Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way Road Trip
So this post is 3 years late, but hopefully the majority of the details / locations we visited remain the same post-covid. This Ireland vaca was one of my most favorite trips I've evvvver been on! I've always wanted to write a post about our itinerary so I can share with friends who visit... and just revisit when I'm feeling nostaglic - so here we go!
We went to Ireland in November 2019 for a just-for-fun trip (although I thought Paul was going to propose the entire time.... he did not lol). We went for 8-ish days in November around Thanksgiving. This had been my second time out of the country and the first time driving on the opposite side of the road! We flew into Dublin, drove the Wild Atlantic Way south all the way to Donegal, and then flew out of Donegal back to Dublin before heading back to Boston. I can't imagine seeing Ireland any other way. There is so much beauty we saw via car and I'm astonished so many folks we talked to in Ireland had never done this drive!
Ireland Airbnbs we stayed in along the Wild Atlantic Way:
8 Day Ireland Vacation Itinerary
(Clicking the hyperlink on a town will bring you directly to that part of the blog)
Day 1 - Dublin
Day 2 - Cork & Kinsale
Day 3 - Kinsale to Killarney
Day 4 - Ring of Kerry and Dingle
Day 5 - Tralee, Limerick, and Doolin
Day 6 - Doolin, Galway, and Westport
Day 7 - Westport to Donegal
Day 8 - Donegal to Dublin
Map of Wild Atlantic Way and Points of Interest
Detailed Ireland Itinerary
Day 1 - November 20th - Explore Dublin
We arrived in Dublin at 9am after taking a red eye flight from Boston. Check-in at the Moxy Hotel wasn't until the 3pm, so we had a whole afternoon to (very sleepily) explore the city. We bought a ticket for a hop-on-and-off Bus Tour for the day so we could site-see with little effort, but also take power naps on the bus between stops (well, I did. A sleepy Tam is no good). We checked out Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Temple Bar, and the beauuuutiful Trinity College to see the Book of Kels for some typical tourist shiz. After checking in to our hotel we cleaned up and hit the Guinness Storehouse. A must do!! It's so fun to tour the 7 story building learning the history of Guinness before ending up on the top with a 360 degree view of Dublin. Make sure you buy tickets in advance. For dinner we went to The Brazen Head which is the oldest pub in Dublin. Then I think we slept for 12 hours haha.
Day 2 - November 21st - Drive to Kinsale
We woke up and took a train to Cork to pick up our rental car. OK - something to note here. Coming from America, the train system / tickets in Ireland is a little confusing. If you buy a ticket through a certain station, that station will be printed on the ticket, but it's not necessarily the station you're supposed to go to. I can hardly remember the details, but we almost missed our train running all over the city with our luggage. I asked Paul for more details and I think he got PTSD lol. Check out this website for information on the stations to learn more. We had planned to explore Cork (English Market, Blarney Castle) but just headed straight to Kinsale instead.
It was quaint and cute and good walking distance to town. We walked the High Road along the water to Charles Fort which is beautiful and worth seeing. The walk wasn't too long and we also stopped at the Bulman Bar for lunch. They had a Westie sign out front which drew us in but the Guinness and Fish and Chips won us over. It was our first fish and chips since arriving in Ireland and it was a most welcome introduction into the deliciousness!! After arriving at our airbnb, Paul went out to explore the town further but all I did was take a bath in that glorious claw foot tub and sleep off my jetlag.
Day 3 - November 22nd – Driving from Kinsale to Killarney
On day three we headed to Killarney. We first checked out Drombeg Stone Circle before heading through the beautiful Killarney National Park. It was so beautiful it made it challenging not to pull over at every turn. We stopped at a few lookouts, visited Torc Waterfall and others , and the grounds of Ross Castle before checking in to our airbnb. The airbnb was soooo cute and had breakfast included in a quaint little greenhouse room. I was smitten!
Although we didn't hit many of the items on our pre-planned itinerary, I'll leave them here for you to check out:
Sights to See
Timoleague Castle
The Old Head of Kinsale
Stop in Clonakilty - Good Pub De Barra’s Bar...known for black pudding
Skibbereen Town
Mizen Head
Drive the Beara Peninsula
Places to Eat/Pubs
The Celtic Whiskey Bar and Larder – Killarney (prob need reservation here)
Teach Beag (Clonakilty) -- good pub
An Sugan Pub (Clonakilty)
Day 4- November 23rd – Explore Ring of Kerry and drive to Dingle
Drive Ring of Kerry! You'll see so much of beautiful Ireland from the patchwork green rolling hills, tucked away beaches, and view points galore.
Some of my favorite viewpoints along our route were:
Derrynane House & Beach
Kerry Cliffs Portmagee Ireland (Skelligs Viewpoint)
Coumeenole beach
Dunmore head
After exploring, we went out in Dingle for some pints and eded up at Foxy johns and Dick Mack's, Both were super fun! Foxy John's is a hardware store during the day and then turns into a bar at night which is just.... wut. I loved it. They were both absolutely wild and held up to the Dingle stereotype; we saw some girl fights, some drunk lads standing on tables shouting and singing, and got a few jokes on our behalf about our Americanness wardrobe.
Day 5- November 24th – Tralee, Limerick, and Doolin
Alrighty so to continue on, we drove along Slea Head Drive which was beautiful buuuut kind of sketchy in some parts! It is a two-way, one lane road with just a small rock wall barrier separating you from certain death should you swerve (is it me? am i the drama?). In order to not go super far out of the way, we took the ferry from Tralee to Limerick to cut down some time. Driving up to this next segment also takes you along the highest point of the Wild Atlantic Way!
There were a bunch of little pitstops we made to take in the view that I can't remember the names of, but here were some of our favorite views I did note:
Sybil head Graigue, Co.
Fenit lighhouse
Cliffs of Moher (sadly, we got there really hate with hardly any light so I didn't grab any photos)
Pubs/Food
Cullinans
Gus O’Connors – Doolin
Day 6 - November 25th – Doolin, Galway, and Westport
We stayed pretty close to the Cliffs of Moher in order to soak in those views on two separate days but sadly, similarly to the dark preventing us the night before, a lack of visibility prevented us from seeing it this morning. Sad! But it's ok because I've seen a thousand and one photos. And it pales in comparison to Slieve League Cliffs.
So continuing en route, we stopped in Galway where I bought myself and my bff a claddagh ring, a must! Obv! Then we visited Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Garden, which, eh... dunno if I'd stop again. We didn't really do much research on it so weren't fully invested in the ticket price.
And, you guessed it, here are the views we saw any loved:
Killary Fjord
Doolough Valley - (read about the Doolough Tragedy here).
Benwee Head
Pubs/Food
Matt Molloy’s – Westport
Day 7 - November 26th – Westport to Donegal
Can you tell that as the days and blog go on I write less and less? I'm not sure if we just didn't do as much, if the drive was longer without much to see, or if I can't remember as much.... but this day is shooooort boy. Only thing I have in my photos is that we visited the Dún Briste Sea Stack in Downpatrick Head and the Eire 64 Lookout Post from WW2.
A sight we didn't see, but that was on our planning itinerary was Bad Eddie’s Shipwreck (in Bunbeg Town) which you can drive on the beach to.
Pubs/Food
Thomas Connolly - Sligo
Hargadon’s – Sligo
Nancy’s – Donegal… in the town of Ardara.
Day 8 - November 27th – Donegal to Dublin
Alright last day best day!!! Before heading to the airport to fly back to Dublin we hiked the gorgeous, epic, marvelous Slieve League Cliffs. These cliffs was the best view of the trip, hands down. After we visited here I was like Cliffs of Moher what?!
Ordinarily I feel like an airport description might not make into an itinerary description, but the Donegal airport was voted the most beautiful airport in the world for three years in a row! It's the teeniest airport ever - the woman who we returned our rental car with was the same woman who checked us in through security and I'm pretty sure she even loaded our bags onto the plane lol. But so after we checked in, we took a stroll down to the beach next to the airport along the trails for the best waiting-for-our-plane time ever!!
10 minute recap video of our Ireland trip:
Tell a friend to tell a friend that if you're interested in eloping in Ireland, hire Tamara Merri Photography to help plan and photograph it!!
xx,
Tam
www.tamaramerriphotography.com
