Planning an Ireland Itinerary That Won’t Ruin Your Vacation
Do You know the one thing that can ruin your Ireland vacation?
No, it's NOT the weather!
It's planning an Ireland itinerary that has too much driving!
This article is also available as a podcast. To listen please scroll to the player at the bottom of the page to listen.
Ireland Vacation Planning Tips
When you begin planning a trip to Ireland you have a lot to consider – the group size, relationships, and ages of the travelers; activities they enjoy; and their ‘must see' sights.
Inevitably the sites that are rated ‘musts' are scattered across Ireland – much like the map above.
Ireland may be a small country, but she is deceptive.
Point A to Point B may only be 100 miles apart- but those miles often include narrow, winding roads through mountains, small villages, and picturesque farmland edged by stone walls which hug the road.
While it's beautiful, and the very essence of driving in Ireland, it's not quick.
Armed with only that information, a glance at the map should show you the single thing that can ruin your Ireland vacation : too much driving!
Related: Everything You Need to Know About Car Rental in Ireland
Choosing Must See Sights for Your Ireland Itinerary
Glancing again at the above map – actually my own ‘must visit sites' for a past trip – you can see a few groupings of circles.
Dublin, the Hill of Tara, and Newgrange.
Limerick, and Lough Gur.
Letterkenny and Glenveagh National Park.
And then there are a few places that are kind of on their own – The Cliffs of Moher, Clifden in Connemara, Belfast, and the Giant's Causeway.
Though our trip was longer than average (3 weeks as opposed to 10 days), there was still no way to visit all of these sites and enjoy the trip.
Not only would we spend most of our time driving, but we wouldn't have time to experience the spots we did visit – not to mention missing everything in between!
It's Hard to Choose – I Know!
Nearly every Ireland traveler has to cut down their ‘must see' lists. You just can't see it all. And you really want to remember the places you did see – not how much driving you did to see them!
So now you must narrow down your choices. For our trip, we skipped the Dublin sites, Connemara, and the sites in Northern Ireland.
Then we filled in the empty spots.
Between Dublin and Limerick we visited the Irish National Stud in Kildare and spent a couple days in Kilkenny before swooping down to the Dingle Peninsula and Ring of Kerry, then up to Adare and Bruff.
We went back to Dublin to pick up my husband, spent a day in the city, then spent two nights in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, before heading up to Donegal and the Inishowen Peninsula.
And that was nearly too much.
Steps to Plan Your Ireland Itinerary (aka How NOT to Ruin Your Ireland Vacation)
Step 1: Buy a decent-sized laminated map of Ireland. Or print a map on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper (just know you'll have to print a few).
Step 2: Divide Ireland into 4 quadrants – north to south and east to west. Circle all the places you really want to see.
Step 3: Check for groupings.
Step 4: Use an online map (like Google maps) to calculate distances between the center of groupings and other sites. This will give you travel distances and travel times (calculated by road speed limits).
Step 5: For times under 3 hours, add on at least 30 minutes. For 3-5 hours add on 45 minutes. For over 5 hours, add on another hour. This will give you more realistic driving times (you rarely go as fast as the posted speeds on the regional roads in Ireland).
Check out the Ireland Car Rental & Driving Guide!
Step 6: How much time are you (realistically) ok with driving each day?
Step 7: How often do you want to change lodging? Daily? Every 2-3 days?
What if You Want to Stay in One Central Location and Take Day Trips?
This is a question I am asked often, and I receive a lot of disbelief when I say that there isn't one location that will easily allow you to do day trips to all of Ireland.
The geographic center of the island of Ireland is a wee spot in County Westmeath called Castletown, a tiny bit north of the M6 which runs between Dublin and Galway.
From this location you can visit quite a bit of Ireland. You can day trip to Dublin and Galway, each about 90 minutes away, dependent on traffic.
You could visit the Cliffs of Moher, about 2 hours 45 minutes, and Connemara or Belfast in about 3 hours, dependent on route.
You could get to Westport in about 2.5 hours, Fermanagh in Northern Ireland is just over 2 hours, and Kilkenny in just under 2 hours.
And if those places are enough for your visit, then you've got a terrific spot, but you can expect to spend an average of 5 hours each day just driving to and from a location. That doesn't include the driving you'll be doing as you explore that area.
If you want to visit Dingle you have around a 4.5 hour drive one way, nearly 9 hours round trip. Blarney Castle and Achill Island are each approximately 3.5 hours' drive, one way, and the Giants Causeway clocks in at 4 hours' drive, one way.
While I know that staying in one location seems like it would be easier it can be more tiring to drive so many long days, especially if you backtrack to return to your accommodation.
Go back to Step 6: how much time do you want to spend driving each day. If the answer is less than 5 hours, then choosing one central location for your trip isn't the right option for you.
Step 8: Re-examine those ‘must see' sites. Put them in order of the most important to the least.
On a 7-day trip to Ireland you can easily visit 2 quadrants on your map. With 10 days you can add a third, if the destinations aren't too far away. For a 14-day trip you can comfortably include 3 quadrants.
But, even with that amount of time, you aren't going to ‘see it all' and, depending on how much you have on your itinerary, things will be missed or feel rushed.
Step 9: Fill in the gaps. You'll be surprised just how much there is to do in between those big sites. Use my clickable map to help you. (Map pages are currently undergoing an update- I apologize for the inconvenience. You can use the search function by county to learn more about each area of Ireland.)
Pro Tip: Here's what MUST be booked in advance – and what you can leave to chance
Step 10: Create your perfect itinerary, marking all final sites and attractions on your map. From here you can begin choosing your lodgings!
See the Quick Guide to Accommodations in Ireland
Let Me Help Plan Your Ireland Itinerary
Choose one of my free Ireland itineraries!
Use the ‘My Ireland Vacation Planner & Journal' to plan your trip step-by-step.
If you would like a more personalized itinerary consider my vacation coaching or custom itinerary creation services.
Traveling in Ireland Podcast Episode 249
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