A Week in Ireland
A trip over a year in the making! I surprised my dad on St. Patrick’s Day 2022 with a trip to Ireland for his 70th birthday for the upcoming fall. We had started planning, and had a great itinerary sketched out. Our family history was traced back to County Kerry in the Southwest, so my dad wanted to spend most of the trip exploring that area, and the rest in Dublin. Unfortunately a week before our scheduled trip in September 2022, my dad got Covid, so we pushed it back to May 2023 when we hoped the weather would be better than the middle of winter. We were right, and ended up with mostly nice days and only touches of wind or rain.
Keep reading to see our itinerary, cute restaurants and shops we found along the day, and recommendations if you’re also planning a trip to Ireland!
Day 1: Dublin to Killarney
We took an overnight flight, landing in Dublin mid morning. After grabbing a coffee, we headed to pick up our rental car. Thankfully my dad wanted to drive, since I had no interest in driving on the opposite side as the US!
It was around a 3 1/2 hour drive to The Lake Hotel in Killarney where we’d be staying. After a long travel day, we ate dinner at the hotel, walked some of the grounds and headed to bed!
Day 2: Killarney to Glengarriff
In the morning, we visited Ross Castle, Muckross House, and drove through Killarney National Park, making scenic stops along the way like Ladies View. Killarney National Park is known for amazing walks and hikes like the Gap of Dunloe that I would love to do if I came back sometime with my husband, Brian.
We stopped and walked around Kenmare, a cute town where the main streets make a triangle and is easy to roam for an hour or two. I was excited to find an amazing candle at Kenmare Courtyard Gallery, which was one of the many shops we popped into.
Next, we drove to Eccles Hotel & Spa Glengarriff where we stayed the night. It had started drizzling, so we decided to eat at the restaurant again, which was good!
Day 3: Killarney to Parknasilla
We got up and drove back through Kenmare, on our way to Parknasilla. We enjoyed a latte at LK Cafe in the Lansdowne Hotel because we couldn’t get a spot at Maison Gourmet, a bakery that was so busy.
It was a shorter driving day, and we arrived at our hotel, Parknasilla Resort & Spa early in the day. My dad went golfing at the resort course, and my aunt and I enjoyed the walking trails before going to the hotel restaurant for a delicious lunch. It seemed like there were a lot of young Irish families here for short holidays, especially compared to the prior few hotels we had stayed at.
In addition to nice walking trails (though they had poor signage!), they also have a nice on site gym and spa. I headed there after lunch and went into the thermal spas which is included in your hotel stay. If you wanted to book additional services, I recommend booking ahead since they didn’t have availability day-of.
When my dad returned from his golf ground, we headed back to the hotel bar and restaurant for drinks then dinner. It was a really fun spot with great cocktails!
Day 4: The ring of kerry
Parknasilla is at the beginning of the Ring of Kerry, so we spent all oft his day doing the loop! We went clockwise, which is recommended since tour busses go counter clockwise. There were amazingly beautiful stops along the route including Paradise Found Viewpoint, Derrynane Beach, and my favorite the Kerry Cliffs. We weren’t going to the Cliffs of Moher on this trip, so this was a smaller version that was stunning! Granted, we did luck out on weather for this trip.
Next we stopped in Cahersiveen, which was a smaller town and not a ton of food options. We had a quick bite and coffee at Bari Cafe, then kept driving toward Dingle. We only drove past, but Inch Beach looked really nice if you wanted a stop.
We pulled into Cill Bhreac House B&B where we’d be staying for 2 nights. The host was so nice and gave us some great Dingle recommendations. We ended up heading to The Dingle Pub for dinner and drinks where they had live music and an Irish dancer performed. We learned about Dingle Gin, and have been loving gin & tonics with it since, preferably with elderflower tonic!
Day 5: Dingle Peninsula
After breakfast, we headed out on Slea Head Drive to drive the Dingle Peninsula. We also drove clockwise. The first stop was Lios Stone Circle & Animal Feeding, where you roam a farm with lambs and llamas for a small entry fee. It was a highlight! Other stops we made were Beehive Huts (Tóchar Maothaithe), Dunquin Pier, and The Blasket Centre. We stopped at Tig Áine for lunch with pretty views then headed back to Dingle.
Back in Dingle, I took a lovely walk along a country road before we went back into town to walk the shops and grab dinner. The Coach House was a cute interior design shop! We had dinner at Doyles, which was another recommendation from our B&B host. It was ok, but there were a lot of other cute spots around Dingle you could also try. After dinner we then had to enjoy a scoop from Murphy’s Ice Cream!
Day 6: Dingle to tralee
Before heading out of town, I grabbed a Rise & Shine smoothie from Seed & Soul. It was around an hour drive through Connor Pass to Tralee. Our family ancestry is traced back to someone born in Tralee, so my dad wanted to visit! Tralee was a cute town but we mainly did genealogy stuff, so a recommendation if you’re not doing that would be to head back to Dublin, or you could continue North up the Wild Atlantic Way.
In Tralee, we went to the Kerry County Museum, had lunch at Wild Cafe, and walked around the town before heading to the Meadowlands Hotel.
Day 7: Tralee to dublin
The morning was spent on around a 4 hour drive from Tralee back to Dublin. We dropped off the rental car, then headed to the Docklands neighborhood where I visited my work’s office to meet some coworkers and check into our corporate housing where we stayed for 2 nights. If you work for a company with corporate housing in different cities, I recommend checking if you can stay there! I was able to reserve a room for personal use if they had availability, and we ended up with a full two bedroom apartment for around 150€ per night, which was significantly less than the hotels we were looking at in Dublin!
After checking in and getting settled, we headed to The Ivy for dinner - one of my favorite restaurants from the England! I was so happy when I found that they also had a location in Dublin! We went a bit early to sit at their beautiful bar and enjoy their famous salted caramel espresso martini - yum!
We then walked around the shops of Grafton Street, and ended up at Kehoe Pub which was absolutely packed on a sunny Friday afternoon. Bar patrons filled the entire street, laughing and enjoying more Dingle Gin and Guinness.
Day 8: dublin
This was our big Dublin day!
It started with breakfast at Brother Hubbard North, upon recommendation from my cousin who’s visited Dublin before. They had phenomenal baked goods.
Next, we started our tourist route at Trinity College for the Book of Kells. We unfortunately didn’t make a reservation and they were sold out for the day. I recommend pre-booking your time!
We then walked around Drury Street which had the cutest shops. Irish Design Shop, Industry & Co, Fallon & Byrne, and Powerscourt Townhouse Centre all had great goods to pick up as souvenirs. I picked up a few candles, Dingle sea salt, and chocolates. There were lots of cute vintage designer stores and my cousin recommended Loose Cannon Cheese and Wine, but we were there too early in the day for wine!
We found a hop-on, hop-off bus tour to take us around the city. It was nice weather, so sitting in the sun up top was great. We toured St Patrick's Cathedral, then went to The Fumbally for a late lunch.
Ready to head back to our apartment, we stopped at Lotts & Co., a nice grocery store nearby for bread, cheese, olives, and truffle potato chips for a makeshift dinner.
Day 9: dublin
For our last morning in Dublin, we grabbed breakfast at a cute (and busy!) cafe, 3fe Coffee on Grand Canal Street. We then headed to the airport, wrapping up our trip!
