Ireland

Ireland, in a few days

From Dublin across to Galway, then the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren and the Ring of Kerry: the map, what is worth booking, everything that costs nothing, and where to sleep at three budgets.

Day by day

1

Dublin

Days 1-2

A city of writers, four of them Nobel laureates. Trinity College has held the ninth-century Book of Kells since 1661, and Temple Bar has held the noise since rather later.

🎟️ Worth booking

• Trinity College and the Book of Kells2h · from €20
  An illuminated gospel made around the year 800, and the Long Room library above it holding 200,000 old volumes.
• Whiskey distillery tour and tasting2h · from €25
  How triple distillation works, and how Irish whiskey went from ruling the world to almost disappearing inside a century.

✦ Free to visit

• Temple Bar
• St Stephen's Green
• Dublin Castle, from outside
• The Liffey quays

🛏️ Where to sleep · Budget: Generator Dublin ↗ (€45 a night) · Mid-range: The Dean Dublin ↗ (€190 a night) · Luxury: The Shelbourne ↗ (€380 a night) · All places to stay by budget →

📲 Book things to do in Dublin on GetYourGuide

2

Galway

Days 3-4 · 🚗 Car 2h30

A harbour town on the west coast, young and loud, and the way into the Connemara. Street musicians play through the year, weather permitting or not.

🎟️ Worth booking

• Aran Islands day tripFull day · from €45
  A ferry out to three limestone islands where Irish is still the daily language, and a prehistoric fort sits on a cliff edge.
• Trad music night in a pubEvening · from €15
  Musicians in a circle rather than on a stage, playing tunes older than the building they sit in.

✦ Free to visit

• The Latin Quarter
• The Salthill promenade
• The pubs
• Galway market

🛏️ Where to sleep · Budget: Snoozles Galway ↗ (€42 a night) · Mid-range: The Hardiman ↗ (€150 a night) · Luxury: Glenlo Abbey ↗ (€340 a night) · All places to stay by budget →

📲 Book things to do in Galway on GetYourGuide

3

The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

Day 5 · 🚗 Car 1h30

Two hundred metres of sandstone dropping into the Atlantic, with the bare limestone plateau of the Burren starting just inland.

🎟️ Worth booking

• Visitor centre and guided cliff walkHalf day · from €15
  How the cliffs were laid down, then the path along the top with someone who knows where the wind comes from.

✦ Free to visit

• The 200 metre cliffs
• The Burren and its bare limestone
• Doolin
• Sunsets over the Atlantic

🛏️ Where to sleep · Budget: Doolin Hostel ↗ (€45 a night) · Mid-range: Hotel Doolin ↗ (€160 a night) · Luxury: Armada Hotel ↗ (€200 a night) · All places to stay by budget →

📲 Book things to do in The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren on GetYourGuide

4

The Ring of Kerry

Days 6-7 · 🚗 Car 3h

A 179 kilometre loop around the Iveragh peninsula, past coast, lakes and painted villages.

🎟️ Worth booking

• The Ring of Kerry, guidedFull day · from €55
  A full day on the loop from a coach seat, which leaves you free to watch the road rather than drive it.
• Skellig Michael, in seasonFull day · from €90
  A monastery of stone beehive huts on a rock twelve kilometres offshore, reachable from May to September and only when the swell allows.

✦ Free to visit

• The coast roads
• Killarney National Park
• Empty beaches
• Painted villages

🛏️ Where to sleep · Luxury: Sheen Falls Lodge ↗ (€360 a night) · All places to stay by budget →

📲 Book things to do in The Ring of Kerry on GetYourGuide

Worth sorting before you go

Rent a car · The Wild Atlantic Way is a driving road, 2,500 kilometres of it along the west coast, and driving is on the left.

📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly

🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta

🚗 Car hire
Compare the agencies before you land.
Compare · Booking

💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut

🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer

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Flavours & local habits

🍽️ Worth tasting

• Irish stew: lamb, potato and onion, cooked slowly and seasoned lightly.
• Soda bread: raised with bicarbonate instead of yeast, baked that same morning.
• Atlantic seafood, and Galway oysters before anything else.
• The full Irish breakfast, which doubles as lunch if you time it right.
• Guinness, and Irish whiskey after it.

⚠️ Best avoided

• Driving is on the left, and the lanes are narrow, wet and walled.
• Drinking in pubs is expensive: a pint in Dublin runs well over six euro.
• Book early along the Wild Atlantic Way, above all in July and August.
• Dress in layers: four seasons in a day is a description, not a joke.

Words that help

✈️ Flight delayed by 3 hours or more, or cancelled? You may be owed up to €600. Check your flight on AirHelp.

The practical page

Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/ireland

Packing checklist

Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.