Last summer I was lucky enough to spend a month in Ireland and Scotland! Originally a lot of it was supposed to be a solo trip, but my dad ended up crashing my road trip for the first ten days of my month-long adventure and we had an amazing time.
Here’s my summary of our 10-day road-trip around the Republic of Ireland! (Feel free to check out my destinations page for an interactive version of the map above!)
- Day 1: Arrival & Dublin
- Guinness, Christchurch, Ha’Penny Bridge, Temple Bar, spend the night in Dublin
- Day 2: Dublin & Kilkenny
- National Gallery, Book of Kells & the Long Room Library, Kilkenny Castle, night in Cashel
- Day 3: Rock of Cashel & Kinsale
- Rock of Cashel & Church, Midleton Jameson Experience, Kinsale, night in Cork
- Day 4: Killarney National Park & Ring of Kerry
- English Market, Blarney Castle & Stone, Killarney National Park, Ring of Kerry, night in Portmagee
- Day 5: Skellig Michael
- Boat Tour, German Tower Hike, Ring of Kerry Part 2, night in Killorglin
- Day 6: Driving the Dingle Peninsula
- Dingle, Inch Beach, Slea Head Loop & Prehistoric Museum, Dinner in Tralee, Night in Limerick
- Day 7: Limerick & Bunratty
- Hunt Museum, Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Lunch at Durty Nellie’s, Wild Atlantic Way, Night in Doolin
- Day 8: Aran Isles & the Cliffs of Moher
- Cliffs of Moher, Inis Mor, Boat Tour, Driving through Burren, Night in Tuam
- Day 9: Galway & Return to Dublin
- Cathedral, Latin Quarter & Quay St., St. Nicholas Market, Athlone (Sean’s Bar & Baileys)
- Day 10: Travel Home
Day 1: Arrival and Dublin
Guinness, Christchurch, Ha’Penny Bridge, Temple Bar, spend the night in Dublin
Our trip to Ireland started with a rendezvous in Dublin! Originally I had thought I’d be traveling alone before meeting up with a friend for a bike-packing trip, but dad had different plans. After two separate flights we reunited in Dublin Airport, and what a fiasco that was!
We found each other fine, but our plan was to rent a car. Our rental company had sent us an email confirmation saying there would be a shuttle to their pick-up location. Of course with no cell service and instructions to call for the shuttle upon arrival, we started looking for a public phone. Long story short, a nice man let us use his phone after many failed attempts to locate a public one, and the company told us to take a cab.
I don’t want to spend a lot of time ranting about our rental company (I could write a whole separate post about the pros and cons of renting a car- and just might!) but good grief it was a stressful experience. And trying to get to the parking garages from our hotel after navigating the craziness that is driving through Dublin…good gravy it was comical, let me tell you! (I think it only took us…4 attempts? Maybe 5? Hilariously infuriating!)
Rental nonsense and parking garage trauma behind us, we got checked in and set about exploring Dublin. It wouldn’t be a trip to Ireland without a stop at the Guinness Factory, so naturally, we started there! It was not at all what I was expecting, and there was so much more to it than I imagined there would be. About six floors more!
The Guinness Factory was the furthest attraction from our home base of Blooms Hotel in the Temple neighborhood, but well worth the walk! We had decided to just leave the rental car in the garage and save ourself the hassle and stress of driving on the opposite side of the road in a crazy, tight squeeze of a city, especially after our first bout of trying to park.
There were some Guinness tasting options being offered and a traditional music and dance show. Plus the tour through the entire factory was incredible, covering everything from their history and family to advertising campaigns and future endeavors of the company.
After enjoying a pint with a view at the gravity bar, we started our walk back to the hotel, stopping to admire the exterior and garden of Christchurch along the way.
We unpacked, took a bit of a nap, and then hit the town to check out the Dublin night life. We made sure to stop at all of the touristy attractions, including Ha’Penny Bridge and the Temple Bar. We snacked on a couple of meat pies as we walked, compliments of Hanley’s Cornish Pasties.
Day2: Dublin & Kilkenny
National Gallery, Book of Kells & the Long Room Library, Kilkenny Castle, night in Cashel
The next morning we continued exploring Dublin, starting with the National Gallery. I absolutely loved the National Gallery, and it’s totally free to visit! Afterwards we headed to Trinity College to visit the Long Room and Books of Kells exhibit, which were relatively close to the National Gallery.
The exhibits at Trinity College were amazing and way more extensive than I was expecting. There was so much information about manuscripts, the art inside of them, the people behind their creation, and all of the history that goes along with the Book of Kells. You do need tickets beforehand, so be prepared for that. If you don’t order them online, there’s a nearby kiosk and we were just fine with the short wait we had until our ticket time.
After spending the morning in Dublin, our plan was to grab the car and officially start the road trip! Our next stop was Kilkenny Castle, which we figured would be a nice pit stop before heading to Cashel, where we would be spending the night.
We got to the castle right before their last entry time, and parking was super tricky! We hustled our way up to the entrance where a couple was just walking in. As we went to purchase entry, the woman working turned us away! I couldn’t believe it. We were literally two steps behind the couple in front of us who had just walked in. I felt so bad, and we were pretty bummed.
We walked the grounds briefly and enjoyed the rest of our drive. Even though we missed out on the castle, we still had a great day and enjoyed wandering around Cashel once we arrived. Plus our AirBNB host was the sweetest man with the most interesting life story. Overall a great day despite our oops!
Day 3: The Rock of Cashel & Kinsale
The Rock of Cashel & Church, Midleton Jameson Experience, Kinsale, Night in Cork
The Rock of Cashel was an incredible way to start the day, with lots of history and amazing views! It is also known as St. Patrick’s Rock or Cashel of the Kings. The Rock of Cashel acted as the seat of the High Kings of Munster and is reputedly the site of the conversion of Aenghus the King of Munster by St. Patrick. Most of the current buildings and ruins are actually remnants of the 12th and 13th centuries and were built after the site was gifted to the church.
We toured around the grounds, graveyard, and cathedral and opted to do the tour of Cormac’s Chapel as well. After our tour finished, we wandered down the hill to Hore Abbey. It’s truly a vacant bit of ruins at this point, but we both really enjoyed wandering around and poking through the remnants of what used to be a monastery back in the 13th century.
We stopped in town at Morelli for a quick lunch and then headed south to Midleton, home of the Jameson Experience. If you’d rather not make the drive to Midleton, there is also a Jameson location on Bow St. in Dublin that you could work into your time there. Our tour included some history, brewing science, and of course some tasting!
After our whisky tour, we stopped in at Donatello’s to grab a quick pizza. It was raining and we weren’t feeling all that adventurous about exploring Midleton. Donatello’s was right near where we parked our car and it honestly isn’t anything fancy. However, they put sweet corn on their pizza and oh my god we loved it! We ordered the Special Donatello and like I said, nothing fancy but it sure hit the spot before we got back on the road!
Our plan was to spend the night in Cork, but after our time at Midleton we were feeling energized and didn’t want to go straight to our AirBNB when we still had a few hours left in the day. Instead, we decided to drive a little past our destination and stop in at Kinsale, the beginning (or end!) of the Wild Atlantic Way.
Kinsale is the cutest little town. We wandered around admiring the colorful shops and twisty roads in search of the perfect ice cream cone (make sure you have soft serve at least once in Ireland!). The coast line is beautiful and we had a beautiful, sunny day ti enjoy it.
If you’re looking for a high excitement stop, maybe Kinsale isn’t for you, but we enjoyed a simple slow-down for the end of our day. Were I were to go back, there’s a large historic military fort and a few hikes that I would like to check out. Plus the International Museum of Wine was closed! Definitely curious about that one.
Day 4: Killarney National Park & Ring of Kerry
English Market, Blarney Castle & Stone, Killarney National Park, Ring of Kerry , Night in Portmagee
After spending the night in Cork, we started the morning with breakfast at the city’s English Market! My dad LOVED the market and it was so fun for me to see him wander around, awestruck. I am a sucker for markets and am always on the lookout for them whether at home or traveling. My dad, however, has lived in the same small town for basically his whole life. A market like this is a totally foreign concept to him (pun intended!) and getting to show him a little market magic for the first time was pretty awesome.
After our breakfast excursion we started our way towards Killarney National Park. Now I wasn’t trying to be misleading with the listing of attractions for Day 4, but if you want the insider scoop on the Blarney Castle & Stone, I don’t have it. We very briefly discussed stopping on our way out of Cork and neither of us really had an interest. If you did want to work it into your itinerary, it is about 15 minutes north-west of Cork by car.
Instead of Blarney Castle, we made our way to Killarney National Park at the top of the Ring of Kerry. Our afternoon included a tour of Muckross House and a hike around the lake, stopping in to check out Torc Waterfall and have lunch at the Dinish Cottage Tea Rooms. If you only wanted to hike part of the way, there is a boat that will take you directly back to Muckross house from the Tea Rooms.
The gardens on the grounds of Muckross were in full bloom and the hillsides as we were hiking around the lake were ablaze with bright bursts of rhododendron. Plus, there was a classic car tour of some sort going on, so we got quite the show on the first half of our hike.
After our time at Muckross, we continued along the Ring of Kerry towards Portmagee, where we were spending the night. The roads were winding, tiny, and a little crazy but the views were absolutely amazing. We stopped at Ladies’ View, which looks out over the National Park, and it was absolutely stunning looking out over the countryside.
The entire Ring of Kerry is well-worth the drive. We had thought it would take half of the time it actually did to get to our destination, mostly because we just couldn’t stop ourselves from pulling over every five minutes to take in the views!
Eventually we reached our destination of Portmagee, much later than we had intended, and settled in to our AirBNB.
Day 5: Skellig Michael
Boat Tour, German Tower Hike, Ring of Kerry Part 2, Night in Killorglin
The next day started bright and early with a walk down to the docks to catch our boat to Skellig Michael. For those of you who are Star Wars fans: the island that they found Luke Skywalker hiding out on in The Last Jedi? Yeah, that place is not only very real, it’s in Ireland!
So a quick little note about how I trip plan: I do what I think of as “skeletal planning.” I establish a framework of the basics, outlining “must sees,” where I’m going to stay, and how I’m going to get around. I have some things in mind for what I want to do, but mostly I just take things day by day and try to allow for some elements of the trip to evolve as they come. Many times I’m curled up in an AirBNB at night finalizing what I want to do for the next day.
Now this system can be amazing when it allows for spontaneity, and sometimes huge obstacles arise. Luckily, because our AirBNB hostess was amazing, we side-stepped a huge potential issue: we had no idea that Skellig Michael tours have become so popular that they almost completely book out months in advance and are subject to some pretty fickle weather conditions!
Thankfully I had started investigating this boat trip a little bit earlier than other aspects of our road trip, and our AirBNB hostess called in a favor with one of the boat captains to get us a spot to Skellig Michael (thank goodness Portmagee is a pretty small town!).
Now, our trip to the island took probably about an hour. The crew was great and gave us full rain gear, but you’re on a pretty tiny boat with an open deck, sitting on benches. Not an enclosed space, so if you end up going, dress warm and be prepared!
Once we landed on the island, we got a quick safety briefing and then had an allotted time frame to go exploring. My dad and I hiked all the way to the top and it was stunning! Beautiful views, amazing stone beehive structures, and PUFFINS EVERYWHERE. Fun fact: Porgs exist in the Star Wars universe because literally everywhere you turn there are a million puffins! My dad asked me at one point if I had taken enough photos of the puffins…the answer is no, never enough photos of puffins!
After we got a brief chat about the history of the structures, we hiked our way down to where our boats had dropped us off and headed back. It was way wetter on the way back and I was very thankful for the rain gear. Once back in Portmagee, we dried off and packed up. We were hoping to go check out a hike along the cliffs right behind town, but there was somebody charging for parking and honestly after seeing it all from the water we decided to drive across the bridge to the other side of town instead.
Across the way was a German watch-tower from World War days. We parked our car down at the lot at the base of the trail and walked up. After spending so much time on the boat, it felt amazing to stretch our legs! The watch tower at the end is totally open, so you can poke around a bit, although there’s not much inside.
After our hike we continued along the Kerry Loop to Killorglin, where we spent the night.
Day 6: Driving the Dingle Peninsula
Dingle, Inch Beach, Slea Head Loop & Prehistoric Museum, Dinner in Tralee, Night in Limerick
Our next day consisted of a lot of driving. We headed towards Dingle, stopping for a quick walk along the shore at Inch Beach. I know that people think of it as the “Emerald Isle” because of all of the lush green, but I love the coasts and beaches of Ireland (and Scotland, too!).
Once in Dingle, we went ahead and wandered around town a bit, stopping in for a cup of coffee at the Bean in Dingle coffee shop. Once you are in Dingle you can continue on to the Slea Head Loop. My advice: GO GO GO GO GO.
Now when I saw that the Slea Head Loop was all of 30 miles I figured it would take us maybe 2 hours tops to get through it. Roads are twisty and winding, sometimes single lane, and we love to stop and take pictures. One suggestion that I read said to plan at least three hours and I was incredulous. 3 hours for 30 miles?! But guess what…they were so right. Slea Head is stunning and there’s lots of little spots to stop along the way. One of my favorite stops was Penny’s Pottery, and we stopped in a couple of other art studios as well. My dad really liked the Celtic and Prehistoric Museum. Just go, take it in, and don’t be in a hurry!
Once we were back in Dingle, we headed north through Conor Pass, another amazing sight! We stopped in Tralee for dinner at Quinlan’s Fish House, and then made our way on to Limerick, our final destination for the evening.
Day 7: Limerick & Bunratty
Hunt Museum, Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Lunch at Durty Nellie’s, Wild Atlantic Way, Night in Doolin
Our stay in Limerick included an education in hurling (the sporty kind, not the sick kind- go look it up!) and a visit to the Hunt Museum, which was great. A mixture of art and history, we enjoyed easing into our day by wandering through the museum (even if we did get lost trying to get there from our AirBNB!).
After our time at the museum we headed to Bunratty to visit the Castle & Folk Park. It was much bigger than I was expecting and we really enjoyed it. The castle is very accessible and that was where we started, working our way through various historic periods of the park until we ended at the estate and walled garden. There’s even an interactive fairy garden if you’re visiting with little kids, or just feeling like playing Queen Fairy for a day!
Like I said, the park was much more extensive than we were expecting. We ended up spending most of our day there and then stopped in for lunch at Durty Nellie’s, where we and had the most delicious Guinness Stew! I swear Guinness tastes different (better) in Ireland than it does at home, and we made sure to make the most of it while we were there.
For our afternoon route, we opted to take the long way round, following the Wild Atlantic Way. Our destination for the night was Doolin, where my dad experienced his first hostel! It was great, and he really enjoyed it. The Wild Atlantic Way provided lots of beautiful coastal views to end the day.
Day 8: Aran Isles & the Cliffs of Moher
Cliffs of Moher, Inis Mor, Boat Tour, Driving through Burren, Night in Tuam
When looking at the options for visiting the Cliffs of Moher, my first thought was to take the day to hike the 13 km coastal trail, but my dad was not so thrilled at the prospect. So in trying to figure out the best way to appreciate the cliffs, we came across a couple of suggestions for boat tours.
Now I’m not a big souvenir person, but before our trip I had decided that living in Alaska warranted the purchase of some Aran Islands wool! Thankfully we found a boat trip that accommodated both the cliffs and some wool shopping through Bill O’Brien’s Doolin Ferry.
We caught the ferry in the morning and spent the rest of our sunny day exploring Inis Mor, the largest of the three Aran Islands. We had read about a couple of options for getting around the island and had contemplated biking. Upon arrival we decided instead to grab a tour shuttle, which took us all over the island. We figured we would rather maximize our time at each location rather than spend a lot of time biking. It was totally worth it and we had a great day.
A couple of my favorite highlights included visiting the Seven Churches of Aran, hiking Dún Aonghasa, lunch at Teach Nan Phaidi, and taking in the cliffs from the water at the end of our trip back to Doolin. Oh yeah, and I bought some wool!
After returning to Doolin we drove through Burren National Park on our way to Tuam, with a plan to stay just outside Galway. I didn’t know much about Burren and was amazed at the landscape as we drove through. It was definitely not something that had been on my radar previous to our trip, and it was definitely a pleasant surprise. Finding our AirBNB once we arrived in Tuam was an absolute doozy, but eventually we got there and settled in.
Day 9: Galway
Cathedral, Latin Quarter & Quay St., St. Nicholas Market, Athlone (Sean’s Bar & Baileys)
Our final big day of exploring was spent in Galway. We took the time to ease into our day with a stop at the Cathedral and an amazing breakfast before wandering through the Latin Quarter & Quay St. A pleasant surprise was St. Nicholas Market, which had all sorts of goodies from food to leather goods, jewelry to spices and flowers.
After wandering around town a bit we made our way to the Spanish arch and enjoyed the Galway City Museum, free of charge. We were blessed with good weather overall during our trip, and this day was no different. After enjoying the city sights we walked a bit outside of town along a public walking trail.
One thing that I found interesting was the Claddagh Museum. Very tiny, this shop has lots of claddagh jewelry on display and a room at the back with a collection of historical tidbits about the designs origin. Now an iconic Irish symbol, the claddagh originated in the 17th century in Galway County’s town of Claddagh where it has acted as a sign of love and marriage for over 400 years.
After a second go at the market we headed towards Dublin, stopping in halfway at Athlone. Why Athlone? Not only is it halfway between Galway and Dublin, it has the oldest pub in Ireland!
A friend had sent me a suggestion to stop in at Sean’s Bar, so we started researching. As soon as we walked in the door, you could tell why this place has lasted so long. A small group of musicians was sitting in a corner right next to the door playing some trad music, families filled the dining area out back, and the walls are covered in history. Photos, glass cases showing layers of the walls, antiques, you name it. We enjoyed a drink and then headed up the street to The Bailey Bar & Lounge for dinner. It was a great, unexpected end to our trip!
Day 10: Travel Home
After a whirlwind of a wonderful road-trip, day 10 consisted of dropping my dad off at the airport, driving to Belfast, and hunkering down in my AirBNB. His departure kind of caught me off guard and I realized I needed a little bit of time to decompress and adjust to traveling alone. I proceeded to spend five days in Northern Ireland (definitely recommend! Maybe more on that later….) and then went on my very first bike-packing trip down the southeastern coast!
All in all, we had a great time. Slainte, (literally, stay healthy!) and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!