Ireland Road Trip Itinerary: 1 Week

This past spring I had the privilege of surprising my boyfriend with a trip to Ireland for his 30th birthday! Yes, it took me this long to get the blog post up for it. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive, international getaway that includes some incredible views, you should definitely check out Ireland. Flights (especially from New York) can be incredibly cheap if you plan ahead and are flexible with your dates. I got ours each for ~ $250 round trip -- I can rarely even get home to Michigan for that price! AirBnB’s are available at decent prices as well, and everyone in Ireland is unbelievably hospitable and friendly. We actually got a lot of our favorite food places recommended to us from locals! Rental cars are definitely the best option for traveling around the country, and you can get them at a very reasonable price, especially if you’re willing to attempt driving a standard on the wrong side of the road. We opted for an automatic, as I can’t drive a stick, and I would’ve felt bad making him drive his entire birthday trip. Though, we both still managed to hit a couple side mirrors and curbs anyways ...so it was really for the best that we stuck with an automatic.

Note: Roads around Ireland can be a bit, well, wild. So insurance can be a big added surprise cost if you’re not prepared. Unfortunately, a lot of credit cards cover most countries for rental car insurance except Ireland (and a few others). So just double check that your card covers it, or be prepared to have upwards of $5,000 held on your card as part of the policy. Assuming you bring the car back in one piece, you’ll get it all back!

Packing Tip: The weather over there can be pretty unpredictable. Sunny one minute, raining and cold the next. So I would just recommend packing an array of clothing (layers, layers, layers) and be prepared for rain at any moment.

We had an absolutely incredible time driving and exploring around the country. Driving was an adventure and the views from the roads were stunning. Our travel itinerary worked out pretty nicely for us, so I thought I would share it, in case anyone is looking for help planning their Ireland road trip!

Day 1: Arrive in Dublin

Day 2: Dublin

Day 3: Dublin Again

Day 4: Dublin to Castle Ward to Belfast

Day 5: Belfast (to Ballymote) to Galway

Day 6: Galway to Cliffs of Moher to Cork

Day 7: Cork to Cashel and back to Dublin

Day 8: Dublin to NYC

Day 1: Arrive in Dublin

We had an overnight flight from New York and landed in Dublin right around 8:30am on our first day in Ireland, leaving us a full day to fight off jet lag. Since our AirBnB wasn’t able to check us in until 3:30pm, we stopped in a little town called Howth on our way from the airport to the City Center of Dublin. It was an adorable little fishing town on a peninsula just about 25 minutes from the airport and downtown Dublin. We got some incredibly fresh seafood for our first meal in Ireland, at a spot right on the harbor called The Oar House. From there we checked into our AirBnB, napped HARD, then popped out to have our first Guinness of the trip! We ate our first dinner at an awesome pub called O’Neills (actually went there a few times). Really great traditional Irish pub fare with a bunch of nooks and spots to hole up in out of the rain for a little while.

Day 2: Dublin

Our trip actually got extended by one day due to unexpected flight changes, so we had an entire extra day in Dublin just to explore and see the city. We started the day off with the most insane donuts (there seems to be a huge obsession with donuts over there, and you can find them everywhere, but these, these are the ones) from a place called The Rolling Donut. If you ever find yourself in Dublin, try these donuts. I beg you. You’ll thank me later. We then spent the day wandering and site seeing, specifically St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Dublin Castle. Lunch was at the famous Temple Bar, and we stopped to get drinks at a cozy pub called Stag’s Head. Dinner was at a bar called The Bankers -- the food was excellent and the atmosphere was a bit more low key compared to some of the other more popular pubs in the area. We closed the night out at Quays Bar, which was a blast and had live music!

Note: We didn’t get to it this trip, but during my previous trip to Dublin I toured Trinity College and the Book of Kells. I would highly recommend it.

Day 3: Dublin Again

We started this day off with a traditional Irish Breakfast at a cute little cafe called The Lovinspoon. Our morning was spent exploring and wandering some more, and then in the afternoon we had a tour at the Guinness Storehouse! I’m not really a beer drinker, but even I thought the tour was extraordinarily well done and fascinating. They even teach you how to pour your own Guinness! After the tour we (by we, I mean I) had a snack at a super tasty bakery called The Queen of Tarts and then later dinner at a restaurant called The Shack. Food was good, but it was a little fancier than we had anticipated.

Our perfect pours at the Guinness Storehouse.

Day 4: Dublin to Castle Ward to Belfast

Before hopping in the car this morning, we had breakfast at a really lovely spot called The Wooden Whisk. As true Game of Thrones nerds, we couldn’t pass up seeing at least a few of the filming locations that Northern Ireland had to offer. Castle Ward is where they filmed the Winterfell Castle for the show, as well as quite a few other scenes. It’s a little over 2 hours from Dublin and about 45 minutes from Belfast, and totally worth the drive. We did a bike tour of the grounds that, in true Winterfell fashion, included fur collared caps, swords, and an iPad map that showed video snippets of the scenes that were filmed at each location along the tour. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a misty/rainy day, but the tour was really fun and there were only two other people doing the same one as us (upside of going on the off season).

From here we drove up to Belfast and had a killer dinner at Holohan’s at the Barge and then drinks at a bar called Duke of York.

Castle Ward, the filming location for Winterfell’s castle in Game of Thrones.

Also part of the Castle Ward Estate. The filming location for Rob Stark’s ‘King in the North’ scene.

Day 5: Belfast (to Ballymote) to Galway

Prior to heading out to Galway, we spent our morning in Belfast eating breakfast at a cool little coffee shop, Established Coffee, in the Cathedral Quarter called and then exploring the Titanic Museum. I would absolutely recommend checking out the Titanic museum. The building itself was beautiful, and it was super interesting--there’s even a short little ride inside!

Belfast to Galway was our longest travel day in the car (around 4 hours), but we actually ended up making a bit of a detour to stop in the small town, Ballymote, that my boyfriend’s family is from. One of the perks of having a rental car was definitely being able to make last minute changes to our itinerary to fit in these types of spur of the moment activities! After stopping in Ballymote for lunch, we continued on to Galway.

While I loved all of Ireland, Galway was definitely my favorite city. It was really charming and adorable, but also very lively. We arrived right around dinner time and ate at an insanely good spot called The Pie Maker (we actually got the recommendation to go there from the owner of the coffee shop in Belfast!). It. Was. So. Good. Topped it off with some delicious Irish dairy ice cream from Murphy’s and then finished the evening at another fun bar called Tigh Neachtain.

Galway City Center. The view from The Pie Maker.

Day 6: Galway to Cliffs of Moher to Cork

We seriously lucked out with our weather in Galway and at Cliffs of Moher. So we definitely took full advantage of it. We woke up bright and early to do some more wandering through Galway, saw the Spanish Arch from across the quay, and then took off for the 1.5 hour drive to the Cliffs of Moher.

Galway quay with the Spanish Arch in the background.

Cliffs of Moher was spectacular. There was pretty cheap parking right across from the park entrance, and it was all very convenient. Again, we lucked waaaay out with the weather, so just go prepared with rainy weather gear - just in case. If you’re going to see one thing in Ireland, I would go to the Cliffs. They were breathtaking. You can walk along the edge in the park, and also hop the fence to go further along the cliffs. Just be careful not to step off the paths or go too close to the edge, as it’s been known that spots that look solid can actually be quite crumbly and unstable. After soaking in the views for quite some time, we ate lunch at McDermott’s Pub, located close to the Cliffs. We opted for something a little less touristy than the restaurants right on the Cliffs.

The drive from Cliffs of Moher to Cork took about 2.5 hours, and we left late afternoon. Arriving around dinner time again, we checked into our AirBnB before grabbing a pizza dinner and a beer at a place called Franciscan Well Brewery. There was a nice covered outdoor garden space in the back with heaters that we were able to enjoy even in the cold rainy weather that welcomed us that evening.

Day 7: Cork to Cashel and back to Dublin

Our last full day in Ireland. And we had to make the absolute most of it. Breakfast was at a great spot called the Liberty Grill -- the pancakes were booomb! We had intended to spend the morning exploring Cork, but a woman we met at breakfast recommended going to see the Blarney Castle, as it was only about 20 minutes outside the city. So after doing some shopping in The English Market, we hopped in the car to check out the Blarney Castle. I must say, we were really glad we went to see it. The grounds and gardens were beautiful and the castle itself was interesting to walk through. And of course, kissing the stone was an experience...though the germaphobe in me was reluctant to do so.

Blarney Castle to Cashel (to see the Rock of Cashel) was a little over an hour drive, so before going up to see the historic site we grabbed lunch at one of the two restaurants available in Cashel (O’Neills Restaurant).

Tip: If you’re going around lunch time, pop in for a bite first and you’ll get a free voucher to go up and see the Rock of Cashel site!

Rock of Cashel was very cool, but we didn’t spend a ton of time there, so I would recommend opting for the free vouchers if you can.

Cashel back to Dublin was another hour or so, and we spent our last night in Ireland at some of our favorite spots in the city—O’Neill’s and Temple Bar.

Day 8: Dublin to NYC

Our very last morning in Ireland. We, of course, had to get experience The Rolling Donut one last time before leaving. So we popped in, grabbed a box of donuts to go, and headed to the airport. Just a heads up, for anyone traveling through the Dublin airport, give yourself plenty of time to get through all the lines for rental car drop off / checking in / security / customs / etc. At least 3-3.5 hours. We got there 3 hours early and we still didn’t have a ton of spare time at the gate.

We had the most incredible road trip around Ireland, and I hope our itinerary can help serve as a guide for anyone else looking to plan a trip from scratch as well!

If you do go, please share your favorite part of your trip in the comments below!

xx

Steph