Resurrecting this from a year ago .... I'm still going! My plans moved from May to September. I'm about ready to start booking hotels, but probably won't pull the trigger on air fare quite yet .... I can cancel hotel reservations, but juuuust in case, I'll wait a bit longer on the flight. Prices have been holding steady - for now!
There's just so much information out there, it makes it really easy to overplan and be overwhelmed. After many rough drafts of itineraries and trolling forums for feedback from other travelers, I think I'm set in my plan.
There's so much I want to see, and don't want to spend the two weeks in the car getting from Thing to See to Other Thing to See, so alas, a lot of things I want to see got left out. As I'd been told, plan as if you will be going back in the future, otherwise you'll cram too much in.
So here it is:
I originally had just 3 days in Dublin, but as my first day will be me trying to see the Dublin sites while also dealing with jet lag and probably being overwhelmed and hitting the ground running, I wanted to give myself another day to explore the city, to see what I didn't get to see the first day, and if I get to see everything the first day, then I have other things I'd like to do if I have time, or I'll just relax and hang out.
Day 1 Dublin - city sight-seeing
Day 2 Dublin - guided tour up to Newgrange and Monasterboice
Day 3 Dublin - guided tour down to Glendalough
Day 4 Dublin - city sight-seeing, maybe see a U2 locale, maybe take the DART to Dun Laoghaire
(I think I finally found a hotel I'm happy with. A good hotel with decent rates - $130/night, in a great location and good reviews online. YAY. I was thinking I'd like to splurge and stay somewhere more swanky, but the swanky hotels are just too expensive. If I find some screaming deal within the next few months, I can always cancel the other booking, thanks to Hotels.com "no cancellation fee" policy.
)
Day 5 - Pick up car, drive to Westport with stopover at Clonmacnoise, night in Westport
(I was trying to avoid having any one-night stays in any town, but that was before I found that renting a car out of Dublin instead of Galway would save me almost $200, and as someone pointed out, it would be easier to get used to driving straight out of Dublin on the motorway, rather than in Galway. And this allowed me the freedom to check out another little bit of the west.)
Day 6 - drive around area to see things like Croaig Patrick and Doo Lough Valley, then on to Galway
Day 7 Galway - day trip to Aran Islands
Day 8 Galway - driving around Connemara
Day 9 Galway - explore the city
(I'm going with a B&B in the Salthill neighborhood, as it just sounds lovely out there, despite being out of the city center. Sounds like driving/parking is a pain right in the city, and there's a frequent bus going between the two. Plus, I can stay right by Galway Bay!)
Day 10 - drive to Dingle, taking time for Cliffs of Moher (if there's time and it's not too foggy to see anything) and a bit of the Burren (if time)
Day 11 Dingle - explore the city
Day 12 Dingle - drive around the Peninsula, Slea Head drive, see the stuff there is to see
(My first choice of B&B was booked already, so I'm waiting to hear from my second choice. All the ones I'd listed for Dingle seem like great options, so I'm not too worried.)
Day 13 - drive up to Ennis, hang out there
Day 14 - fly home out of Shannon
I am SO EXCITED.
Originally I was waiting to see if U2 would be playing Dublin shows in September as rumored, but the more I planned, the more I began to hope that a show wouldn't happen, because it would make my plans so much more complicated.