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Southern Wild Atlantic Way

Suggested Itinerary

Southwest in Style

Dur­ing the day you’ll enjoy the unpar­al­leled beauty of the Wild Atlantic Way. At night you’ll enjoy the com­fort of some of Ireland’s most spec­tac­u­lar and lux­u­ri­ous cas­tles and hotels.

Day 1

Arrive early this morn­ing at Shan­non Air­port fol­low­ing your overnight flight from the states.

After you retrieve your lug­gage and clear Cus­toms there will be a dri­ver (or your rental car) wait­ing to take to your home for the evening, Dro­moland Cas­tle. Since it will still be rel­a­tively early in the day, you may not be able to check in but you cer­tainly will be able to leave your bags.

Dro­moland is one of the most spec­tac­u­lar prop­er­ties in Europe fea­tur­ing ele­gant rooms and lux­u­ri­ous dining.

After leav­ing Dro­moland its off to The Bur­ren. The Bur­ren is one of the most unique land­scapes that you will ever expe­ri­ence fea­tur­ing fields of lime­stone that look like the sur­face of the moon. There are sev­eral walk­ing trails from which to choose if you feel like a lit­tle exer­cise fol­low­ing your flight.

The next stop is the “City of Tribes”, Gal­way. A great des­ti­na­tion for lunch is Eyre Square which is the heart of Gal­way. Fea­tur­ing street per­form­ers, lively pubs, excel­lent restau­rants and some inter­est­ing shop­ping, Eyre Square is a great spot to spend an afternoon.

After lunch and maybe a lit­tle shop­ping it’s off to the iconic Cliffs of Moher. The sheer faced cliffs rise 700 feet straight up from the pound­ing Atlantic. Although mes­mer­iz­ing, the Cliffs won’t take up much of your time so before you know it, you’ll be back at Dro­moland. Depend­ing on the pace of the day, you should be back on the estate in plenty of time to enjoy some of the many activ­i­ties avail­able. Maybe a lit­tle golf? Some shoot­ing clays? A leisurely bike ride?

Dine this evening in the Earl of Thomand Restau­rant which is located right in the hotel. 

Day 2

After your first “Full Irish” break­fast its back on the road head­ing to another cas­tle, The Rock of Cashel. The ‘Rock’ is the most vis­ited Her­itage site in Ire­land. Seat of the ancient kings of Mun­ster, this is where Ireland’s most famous Saint, St. Patrick was bap­tized into the Catholic Church. Cashel was fought over for years by the O’Brien and McCarthy clans before becom­ing an impor­tant eccle­si­as­ti­cal center.

Cashel deserves at least a few hours which prob­a­bly means it will be time for lunch when you are done. Fol­low­ing lunch you can see another Cas­tle in Cahir or head straight to Midle­ton for the Jame­son Whiskey Expe­ri­ence. The Jame­son tour of the orig­i­nal dis­tillery lasts approx­i­mately an hour and is fol­lowed by a tasting.

You’ll be spend­ing the next two nights either in a five star hotel in Cork or a five star B&B in Kin­sale. Both Cork and Kin­sale are well regarded for their restau­rants and their pubs.

Day 3

After break­fast you’ll have a range of activ­i­ties to consider:

  • At 10:30 AM there is a his­tor­i­cal walk­ing tour of Kin­sale with Ryan Der­mot. Despite its small size, Kin­sale has had an out­sized impact on Irish History.

  • Visit Blar­ney Cas­tle and the famous Blar­ney Stone which is a short drive from Kinsale.

  • Drive a half hour to the port city of Cobh. Cobh, for­merly known as Queen­stown, was the final embarka­tion point for nearly 1.0 Mil­lion Irish men and women that emi­grated to either Aus­tralia or the United States. The “Queen­stown Story” is an exhibit that doc­u­ments this mass exo­dus in the 19th cen­tury. There is a sep­a­rate exhibit focused on the Titanic which made its last stop in Cobh prior to sink­ing a few days later in the North Atlantic.

  • If you didn’t get to it yes­ter­day visit the Jame­son Expe­ri­ence in Midle­ton which is about 20 min­utes from Cork.

  • Visit the Eng­lish Mar­ket in Cork City. Although noth­ing more than a farm­ers mar­ket with a roof, a visit will give you a great look at the local pro­duce, beef and fish that makes Irish cook­ing a bit unique and sur­pris­ingly good.

  • Some after­noon Kayak­ing in Kin­sale harbour.

  • Choose from a vari­ety of walk­ing trails in the nearby Bog­ger­augh Mts. or along the coast.

Some restau­rants to con­sider in Kin­sale include Max’s Wine Bar, Man Fri­day, Jim Edwards, Finns Table and Fishy Fishy Café. For music try Bul­man & Tod­dies, Hamlet’s Café Bar or An Seanachi Bar. You really should con­sider call­ing ahead for reser­va­tions in any of these restau­rants as they are all pop­u­lar dur­ing the busy season.

Day 4

Today you can explore the ‘Irish Riv­iera’ which is loosely defined as the coast­line between Kin­sale and Ken­mare. Ban­don, Clon­akilty, Roscar­bury and Skib­bereen are all quin­tes­sen­tial Irish towns not fre­quented by tourists and there­fore are a great place to stop and wan­der the shops and enjoy the real Ireland.

In Skib­bereen you’ll find a famine exhi­bi­tion that describes in chill­ing detail the tragic period in the 1840s that is known in Irish His­tory as the Great Hunger. Skib­bereen, along with many areas of the west, was very badly affected los­ing up to a third of its pop­u­la­tion to hunger, dis­ease and emi­gra­tion. Nearby Bal­ti­more is a good stop for lunch.

If you want to do some hik­ing or spend some time on deserted blue flag beaches, you will be dri­ving by Mizzen Head, Sheeps Head and the Beara Penin­sula. All three penin­su­las rival the beauty of their more northerly and west­erly neigh­bors (Ring of Kerry and the Din­gle Penin­sula) and none of them attract any­thing near the crowds. All three penin­su­las offer the chance to really get away from it all for a few hours or a day.

When you’ve had enough of wan­der­ing you can head to Ken­mare and your home for the next two nights, The Sheen Falls Lodge. Sheen Falls in another five star resort offer­ing exquis­ite meals. A lot of dri­ving today so you may want to plan to eat at Sheen Falls. They offer three dis­tinct din­ing options rang­ing from for­mal to the casual Oscar’s which over­looks the falls. If you’re inter­ested in the for­mal option, you should call ahead for reservations.

Day 5

Another “Estate” prop­erty, Sheen Falls offers sev­eral activ­i­ties on site, not the least of which is the fish­ing on the Sheen River. If you didn’t get to it yes­ter­day, you could explore the Beara Penin­sula which offers many hik­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and mem­o­rable scenery. Castle­town­bere on the south­ern coast of the penin­sula is another place to stop and visit the ‘real’ Ire­land. Of course, the town of Ken­mare has much to offer as well.

Golfers might want to take on the Ring of Kerry Golf Club which is just a few miles south of Ken­mare. Hik­ers and bik­ers will have numer­ous options to con­sider. And fish­ing options are not lim­ited to the river. There are many options for sea fish­ing nearby. Of course, you’re on vaca­tion so you might want to just enjoy a lazy day on the estate.

For din­ner, there is no need to leave the hotel but there are many great restau­rants in Ken­mare from which to choose. Tom Crean’s tops the list for a casual meal.

Day 6

In the morn­ing your dri­ver will be wait­ing to take you to the Iver­agh Penin­sula which is bet­ter known as The Ring of Kerry. After you com­plete a lit­tle more than half the Ring a boat will be wait­ing to take you to Skel­lig Michael, a UNESCO World Her­itage sight.

Skel­lig Michael was for cen­turies home to a monastery. Located 7 miles from the Kerry Coast the island fea­tures the remains of the monastery which include a stair­case con­sist­ing of over 700 stairs that ascends to the top of the island where bee­hive huts and other sym­bols of monas­tic life remain. The views are memorable.

Ascend­ing the moun­tain requires a rea­son­able degree of fit­ness and the trip to the island is made in a small boat which can result in a rough ride. The bot­tom line is that this is a sen­sa­tional attrac­tion but is not for the faint of heart!

After your ride, you’ll travel the bal­ance of the Ring of Kerry on your way to heart of tourism in the South­west, Kil­lar­ney. You’ll be stay­ing for the next two nights at The Europe Hotel.

Day 7

Fol­low­ing another ‘Full Irish’ break­fast you’ll enjoy another day of end­less scenery and count­less options.

Your host for the day will be the nearby Din­gle Penin­sula. Some options to con­sider today include:

  • A boat ride in Din­gle Har­bour to visit Funji the dolphin.

  • A boat ride to the monas­tic ruins of the Blas­ket Islands.

  • A few hours of rest on the blue flagged Inch Beach.

  • A mod­er­ately sloped hike up Mount Bran­don which offers stun­ning views of the Din­gle Peninsula.

The town of Din­gle is, much like Kin­sale, a fish­ing vil­lage with sev­eral out­stand­ing restau­rants. Doyles is my favorite but Out of the Blue Seafood, The Char­t­house, Global Vil­lage and Reel Din­gle Fish are excel­lent choices as well. Again, I would rec­om­mend reservations.

There is no short­age of pubs in Din­gle. Dick Macks and Foxy John’s are the most famous. An Droic­head Beag is a good spot for music almost every night of the week.

After your din­ner and a lit­tle live music you’ll have a one hour drive back to The Europe Hotel.

Day

You should spend today in and around Kil­lar­ney. You might start the day with a drive up to the Gap of Dun­loe fol­lowed by a horse & buggy ride through the valley.

This after­noon you can choose between links golf at Dooks Golf Club or lake­side golf at Kil­lar­ney Golf & Fish­ing Club. Or if you would like to do some dri­ving and then hik­ing, head for the McGilly­cuddy Reeks (Moun­tains). Finally you could spend some time on Lough Leane either in a kayak or a tour boat.

The town of Kil­lar­ney is a lively one offer­ing sev­eral choices for live music, even more options for out­stand­ing pubs and finally many excel­lent choices for din­ner. The favorite for the local crowd is Foley’s, best known for its Lob­ster Thermidor. 

Day 9

This morn­ing you’ll have a one hour and 45 minute drive to Shan­non Air­port for your late morn­ing flight back to the states. You’ll be clear­ing US Cus­toms at Shan­non so you should plan to be at the air­port two hours in advance of depar­ture at the latest.

 

THIS ITIN­ER­ARY INCLUDES BED & BREAK­FAST AT THE HOTELS LISTED AND A LUX­URY SERIES RENTAL CAR FOR $4316 FOR A COU­PLE OR $7392 FOR A FAM­ILY OF FOUR.

THE SAME PACK­AGE WITH A DRI­VER WOULD COST $7666 FOR TWO AND $10,812 FOR A FAM­ILY OF FOUR OR TWO COUPLES.