Your 10-day itinerary for Ireland for the quick-paced traveler! In planning our trip to Ireland, we knew we wanted to see a lot during our one week. Our ultimate goal was to end our trip in Dublin to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day (click here to learn more about Saint Patrick’s Day festivities in Ireland!). Round-trip flights were booked from Dublin. Upon landing in Dublin, we rented a car and set-out to circumnavigate the island heading in a clockwise direction! Below is our itinerary around the island.
10 Day Itinerary
Day 1
Travel day! Day one, it took all day to travel from Little Rock to NY to prepare for our overnight flight!
Day 2
Our overnight flight landed in Dublin early in the morning. Then:
- Drove 1:25 minutes to Kilkenny
- Explored downtown and had lunch
- Visited Kilkenny Castle
- Drove 1:40 minutes to Cork
- Explore a little of Cork before having dinner
Day 3
Cork and Killarney
- Finished exploring Cork
- Stopped at the Blarney Castle on the way from Cork to Killarney
- After exploring the Blarney Castle and Gardens, we drove to Killarney
- Had dinner and explored the town of Killarney
Day 4
A lot of driving around the coastline! Day 4 we tackled the Wild Atlantic Way!
- We opted to drive the Ring of Kerry on the Dingle Peninsula
- Afterward, we drove north to the Cliffs of Moher
- Explored the Cliffs of Moher
- Finished the coastline and drove to Galway for the night
Day 5
Explored Galway!
- We had breakfast at Ard Bia at Nimmos (delicious!)
- Explored downtown; very accessible by foot!
- Did a pub crawl; recommend!
Day 6
Travel day:
- Drove 2.5 hours from Galway to Derry/Londonderry
- After getting up early, we arrived in time to do a walking tour, walk the walls of the city and explore downtown
Day 7
We finished exploring Derry/Londonderry and then made the short drive further north! There we visited:
- Giant’s Causeway which is so amazing
- Carrick-A-Rede Bridge
- Dark Hedges
- A Game of Thrones door (if you don’t know what this is and you are a GOT fan, GOOGLE IT! Such a neat story!)
- Dinner in Ballycastle (cute town!)
Day 8
Further exploring in Northern Ireland!
- 1 hour drive from Ballycastle to Belfast
- Took a Black Taxi Tour
- Explored Belfast until nearly dark
- Drove 1 hour and 50 minutes to Dublin for the night
Day 9
Day of celebration!
- Saint Patrick’s Day festivities in Dublin
- Parade
- Pub Crawl
- More Pub Crawling
- Dinner probably
Day 10
Worst travel day ever 🙃
- Early morning flight from Dublin following Saint Patrick’s Day festivities
- Don’t recommend: fly later or another day altogether 🙂
Your Itinerary for ireland
This is a fast-paced itinerary for Ireland. It involved a lot of driving! I know many people like to stay in one or two cities and do as much as they can in those few locations. And that is completely okay! However, the goal of this itinerary was for seeing a lot of places in a short amount of time. Feel free to stretch it out and allow more days in each destination if you have more time on your hands! Also, it is easy to take away Northern Ireland if your interests lie just in the southern part of Ireland. Make the itinerary your own; this is only a blueprint you may use!
Our Takeaways from the Itinerary
We felt a little rushed in some locations, mostly at the beginning of the itinerary. However, overall, we felt like we were able to do everything we wanted to do and see everything we wanted to see!
- The biggest change I would have made would have been 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 in the summer due to increased
- 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. a two week trip if you can (we couldn’t, hence the fast-paced itinerary)
Looking for more details on what to do in Ireland? Click here for a 10 of our favorite things we did on our trip around the Emerald Isle!