Westport to Kilkenny to Kilarney

Aprilolaw · Newbie

Westport to Kilkenny to Kilarney

Michele Erdvig · Host

Aprilolaw,

Welcome to my forum! Once you know the number of days you will have in Ireland you will be better able to determine exactly what parts and cities you can see. Do you have a tentative itinerary that you can post? I have many personal recommendations for great places to stay on my "Lodgings" page. Take a look and see what you think.

I am looking forward to helping with your trip.

Michele

Aprilolaw · Newbie

Hi Michelle, thank you for your kind offer to help me. This is getting overwhelming.

I am so glad to have found your site and plan to spend a lot of time here! We are a family of 6 adults from the US, plan to fly into Shannon sometime Easter weekend, or during the week immediately after if it is not a good time due to heavy travel. However, so far I have found it should work OK.

Arrive Shannon April 15 or 16. Depart Shannon April 25. Shannon is preferred, we do not want to go to Dublin and prefer to tour the west coast. Here are the places we want to see:

Burren area; Cliffs; Galway; Aran Islands; Westport; Sligo area if it is closeby. I have looked at driving up this way at the beginning of our trip and returning south of Shannon for the last part of the trip to see: Limerick, Kerry, Dingle Bay and anything in that area.

We are a rural family and while we like cities OK, prefer the countryside. We will enjoy the pubs in the evenings but during the day would like to walk in the country, rent bikes for short tours, etc. We especially like the rocks and geographics of the area. Although we enjoy the markets, etc. in the towns and meeting people.

Hope this gives you an idea. We were going to try (per my husband's request) a drive to some part of Northern Ireland but we don't want to be rushed. Also, I tried to work out Kilkenny for another's request but it appears to be too far.

We would prefer to stay 2 nights, or even 3 at the same lodging as better rates are offered, but want to do that only if we can see a lot from that location. Otherwise, affordable (30 euros or less) B&B's would be fine.

I looked at the Self-drive packages, any comment on them?

Thank you so much,

April

wojazz3 · Guru

Hi April:

I understand your being overwhelmed. It looks like such a small country, but there is so much to see and do and getting around is rather slow. I basing my opinions here on your desire to not feel rushed.

Looking at the things that you want to do, IMO, I think getting to Northern Ireland will make things pretty rushed. My first suggestion is to spend the 1st night in Clare and perhaps see the Cliffs of Moher. With 6 people, someone will be tired, if not all of you, so don't try to do too much that day. Kilkenny is out I think.

The only feasible way to get NI in and all of the other things would be something like: Clare 1, Westport 2, Sligo area 2 (you could venture in NI from here) Galway area 2, Dingle area, 2 and then back to Shannon. To me this is a HUGE amount of driving as Sligo to Galway will be a full day and Dingle to Galway will be worse. This is based on your arrival on the 15th. In my mind, you need to decide between NI and Dingle. NI is lovely around the Fermanagh lakes area but Dingle would do much more for me.

A few notes:

Aran Islands: Not all of the ferry services run in April (specifically Doolin) and difficult winds can cause them not to run. With six people, you will be able to get a discount on Aer Arann (http://www.aerarannislands.ie/) and so the flight cost is about the same as the boat from Doolin. I believe the cost may be a bit less from Rossaveal and perhaps Galway and the Galway trip is 90 minutes as opposed to 10 on the plane. If anyone in your group gets queazy on rough seas, the 90 minute trip could be VERY long. We flew Aer Arann and loved it. The flight was short, the views from the air stunning and nobody got sick!! If you can schedule a night to stay on the Arans, you will really appreciate it. If you do a day trip, definitely take the plane as all of the time wasted on the boat will cut into your day. With 6 people, at that time of year, they may devote a trip just to you, so scheduling could be pretty easy. The plane only holds 9.

Walks on the coast: Ireland tends to be pretty windy along the coast and in April, moderately wet, though you could get lucky. Be sure to have plenty of layers and gloves.

B&Bs vs hotels: Hotels tend to be more exopensive unless you are staying more than two to a room. Many hotels charge by the room so that could work out as a savings. In April, there may be some off season deals. Keep in mind thatthe breakfasts at most B&Bs are hearty to say the least and will stick to your stomachs for hours. If the hotels don't include breakfast, keep that in mind in your pricing. E30 per person is sort of medium low price range for B&Bs but they can certainly be found. I sort of think around E32-35 as the standard range, they can be a bit more or a bit less. I don't remember hotels having deals for two day stays in Ireland, but I rarely stay in them, and then usually only in Dublin so I'm not much of an expert there.

Self drive deals: I've never found them to be as good as picking things out separately, but sometimes there are some deals in the off season. April is more of a shoulder season, but you could get lucky. Remember as you look at prices that on package deals, the price is per person, which includes the car.

Car rental: The car rental fiasco is the worst part of planning a trip to Ireland. The sheep aren't the only ones that get fleeced there. Insurance is very expensive if you don't have a gold or platinum MC (not Visa or Amex). MC will usually cover CDW. If you want a car that will hold twice as many people, it will probably cost at least twice as much. The cost for automatic transmission can be anywhere from a 50% to 75% cost increase (not always as you get to the larger cars. You may want to consider renting 2 smaller cars which really won't cost much or any more and provide you with some extra flexibility. You could actually do 3 smaller cars if you wanted.

The trip that you have outlined is a lot of driving for my tastes, partially because you go north and then have to backtrack south. Leaving out NI would help a lot but you'll still be wishing for extra days.

Hope this is helpful.

Bill

Aprilolaw · Newbie

Thank you Bill. We have already nixed the NI idea and Sligo. Have been told we can drive from Westport to Galway, and to Kilkenny easier than I thought. So am now looking at that. Then Kilkenny to Dingle area and back to fly home from Shannon. We do not want to be driving all the time, so this may still be too much. But it should shorten it quite a bit.

Thanks for the auto rental info, that is something else! Will take up some more time. I'm almost wishing I was going solo, it would be so much easier to plan. although our group is easy to please and leaving the planning up to me...they know they'd better not say "we should have done this or that"...I'm the only volunteer Travel Agent and they get what they pay for, LoL!

Michele Erdvig · Host

April,

Bill is a fount of knowledge about Ireland as he has been there 6 times! He always has great advice for everyone here. Since there are six people traveling together you are wise to consider staying multiple nights in just a few places. The logistics of packing up and moving on every day wears on you after a while. Bill did a group trip to Ireland so he is familiar with the problems. Plus if you have a couple of vehicles and are staying in one place it offers the option of doing different things. For instance if the guys want to golf or fish and the gals want to shop. Run that by everyone and see what they think.

Do take a look at my "Car Rental & Driving" and "Tips & Tricks" pages for more about cars, insurance, budgeting and saving money.

Are you flying stand-by? If so, is there the possibility that some of the group may not arrive with the others?

I think that Westport is as far north as you should go if you want to fit in your other places. This is what to do. Sit down with a map, your "must see" list and a calendar. Try several different itineraries and see what you come up with. I will be happy to comment on your plan.

Also, bump your B&B budget up a bit. 35 euro per person is more realistic. You can click through to lodging websites from my "Links" page to see what I mean about prices.

Don't feel overwhelmed. We are all here to help.

Michele