An epic 8 day Ireland itinerary that circumnavigates the whole Emerald Isle! Circumnavigating Ireland means you get to see all of the amazing highlights around the coast, but also all the beauty between!
- The Best Way to Get Around Ireland
- Summary of Your 8 day Ireland Itinerary
- Day 1: Kilkenny and Cork
- Day 2: Blarney Castle and Killarney
- Day 3: WIld Atlantic Way and Cliffs of Moher
- Day 4: Galway
- Day 5: Travel Day and Derry/Londonderry
- Day 6: Giant's Causeway, Carrick-A-Rede Bridge, Dark Hedges
- Day 7: belfast, Northern Ireland
- Day 8: Dublin for St Patrick's Day
- Day 9: Travel Day back Home
- Takeaways from our 8 day ireland itinerary
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The Best Way to Get Around Ireland
You can definitely see a lot of Ireland and beautiful places via bus or tours. However, in my humble opinion, the best way to see Ireland is to rent a car!
- Ireland is FULL of gems that are just not accessible by bus or tour.
- The Emerald Isle is truly beautiful, but be prepared. If you plan to circumnavigate the Island (which is so fun and beautiful), then there will be a lot of driving involved!
- Yes, you drive on the left side of the road and the roads can be narrow and a bit curvy, but it is definitely doable and definitely worth it!
Book a car to drive around the Emerald Isle!
Summary of Your 8 day Ireland Itinerary
Our ultimate goal was to end our trip in Dublin to celebrate St Patrick’s Day (click here to learn more about Saint Patrick’s Day festivities in Ireland!). We wanted to see the cities of Dublin and Galway, but we really wanted to also get into the smaller Irish towns and we REALLY wanted to see the epic landscapes of Northern Ireland.
- Therefore, we decided we would circumnavigate the island and get ALL that the Emerald Isle has to offer!
- Upon landing in Dublin, we rented a car and set-out to circumnavigate the island heading in a clockwise direction!
Day 1: Kilkenny and Cork
Our overnight flight landed in Dublin early in the morning. Day 1 of our 8 day Ireland itinerary included Cork with a pitstop for lunch in Kilkenny.
- We immediately drove one hour and 25 minutes to Kilkenny
- Kilkenny is a small, breathtakingly cute town that will take you back in time with its old-world feel located between Dublin and Cork.
- Spend the morning taking a walk around the cobbled streets of Kilkenny, then have lunch and take a look at the famous cathedrals and abbeys.
- After lunch, go see the Kilkenny Castle and Rose Garden where you can take a free self-guided tour around the premise.
- After exploring Kilkenny, drive the hour and 40 minute drive to Cork
- We arrived in Cork in time to walk along the streets of Cork, shop, see St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral, and have some dinner at a comfortable pace.
Day 2: Blarney Castle and Killarney
Blarney Castle and Killarney
- Day three morning was an early one! The main reasoning for stopping in Cork was the proximity to Blarney Castle (about a 15 minute drive)
- After an early breakfast, head straight to Blarney Castle in order to be there when it opened to beat the crowds (Recommend!)
- There are SO MANY castles in Ireland. You can find one in nearly every town. However, the most popular is likely Blarney Castle due to the legend of kissing the Blarney Stone. It’s said that kissing the stone will bring you eloquence and persuasiveness. There have been many well-known people including Winston Churchill to lay upside down and kiss the stone!
- Expect to pay around 16 euros to enter the grounds.
- If you prefer, you can book a guided tour of the Blarney Castle and its grounds here on Viator!
- Once done exploring Blarney Castle and Gardens, head to Killarney for the night.
- Killarney is a quaint town, so even with a later arrival, you’ll have time to explore downtown and grab dinner!
Killarney is a great place to stay to prep for driving the Wild Atlantic Way!
Day 3: WIld Atlantic Way and Cliffs of Moher
A lot of driving around the coastline! Day 4 we tackled the Wild Atlantic Way! Due to staying in Killarney, we were able to get an early start on the Wild Atlantic Way!
- The Wild Atlantic Way is miles and miles of coastal road in the southern and western portions of Ireland. Warning: once you’re on the Wild Atlantic Way, there can be limited exits, so be prepared for a long journey.
- We drove along the Ring of Kerry round trip from Killarney. Skellig Michael is a rocky island found along the peninsula, open during the warmer months (mid-May through September-ish)!
- Another route is to go along the Dingle peninsula. Both provide similar views along the coast!
- To have the most freedom when viewing the coastline, take a rental car. However, if you haven’t rented a car there are tour buses that go around the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula.
- It takes about 3.5 hours to drive the Ring of Kerry due to the winding road and speed limits. However, there are great views for the whole drive!
- The Wild Atlantic Way goes all the way up to The Cliffs of Moher, but it is the long route; there is a more inland route around Limerick!
Stay in Galway for night three!
Day 4: Galway
Any 8 day Ireland itinerary needs to include Galway! Galway is such a cute city (as many of the Irish towns are 😍). It will be one of the larger cities on the route, and thus I recommend staying at least two nights here. On Day 4:
- Get up early and have a nice breakfast. We went to Ard Bia at Nimmos and it was delicious!
- Explore downtown. Galway is easy to navigate by foot, so get lost in the roads and shops of Galway
- Eyre Square is a popular place to walk around
- Also recommend visiting Charlie Byrne’s Bookstore if you like to visit bookstores.
- Do a pub crawl in the evening; so fun!!
- Don’t miss O’Connel’s pub where Ed Sheerens music video was shot
Day 5: Travel Day and Derry/Londonderry
This 8 day Ireland itinerary technically includes Northern Ireland as well. If you are going to visit the area, I believe Northern Ireland should be visited as well; it holds a lot of amazing natural phenomena as well as some great cities! The first stop in Northern Ireland is Derry/Londonderry.
The drive from Galway to Derry/Londonderry is a bit of a hefty one. However, the views are great so it helps!
- It is a 2.5 hour drive from Galway to Derry/Londonderry, so I recommend getting an early start to maximize your day in Derry/Londonderry.
- Derry/Londonderry is the only medieval city wall still fully intact in Europe. The wall is wide and easily navigated with great views within and outside of the city! Truly a beautiful city!
- There is deep history in the city of Derry/Londonderry between those of the Catholics/Protestants or nationalist/unionists. The history is recent and fresh. Feel free to read more about the history before visiting!
Day 6: Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-A-Rede Bridge, Dark Hedges
A shorter drive is required on day 6! After breakfast in Derry/Londonderry head north (hour drive) to some of the prettiest sites on this 8 day Ireland itinerary!
- Giant’s Causeway which is so amazing!
- Along with the Cliffs of Moher, it is a must-see natural site in Ireland. The causeway is an area full of basalt columns created by an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. Most of the are hexagonal and lie so intricately placed, it is unfathomable how the causeway was created so naturally. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. It costs 13 euros to visit the causeway.
- Carrick-A-Rede Bridge
- 15 minutes from Giant’s Causeway is Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. It is simply, just a rope bridge. However, when the weather is good you can cross the bridge to an island for views of the coastline. We weren’t fortunate enough to have said “good weather,” so may the odds be ever in your favor!
- Dark Hedges
- There are about 28 filming sites for Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland, and the Dark Hedges are one of them.
- However, even if you aren’t a GOT fan, the trees really are pretty cool!
- A Game of Thrones door
- In 2016, Storm Gertrude destroyed two of the famous Dark Hedge trees and a local artist carved them into 10 doors, one for each episode of season 6.
- The doors are now in various parts of Northern Ireland. You can get a “passport” of sorts to mark off each door as you go. It’s almost like a treasure hunt!
- One required you ask the bartender about the door in order to get it marked off your list of doors! It was really a cool experience!
- However, I’ll be the first to tell you, I am not your go-to person for all things GOT. Truthfully, I saved KevMRC’s post about all of the locations and used his map of all of the filming and door locations!
If you are on a road-trip and want to visit these sights, I recommend staying in Ballycastle. It is only 20 minutes from Giant’s Causeway and 12 minutes from the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge. We were able to see of this easily in the day with a nice dinner in Ballycastle afterward.
Day 7: belfast, Northern Ireland
More exploring in Northern Ireland in Belfast!
- Ballycastle to Belfast is about an hour drive
- Belfast is big; second largest city on the Emerald Isle behind Dublin. Therefore, we saw the highlights and then decided to take a Black Taxi Tour in order to make the most of our time
- Belfast is another city with fresh history similar to Derry/Londonderry. I found the Black Taxi Tour to provide information on both sides of the conflict. Belfast has a peace wall built between the predominantly Catholic/nationalist and Protestant/unionist communities.
- The tour takes you on both sides of the wall, displaying the murals of each side and the view point of those who wave the Union Jack flag and those who wave the Irish flag. The tour makes a pitstop for you to sign the peace wall. Be sensitive to the subject, but help learn and make yourself knowledgable of the history
- Don’t miss Commercial Court road (aka Umbrella Street that I’m sure you’ve seen!)
- Also, there is another GOT Dark Hedge Door in Belfast!
- After finishing Belfast explorations, drive 1 hour and 50 minutes to Dublin have some dinner, a Guinness and prepare for the next day’s festivities!
Day 8: Dublin for St Patrick’s Day
Day of celebration!
- St Patrick’s Day festivities in Dublin was such a blast! Highlights were:
- Parade in the morning
- Pub Crawl during the day
- More Pub Crawling during the evening
- Dinner probably somewhere in there 🙂
For everything you need to know about celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day in Dublin, click here!
If you are not planning to visit Ireland during St Patrick’s Day, spend your day exploring the beautiful city of Dublin. My biggest complaint of our itinerary was that all of our time in Dublin was taken up by the St Patrick’s Day festivities, so I would love to return to Dublin to see more of it!
Day 9: Travel Day back Home
Worst travel day ever 🙃
- Early morning flight from Dublin following Saint Patrick’s Day festivities
- Don’t recommend: fly later or another day altogether 🙂
Takeaways from our 8 day ireland itinerary
This itinerary for Ireland is a fast-paced 8 day Ireland itinerary, I’ll admit. But it covers all the highlights we were excited to see. Each part of the trip had its own beauty and added something to the trip. Obviously if you can get more days from work you can slow this itinerary down a little, but overall the blueprint is a great one to follow! To note, though:
- We felt a little rushed in some locations, mostly at the beginning of the itinerary. You may choose to not make the pitstop in Kilkenny in order to have more time in Cork.
- The biggest change I would have made to this 8 day Ireland itinerary would have been to add one more day in Dublin. Our day was full of St. Patrick’s Day festivities which didn’t allow for us to see everything we wanted.
- We were also unable to tour the Guinness brewery due to tickets being sold out. I recommend buying your tickets early if you are traveling around St. Patrick’s Day or plan to be in Dublin on the weekend!
- In retrospect, if you really want to circumnavigate Ireland (which I recommend, because each part of Ireland is so beautiful and offers something great), I would suggest making it at least a 10-12 day trip if you can (we couldn’t, hence the fast-paced itinerary)
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