Maybe it’s because we liked Lucky Charms cereal as children, or that the Broadway musical “Once” set in Dublin left us in tears, or perhaps it’s our love of the movie, “P.S. I Love You”.  Whatever the reasons, my daughter and I found ourselves on a one week Ireland adventure recently and it truly was magical.

The beautiful Cliffs of Moher

So here are my tips for doing Ireland in one week.  (If you have longer, I definitely recommend slowing down the pace that we kept, but we were limited to one week.) The tips are a combination of many friends who preceded me to the Emerald Isle, along with our firsthand experiences!

Tip One—Plan your route carefully, with the two most important tools:  Rick Steves Best of Ireland book and the National Geographic Map of Ireland. Ask your friends for their “must see” spots and compile your list from there. We found super cheap flights to London on Norwegian Airlines so we decided to spend one day and night in London, and then caught a $35 flight to Shannon Airport on Ryan Air.  We picked up our rental car and then proceeded to spend five different destination from the west side of the Island down and up to the east side of Ireland, ending up in Dublin for our final day, and flying home from there. (Picture our route forming a giant smile on the map, left to right!)

Tip Two—Weigh carefully the decision to rent a car. Here are some of the wisest decisions we made, along with some of our mistakes:

• Pay a little extra for an automatic. You do not want to be shifting with a new hand (left) while navigating the narrow and winding roads. Make sure you reserve your car this way in advance.
• The smaller the car the better! I’m so glad I didn’t take the hunky Irish car rental agent up on the upgrade to a larger car. Our little red Kia was just fine for two, and I would have been even more nervous with a wider car!
  

  Our Trusty “Little Red”

• Make sure you have a good navigator in the passenger seat, along with GPS. I cannot imagine both driving and navigating at the same time.  Not to mention the importance of your navigator’s warnings that you are too close to the left side of the road. (Hey, I only side-swiped the side-view mirror once, and Ali was so kind to run down the street and retrieve the piece that had flown off.)
• Be careful because sometimes the same named hotel exists in multiple cities! We learned the hard way that we were on our way to the wrong Barr na Straide B&B which added an extra hour plus to our trip. (In my defense I thought that sounded like a very unique name for a B&B. Turns out Barr na Straide means “Top of the Hill”, a somewhat common term in small Irish towns!)
• Try to arrive at your destination before the sun goes down. Only about 20% of our drive time was on the equivalent of a multi-lane interstate. So that means the other 80% was on narrow Irish roads, which sometimes are not really two lane, but rather “take your turn” one lane roads. Literally this means you must be on the look-out for cars coming from the other direction and pull off to the occasionally provided side road area until they pass.  Add total pitch darkness to this game of chicken and you have a very frightening experience.  The most terrifying was on the road to Dingle on the side of a mountain. When we drove that same road the next day in bright daylight I was thanking Jesus again for his angels that watched over us the night before!
• Don’t let your gas tank get below a quarter full. Gas stations are not nearly as plentiful on the country roads, and even off their interstates they take longer to find. We discovered this the hard way during a stressful search for a gas station while our “low fuel” blinked brightly!

Tip Three—Consider skipping some of the more touristy traps. One of my favorite things about Rick Steves is he gives you great advice about places that are over-rated and wonderful alternative ideas.  Here are a few suggestions that I followed his advice on, as well as the advice of locals:

• The Ring of Kerry drive is a gorgeous all day drive, but the Dingle Road Peninsula has extremely similar scenery and only takes a couple of hours. I heard horror stories of the number of tour buses consuming the roads on the Ring of Kerry, so we chose the road less traveled and were not disappointed. Rick’s book has a mile by mile guide as to where you can stop on this road to experience everything from petting lambs, to climbing on the rocks where they filmed Star Wars the Last Jedi. Absolutely breathtaking scenery, for a fraction of the stress!
  

  The breathtaking Dingle Peninsula drive

• The Blanary Castle is overrated, overpriced and you stand in line to kiss a stone that rumor has men like to urinate on when no one is looking. So we took a hard pass and instead traveled to the Rock of Cashel for amazing ruins and a view that was magnificent.
• Our cab driver that picked us up after our Guinness tour told us when we asked to be dropped off at the Temple Bar area that we should take a quick look and get the heck out of there. He was right as it was just one noisy, crowded pub after another, with sort of a “New Orleans French Quarter at night” vibe. Not our scene. We also took his advice on a restaurant for dinner, and dined at “The Bank” with beautiful original architecture and a live piano. Never undervalue the recommendation of a local.
• A few more thoughts on Dublin—
  • Seeing the famous Book of Kells was a bit underwhelming for us, but the magnificent Trinity College Library redeemed the price of admission. This is a one hour adventure tops.
  • The famous Guinness tour is more like a combination of a history and science museum. You don’t see any of the actual factory during the tour, but you do learn much about this robust brew. My favorite part was getting to learn how to “pour a draw” which turns out is multi step process. Also the view from the skyline bar at the top is definitely a neat way to get a birds-eye view of Dublin.

Tip Four—Be sure to plan some experiential adventures, and also allow for spontaneity!  Here are a few of our favorites:

• A Facebook friend recommended going horseback riding in the Dingle Peninsula. Yes please! I booked in advance our 90 minute beach and mountain adventure at Long’s Horseback Riding Centre. Don’t worry if you’ve never ridden a house.  These gentle giants aren’t anxious to go anywhere and the guides have things under control at all times. Being up close to the sheep grazing in the countryside and walking on the sandy shores of Ventry beach were even better on the backs of our new friends.
  

  Horseback Riding on Ventry Beach!

• We channeled our inner Katniss and took a private archery lessons out front of our castle in Kinnity with Noel, owner of Birr Equestrian Centre. Turns out both of Ali and I were naturals, and her topscore of 46 only beat me by one point! (In case you don’t know, 50 is the top score with five arrows.)
  

  Archery at the Castle!

• While walking the streets of Galway on a quiet Monday evening we were invited to a stand-up comedy night at a local pub. So my comedic daughter thought that sounded fun and off we went. Chatting with the amateur Irish comedians before the show was a blast.
• Leave time to stop and listen to the street musicians. “Busking” was our favorite way to listen to music during the trip, and of course you want to have some euro coin on hand to throw in the guitar case.

Tip Five—Consider going in the “shoulder season” of Fall to this beautiful country. Turns out that mid-October was a perfect time as the crowds were nowhere in sight, and the prices more reasonable on airfare and lodging. If you go during this season be sure to bring plenty of layers, including your “woolies” as the British like to say (long underwear). The few times we encountered downpours we would adjust our plans a bit, go grab a bite to eat, and the storm would pass. We had lots of sunshine, and when we didn’t, our wool hats and scarves kept us cozy. Honestly for this Florida gal, it was a refreshing change to layer up!

So from Galway to Dingle, to Kinsale, to Kinnity, to Dublin, we experienced a beautiful week in Ireland. If you have the pleasure of journeying there in your future, may those beautiful Irish roads rise up to greet you!