scenic Route; Cliffs of Mohr; No problem. Suggest you take the ferry across the Shannon to avoid Limerick.

Connor Pass; Dingle Peninsula; A long driving day but can be done.

Blarney Castle; Bells of Shandon; Glen of Aherlow; Grand Parade; The Gap; Desmond Castle; I think you probably have two days worth of sightseeing here.

Michele

murphy · Guru

Lulu,
As for time line versus number of sight seeing stops, we found that 3 major tourist attractions per day is what we have comfortably averaged in our 2 trips to Ireland. Any more than that, we found that we had to either leave early (before the hot breakfast is served) or do additional sightseeing stops, later on in the afternoon and evening (which the longer daylight hours of August allowed us to do in 09). This generally works better on the 2nd or 3rd day of a multiple night B&B stay. If you are doing only 1 night stops, you will need to let the B&B know that you will be arriving later than 6 PM, if you decide to see 1 or 2 more attractions. Besides the rental car, the hardest part about visiting Ireland is to slow down and enjoy the countryside! As we were driving to our next planned attraction, we bypasses so many neat looking opportunities! So, you just have to assume that you will return someday.
Dan

Michele Erdvig · Host

Dan,

Thanks for your input as to how many things you can comfortably see per day. I agree that the long daylight hours in August are a plus.

Lulu is self-catering in Adare. So will be going back to her base every evening. Some of those proposed day trips are very long. I gave her a good list of sightseeing nearby Adare in a previous post. But everyone has their "must see" list. I think that after a long day or two Lulu will settle down and decide what can comfortably be seen from Adare.

Michele